I talk about product validation a lot. Product validation is what keeps you from building things for nobody, including yourself. But then there are those stories, the old story about Henry Ford saying people would have asked for a faster horse or Steve Jobs saying people don't know what they want because he hasn't shown them yet.
Rick Rubin talks about this concept in his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. He writes about how when you act on what feels right to you, you do what's right for your audience. Your validation for doing what's right must come from you. But this goes against the modern lean approach. You always start with other people first.
I've been a professional programmer building products for 15 years. The allure of someday building a product that people want drove me to become better at it. I've never achieved true product validation in the traditional sense. But for the first time I'm experiencing a new type of product validation. I'm calling it IDGAF validation.
I'm building this product for me, and if no one uses it, I don't care. But that might be what makes it successful, where my other endeavors have failed. By loving what I'm building, it just might produce something inspired for you. Because creating for yourself is creating for others.
Rick Rubin talks about this concept in his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. He writes about how when you act on what feels right to you, you do what's right for your audience. Your validation for doing what's right must come from you. But this goes against the modern lean approach. You always start with other people first.
I've been a professional programmer building products for 15 years. The allure of someday building a product that people want drove me to become better at it. I've never achieved true product validation in the traditional sense. But for the first time I'm experiencing a new type of product validation. I'm calling it IDGAF validation.
I'm building this product for me, and if no one uses it, I don't care. But that might be what makes it successful, where my other endeavors have failed. By loving what I'm building, it just might produce something inspired for you. Because creating for yourself is creating for others.