Do Things the Long Way and Learn More

No pain, no gain

Here are some things that technology is good at

• Doing complex things
• Doing things quickly
• Doing things lots of times
• Being exciting

Does this sound like something you need for your business? Of course. You’re going to solve a difficult problem in an exciting way. You’re going to have loads of users who are going to be blown away by how slick your product is.

But wait… here are some things technology isn’t good at.

• Being cheap
• Being easy to change
• Interpreting feedback
• Caring

Which list is more important?

For a new business, it’s the 2nd list. Here’s why…

You have got to learn

Wanting to build something is classic solution first thinking. Before you build you have to test your assumptions. To do that you have to talk to potential customers, watch them and learn what they want.

You can’t waste money

It costs to build and after you’ve built it costs even more to change. At the beginning you will be changing a lot, learn first and then build the right things.

Let the technology replace you

Eventually you will be feeling the pain. People will be demanding more of you that you can give. You might even disappoint people but don’t worry that’s a good thing. If someone is disappointed then it means they wanted what you were offering. Disappointed means demand and demand means it’s time to replace yourself.

But who are we to talk? We’re using technology to talk to you now. The non-tech version of this blog post would be us coming to each and every one of your homes and saying these words out loud. Well that’s not true, this is the scaled version. It started with us saying this out loud to anyone that would listen. We saw what connected with them, noted at which parts they fell asleep, changed it, re-wrote it, refined it and then finally knew it was ready to be published for all to read.