Reading this article helped rejuvenate my efforts on a fitness product I've been working on. When I first started discussing the idea with my girlfriend, we immediately saw how it could become the biggest thing in fitness and take the world by storm. I couldn't imagine such an awesome product not being a household name and a source of tens of millions a year. I sold myself so completely on the life changing power of the product that I assumed everyone who heard about it would instantly be on board.
After a couple weeks of working, the glow began to wear off. I still believe in the project, but the more people I pitched the idea to, the more clearly I understood the challenges of marketing. My thought process had been "fitness is a billion dollar industry, my product has one or two successful competitors that I can out maneuver, so, a billion * a decent chunk of the market = $."
Now I realize that I don't have the experience or resources to reach a huge market. I read this article some weeks ago and I felt comforted by the idea that that is not a horrible thing. If I can really connect with a large percentage of a smaller audience, than I can find users who are really happy and excited by my work and want to share their excitement with others. I would feel good about being able to deliver incredible value to a select group, and if the momentum carries the project into new markets I'll be happy about that too.
My minimum viable market is small groups of friends in offices who want to help each other stay on track losing weight, and a slightly expanded market would include friends attending aerobics classes together. Now that I am okay with targeting a smaller group of potential users, marketing doesn't seem nearly as overwhelming and frightening and I've been able to make some great progress.
After a couple weeks of working, the glow began to wear off. I still believe in the project, but the more people I pitched the idea to, the more clearly I understood the challenges of marketing. My thought process had been "fitness is a billion dollar industry, my product has one or two successful competitors that I can out maneuver, so, a billion * a decent chunk of the market = $."
Now I realize that I don't have the experience or resources to reach a huge market. I read this article some weeks ago and I felt comforted by the idea that that is not a horrible thing. If I can really connect with a large percentage of a smaller audience, than I can find users who are really happy and excited by my work and want to share their excitement with others. I would feel good about being able to deliver incredible value to a select group, and if the momentum carries the project into new markets I'll be happy about that too.
My minimum viable market is small groups of friends in offices who want to help each other stay on track losing weight, and a slightly expanded market would include friends attending aerobics classes together. Now that I am okay with targeting a smaller group of potential users, marketing doesn't seem nearly as overwhelming and frightening and I've been able to make some great progress.