You fall in love with a cool problem that requires building cool tech to solve. Unfortunately, nobody needed it and you don't have a business, you have a science fair project
Disproof
Fill in the blanks â[ ] people are unable to do [ ] within [ ] constraints, are willing to pay / exchange value to do so, and we can reach them through [ ]â
Consequences
Youâve set yourself up as a for-profit product business, make no product, no profit, and go out of business
The speed of this is usually attenuated by burning money from elsewhere
At best you've wasted a bit of time and spent your savings
At worst you've wasted a lot of time, burnt someone else's money and will forever be known as âthose nerds who have no idea about businessâ. Non-American investors will probably not give you a second chance, even if you 'learned your lesson'
Causes
Mostly, people find a new technology, thinks âthis could do wonders!â and fail to specify those wonders, or work backward to someone who actually needs said wonders
When product teams that are too autonomous chase the shiny over the valuable
When a nontechnical PM is too intimidated to do their job and represent the customer and the business to the product team
When customers give you a solution, and instead of investigating what problem it solves you build it
Chasing trends
Approaches
If you donât have any constraints on your time and money, this might not be an issue, but most of us do somewhat. If youâre honest with yourself, do fundamental science and just throw it at enough things to see what sticks, no problem
If youâve started at a technology (which remember, is the answer - not the question), go be an enabling technology provider and partner with someone who actually has a problem to solve, but donât trick yourself into thinking youâre building a product company and get the rest of the execution wrong
Gently remind people that if we spend money to not make money then thereâs eventually no money and no people