

Made a cool prototype, but hit a dead-end - iliketosleep

hey people. need some advice here. lets say i've written a really cool app. the idea is not original, but the way it has been implemented is different and gives it a definite edge, both from a usability and business perspective. the core of the app is all done and there's a functional prototype. but it's definitely not polished. i'd say that it's 80% there. but i am a geek, i'm not a marketing guy and i'm not into business networking as i don't have the personality for it. so now i feel like i'm at a dead-end. any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks a lot.
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RiderOfGiraffes
I agree with sdurkin's comment - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1582087>

Let me add this - I'll bet you're a lot less than 80% of the way. When you get
non-technical people to use your app you'll find that they don't understand,
they do things you don't understand, and you'll end up in despair thinking
"Why are people _so stupid?!?_ Then you'll have to redesign the way it works
so they don't di the stupid things, and then you'll realise that what they did
made much more sense, so you should make it work differently anyway.

Realise now that this is the case and you can throw yourself into the work
with enthusiasm, rather than despairing at the stupidity of "damn users". It's
users you need, and they are (almost) always (nearly) right.

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iliketosleep
indeed, usability is an art!

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fezzl
Depending on what app you're building, I would just go out there, get the
interest of just a few fairly interested users (like 5 to 10), and hear what
they have to say, before proceeding with the remaining "20%" of development
work.

Is it a B2B or B2C app?

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iliketosleep
B2B. you're right. there's a very high chance that i'd getting it wrong
without the appropriate level of feedback from the target market. i'm not good
at approaching corporates, which is why i haven't done this.

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sdurkin
Post a demo, and see if you can partner up with someone who completes your
skillset.

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iliketosleep
thanks for the reply. i hadn't even made a demo, which shows how dumb i am in
this regard. anyway, i'll start making a demo now :)

