[tchock23]

100% agree.

Above all, understand who your customer is, what they need and how they value that need before you begin to think of your solution...

By all means, start with a hypothesis and "big idea," but conduct thorough qualitative research with your prospective target customer before you start building in any real sense (beyond simple prototypes).

As a marketing research consultant, I've worked with too many companies (large and small) who flail around to find target segments after not spending the appropriate time upfront understanding and qualifying their target audience.

Despite seeing so many companies fail at it, it's even tough advice for me to follow on my own personal projects because I love building things and just want to get started right away...