Edit wiki/building-before-validating.md — Rookie Mistakes & Gotchas

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# building before validating the problem

*(common gotcha)*

## what happened

you have an idea, you get excited, you start coding immediately. three weeks later you have a working product and zero evidence that anyone wants it. you show it to potential users and they say "oh, that's cool" (polite disinterest) or "i already use [existing thing] for that."

## why it's a gotcha

building is fun. talking to users is uncomfortable. so builders build first and validate later — which means they invest significant time before discovering nobody cares. the sunk cost makes it even harder to pivot or abandon. the [[just-one-more-feature-loop|"just one more feature" loop]] makes it worse — adding features to avoid facing the validation question.

## the fix

before writing code, have 5 conversations with potential users. not "would you use this?" (everyone says yes to be polite). instead: "how do you currently handle [problem]? what's frustrating about it? what have you tried?" if the problem is real, you'll hear it. if you can't find anyone who has the problem, you don't have a product — you have a hobby. and beware the opposite extreme: the [[over-planning-trap]] where you plan endlessly but never build or validate. don't [[optimizing-for-scale-too-early|build infrastructure]] for a problem nobody has.