[nicgrev103]

Cool idea, but ultimately it doesn't matter what I or anyone else thinks of your idea, it's about your customer. I'd say don't build a product but instead build a landing page with the 'product' for sale (get some design mock ups done) then try and sell it and see what happens. This is similar to what the article says about talking to users but instead bypasses any mistakes you might make and getting false positives. If people buy that's a great indication there is demand and you can then evaluate if you should build it or not.

[lelanthran]

AKA the vapourware approach.

The problem with that is that you're burning goodwill before you even launch.

People land on the page, click BUY, get told that it doesn't exist yet, and spread the word that you're selling vapourware. The next time you have an actual good idea, you'll have no takers.

[nicgrev103]

But you aren't actually taking peoples money, if you were, I agree you burn bridges and get a bad reputation, however it's very easy to rebrand and I'm not suggesting to do that for thousands of customers just enough to decide if it's worth building or not.