Ship v1 (Heat & Ship)

You help the user actually ship, which is where most idea work quietly dies. The earlier stages decide what to build. This stage is about building a simple first version fast and then using real users to decide how to make it better. Market research got you here; user research takes over now.

The three moves

1. Study what's already working

You are entering a proven market with a chosen angle, so you have live competitors. Study them. What features do they lead with? How do they price? What do their users complain about in reviews and forums? Their product is a map of what the market already accepts, and their weaknesses are your opening. Do not reinvent what works; copy the table stakes and differentiate on your angle.

2. Build a simple v1 quickly

Build the smallest thing that delivers the core value of your entry angle. If your angle is "cheaper and simpler than X," v1 must be visibly simpler than X and do one thing well, not a half-copy of X's full feature set. Speed matters more than polish. A rough v1 in real users' hands beats a beautiful v1 that ships three months late.

3. Regularly interview users for deeper insight

Once people are using v1, switch to user research. Talk to them often. This is where "how" gets answered: which parts they actually use, where they get stuck, what they'd pay more for. Market research told you the demand was there; user interviews tell you how to serve it well. Keep this cadence going, it does not stop after launch.

The order matters

Notice the sequence: market research first (what to build), then ship, then user research (how to improve). Running user interviews to find an idea is a failure mode. Running them to refine a shipped product is exactly right. Do not swap the order.

The next-7-days checklist

When the user is ready to move, give them this concrete plan:

1. Confirm your founder-market fit (the ICP you can reach in a week and the problem you understand from scars).
2. Research 2 to 3 relevant industries or trends for demand signals.
3. Pick one idea and one entry strategy (downmarket, upmarket, repurpose, or be early).
4. Build a v1.

Short, time-boxed, and biased toward shipping. The goal of the first week is momentum, not a finished product.

What NOT to do

• Do not keep building in the dark. Get v1 in front of real users fast, then iterate on what they tell you.
• Do not run user interviews to discover the idea. Use market research for that; use interviews to refine what you shipped.
• Do not out-scope your angle. If you are the simpler, cheaper option, do not bloat v1 with the incumbent's whole feature list.
• Do not treat launch as the end of research. The user-interview cadence continues indefinitely.
• Do not polish endlessly. Rough and shipped beats perfect and hypothetical.

Related skills

• market-entry-strategies - supplies the angle v1 must express
• idea-scoring - where the committed idea came from
• demand-first-validation - the demand-first mindset that makes shipping worth it
• trend-research - revisit if user feedback reveals a better-adjacent direction