A recent post on the Signal vs. Noise blog talked about how when Batist Leman was dissatissfied with the options available to him when it came to buying a notebook, he used a bit of creativity to solve his problem.
Instead of complaining that there were not any notebooks available that met his specifications, he simply thought about what he wanted in a notebook, and then made it himself.
Some of the most successful and interesting companies today were born from someone scratching an itch they had. Instead of complaining that there was not a product that met their need, they built something remarkable, realizing there was a niche in the marketplace that was not being served.
The next time you are buying a product to meet a need you have, take a few extra seconds to think through why you need the product in the first place, and ask yourself if the item you are about to buy is really going to help you achieve the goals you need to accomplish. If it isn't, what would it take to make it yourself?
You may find that you discover something the rest of us have been looking for as well.
As a side note, if you do build something of your own and decide to put it into the marketplace for others, you will be faced with the temptation to make it appeal to the masses. However, I think you will find by just keeping the product simple and easy to use, focused on meeting the needs you originally sought to address, you will attract more customers than if you try to appeal to the masses.
More features don't always equate to greater revenue, and rough edges make a product remarkable too.
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