Hey there,
just a short one today about the fear almost every builder I meet has - picking the niche for your product.
From Dating ...
Part of success in anything we do, and actually the biggest part, is choosing the target or who the target is because that determines all the steps you need to take afterward.
I’m saying this because it works in dating as much as in business. You don't go to the bar and you don't try to speak to every girl in the bar that evening. It would get you not only a weirdo label but probably psycho as well and it would yield very little results. But if you choose that one girl (or guy) that fits your dreams you might stand a chance, right!
If you choose the right and narrow target market which is the closest to the problem you're trying to solve with whatever you're building, that market understands what you are trying to build just from your first sentence of an introduction.
To Business ...
If you’ve chosen such a narrow market, you have saved yourself so much effort and time compared to the other options.
It's simple; when you try to speak to a broader than the narrow market (or god forbid to everybody), people don’t get it. They keep asking you to repeat, to give more examples of what it actually does and why it is useful. And even when you persuade them to start using it or buy into it, they’ll churn away because they didn't even needed it in the first place.
It means you’re spending your precious time with a lot of people who don’t get it and who are not your ideal users for the product. It means your feedback loop is slow or non-existent, your product roadmap is filled with tangental and not additive requests, and you burn energy on things that don’t matter.
You literally fucked up your chances of success - you made it 10x harder for yourself to succeed. And why?
All just because you were afraid to talk to the smallest possible niche first!
Here’s the thing, it’s called expanding and not niching-down for a reason -> you expand from small to bigger, not the other way around. And it’s hard even if you do it the right way so don’t try it in reverse 🙏
Few Tricks
Not to leave you just with stories, here is how to find the smallest niche for your early product in five steps;
Think about the most specific group of people with an acute need (= problem!) for what you’re building. One community, forum, Sub-reddit or social media group is enough.
Pick and define one key use-case that you explain it in one sentence without losing their attention? Test it until you find it.
Validate with direct outreach, I know it hurts to talk to people, but try it, it will be fun 😄 ... Reach out personally to potential users one by one and show them your idea and observe their reaction. If they don’t understand or get excited in the first 30 seconds, your niche may not be narrow enough or your problem may not be painful enough.
Keep refining until you get to direct feedback like “I don’t really need that” or “not sure I’d use this.” Continue doubling down on making your thing so tailored that only people in your niche would see it as an essential tool.
If you did it right in the steps above, then all you're left with are your superfans and early evangelists. They will shout about your product from the rooftops (as they say) because it resonates and solves real issue for them. Make them your early champions, work with them, and they’ll become the roots of your growth.
Sounds good! I hope it does. And please 🙏 just think about it and do yourself a favor today -> review your focus? Can you narrow it down an inch or more? (I know I can 😃)
Let me know!
Let's connect - find me as BFG (aka BrightFutureGuy)
- on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/bfg
- on X: https://twitter.com/aka_BFG
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