I am spending my time developing a free tool for developers.
The tool is entirely free, not gated by login walls or anything like that.
I know with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority of the users that I approach are my target audience, i.e. they have the need for the exact service that I am asking them to test.
I know this mostly because it is a very well defined circle of people (QA engineers beginning to learn specific software) and because it has a high-level of stickiness for people who do end up trying it.
My problem though is the initial reach out. It seems like no matter how I try to wrangle the conversation, the receiving person thinks that I am trying to get them to buy something.
I approach every lead in a private Slack server, through 1:1s. A typical conversation goes something like this:
> me: Hey, welcome to X. How good is your Y?
> them: Hey! I am a complete noob
> me: Let me know if I can help you answering any of your questions.
> them: Thanks. Will do!
Up to this point the conversation is Okay.
Now it seems no matter how I introduce the product next, this is where the other person feels swindled, e.g. I will say: "I've built a X tool which can answer your questions as a novice. Would you be up to try it?" or simply "Have you already heard of X? It can answer..." only about 3 in 10 say they want to try it.
One could argue that I should build up the conversation more, but that is neither scalable, nor do I want to waste their time.
Would love to hear from HN crowd on what would increase my odds of engagement.
The tool is entirely free, not gated by login walls or anything like that.
I know with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority of the users that I approach are my target audience, i.e. they have the need for the exact service that I am asking them to test.
I know this mostly because it is a very well defined circle of people (QA engineers beginning to learn specific software) and because it has a high-level of stickiness for people who do end up trying it.
My problem though is the initial reach out. It seems like no matter how I try to wrangle the conversation, the receiving person thinks that I am trying to get them to buy something.
I approach every lead in a private Slack server, through 1:1s. A typical conversation goes something like this:
> me: Hey, welcome to X. How good is your Y?
> them: Hey! I am a complete noob
> me: Let me know if I can help you answering any of your questions.
> them: Thanks. Will do!
Up to this point the conversation is Okay.
Now it seems no matter how I introduce the product next, this is where the other person feels swindled, e.g. I will say: "I've built a X tool which can answer your questions as a novice. Would you be up to try it?" or simply "Have you already heard of X? It can answer..." only about 3 in 10 say they want to try it.
One could argue that I should build up the conversation more, but that is neither scalable, nor do I want to waste their time.
Would love to hear from HN crowd on what would increase my odds of engagement.