Prompt Playbook: Building What People Want PART 1

Three months of secret building. Every feature perfectly planned. Beautiful interface design. Complex workflow automations. The builder was convinced they'd cracked the code.

Launch day arrived. Posted everywhere. Waited for the flood of sign-ups.

Barely anyone signed up. The few who did never came back after the first login.

Turns out, users didn't want it.

Why? Could be a number of reasons. But what’s for sure is the cause: three months of building blind.

This is the number one cause of startup failure. We build in secret, perfecting our vision, then release it to discover absolutely no one cares. We've solved problems that exist only in our heads.

The brutal truth? Your first build will be wrong about something important. Maybe everything.

Let’s get started

Why Beta Testing Matters

You've got an MVP. It might work. Maybe. It might solve the problem you think it solves. Maybe. But assumptions aren't facts.

What we think about it sort of doesn’t matter. Our opinion is the least important.

So we’re going to find beta testers. These are people who try out our unfinished masterpiece, knowing that it’s not the end product. Beta testing isn't about proving you're brilliant. It's about discovering your blind spots before we release into the world.

We actually want to be wrong here. And to find our errors ASAP. So that we can fix them and improve.

Here's what you'll learn from real users that you'll never discover building alone

They use it differently than you expected. You built a workflow assuming users would go A → B → C. They're going A → D → B and getting confused at step C.

They care about different things. Maybe you spent weeks perfecting a dashboard. They just want the export button to actually work.

They have different language. You call it "project optimisation." They call it "getting stuff done faster." (Hint: this will be important later when we get to marketing)

They have different problems. You solved problem X. They actually need help with problem Y, which is related but different.

The sooner you discover these gaps, the sooner you can fix them. The longer you wait, the more time you waste building the wrong thing.

And if we go in assuming we know best then we’ll crash and burn. This is all about dropping the ego and getting real people to test what we’ve build. It’s hard. I won’t lie. But it’s super important.

Finding Your First 10 Testers

First up we just need to find 10 people. This is not about building a complex systematic testing flow with analytics, thousands of data points and sophisticated feedback. Not yet. This is about getting the tool into the hands of real people first.

Start with the warmest possible audience and work outward. Here's the order

Circle 1: People You Know Personally

Friends, family, colleagues, classmates. Anyone who'd help you out as a favour.

Yes, they'll be nice to you. Yes, they might not be your target market. But they'll actually use your thing, and that's what matters right now. Start here even though it’s not “perfect”.

You need people who will

• Actually try your product (not just say they will)

• Give you honest feedback when you ask

• Answer your follow-up questions

• Let you watch them use it

Circle 2: Your Existing Audience

Anyone following your build-in-public journey. They're already invested in your success and understand what you're building.

Post in the WhatsApp community if you are part of it. Message people who've engaged with your content. Ask your LinkedIn connections.

Circle 3: Relevant Communities

Going out wider now to communities. Industry forums, Reddit subreddits, Facebook groups where your target users hang out. We found some of these during the market research phase so loop back to them.

But only after you've exhausted circles 1 and 2. Cold outreach is harder and less reliable for early testing.

One important thing - when posting make sure people know you aren’t selling. Make this abundantly clear - “I’m looking for a handful of people to test this out. I think it’s useful but need real people to see if I’m heading in the right direction. I’m not selling anything here just looking for human feedback”. The assumption will be you are selling so we need to counter this upfront.

The Simple Approach

Don't overcomplicate this. You need 10 people to actually try your thing. That's it.

Sit down and look at your three circles.

Then message them. Today.

Keep it simple: "I've built this thing to solve [problem]. Would you mind trying it and telling me what you think? Takes about 10 minutes. Haven’t got anything to sell - just looking for feedback."

Most will say yes if you've picked the right people. Pro tip here: people love to be asked for their opinion, especially their “expert opinion”. You can use this as leverage.

Your AI Prompt for Today

OK here’s a quick prompt to help with all of this. But don’t overthink it! This is about action. We just need 10 people.

You are a user research specialist helping me identify and prioritise potential beta testers for my new product. My product is [DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT IN ONE SENTENCE].

Please help me create a systematic approach to finding my first 10 beta testers by:

1. Circle 1 - Personal Network:
   - Suggest 5 categories of people I likely know who might be interested
   - Provide a simple message template for reaching out to friends/family/colleagues
   - Include what to say if they're not the target user but might help anyway

2. Circle 2 - My Audience:
   - Suggest ways to leverage my build-in-public journey to find interested testers
   - Provide templates for social media posts asking for beta testers
   - Include approaches for the WhatsApp community and LinkedIn connections

3. Circle 3 - Relevant Communities:
   - Suggest 3-5 places online where my target users congregate
   - Provide templates for community posts that don't feel spammy
   - Include guidelines for following community rules while recruiting

4. Qualification Questions:
   - Create 3-5 simple questions to confirm someone is worth the time investment
   - Focus on willingness to give feedback, not just interest in trying it

Make everything simple and actionable. I want to message 10 people by the end of today.

Don't spend all day planning. Spend 10 minutes planning, then start messaging. If they say no (o more likely, say nothing) who cares. Just get your asks out.

Build in Public Content

Share your approach

"Day 21 of AI Summer Camp: Time to find my first beta testers.

Built my MVP last week. Now for the scary part - letting real people use it.

Looking for testers to try what I’ve built. I don’t have anything to sell. Just looking for feedback. Comment or message if interested”

What's Next?

Tomorrow we tackle onboarding - helping your beta testers actually get started and find value in your product.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle