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Often disagree with Andrew, but I have to agree with this:
>>Companies could spend 98 years figuring out what users want
>>and never hit the mark. Honestly, most users are stupid as rocks and don't
>>know what they want. You have figure it out for them.
Anybody remember the Simpsons episode where Homer puts his brother's car company
out of business? Of course this could also just mean you should choose your
users for the survey more wisely ;-).
To succeed: find a niche/demand, build a product, be first to market. The
original product often need only be good enough not to cause liability lawsuits
or turn your users against you. With the initial profits, you grow and improve
your product so that it is at least marginally better than your fledgling (and
hopefully struggling) competitors. If you get enough of a lead on the
competition, you can rest on your laurels and reap the profit.
That basically describes BETA vs. VHS and MS vs. The World. The failure of BETA
had nothing to do with quality. Beta filled the initial niche of video recording
but failed to fill the niche it created - larger tape capacity. VHS was first to
the block and by the time Beta caught up it was too late.
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