Looking for Feedback for my Idea

[bennet]

Hey everyone,

I'm really excited to be sharing my thoughts here! So, about a year ago, I read "The Millionaire Fastlane " and ever since I've been coming up with lots of new ideas. I've tried them out for a few weeks, but then I always seem to move on to the next idea without much success. This has happened like three or four times already. But this time, I'm determined to break that cycle.

The big question I need to answer is whether people actually want my product and if they'd be willing to pay for it.

Here's my idea: I want to make a time-management app specifically for students. You know, to help with stuff like putting off work, managing time better, and staying accountable. As a student myself in New York, I know firsthand the struggles my fellow students face every day. I imagine this app going above and beyond what's already out there, like Google Calendar or Notion. It should be something that really motivates students to finish their assignments by adding in some cool features. My goal is to help students become better learners, feel less stressed, and have more time to enjoy life without worrying so much about schoolwork.

What makes my app different? Well, it's not just another boring calendar or reminder app. I want to make it fun by adding in game-like elements to keep people motivated and having a good time while they use it. I have more ideas in my head about it.

I'm pretty sure students deal with these exact problems, and if there was an app that really helped me out, I'd definitely pay for it. So, what do you all think about my idea? Any thoughts on what I could do differently? I'm open to any advice or insights you can share.

Wishing everyone success on their fastline journey!

 

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[Devilery]

I'm working on gamification features for a client's projects, and honestly, I personally don't feel like that's added value. You either get your shit done because it truly matters, or you don't.

I use ClickUp for to-do list management, and Google Calendar for time-specific events. I would hate an app that would send me notifications about points and awards. When you say: "game-like" what do you mean specifically? Scoreboards - best learner this week? Award badges - 7-day homework streak?

If it doesn't take you a year to build, try it, maybe it will succeed, and maybe you'll gain experience, but to me, it seems like a tough business.

I'd rather build an app that teaches a skill that would develop into an alternative path to school. I bet most students would rather have an app that teaches them how to learn high-leverage skills, make money, and live a cool life, not how to get a better grade. Also, students are not exactly high-budget clients. How likely is it that someone with low motivation to study pays to study more productively?

Duolingo is an excellent example of Gamification if you decide to go down that route. Also, what I said is personal and subjective, market feedback is the only thing that's objective.

 

[Tau Ceti]

I want to make a time-management app specifically for students.

Students generally have a very low income, so your app will need to be cheap. Secondly the B2C market is always more finicky than the B2B market. Churn will be higher and LTV will be lower which means that growth will be slow and costly.

Since you dont have a billion dollars to throw around in advertising, most likely you will struggle to attract a sizeable amount of users.

Look at what's popular with students and teenagers(TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram...), most apps are usually free so getting your users to pay for something will be a challenge.

I've tried them out for a few weeks, but then I always seem to move on to the next idea without much success.

What does try mean in this context?

Do you mean you executed, built something and/or pitched the idea to a potential customer and/or did some advertising for your app or do you simply mean that you googled for 5 minutes and then called it a day?

If it's the latter then you did not really try anything, if it's the former, then what kind of lessons did you learn from your previous attempts that will be useful for this next attempt?

The big question I need to answer is whether people actually want my product and if they'd be willing to pay for it.

This is not the big question, this is the only question. Without income you don't have a business. How are you going to monetize this app?
Subscription plans, one time payments, ads, selling your user data to some data broker?

That is the single most important question you need to ask yourself.

I imagine this app going above and beyond what's already out there, like Google Calendar or Notion.

It's good to be ambitious but I don't think you realize the amount of work involved in just matching the the number of functionalities in Google Calendar and Notion.

If that is your game plan, I predict you will start building this app and give up after 2 months when you realize that this is going to take you a very long time to get to this point.

You are better off starting with something small that does 1 thing and 1 thing only but does it 10 or 100 times better than the competition. Then from that point, you can decide to expand the app's functionalities. This will allow you to save your self time, headaches and will give you a chance to apply corrective measures as you go based on your user feedback.

The startup scene is littered with the corpses of products that have been developed for years without seeing the light of day because founders thought they could just create an overly complex app without getting it into the hands of their users first.

So create something small but amazing, get some users, then get some paying users, then add more functionalities, then rinse and repeat.

I'm pretty sure students deal with these exact problems, and if there was an app that really helped me out, I'd definitely pay for it

That is not market validation.

You want this to be true so you think that this is true. Real market validation means that there would be clamoring demand for this type of product and someone would have built something resembling your idea already.

if it doesn't exist, then either you have a truly novel idea(highly unlikely) or the market is actually satisfied with the existing solutions.

Does this mean that your idea is doomed to fail? No, but you will have to prove and demonstrate to your users that your app is better than everything else out there. So much better in fact that your users will not hesitate to switch their workflows in order to use your solution.

But to make them do that, you can't just be a little bit better, no, you need to be a lot better and that is very very hard to accomplish.

So, what do you all think about my idea?

Your idea is ok, not the best, not the worst.

Your problem is not the idea.

Your problems are in no particular order:
- you haven't really validated the need for your product
- you seem to be chasing money instead of solving a real problem (see the difference between a painkiller product vs a vitamin product) by switching ideas without really getting anything out there ( unless I am mistaking)
- you are seriously underestimating the amount of time it will take you to create and release your app based of the specs highlighted in your post
- you are targeting a segment of the population that is notoriously broke and therefore risk averse and therefore unlikely to pay for something if the competing products are free to use.

My recommendation for you is what I said above. You need to move fast and be nimble. Get something out there tomorrow. A simple app with one functionality. Get your friends to use it, get your fellow classmates to use it and then ask them if its useful or not.

Then make it paid and see if people pay for it. If not, you can kill it and move on. No point wasting time trying to get blood from a stone.

Best of luck.