Before You Build the Platform, Find the People

You can spend six months building something nobody asked for.

And the frustrating part is that you can be working incredibly hard the entire time.

You can design the website, build the features, figure out the payment system, create the onboarding process, and spend countless hours trying to make the whole thing work exactly the way you imagined.

Then you launch it.

And discover that the people you built it for aren't nearly as interested as you thought they would be.

I think this is one of the traps entrepreneurs fall into, particularly when they're excited about an idea.

Building feels like progress.

And sometimes it is.

But there's a difference between making progress on the product and making progress toward a business.

If you're creating something that depends on a community, for example, the people aren't some secondary part of the operation.

They're the reason the thing has value in the first place.

You might need experts willing to contribute.

You might need customers looking for those experts.

You might need both groups participating before either one gets much value.

Now you've got a problem.

The experts want to know where the customers are.

The customers want to know where the experts are.

And you don't have either one yet.

So what do you do?

I'd start by finding out whether people actually want to participate before investing all that effort in building the finished platform.

Can you explain the problem you're trying to solve clearly enough that somebody wants to hear more?

Can you create a simple assessment, a useful resource, or some other small piece of value that gives people a reason to raise their hands?

Can you get people onto a waitlist?

Not because a waitlist automatically proves you have a business.

It doesn't.

People can express interest without ever becoming customers.

But at least you're starting to get information from the world outside your own head.

And that information matters.

Because now, when you approach somebody who could contribute to the platform, you're not simply asking them to believe in your vision.

You can show them that people are interested in the problem you're trying to solve.

Maybe it's a small number.

Fine.

You're early.

Maybe nobody signs up.

That's useful information too, even if it isn't what you wanted to hear.

You can change the message, reconsider the offer, talk to potential customers, or discover that the problem isn't important enough for people to do anything about it.

Those are all things I'd rather learn before spending months building a complicated system.

I also think there's a psychological element to this.

Building the product is often more comfortable than putting the idea in front of people.

When you're building, you get to decide what progress looks like.

You can finish a feature and feel accomplished.

When you ask the market, you lose some of that control.

People might not understand the idea.

They might not care.

They might tell you they want something completely different.

And that's uncomfortable.

But if the goal is to build something other people will use, their response isn't an interruption to the work.

It's part of the work.

You don't need the entire platform to start learning whether people want what you're offering.

You need a reason for them to care, and a way to find out whether they actually do.