finished.

need_versus_want.md

@@ -43,4 +43,59 @@ He understood what people wanted.
 
 ##How to build products people want.
 
-This is
+Keep your eyes open. Pay attention. The biggest startup successes have happened
+due to an intrinsic understanding of markets. Dropbox understood people wanted their files available at all moments.
+Google understood people needed a beter way to get information. Facebook knew people wanted to showcase their
+social life (and thus status). Ebay knew people wanted to sell their old stuff to cash in.
+
+Look for things people want by listening to what people say, do, and buy. Marketing
+Bits was born after people kept asking me for advice through email.
+People have questions about marketing. They need answers. Marketing Bits is 
+how I'm addressing that need in a manner that is beneficial to all involved.
+Who knew a marketing newsletter aimed at startups and programmers would enjoy such 
+early success? I did. That is why you are reading these very same words.
+
+Is there a systemized approach to building what people want? Yes there is.
+
+1. Pick a product to research. 
+2. Talk to people about it. Pay attention to they way they use it. How, why, and when are important questions to ask.
+3. Follow sales numbers if they are available.
+4. Build an MVP of a copy if the product with the features people have shown to want. Test the results. Iterate.
+
+Notice that building new products is not really focused here. I'm not a big fan of
+building brand new products. Its a huge gamble. I believe in innovation through iteration.
+Let's improve what's out there right now. Over time it will end up being a whole new product anyways.
+Why gamble?
+
+    Pioneers gets arrows on their backs.
+
+Remember that people who set out to build *new and awesome* products have
+to first convince the world they want it. I'd rather have you find out what they
+want and build it for them.
+
+##But people do need X product.
+
+Yes. People do need things. But people are not *rational*. Stop treating them as
+if they were. Smart people face this very same issue. For them a product has to be
+logical. People must need it or else it is a waste of time. 
+
+Stop. People are not rational. If they were they would not commemorative NASCAR plates on QVC (for $60!).
+I'm not saying that you should not build things pepole need, but find out which 
+product they want and *need*.
+
+One such product is Basecamp. A completely boring product. It is a computer program
+you use to keep track of stuff. Boring. But it works amazingly well. So well that
+people who use it realize they want *and* need this product. That boring product
+quickly became part of their lives. They cannot live without it. So much that 
+free alternatives have been created for people too cheap to pay for it. Imagine that.[1]
+
+##But I already built a product I thought people needed.
+
+Tough luck. I fell for that idea many times. Thought people wanted X product, but
+it proved to be wrong. Try and iterate the product into something they want.
+Other wise just scrape it. Its easier to start with something that already works
+than trying to make something work.
+
+[1]37Signals don't get mad. I love Basecamp. But next to an iPod, Basecamp is boring. No harm intended. 
+
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