I've been thinking about how much early feedback actually means and honestly not as much as we want it to.
When people tell you "oh this is cool" or "yeah I'd totally use that," it feels like you're onto something.
But most of the time they're just being JUST nice. Or they agree the problem exists. That's different from actually being willing to pay for a solution.
The stuff that actually tells you if you have something real takes way longer to show up:
- will people pay full price? not early bird, not friends and family discount actual price
- will they switch from whatever they're using now even if it means changing their workflow?
- do they stick around when the initial "oh shit I need this NOW" moment passes?
I think a lot of ideas look validated early on because the pain point is real but it's temporary or it's only painful in specific situations.
Then that situation goes away and suddenly nobody cares anymore. From your perspective it looks like you had momentum. From reality's perspective, people were just being polite.
I'm curious how other people here figure out the difference between actual demand and people just nodding along.
What signals have you learned to ignore that you used to trust?