So what went wrong? An honest debrief of reko.day

Happy Friday!

This email is a bit different. I'm blending two groups, my consultant and reko.day groups.

Let me first play a little catch-up in case you're saying, "What's reko.day?"

reko.day is a start-up that I've created. It is an app that lets farmers, bakers, and such list things for sale at public pickup locations called rekos. Buyers shop for those same pickups. Then folks head to that pickup and collect their orders.

This allows farmers to sell what they have to a wide audience that fits their schedule and avoids the problem of arranging individual sales over and over. For shoppers, it lets them buy lots of things from lots of farmers, bakers, and other local people all at once.

When I decided to give this idea a shot, I tested the market to see if there was interest by running some Facebook ads that would lead to a landing page. I wanted 45 emails to confirm interest, and I got that amount. Then, while I got to work building out the app. While I did that, I started heading to farmers' markets to hear from farmers.

Every farmer I talked to, aside from like 5, loved the idea. That is, after I figured out how to explain it well. Farmers confessed that farmers' markets were really important, but a mixed bag, and that every other thing they've tried for doing retail sales really sucks. Farmers and bakers, and others consistently saw my app as a source of relief from the struggles of trying to sell what they've grown and made.

But nobody would download the app.

I went to a local food system conference and ran a booth with a $150 giveaway for folks who downloaded the app. Nobody did.

I then reached out to my contacts and local Facebook groups, offering to set up the first-ever pickup myself just to get the logistics and everything going. Nobody responded.

Now here's the conundrum: Is reko.day dead, or is there an otherwise unknown product risk I've encountered?

On my bad days, I think reko.day is dead. On better days, I can list a set of assumptions I've made that might be causing the issue.

This is what it is like to create a product that has never existed before. It isn't another feature that will save me. AI isn't going to solve this. I have to work through a punt or pivot moment. I have to pinpoint the missed assumption and correct it.

I have a small, but growing list of assumptions to test. The method to test is to get on the phone with folks and talk.

This is the life of product management that is glossed over, but where you really learn if your product will make it or not.

Sincerely,
Ryan

PS: If you're a farmer or baker or crafty person who sells goods locally and can spend a few minutes on a call, I want to talk with you.

PPS: If you're more interested in the consulting/process side of how this works, you may want to read some of my new case studies.