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... even when you have no experience
... even when you have no experience
You're in a great position: you (hopefully) haven't invested too much in building a product.
At this stage, it is most important for you to get to know your customers better. Take the time to build connection and discover their drivers, needs, and pain points that they miss from their current solutions. It's especially critical for you, because you don't have experience in the industry.
If approached well, these interactions can translate into the early partners and customers who will propel your business. Keep engaging with your enthusiastic contacts, who could become the innovators or early adopters of your solution. They could become the beta-testers who help you get your tooling right, the developmental partner who funds your first prototype built, or the first customer willing to take a risk and buy your solution.
The feedback from real customers on your value proposition - even before you have a functional product - is pure gold. Treat it with the value it deserves, and don't develop anything until you've found at least one enthusiastic advocate.
The hardest part is getting started. Here are some tangible tactics that you can try.
Have meaningful conversations
Have meaningful conversations
Find your customers where they already engage like at trade shows, reddit forums, meetups, LinkedIn. It will take some trial and error, but keep trying new places until you get the feedback you need. Have open ended conversations, and focus on learning about them. Don't try to sell or pitch anything until you've learned more about what they need. Make sure you maintain a professional and helpful engagement to keep these contacts alive and ready to help you.
Put your pre-product out there and see what sticks
Put your pre-product out there and see what sticks
Just because you don't have a product yet doesn't mean that you can't line up customers already. Put something out there describing your product and what it could do - an advertisement, social media, reddit post, website. Measure the traction, and make sure there's a way to capture information from potential future customers, like signing up for your newsletter or joining a product waiting list.
Get experience in your target industry
Get experience in your target industry
Sometimes, it helps to have a fresh perspective. Sometimes, there's a lot to gain from experience. Try pivoting the skills and expertise that you already have into a role where you can learn more about your target industry or function. This will help you experience the same pain points as your customers, and build a personal network you can leverage down the line.
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