What is a mistake you've made but learned the biggest lesson from?

Question

I'll go first.

I hired the wrong dev team in 2022. I. spent an entire year trying to build a product with a team that wasn't capable but was lead to believe they just needed more time and money :/

Lesson learned: Take your time to hire the RIGHT team and do your research before hiring.

Wayne Parker · Accepted Answer

I once fell for the 'build it and they will come' trap. Ended up wasting months on features nobody wanted. It taught me the importance of lean development and user feedback. Iterate fast, validate even faster.

Boris Barath · Answer

Pretty much the same as @wayneparkour mentioned earlier. We built way more than an MVP but are having trouble finding people to try it (for free) and give us feedback. I'll definitely spend more time talking to people than building on the next one.

Answer

Hi Vanessa,

Appreciate your candor. I've been there too.

One of my biggest learning experiences came from not validating my product idea with potential users before investing significant time and resources into building it. I was so convinced that I had found an untapped market need, that I dove straight into the development phase, foregoing any meaningful user research or validation.

This led to a well-built product that unfortunately, did not resonate with the target market. It was a hard pill to swallow, but it taught me the indispensable value of customer validation.

Lesson learned: Never skip the step of validating your idea with your target audience. A well-built product doesn't necessarily equate to a product that people need or want. Always let your potential customers guide your product development journey.

Franklin Miguel · Answer

Not creating an inbound lead system

Fabio Viola · Answer

A great lesson I had is similar to yours, in 2022, trying to put together the right team for a web3 project!

And then, more generally, I learned the importance of self-reflection. Why did I do that? Why am I procrastinating?

Once I started analyzing my behaviors, change for the better became possible!

Ashley Barrett · Answer

@wayneparkour so important and way too often so missed! Many try to skip the hard parts and want to go straight to building their idea or solution failing to realize you need to solve an urgent problem for customers! People would literally rather spend thousands of dollars than risk someone telling them their idea sucks. I invest in founders that are obsessed with their problem x customer, I’ve seen too many obsessed with their initial idea which ultimately leads to failure.

What is a mistake you've made but learned the biggest lesson from?

Replies