Making something people want - the GoCardless story

http://tomblomfield.com/post/33506878578/making-something-people-want-the-gocardless-story

by tomblomfield • 14 years ago

82 18 14 years ago

tomblomfield.com

hayksaakian• 14 years ago

Great read, releasing often and early means everything.

Swizec• 14 years ago

Best part of the article:

"You should spend most of your time focussing on making something people want. This is a process, not a goal."

petenixey2• 14 years ago

Great message, well explained. It was also timely as I've just been reflecting on how this discipline is required for much longer than one initially imagines.

I've become pretty ruthless at remembering that an idea is nothing more than a hypothesis. I'm completely sold to the fact that during the first couple of months you assume nothing and test everything.

I now find that the silent danger comes when I feel a whiff of interest from the market and start to lull myself into thinking that I've validated my idea. Without even realising it I start feeling free to indulge a little more deeply in the "things I find interesting" (features / scaling / design).

The truth of course is that the process of market-fitting isn't complete until a product is selling repeatedly. Even then it's only selling to a segment of a market and a fraction of the channels you'll ultimately use.

The ruthless focus on "what matters" and not "what's interesting" is a large part of what I think separates the entrepreneur from the hobbyist.

tomblomfield4• 14 years ago

Yeah - that's a great point. What traction in the form of signups or usage is "enough" validation for your idea? When can you stop this customer-discovery process and concentrate on building to your "vision"?

As you suggest, you probably never reach that point. "Making something people want" is a (never-ending) process, not a goal.

petenixey2• 14 years ago

Quite. And even when you are focussed on that process it's often extraordinarily hard to decide whether you are working on what people want or are instead rationalising that they what you want.

brackin• 14 years ago

This is a great story. GoCardless is an example of a company that found a tough problem and executed upon it excellently in a completely different way to all of their competitors, allowing them to undercut everyone else. I'm seeing more UK companies using GoCardless because if you're just catering to the UK the lower cut is completely worth it, it's very easy to integrate and easy to communicate with the team. Hopefully the rest of Europe will be able to use it soon.

If anyone's interested in hearing any further insights, Tom spoke at an event I co-organise in London recently and had a really engaging talk: http://youtu.be/pB1cCd1j48E

tomblomfield4• 14 years ago

Thanks - the talk at Tomorrow's Web gave me the impetus to really sit down and think about what I really wanted to say on this subject. This article is the end result of that process.

(Perhaps it should have been the other way round...!)

hemantv• 14 years ago

I had similar experience, but the only good point was I learned my mistake fast around 21 days.

eytanlevit• 14 years ago

Hey there,

Reminds me very much of my previous startup, that recently shutdown.

I'm now working on a new company, and I have vowed to not write code until I feel I've hit a burning problem.

I've now talked with nearly 30 parents(which are my target audience) - and see the magic of that process.

After speaking with so many potential customers, I have a much stronger idea of the segmentation of the market, which apps and websites my customers use(this will be the media I'll buy when I launch), but most importantly, I'm starting to recognize patterns of problems that repeat.

I'm not there yet, but I feel I'm getting closer, and only once I do - I'll try to have an MVP - preferrably also without writing code - but doing offline things that will emulate my online solution.

Last thing, a few days ago Dave Mcclure had a lecture in Israel where he said one of the most important lessons I've learned lately: When you focus on a specific customer, pivoting is much easier because each month that passes you usually know more and more about your customer and find out more about their problems.

Pivoting around technology(what I did in my last startup), is possible, but requires much more capital and time, exactly the things startups don't have.

My two cents.

coderholic• 14 years ago

Great article from one of London's great startups!

Love the line "Most startups aren’t competing with other startups; they’re competing with no one giving a shit."

jelled• 14 years ago

Agreed. I want this hanging where I can see it anytime I'm working.

djrogers• 14 years ago

Great article, however if you're going to use an acronym that has an already established meaning (MVP - Most Valuable Person) in an uncommon way, you really ought to explain it.

It's entirely possible that everyone in your target audience is familiar with and expects your alternate usage of the term, nonetheless it would be a huge help to anyone else who stumbles across it if you were to define it (or avoid TLA-startup-speak entirely).

tomblomfield4• 14 years ago

Thanks for the feedback - updated the article with a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

Startup myopia, I'm afraid.

pknerd2• 14 years ago

The hardest part is to know what actually people _want_ because many product developer make things which they assume people want while in reality they don't.

There's no such resource available to learn what people are actually looking. Atleast not an easy way.

tomblomfield4• 14 years ago

Talk to them!

Or start with a hypothesis based on your past personal or professional experience.

The point is that you should try to validate consumer demand as quickly as possible without wasting too much time or money. It's the "Lean Startup" approach:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successf...

For example, I recently tried to rent a house in London. The process was painful and time-consuming and I think I could improve it by writing a great software package. But instead of spending 2 years and several million dollars building that software package to a "vision", I would put up a simple landing page, market it to potential customers and perform the main parts of the service manually to gauge consumer interest.

pknerd2• 14 years ago

Tom it's no so common otherwise most of the problems would have solved by now. Not everyone gets a "personal itch" and those who even get, there's no guarantee other share the pain. One just can't "get out of the building" and ask people,"What's your problem? I am your Genie!" Most of the time you can't solve a problem because it's out of your domain.

jobu• 14 years ago

I don't agree that's the hardest problem. Most people want something that solves a problem, and if you see a problem that lots of people have it's not too hard to think up any number of solutions. The really hard part is finding a solution that most of those people think is better than the problem. So many solutions simply push a problem from one area to another (time to set up, cost, annoyances, etc.)

hgld• 14 years ago

"Most startups aren’t competing with other startups; they’re competing with no one giving a shit"

... so true!

Making something people want - the GoCardless story

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