Column · build when demand
Demand for a new thing is often created by the thing existing. People do not search for a category they have never seen. They search for the problem, in the vocabulary of the tools they already use.
So "we will build it when there is demand" usually means "we will build it when someone else has already built it and taught the market the words". By then the advantage is gone.
It measures whether the market has already been educated — not whether the want exists. Those are different facts and they lead to opposite decisions.
Instead of waiting, look for the problem being described in the old vocabulary. If people are assembling three tools, two spreadsheets and a workaround to reach an outcome, the demand exists and the category does not. That gap is the opportunity.
What you build first is not the category. It is the single step in the workaround that people do most often and hate most. Charge for that step. The category can come later.
Find one sentence people already type that describes the outcome, not the tool. If that sentence has many variations, the want is real. If it has none, you are not early — you are alone.
See the data this is built on
Open the snapshot