Make them click

Start small, test and learn

I used to think the hardest part of creating a successful app was building it. Choosing the name. Designing the screens. Deciding what the product should do. Polishing details until everything felt ready.

However, recently I’ve realised something harder sits underneath all of that.

Every decision is a bet, including the decision build a product. The challenge we face is better understanding the bet we are making.

My first app took far too long to reach users. I spent months refining it before I had any evidence that people actually wanted it. It felt productive because there was always something to improve.

Recently, I’ve been working differently. With projects like Role CV (career advancement) and Daily Product Idea (researched development opportunities), I’ve started running small experiments first. A subreddit. A landing page. A free offer. Mini tests invite engagement with and feedback from potential users.

These experiments don’t build the product itself. They answer a more important question first: What am I betting on?

Every project is a hypothesis

Every project has a hypothesis behind it. - Jake Knapp

Most projects begin with enthusiasm rather than clarity.

We notice a problem. We imagine a solution. Work begins. Screens are designed. Features appear.

Before long we are moving quickly.

But motion is not the same as direction.

Every product is quietly making a claim about the world: that a particular customer has a particular problem and that our approach will be better than the alternatives.

That claim exists whether we define it or not.

The danger is when the hypothesis stays vague. We remain busy without confronting whether the idea is likely to work.

Write the bet down

If we solve this problem for this customer with this approach and we make it different in this way, people will choose it over this competitor. - Jake Knapp

Articulating the bet we are taking forces our idea to grow up.

We must name the customer. Define the problem. Describe the approach. Explain what makes it different and what it replaces.

Once written down, the idea becomes testable.

Weak ideas rarely reveal themselves immediately. They arrive disguised as promising projects. They generate plans, mock-ups and roadmaps. Only later do we realise the foundations were unclear.

That’s why I increasingly test ideas early.

When I shared the concept behind Role CV and invited people to try a free version, the goal wasn’t just to recruit users. It was to test a hypothesis. Do people care about better role fit, exposing skill gaps and tailored CV generation?

If people click (or not) then that tells us something very useful.

Start with the customer

No business plan survives first contact with customers. - Steve Blank

Starting with the customer, sounds obvious until we see how often we struggle to identify them clearly.

Ask three people on the same project who the product is for and we may get three different answers. Each plausible. None precise. That ambiguity spreads.

If we do not know exactly who the product is for, we cannot know which problem matters most. If we cannot identify the key problem, we cannot prioritise the solution.

The result is a product that tries to serve everyone and excites no one.

Clarity begins by naming the customer precisely enough that we can imagine their frustration. If we can ‘scratch our own itch’, i.e. be our own customer, then this simplifies matters significantly.

Difference must be built in

You’ve got to differentiate from the beginning rather than as a layer of marketing you add later. - Jake Knapp

Many products are built first and positioned later.

A clever tagline is added. A sharper landing page. A new marketing angle.

But customers are good at detecting sameness.

If the product itself is not meaningfully different, the positioning cannot carry the weight forever. People are comparing our offer with what they already use: a competitor, a spreadsheet, a workaround or simply habit.

The difference needs to shape the product itself.

For Daily Product Idea this question matters. The internet already contains endless lists of startup ideas. Producing more ideas is not the point.

The real question is: what makes this different in a way that matters?

Small experiments beat long builds

Fast is better than slow. - Google

A vague hypothesis results in limited progress.

If we do not know what we are testing, everything feels premature. We drift into long development cycles because nothing seems ready for exposure yet.

Small experiments break that pattern.

Instead of asking will this whole business work, we ask a simpler question: will this group of people respond to this specific promise?

A few sign-ups. A handful of replies. Someone saying “this is exactly my problem.”

These are small signals, but they matter.

A click is not proof of success, but it is often a sign that something might work.

The moment it clicks

When you make it really explicit like that, you kind of can’t hide from it. - Jake Knapp

That is the real value of a clear hypothesis.

It removes the hiding places.

Endless polishing becomes less appealing when the underlying bet is visible. The question becomes simpler: if we solve this problem for this person in this way, will they choose it?

Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe not yet.

But those answers are far more useful than spending a year building around a question that was never clearly asked.

Every project contains a hypothesis.

The cleverest move is to write it down early, test it quickly and see whether it clicks.

Other resources

Make Them Click talk by Ali Abdaal

Ten Tips to Turn Ideas into Apps post by Phil Martin

Delight a Minimum Viable Audience post by Phil Martin

Eric Ries summarises the mindset, “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”

Have fun.

Phil…

Image: Nik via Unsplash