Are Early Adopters Shaping or Sidetracking Your Product?

Nicholas Watson
4 replies
Someone once said to me "be careful that your customers don't end up owning you" and it rang true, I once tried to build everything in to please everyone and got very sidetracked. There's a fine line between sticking to your roadmap and pleasing early adopters, right?

Replies

Anbang Xu
yes, I try to find that line
Share
Alexander Kovalov
The right customer research should solve this problem. Do not listen what customers say, watch what do they do and what they are struggle with. Remember famous Ford saying: If I ask my customers what do they want, they would tell a faster horse. "The Mom Test" framework is still the best unbeatable guide for this issue.
Share
Nicholas Watson
Too often sales/marketing can be neglected, building features for a few clients demanding a lot when sometimes they just need a different tool. An example was when I had a contract management tool - 2 clients said they'd buy if we built in redaction, but an integration with a redaction tool would have been preferable. It's easy to get distracted by the wrong features!