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Your Product Isn’t Good Enough Yet (Here’s How to Fix It)

Guillaume Duvaux
Guillaume Duvaux |

Working Hard but Still Stuck?

Maybe Your Product Isn’t Good Enough (Yet)

(Estimated reading time: 10-12 minutes.)

Hard work isn’t the flex you think it is.

I know, because I made the same mistake.
Back when I started my founder journey, I worked like a maniac:

  • Building features

  • Improving UX of both the product and the website

  • Polishing demos

  • Building the “perfect” product

There was just one problem:
Nobody cared.

 

In Startups, Effort ≠ Progress

In the early days, your market didn’t care how hard you worked.

They only care if you solve a real, painful, urgent problem, better than anything else they could do.

If you’re shipping faster, but not selling faster, you’re not succeeding. You’re just getting stuck faster.

The Hidden Costs of Building Before Qualifying

When you build without qualification, the costs aren't just financial.

They’re structural.

Every line of code written too early compounds technical debt.
Every feature added before true validation locks you deeper into wrong assumptions.
Every "polish pass" on UX for an unproven product delays your discovery of what actually matters.

Worse:

  • You burn your own motivation by solving the wrong problem.

  • You miss windows of opportunity while competitors stay lean and adaptive.

  • You tie your identity to a product that hasn’t earned its market yet.

Startups don't fail because they "ran out of money."
They fail because they invested it in things nobody needed, NOW.

Speed without clarity is just acceleration toward the wrong wall.

 

Most Founders Are Building Without Qualification

Let’s be brutally honest:

The product isn’t the point. The customer is.

If your features, your UI, or your integrations are your selling points...
It means your core ICP, positioning, or messaging isn't strong enough.

Because in healthy markets:

  • Pain sells itself.

  • Urgency creates pull.

  • Clear positioning beats feature lists every time.

Nobody wakes up wishing for a “nicer” solution. They wake up desperate for a problem to go away.

 

The ICP-Product Fit Stress Test: 5 Brutal Questions

Want to know if your product is actually ready for your niche?

Ask yourself (and answer honestly):

1. Is my ICP desperately trying to solve this problem today?

  • Not “someday.”

  • Not “if we get budget.”

  • Now.

If they’re not actively trying to solve it today, it’s not urgent enough.

 

2. Are they already paying real money (or real time) to solve it?

  • If they’re patching it with free tools or duct-tape processes, they'll resist buying anything.

  • If they’re paying for inferior solutions already, you're in a good spot.

No budget = no business.

 

3. If my product disappeared tomorrow, would they notice (or care)?

  • If you launched tomorrow and ghosted them next week, would anyone chase you?

  • Would they feel pain without you?

If the answer is no, you’re not necessary yet.

 

4. Is switching to my solution 10x better than their current method?

  • 2x better isn’t enough.

  • 5x better isn’t enough (most of the time).

Busy people won’t switch tools unless it’s a no-brainer.

 

5. Would they be personally embarrassed to recommend a worse alternative?

  • Great products create pride.

  • Good-enough products create indifference.

If your users wouldn’t passionately recommend you to others in their tribe, you're still early.

False Positives That Trick Founders

Before you trust the signals you're seeing, beware the false positives.

They look like traction... but they're noise.

Watch out for:

  • Polite Interest: Prospects say “that’s interesting,” but never move forward.

  • Feature Fishing: Users ask for more features without even using your core offer.

  • Demo Dopamine: You’re booking demos, but no one has an urgency to close.

  • "Pipeline Theater": Lots of open deals, few actual decisions.

Activity feels like validation.
But it's not.

Until you're seeing consistent, unsolicited pull toward your solution—and real money being spent—you’re still operating on hypothesis, not evidence.

Great founders don’t chase "maybes."
They hunt for undeniable pull.

 

What Stuck Founders See vs. What Winning Founders See

If you’re stuck, you’ll notice:

  • People say “cool idea,” but don’t follow up

  • You get lots of demos, few closes

  • Pipeline looks big, but keeps slipping

  • Every deal feels like a street fight

  • Users engage once, then disappear

If you’re on track, you’ll see:

  • Prospects lean in fast

  • Objections are consistent (and solvable)

  • Deals accelerate without heroics

  • Buyers introduce you to other buyers

  • You start feeling “pulled” instead of “pushing”

What Real Pull Feels Like

When you finally have product-ICP fit, it feels different.
You don’t have to manufacture energy anymore. It’s there.

Here’s what real pull feels like:

  • Shorter Sales Cycles: Prospects ask you how to move faster, not slower.

  • High Signal Conversations: You start predicting the questions prospects will ask, because they’re real, repeated pains.

  • Urgency Without Discounts: Buyers want it now, not at 30% off next quarter.

  • Internal Selling: Champions inside companies push your solution without you asking.

  • Referrals Start Naturally: Happy users tell others without you prompting them.

When you're still early, sales feel like pushing a heavy stone uphill.
When you're aligned with urgent pain, it feels like running downhill with a tailwind.

Don’t settle for polite interest.
Push until you feel real pull.

 

How to Get Unstuck (Without Adding More Features)

If you’re realizing your product isn’t hitting hard enough, here’s the fix:

 

Step 1: Focus Relentlessly on the Right ICP

Not every user with the "problem" is your buyer.

  • Focus on those who feel it most painfully.

  • Focus on those who have urgency and budget.

  • Focus on those who already behave like buyers.

Step 2: Tighten Your Promise, Not Your Feature List

  • Nobody cares about your features.

  • Everybody cares about their transformation.

Frame your product around what it changes for them, not what it is.

Step 3: Iterate with Real Conversations, Not Hypotheses

  • Talk to live prospects.

  • Show them early versions and try to sell them.

  • Hear their objections.

  • Understand their current alternatives deeply.

Data lives in conversations, not in assumptions.

Step 4: Stop Adding, Start Clarifying

  • Don’t add another feature.

  • Clarify your core offer.

What’s the ONE thing you solve better than anyone else?

Own that.

 

Why This is 10x More Critical in 2025

The startup landscape has shifted permanently:

  • Markets are oversaturated.

  • Customers are overwhelmed.

  • Good execution is expected — differentiation is demanded.

  • AI is enabling more people to enter almost any market.

Speed to market is cheap now.
Speed to clarity is the real advantage.

You don’t win by building faster.
You win by qualifying faster.

 

Final Word: Your Product Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect.

It has to be necessary.

Your product doesn’t need 10 integrations.
Or a beautiful dark mode.
Or perfect AI auto-tagging.

It needs to solve an existing, urgent, painful problem...
for a specific audience...
in a way that’s obviously better than anything else.

Otherwise, you’re not building a business.
You’re building an art project.

Let’s build what people actually need, not just what we think they want.

Because at the end of the day, startups don't die from bad products.
They die from unsolved problems.

Stay ruthless. Stay real.
— Guillaume

PS. Check out more content on my LinkedIn page here!

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