Reddit reviews The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you

So the things you're pointing out are completely normal for any business owner, particularly a startup. That doesn't make them feel less painful -- I empathize with you and I'm sure this feels discouraging.

Let's hit on a few key points:

• Right now you're in the process of validating your offer. Your figuring out if you're really offering something that people want.
  
• You've also recognized the disconnect between people who fawn over your product and actual users/buyers.
  
• Plenty of people will tell you your product is a good idea and that they will use it... very few actually will.
  
• What this means for your sake is being able to filter feedback and really understand who your users are and what they think of your product so that you can revise/adapt your offer to convert them.
  
  Some next steps for you:
  
  
• Go back to your niche. Who are you trying to acquire as users?
  
• What reason do they have to use your app?
  
• For those who moved on, why didn't they stay?
  
  To the latter point, you really need to get into the mind of your user and remove any excitement you're feeling around your app. What I mean by this is that the answer to the question isn't, "Because the app's amazing and it does so much for them!" That's what you think. It's clearly not what your users think. So how do you figure out what your users are thinking? A lot of times this means simply asking them for their honest feedback. This can be direct communication or as you scale, it can be something as simple as a survey that gets sent out to users who haven't used the app in X days. I always prefer the former, but that's also my communication style.
  
  A book was recommended here a while back -- I've since read it and appreciate it's perspective. It's called The Mom Test, take a look at it here: https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742
  
  I also have a podcast episode on this topic. I don't self promote but if you want it let me know and I'll DM you where you can find it.
  
  Best of luck. Hang in there!

Asking people's feedback is a first step but it's not enough and somewhat misleading, because many people will either :

• Say they will "definitely buy" and don't actually when you present it to them.
  
• Will say nice things, biased answers not to hurt your feelings (even if they don't realize it).
  
  What I advise :
  
  

1. Read this, it will help you define your customer need and products. Best 10$ you'll ever spend if you plan to launch a product and you are collecting feedback.
   https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742
   (NB : There might be other alternatives, @UX guys out there if you have another book to suggest)
   
   
   
2. Launch a quick dummy store.
   Woocommerce, shopify,etc... are options to do so. Do a quick store setup with a them and few products and images and explanation, then add google analytics and track your funnel. Then do some fb and/or adwords campaigns to bring traffic in.
   Do everything like you were selling the actual product and once people reached the checkout and are ready to pay redirect them to a page saying "Sorry we are not open yet, enter your email adress here and we'll let you know as soon we are ready to ship"
   
   
   Once it's done, check the number of people that interacted, added your product to the cart, proceeded to checkout. You'll have an accurate view of the potential of your business.
   
   
   I can tell you, best shit you can ever do. I've done it myself to test an idea. It's better than any business plan and you'll learn a ton of stuff in the process.

Nađi ljude koje smatraš svojom ciljnom grupom, 5-10 njih. Za početak pročitaj Mom Test i probaj iz tih ljudi da izvučeš da li je to nekome uopšte potrebno.

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>jer uglavnom ljudi to procenjuju iskustveno što je sasvim dovoljno

Ovo je nešto jako važno, da li su ti ljudi spremni instalirati tvoju app kako bi ona obavljala posao umesto njih?

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Postavljaj pitanja poput

• Koliko koristite računar dok radite?
  
• Kada ste poslednji put koristili neku aplikaciju za proračune itd...
  
• Kako Vi trenutno računate te proračune?
  
• Koliko vremena/novca Vam to oduzima?
  
• Da li ste zadovoljni tim rešenjem?
  
• Koji je Vaš najgori deo dana?
  
  Ovim ćeš videti da li to pije vodu uopšte. Poslednje pitanje može da ti da neku drugu ideju/problem koji treba rešiti.
  
  ​
  
  Držim ti fige
  
  ​
  
  EDIT: Mislim da imam pdf na srpskom, ako ti bude trebalo dm-aj.
  
  ​
  
  EDIT 2: Samo sam ovo našao: Summary of 'The Mom Test'

Focus on point 1) only first. Read the Mom Test and preferably some more literature (/blogposts/listen to podcasts/etc.) on idea validation. Do the interviews.

For 2) after: do a competitor analysis on a wide range of competitor & substitute products, preferably look at a similar product line where similar need & trends showed up. Draft up your first idea of a business model (e.g. with Business Model Canvas).

Return here after with a better idea and understanding in your mind and better questions.

I think you should consider reading a copy of this book https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 because imo you're asking the wrong questions.

That said, my job is quite literally to decide what tools a development team should be building for a VFX house (though I am internal and not trying to sell software/solutions/etc to other parties) and I can say with total confidence that the things people ask us to make are not the things that would actually be most beneficial to the business.

In your original question you asked "what would be your dream pipeline helper in terms of versioning, file format exchange, etc.?" but I can guarantee you that artists and even studios in general don't give a flying fuck about any of that - artists care about making cool images and studios care about throughput and profitability. File versioning, backups, dailies, whatever are all just various ways that we facilitate that and remove friction from the process. Can you build a product/service/business that increases my studio's throughput without us having to dedicate development resources to integrate it?

Also if you can't see how Shotgun helps a VFX facility work in a streamlined manner, you probably have no business developing artist/production facing software solutions for this space. I don't mean that in a super offensive way, I'm just genuinely surprised you'd write that since other than RV, Shotgun is one of the very few non-DCC products in the last decade that has come out and been widely adopted by studios of all sizes. So... it clearly solved a problem.