How to tell if your app idea is taking off?
For the successful indie developers that have experienced substantial traction, I like to know how do your organic metrics look like. How did the metrics look like initially for you without any form of paid advertising?
I'm wondering if my idea is failing and my growth seems to be on life support (I need to use paid ads) otherwise very few people will know about my app or download it.
Does this means the idea is not working if it's not growing organically? I've done everything that I believe I possibly can with ASO, SEO and etc... The only thing that seems to be getting me signups are Google ads. But if I can only gain measly traction through paid ads, then something must be broken.
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Hey Qin, I literally wrote my first piece answering that exact question haha.
Check it out here: https://www.wellplayed.xyz/posts/pmf-fit-survey
Read through, and let me know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to help you tailor the strategy to your own product 😊
Hi tabansi! Thank you! I'm reading your blog post now.
No worries Qin. Did you find anything in there that might help?
Hi tabansi, I did. The actionable question that especially struck me was this: 1. How would you feel if you could no longer use [product]? This is a really critical question and right now, my honest answer is below 5% of respondents would would even say disappointed. I need to deeply understand the need of my target customers to really achieve product market fit. Thanks so much for your advice.
Glad I could help. It can be rough. It forces you to disrobe your product and look at it through an uncomfortable lens.
My next post will be about figuring out how to get more people to say they would be "very disappointed".
If you're interested in getting notified about it, subscribe to the newsletter here: https://www.wellplayed.xyz/subscribe-to-well-played
I suggest to watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-vfn97QTr0
TL;DR: If you are asking the question, you don't have it. You will feel the pull of the market which is pretty clear.
Thanks a lot kirso! That video link is really helpful. I'm not too sure how to articulate this, but I'm getting experimental vibes from the market. People are using my app to ask if there are any people near them who want to hang out, so I know there's a use case for this app https://holleraway.com/. But I'm not getting enough interest or traction that would grow a community. So in terms of product market fit, I need to figure out if the vision needs a further pivot, or is it a growth hacking strategy that needs tweaking (eg: marketing the app to the right users and coming up with more enticing features).
I recently learned - "I've done everything that I believe I possibly can", just means I have not asked the right questions in the right communities.
Not sure what you have tried but this has helped me
I am not sure if you have really tried to understand who your users are and how to find them. Paid Ads is dangerous for any IH unless you have deep deep pockets.
Hi papertriail! Thanks a lot for sharing the links, and for your spot on advice on paid ads. I've seen the advice from Paul Graham, but I'll checkout marketeer.buzz as well. The question of asking the right questions in the right communities is the killer. I think I've gotten interest from groups of people, and I'm working really hard to identify their personas and figuring out ways to reach out to this group of people.
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Thanks for your incredibly helpful links borodutch! The analytics look really helpful to me.
PS: You got more visits from your "please no" site than my entire site. 😅
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