Customer-Driven Product Development - What 2 Failed B2B Meetings Taught Me About SaaS Success
The words every SaaS founder dreads. How two rejected sales pitches taught me to kill my ego and let customers define the product direction.
Let Customers Define Your Product Direction. Kill Your Ego.#
I held meetings with two potential clients. Once again, I proved myself wrong.
I met with two companies. The meeting with Company A successfully communicated 'value' but failed at 'persuasion'. I needed to solve difficult, complex problems for them, but it seemed like we only showed something at the level of 'couldn't we just do this ourselves?' The question "Is there a significant difference from doing it ourselves?" kept coming up. Sure, they could do it themselves. But it would just cost them continuous time investment.
The meeting with Company B had a 'timing' issue. Their visible service was image-focused (the subject my product addresses), but they recently pivoted toward video. They mentioned they would be willing to use it if there were Azure service integration or AI features for the image side, which aren't currently developed. Since my product wasn't meeting their needs, it was difficult to push further. We agreed to supplement the product and meet again next month.
The conviction that 'I was wrong thinking this would sell' is growing stronger. SaaS shouldn't look easy for me to build. It must solve problems that are difficult for them to tackle, in an easy and simple way. The cost of doing it themselves should be much higher than adopting the SaaS. Starting next week, I decided to focus on product development based on what came up in these meetings.
YAGNI: Only What's Needed Now. What's Needed in the Future, in the Future.#
I invited a developer friend to the office, bought them a meal, and got feedback. Listening to my friend's story, I realized I wasn't following the YAGNI principle ("You aren't gonna need it: Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you'll need them").
I was trying to provide a single function by distributing it as an SDK. My friend pointed out that for that scope, example code and a copy button would be sufficient and actually easier. Thinking about it, they were right. I made the mistake of planning development too grandly just because I thought 'we'll need it'. Naturally, I also succeeded in pulling my friend into writing example code.