One of the toughest lessons I’ve learned as a product manager is that building before finding the right customers rarely ends well. A product doesn’t magically attract users just because it exists. I’ve learned—sometimes painfully—that bringing in teammates, co-founders, or collaborators too early, before deeply validating the problem, creates debt that’s hard to repay.
And when things miss the mark, it’s not just time that’s lost. It’s trust, energy, and goodwill. That’s a heavy cost—and one I’ve since learned to be much more careful about.
I’ve built too soon. I’ve pitched solutions I believed in. I asked engineers, early users, and stakeholders to bet on those ideas. For a long time, I thought if we just pushed hard enough, things would fall into place. But involving more people doesn’t change a core truth: the idea either solves a real, lasting problem—or it doesn’t.
In fast-moving environments, it’s easy to confuse activity with traction. But without a clear signal from people willing to pay or commit, we’re not really building—we’re borrowing. And when we borrow time, energy, or trust without a clear path to return it, we take on product debt. The kind that can quietly compound into failure.
Case Study 1: Domainsmith — A Missed Pivot
Domainsmith was my first startup—a domain name generator for brand designers and solo founders. We built it using Python and Nuxt, layering NLP on business decriptions to generate creative domains in real time. Early workshops with over 100 users gave promising feedback, especially since LLMs weren’t yet producing quality results in this space.
The idea made sense: offer curated domains for a small annual fee. But we soon realised most of our users only needed one domain. Retention would be low.
What we didn’t do was validate with consultants, investors, or agencies who did have recurring needs. We lacked access to that audience and ran out of time to pivot. My technical co-founder had invested too much time—and I couldn’t deliver a return on that investment. The product didn’t fail for lack of execution—it failed because we didn’t confirm who it was truly for.
Case Study 2: SpaceforU — Execution Without Insight
SpaceforU was a venue hire startup I co-founded through Falmouth University’s Launchpad. My co-founder had industry expertise, and I focused on tight feedback loops and fast iteration. We shipped our MVP in 24 hours, listed 40+ spaces in a few months, and iterated on the UI based on venue feedback. But we made the same mistake again.
We assumed that securing venue listings was the bottleneck, when in fact the demand side—event organisers—already had strong venue relationships. When we finally interviewed them, the response was blunt:
“We already know these venues. We already have relationships. Why would we pay to use this?”
We had executed hard but skipped insight. We didn’t validate demand before onboarding supply. By the time we realised our mistake, we’d exhausted the trust and time of our venue partners.
The Signals Were Always There
Looking back, the most frustrating part is knowing that the insights we needed didn’t require a product — or even much time. Just a handful of honest, early conversations could’ve redirected both products. But we didn’t prioritise that work. We were too confident in what we thought we already knew—and too eager to start building.
I’ve learned that when we skip foundational validation, we’re not placing a bet—we’re passing the risk onto others. And when those bets don’t work out, it’s not just our own time that’s wasted. It’s everyone’s.
Time Is Not Free—It’s Borrowed
To those I let down: I’m sorry. I gave everything I had—sleepless nights, long weekends, all the energy I could. But I’ve since learned that conviction and hard work aren’t enough. What matters is: Are we solving the right problem? For the right person? At the right time? And until I can answer those questions with confidence, I no longer ask others to invest their time.
My New Rulebook
Here’s what I now live by:
- Validate before we build. Don’t rely on instinct or secondhand anecdotes—talk directly to the people we’re trying to help.
- Respect the time of others. Collaborators are not leverage—they’re partners. Don’t borrow unless we know how we’ll repay.
- Test assumptions with people outside our circle. If our feedback loop only includes our network, we’re testing familiarity, not value.
- Don’t confuse velocity with progress. Shipping fast is only meaningful if it moves us toward real demand.
Building With Integrity
I still believe in moving fast. But now, I do it with guardrails. I test the problem before building the solution. I earn the trust of collaborators before asking for their time. And I build in debit, not credit—making sure that whatever I create has a clear path to value. Because the hardest lesson in product is that building the wrong thing can cost more than just money. It can cost trust. And once that’s gone, it’s hard to earn back.
Last updated 27th May 2025
