Talk to People Before You Build

The one thing

Talk to five people who have the problem before you build a single thing.

Start here

The moment you have an idea, the urge is to go and make it. Building feels like progress. It is also the most expensive way to find out you were wrong.

So do the cheap thing first. Talk to real people who feel the problem. Not friends being kind. People who actually live with it. Ask them three things: how do you deal with this today, what does it cost you, and what have you already tried.

Then do the hardest part. Listen more than you talk. The conversation has one job, finding out if the problem is real, and pitching your idea gets in the way of it.

What to do

• Line up five short conversations this week with people who have the problem. A message, a call, a coffee. Ten minutes each is enough.
• In each one, ask how they handle it now, then go quiet and let them talk.
• Listen for one signal: are they already trying to solve this in some clumsy way of their own. A workaround, a spreadsheet, a person they pay, a habit they hate. That is the sound of a real problem.

The fear, named

The fear is two-sided. You are scared of bothering people, and you are scared they will tell you the idea is bad. Both fears point the same way, so face them together. If someone shrugs and says it is not a big deal, they have just saved you six months of building something no one wanted. A weak idea killed in a ten-minute chat is the best result you can get today.

Your move this week

Book and hold five conversations. Write one page of notes: who you spoke to, how they deal with the problem now, and whether they already spend money or time trying to solve it.

You are ready when

Five real people with the problem have told you how they handle it today, and at least a few of them are already spending time or money trying to fix it themselves.