
Use the tools you're displacing - xlson
http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/Use_the_tools_you%27re_displacing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheStartupToolkit+%28The+Startup+Toolkit%29
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6ren
This can be seen as an instance of creating features (i.e. in terms of the
tool) instead of benefits (i.e. in terms of the user task, their workflow,
context, infrastructure, and the user themselves). "Feature vs. benefit" is
such a shop-worn cliché that it's easy to overlook the meaning: people don't
buy products, they buy solutions to their problems.

A different aspect is that if you make a tool that is only useful for 10% (or
1%) of people, if it _really_ helps those people, it is an awesome tool. You
don't need to be awesome to everyone - that's for massive mainstream
organizations. If you can just help _some_ people _a lot_ , that's enough to
get started. In fact, most massive mainstream organizations got their start in
exactly that way. Don't feel bad if it's useless for 90% of users; it only
matters who it is useful to - if you are loved by just one person, you are
loved. (but to reiterate the first point, it's in terms of users, not
products).

There's also the serendipitous solution: when you make something that is cool
in itself, but you can't imagine any use for it. And then some customers come
along who do find a use. This path is not recommended by most marketing
experts, but it seems suspiciously common in the history of actual
entrepreneurs (e.g. one of HP's first sales was oscilloscopes... to Disney...
for Fantasia; Honda's creation of the recreational motorbike).

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wladimir
Good advice. However, I noticed that the danger of getting too accustomed to
the 'status quo' tools is that you forget what bothered you about them in the
first place, and what you wanted to improve. Your first experiences are very
important in this, as it will be the same thing that other new people
encounter. So write them down...

(For example, some tool that initially seems extremely slow, after months of
using it you may be used to the delays and take them for granted, even though
productivity could be greatly improved if it was faster. Suddenly you're used
to all the quirks of the old tool, making it harder to get fresh ideas)

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dkubb
I'm a freelancer, so I get to "start" at different companies several times a
year, and I'm always surprised by how inefficient things are. However, I'm
equally surprised by the fact that a few months in I've forgotten what the
bottlenecks were because I've gotten acclimatized.

So by the time I'm in a position to influence those processes I can't remember
what the problems were.

What I started doing was take notes the first few days/weeks of what is
required to get setup, or where things could be improved. Then I refer back to
them every few weeks, and will sometimes up up with solutions and start
sending them up the chain.

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mdaniel
Yes, that "beginner's mind" is an invaluable thing. It is true in life as well
as in business. I have found that the ability to "revert" to beginner's mind
is a skill which I believe can be mastered with practice, and thus improved.

Also, thank you for taking notes and for being aware of that situation. I
believe the world is a better place when people engage in those behaviors.

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eads
Great advice. I started a nonprofit a six years ago and we had big plans to
build a volunteer tracking app and collaborative tool in a hip new framework
like Django. Six years later, and we are building a very un-hip tool in Drupal
that will ultimately replace three tools we've adopted in the interim (a
spreadsheet for tracking hours, a Trac-based wiki, and Google groups). But,
this time, after approximately a false start once a year, we finally have
traction for the project.

To those who are concerned this stifles innovation and "thinking inside the
box" -- unless you are lucky, a genius, or probably both, knowing one's
problem space intimately is a lot more likely to yield a useful innovation
than not.

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revorad
This is exactly how I'm building my current apps. Before automating anything,
I manually help people solve their problem with all the different tools they
use, to identify the most annoying gaps in the market.

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wccrawford
You should definitely understand how the tools are being used. 1 way is to use
them yourself. But that puts a lot of bias on your view of it and you can end
up with something that's really useful to you, but nobody else. (Which is only
slightly better than not being useful to anybody.)

Asking customers how they use it, and really following along, seems to work
better for me... At least, when I can get them to answer my questions, instead
of the questions they think I'm asking. Still trying to figure that one out.

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foxhop
I wrote syslogit only to find logger about an hour later...

[https://bitbucket.org/russellballestrini/syslogit/src/tip/sy...](https://bitbucket.org/russellballestrini/syslogit/src/tip/syslogit)

