How to Stop Building Things Nobody Wants

I used to think my ideas were brilliant. I’d get a flash of inspiration, map out the features on a whiteboard, and then disappear into a coding cave for months. I was a builder, and building was the answer to everything.

Then I’d launch. And I’d hear nothing but crickets.

For years, I left a trail of perfectly engineered, dead-on-arrival products in my wake. I was convinced the problem was my marketing, my launch strategy, or my timing.

Then I realized something: I was doing it all wrong.

The Problem with "Brilliant Ideas"

Most founders get high on their own supply. We fall in love with a solution, a clever piece of tech, or a slick UI. The advice we follow is all about building: "move fast and break things," "ship an MVP," "just get it out there." It's no wonder we end up with products that are solutions searching for a problem.

The real issue isn't that building is bad—it's that we build in silence. We're so convinced of our own genius that we forget to ask if anyone else actually cares. And when your "validation" is just asking your mom if she likes your landing page, people notice. Or rather, they don't notice at all.

What Actually Works: A 3-Day Sanity Check That Doesn't Suck

I saw a story from a founder that made this all click. He spent six months building his first SaaS product. It failed spectacularly. For his next idea, he spent just three days validating it. Nine months later, it was making $8,000 a month.

Same guy, same skills. The only difference was he learned to talk to people first. Here’s what he did.

1. Start with Real Pain (Not a "Solution")

Instead of brainstorming a cool app, he focused on something that genuinely annoyed him.

He was using AI to get startup advice, but he had to re-explain the entire context of his project for every single query. It was repetitive and infuriating. The pain was real, personal, and easy to describe.

He didn't start with "What if I built an AI wrapper?" He started with "This is incredibly frustrating, there has to be a better way."

The key: Your solution should be a supporting character in the story of a real, painful problem.

2. Go Where People Already Complain

He knew exactly who felt his pain: other early-stage founders. And he knew where they hung out—in communities for SaaS builders and indie hackers.

He didn't run ads or build a fancy waitlist page. He went to the digital water cooler where his potential customers were already talking, sharing frustrations, and asking for help.

The key: Find the communities where your people are already having conversations. You can't fake being part of the room.

3. Offer a Trade, Not a Pitch

This was the brilliant part. He didn’t post, "Hey, what do you think of my AI idea?" That just screams, "I want to sell you something."

Instead, his post was titled: "Let's exchange feedback!"

The offer was simple: "I'm a founder, you're a founder. Let's look at each other's ideas and help each other out." It was a conversation between peers, not a market research survey. This simple reframe got him 8-10 genuine conversations in a few days.

The key: Only offer help you genuinely want to give. People can tell the difference between someone who’s excited to collaborate and someone who's just fishing for validation.

The Only Three Signals That Actually Matter

From those conversations, he wasn't listening for "Yeah, that's a cool idea!" That’s polite praise, and it’s worthless. He was listening for three things and three things only:

1. Shared Pain: Did they talk about the same problem without him prompting them? Did they use words like "annoying," "frustrating," or "a waste of time"?

2. Real Impact: Was this a minor inconvenience, or was it actively costing them time and money? The bigger the impact, the more they’ll want a solution.

3. Willingness to Pay: Did they mention they were already looking for a fix or had tried to build their own workaround? This is the clearest sign that separates a "nice-to-have" from a real business.

The feedback was clear. The pain was real, the impact was big, and people were ready to pay to make it go away. That was his green light.

The Long Game

Validation isn't really about a go/no-go decision. It's about building a foundation of confidence for the journey ahead.

Building a startup is hard. You’ll have days where you feel like you’re screaming into the void. This is when most founders quit. What gets you through isn't hustle-culture platitudes; it's the memory of those first conversations. It's the proof that you're solving a real problem for real people.

As the founder himself said, that early confidence is what kept him going when growth was slow. He knew the potential was there. He just had to keep pushing.

Getting Started (Without the Frameworks)

1. Pick one problem that genuinely annoys you.

2. Find one or two communities where people who share that annoyance hang out.

3. Spend a week just reading and listening to the culture.

4. Start one conversation. Offer to trade feedback or help with something you’re good at.

5. Listen for pain, not praise.

6. Be patient and consistent.

That's it. No "customer discovery engines." No "validation frameworks." Just showing up and having a real conversation.

The Bottom Line

Product validation works when it doesn't feel like a survey. When you’re genuinely curious about someone’s problems, they’ll tell you everything you need to know. When you’re just there to get them to like your idea, they can tell.

The best validation doesn't feel like research at all. It feels like getting to know someone who has a problem you might be able to solve.

And that's not a strategy you can hack—it's just being human.