I built & released txnhog in about a week early this year. By "released" I mean it was live and I told my wife it was done. And then it sat there. Because I was done.
With the notable exception or rktat, every SaaS/PaaS I've built for myself has been a tool I wanted to either use or to exist. Txnhog was no different. I needed a nice, easy-to-use transactional email service, and none existed. So I built one. It's a great tool, I use it on all my projects. So does exactly no one else.
I built txnhog because I wanted it, not because the market did. I didn't do market research. I didn't map the ideal user. I didn't find a path to marketing to that unrealized ideal user.
Don't be like me. You should absolutely do all the above before you begin building. You need to know who your user is, where to find them, how to reach them, and what they need vs what they think they need and how you'll provide that.
My approach probably shouldn't be yours. I build the things I want to exist, and then I use them. If you want to use them too, please do. Sometimes they are great. Sometimes they are not.
As someone who makes his living building and consulting on SaaS/PaaS services, you might wonder why I don't do the research. And the answer is, mostly, I just don't care.
I want to like what I build. I need to care about the project or neither it, nor my attention to it, will last.
So I build.
And when a thing is built, if I can use it and it maintains the utility I hoped for, then I let people know about it. And that's where I'm at with txnhog. It's time to let people know.
During the rest of this month I'll figure out who is most likely to need it, where I can find them, and how best to reach them. Then, sometime in January, I'll take that information, run some campaigns, do a little outreach and see what happens.
Wish me luck.