Positioning
“You look to the solution to your problem not inside the product, not even inside your own mind. You look for the solution to your problem inside the prospect’s mind.”
Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
I’m not sure that anything is more important to building products than positioning. A product that doesn’t understand it’s position from very early on is almost always in big trouble, barring a big stroke of luck. Understanding your positioning makes everything else (finding early customers, building the product, building the team, distribution, etc) easier.
When I start something new, I often think about this from Shreyas:
Yes, I took a screenshot of this in case Twitter / X goes away.