You've got the process backwards. Like many makers by the way.
What it sounds like you're doing now is building a product, and then hoping it's something people want. That's very risky. There's a good chance you're building something nobody wants.
You want to flip your process around. Find out what people want, and then build it.
How do you find out what people want? There's many ways. Talking to potential customers is probably the easiest, although maybe scariest as well. Listening in on their conversations (e.g. on Twitter, help forums, etc) can work too. Even quickly prototyping a product and showing them can be a way to see what their needs are, but you have to be very careful not to invest too much time fine-tuning it. Don't confuse your validation prototype for your actual product.
Next time you start building something ask yourself: does the customer want this? how can I find out? how much time am I willing to risk building something nobody might want?
Take small steps. Get feedback. Iterate. Take more steps. As you develop more confidence of what the customer wants you can start taking bigger steps.
You've got the process backwards. Like many makers by the way.
What it sounds like you're doing now is building a product, and then hoping it's something people want. That's very risky. There's a good chance you're building something nobody wants.
You want to flip your process around. Find out what people want, and then build it.
How do you find out what people want? There's many ways. Talking to potential customers is probably the easiest, although maybe scariest as well. Listening in on their conversations (e.g. on Twitter, help forums, etc) can work too. Even quickly prototyping a product and showing them can be a way to see what their needs are, but you have to be very careful not to invest too much time fine-tuning it. Don't confuse your validation prototype for your actual product.
Next time you start building something ask yourself: does the customer want this? how can I find out? how much time am I willing to risk building something nobody might want?
Take small steps. Get feedback. Iterate. Take more steps. As you develop more confidence of what the customer wants you can start taking bigger steps.