Written by Felix Heikka
By following the steps in this article you can build your own AI project that people actually want and will pay for.
The steps I cover in this article are the ones we followed for our AI project that reached 1,800+ users and $2,000+ revenue in less than two months after launch.
Let’s get straight into it.
An AI project is a project that incorporates artificial intelligence technology to solve specific problems or enhance existing solutions. This could include:
Building an AI project people actually want comes down to four steps:
Solving a real problem is obviously important but many founders still get it wrong and end up building projects no one wants. A common reason founders end up in that position is that they come up with a solution and immediately start building it before validating whether the problem it solves is real and affects a significant number of people.
Nothing will make your journey smoother than solving a real problem. Everything from building, to marketing, and getting your first paying customers will become easier when you solve a problem that people really need solved. I’ve been in the position myself of building projects that didn’t solve real problems. Spending months trying to market them with no success was a nightmare.
To make sure you’re solving a real problem, you validate your idea with your target audience. What you want is confirmation from them that what you’re planning to build is actually valuable to them. To get this confirmation, you want to talk to people that have the problem before building. The purpose is to understand three things:
There are many different ways to reach out to your target audience. What I did, which worked well for me, was post on Reddit asking for feedback on my idea. I got positive responses which proved to me that what I wanted to build would be worth my time.
Before jumping straight into building a full product, you want to start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This is the bare bones version of your product that has only the necessary features to solve the main problem, no extra fancy features.
You build an MVP to avoid wasting months of effort building something only to find out at launch that no one wants what you’ve built. The MVP is your chance to quickly get your product in front of users and start receiving the valuable feedback that will shape your product into something that’s actually valuable and worth paying for.
Launch your project quickly so you can start receiving valuable feedback. This early-stage feedback is what will help you shape an AI project that people actually want. If it’s an option, you should offer your MVP for free in exchange for feedback. Feedback is a lot more valuable to you than money at this point. If you can maximize the amount of feedback you get and then improve the product based on it, money won’t be an issue for you going forward.
Building an AI project people actually want comes down to solving a real problem, getting your project out fast, and improving it based on feedback from the market. The process is straightforward and if you take the time to properly go through it, you will be rewarded.
If you would like help following this process when building your next AI project, Buildpad might be for you. Buildpad is a platform that helps founders go from idea to successful product. Buildpad’s AI will guide you through phases and help you with tools to make sure you’re building a product people actually want.
Try it now and get started for free.