In episode 706, join Rob Walling for a solo adventure where he discusses a variety of topics. He starts with why it’s important to both consider and credit “prior art” in business. Rob outlines his 2/20/200 idea validation framework used to repeatedly evaluate ideas. He also covers why, though there are some advantages, designing by committee has some significant downsides. Episode Sponsor: Is your outsourced development team dropping the ball? Maybe you’ve worked with a team that just couldn't grasp your vision and needed constant oversight because they weren’t thinking strategically. Or maybe you ended up wasting hours micromanaging, often needing to jump on late-night calls across massive time zone differences to get alignment. And in the end, they delivered a sluggish app with a frustrating UI that didn’t come close to the solution you had envisioned. If any of that sounds familiar, you need to reach out to our sponsor - DevSquad. DevSquad provides an entire development team packed with top talent from Latin America. Your elite squad will include between 2 to 6 Full Stack Developers, a technical product manager, plus experts in product strategy, UI/UX design, DevOps, and QA - all working together to make your SaaS Product a success. You can ramp up an entire product team fast, in your timezone, and at rates 75% cheaper than a comparable US-based team. And with DevSquad, you pay month to month with no long-term contracts. Get the committed, responsive development team that your business deserves. Visit DevSquad.com/startups and get 10% off the first three months of your engagement. Topics we cover: 2:37 – Learning from, and crediting, prior art 10:27 – The 2/20/200 Idea Validation Framework 16:03 – Be wary when designing by committee 21:09 – When to crowdsource feedback Links from the Show: Register for MicroConf US in Atlanta, April 2024 Do Things That Don’t Scale by Paul Graham David Sacks (@DavidSacks) | X Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham Episode 705 | From Bootstrapped to Mostly Bootstrapped Episode 628 | The 5 P.M. Idea Validation Framework Use This PROVEN Formula to Validate Your Next Startup Idea Validate Your SaaS Idea FAST (Step-by-Step SaaS Validation Process)✅ Start Small Stay Small by Rob Walling Metallica: Some Kind of Monster If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.