5 Myths That Can Kill a Startup – GigaOM

5 Myths That Can Kill a Startup – GigaOM: "Myth #2: It’s About Your Great Idea

Truth: It’s About Your Customer

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are waiting to come up with the killer idea that will rocket them into fame and fortune. The reality is that ideas are a dime a dozen and even the best ones must be launched at the right time. Too early and there is no demand for your product, too late and you’ve missed the market. It’s much easier to fulfill an existing need with your product than it is to convince people they need it in the first place.

In other words, it’s about your customer. Start by A/B testing your products to get real user feedback on different features and designs. Adaptive experimentation, defined by the American Marketing Association as “continuous experimentation to establish empirically the market response functions,” has been shown (PDF) to be critical when it comes to successfully creating viral growth."