In today’s tech world, it’s easy to fall into a seductive trap: a breakthrough technology emerges, headlines proclaim a trillion-dollar opportunity — and somewhere, a founder starts building.
But here’s the catch: many of these products begin with the tech, not the customer. The thinking goes: this tech is so powerful, it must be useful. So you build something elegant, maybe even groundbreaking — and then realize: you don’t know who it’s for. Or worse, the problem it solves isn’t real, or just isn’t painful enough to matter.
I call this constructing use cases — and I’ve been there, during the Industry 4.0 hype cycle, when “smart factories” were the buzzword.
What Does That Mean?
Constructed use cases happen when you build a solution first, then go searching for a problem to match it. You start with a shiny tool — and construct a narrative around why the world needs it.
On the surface, it looks innovative. You might attract investors, early adopters, even a bit of hype. But underneath, something’s off.
The biggest red flag? You’re working too hard to convince people to use it. You’re pitching nonstop, reframing constantly, even giving it away just to get traction. That’s not product-market fit — it’s wishful thinking.
Start Close to the Customer
There’s a famous Steve Jobs quote: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” (here) It sounds obvious, but when you’re deep in the build — especially as an engineer — it’s easy to forget.
We fall in love with the how: elegant systems, clever hacks, novel architectures. And that’s fine for research. But in a company, your job is to solve something real.
That starts by staying close to the action.
Be in the room where your product is supposed to deliver impact. Watch how it’s actually used — not how you imagined it would be. Talk to the person on the front lines. Ask naive questions. You’ll get real feedback — some of it harsh, some surprising. But it’s the only way to know if you’re building something that matters.
If you skip that step, you risk building a solution for a problem that only exists in your pitch deck.
I learned that lesson the hard way.
I’ve Been There
At my previous company, ambos.io (now Setago.io), we built a technically impressive robotic station for assembly lines. It guided workers step-by-step, verified materials via weight sensors, and automatically reordered stock.
It sounded great. But reality hit hard.
Cloud-based systems were a non-starter for most factories — too many concerns around uptime, control, and data privacy. The average worker was assembling the same product all day — they didn’t need help finding the right screw. To avoid material shortages, they just used bigger bins. No automation needed. Meanwhile, a simple plastic shelf got the job done better, cheaper, and with less friction.
We’d built something elegant — but fundamentally misaligned with what customers actually needed.
The turning point came when we decoupled our software from the hardware. That let us focus on where the real value was: flexible, digital work instructions that run on any device.
Setago today is a cloud-first platform that lets factories create, manage, and trace standardized instructions—without needing custom setups. Compared to paper binders and static PDFs still common on the shop floor, it’s faster to deploy, easier to update, and more scalable. You get integration with existing tools, smoother onboarding, fewer errors, and real-time visibility into what’s happening.
That pivot wasn’t glamorous. It meant scrapping things we were proud of. But it became the foundation for everything that followed.
The Test: Will They Pay?
There’s no clearer signal of product-market fit than asking someone to pay.
Pilots feel exciting. Managers want to try new tech, show it off, maybe impress a customer. But when you send a real quote — with real numbers — the conversation changes.
Suddenly, you’re no longer selling a vision. You’re selling value. That’s when you learn whether you’ve really solved a problem.
So charge early. Even for scrappy prototypes. Time-box free trials. Draft quotes. Watch how they react. That discomfort? It’s more honest than a dozen “this is super cool” emails
Final Thought
It’s not sexy to stay patient. It’s not glamorous to spend weeks talking to customers before writing a line of code. But it’s how great products — and great companies — are built.
And trust me — working backwards, trying to retrofit a problem to a solution you’ve spent months building with your team, is brutal. The toll it takes on morale, momentum, and culture is real. It drains energy, erodes confidence, and makes every decision feel heavier. It’s not fun to live through.
And maybe I’m not a deeptech purist — the kind of person who builds in a vacuum and waits for the world to catch up. I want to know who I’m building for. I want to be there when it clicks.
Because nothing beats building something real — for someone who truly needs it.
One Last Note
That said — it’s not a universal truth.
At World (prev Worldcoin), we did the opposite. We built into a vacuum (pre ChatGPT). There was no clear customer, no obvious market — just a strong belief that proof of personhood would become essential infrastructure for the internet. At the time, it felt almost philosophical. Today, it’s a widely acknowledged problem. In hindsight, we were early — but right.
That experience taught me that some ideas do require building ahead of the curve. You’re not solving an immediate pain — you’re inventing a new category.
Just know which game you’re playing.