The question here is how many of the potential customers you've already reached? How do you define the target group? How do you limit it, especially in very early stages?
At first, startup has 0 customers. Apple has a bit more. Both define customers differently.
Re:Product Strategy Means Saying No
by skarmklart on Thursday July 04, 2013 @05:59AM
(#5989940)
Shameless plug: working on a book that goes into how to reach out to potential customers when you have none.
http://howtofindsaasideas.com/
(Yes, I know the landing page sucks and is buggy. Working on a new one.)
For new products, we try to validate the idea with at least 10 people that are wiling to pay. We start with a narrow niche (as narrow as we can make it).
Re:Product Strategy Means Saying No
by skarmklart on Thursday July 04, 2013 @06:00AM
(#5989944)
Can I interview you for my book?
For our team, we say yes to whatever solves the biggest pain, for most of our users.
We discover this by reaching out to customers, and doing a lot of listening. We're trying to answer two questions:
1) What is your biggest pain in your daily work?
2) What is your biggest pain in our software?
#1 usually leads to new features.
#2 usually leads to revisions of what we have already.