How To Build A Product Or Service That Thousands Will Love: Start With One Person

 

In today’s fast-paced entrepreneurial world, creating a product or service that resonates with a broad audience can feel overwhelming.

It’s easy to get lost in the ambition of building for thousands, but as alumni entrepreneurs, we understand that success doesn’t start with the masses—it starts with one person.

Whether you're launching a business or growing an existing one, the key to unlocking massive potential lies in focusing on the needs of one individual at a time.

The Power of One

Often, entrepreneurs envision creating solutions for hundreds or thousands of people from the get-go. But this big-picture thinking can be paralyzing. How do you even begin to address the diverse needs of so many people? The answer lies in a strategy that is as simple as it is profound: Start with one person.

Identify a single customer—your ideal user—and dive deep into their world. Study their challenges, desires, and pain points. What keeps them up at night? What are their goals, both personally and professionally? The more intimately you understand this one person, the more you can tailor your product or service to meet their specific needs.

Iteration is Key

Once you’ve identified that first person, your work is far from over. The next step is iteration—the process of continuously refining and improving your product based on their feedback. Build your solution, test it, and then ask for honest input. What do they like? What don’t they like? Keep tweaking and iterating until they love it. And here’s the rule: you’re not allowed to move on to the next person until the first person is completely satisfied.

This approach may seem slow, but in fact, it’s a fast track to building something great. By honing in on the needs of one customer and perfecting your product for them, you lay the foundation for future scalability. Every subsequent customer will benefit from the improvements you’ve made along the way.

 

Scaling One Person at a Time

Once you’ve delighted that first customer, you can move on to the next. The process is the same: focus, refine, and iterate until the second customer is just as happy as the first. Slowly but surely, you’ll build a product that not only serves but excites a growing number of people.

The beauty of this approach is that each customer gives you new insights, allowing you to fine-tune your product in ways you might never have considered. By the time you’ve reached your 10th, 20th, or 50th customer, you’ll have a well-rounded product or service, proven to meet real needs and solve actual problems.

Why It Works

This method works because it keeps you grounded in reality. Instead of making guesses about what “the market” wants, you’re designing based on real, tangible feedback. You’re creating empathy-driven solutions, which is the most powerful way to ensure that your product or service stands the test of time.

As BT Alumni Fellows, we have experienced the power of community, growth, and resilience. This “one person at a time” approach to product development ties directly into our values of adaptability and innovation. We understand that meaningful change happens incrementally, and that’s how we make our mark.

Final Thoughts

To our alumni entrepreneurs: If you’re unsure of where to start or how to scale, remember this—don’t focus on the thousands. Start with one person. Build, iterate, and improve until that one person loves what you have to offer. Then repeat the process for the next person. Eventually, you’ll have a product or service that is scalable and beloved by many.

This is how true success is built—through dedication, focus, and a relentless commitment to serving your customers, one by one.