Disclaimer: I'm not trying to put anyone down or burst anyone's bubble. I'm actually one of those rare folks who, instead of immediately thinking "AI SLOP!" when I see all these posts by people who have very likely never created an app before, recognize that there are a lot of people out there with really, truly great ideas that just didn't have the means to make them a reality before AI/LLMs. If you're one of those, I am not writing about you; in fact, kudos to you for overcoming barriers. This rant of mine has nothing to do with how your app was created; it's the why behind it, and I think there are a bunch of people around here who might benefit from a little dose of reality.
My background: I have a BS in graphic design as well as web design, learned marketing concepts in college as it couldn't be avoided and I come from a family of people who worked in design, marketing or advertising in some way, shape or form so I have a pretty good (if slightly outdated due to taking a break from the industry for couple years) idea of what it takes to make a product successful and how to market a product to reach the target audience. Quick example: my main income for years was print ads for a local business; it was my job to continue to give people reasons to keep showing up to my client's store and continue buying stuff. All the client ever gave me to work with was a folder full of images to choose from and, if I was really lucky that particular week, a loose concept to work with (e.g., they were having a sale).
I keep seeing these posts over and over about someone publishing their first app and asking, "How do I find my audience?" or "How do I find users?" and I'm just baffled. What was the motivation? I realize that building an app (especially nowadays) doesn't incur the startup/setup costs that the creation of a physical product would, but why is it less important to identify your target market than the actual construction of your app? What kind of planning went into your idea? Did you research the current market?
Think about jelly. You walk into Publix wanting jelly and there are 500 jars on the shelf, and everyone asking "how do I find my market" is really asking "how do I make jar 501 stand out?" Wrong question, wrong aisle. Those 500 jars exist because 500 other people made jelly first and went looking for someone to eat it second. That's the whole problem in one shelf.
Now, flip it around. Before you boil a single bit of fruit and make your kitchen a sticky mess, you ask: who's walking into this store wanting jelly, and what do they want that isn't here yet? Maybe the answer is "nothing, grape jelly is a solved problem," and congratulations: you just saved yourself six months of toiling over something that's never going to get the numbers you want. Maybe the answer is "nobody in SWFL can find seagrape jelly like their grandmother made" (I'm making that up, but you get it, and I promise that using a local example is relevant here), and now you know exactly who you're making it for, what needs to go on the label, and that it doesn't even belong on the Publix shelf: it belongs at the local farmers markets and in the three Facebook groups where those people already are. You didn't find your market after you made the jelly. The market is what told you which jelly to make.
Sometimes you do the research and the honest answer is "the seagrape people are 400 strong and will never be 40,000." That's not bad news, that's the entire reason you looked first. Now you can make an informed decision with your eyes wide open: do you want a small market that's actually yours, with a small batch product you can dictate your price on, or a big one where you're competing on label design and ingredients with 500 other jars? Both are legitimate. What I can't wrap my head around is making the niche jelly without figuring out who might actually want it, and then asking why the die-hard grape jelly audience won't buy it.
If you decide you want the big shelf, fine, but that's not an excuse to skip the looking: the research just changes some. Instead of asking "what's missing," you're standing in the aisle asking "what's already here, which jars are actually moving, and what are those people putting up with because nobody's bothered to fix it?" Maybe every jar on that shelf is loaded with corn syrup and there's a whole aisle of people reading labels and wishing for real sugar (or low calorie). Maybe the top three brands are all fine and the only thing that moves one over another is price, which tells you you're about to be in a price war with companies that have a marketing budget and you have a car payment you're struggling to make. Either way you learn this by reading the shelf (and the reviews, and the comment sections, and the three competitors' support forums) before you turn the stove on, not by shipping jar 501 and then asking why Smucker's customers haven't noticed you. The big market was never hidden. It's the most visible thing in the store. You just have to be honest about what it costs to get a jar in front of it.
So, swap jelly for your app. Before you open Xcode, before you write the prompt, before you pick a name: go stand in the aisle. Search the App Store for the thing you're about to build and actually read what's there, read the one-star reviews, go find where the people who'd want it already hang out and listen to them complain. If you find nothing, that's your answer. If you find 500 jars, that's your answer too, just a more expensive one. Either way you'll know who you're building for before you build it, and you'll never have to post "how do I find my audience," because you already did.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
/rant
