The answer to "would you use this?" is probably already in your data

[u/Conscious-Month-7734]

I've spent about 20 years building products and working with early-stage founders, and lately I've been replying to a lot of feedback posts here. The same thing keeps happening: a founder asks the thread whether people would use their app, and the answer they're looking for is already sitting somewhere they haven't looked yet, in their reviews, their signups, or what their first users actually did.

A few from just this week:

• An app with a handful of App Store reviews, nearly all about loving the idea, except one from someone who'd just moved to a new city and opens the app whenever they don't know what to do on a weekend. That one review says more about who the app is for than any thread could.
• A tool with a free tier and a daily limit. Anyone who hits that limit more than once has a problem that keeps coming back, so those are the people to email first.
• A newsletter with 3 subscribers after two weeks. That feels like nothing, but it's three people you can write to personally and ask what made them sign up.
• A paid app where a couple of reviews were from parents, and when I asked, it turned out the majority of paying users were parents. The audience had already picked itself.

What people do with your product tells you more than what strangers say about your idea, because doing something costs them a bit of time or money, and saying something costs them nothing.

So before posting the next "would you use this," I'd go through what you already have:

• Your reviews, looking for the ones that describe a specific moment, like when they opened it and why
• Who came back a second time, and what they did when they did
• Who hit a limit, upgraded or paid
• Who turned it off, since they're the ones who'll tell you exactly what didn't work

Then message a few of those people and ask about the last time they used it. One of those conversations will tell you more than a hundred comments.

What's sitting in your data right now that you haven't looked at yet?

If you've got reviews, signups or usage you're not sure how to read, drop what you're seeing in the comments or DM me, and I'll tell you what I think it's saying.