I used to think that zero-to-one was the most interesting and important part of software development, and that meant getting from zero products to one product. What mattered was the MVP. Like a store preparing for it’s grand opening, we’d identify our target users and plan for how we’d get them once we had a product they wanted.

Now, I think the most important thing is getting from 0 users to 1 user.

The potential for a product to scale is the total number of humans who would receive value from it. The ability to receive value from a product is very nuanced, and very personal. In my own work, I’ve found that after I make something, I don’t really want to use it. But watching someone else try to solve their need with a tool that I’ve made– that is incredibly illuminating.

Many of us may be getting it backwards. We are starting with an idea, then a product, polishing it, then looking for customers to validate the idea. This has some chance of being profitable, but often it isn’t, nor is it particularly satisfying, and in order to survive many entrepreneurs end up leaning into a demographic that they themselves are not a part of. Many products are frankly just out-of-touch and don’t satisfy any real human need, even if they sound cool– but that realization doesn’t often come until after a lot of time and money has been spent. Solving the fun technical problems in the backend is often what technical founders secretly want to do, and they often try to do it as long as they can until their backers start asking about returns and they have to violently pivot into grabbing whatever users they can.

I think that something important ends up being missed when we focus on the MVP without having people in the loop who want that MVP during its development. We waste time on the wrong things, obviously, but also we miss a profound opportunity for deeper and more meaningful connection to our friends, family and community through our work.

Let’s say I start with one user. A friend of mine. I ask them about things they really need and want, and we identify something which sounds like something our other friends would want to. I make something for them, and they give me feedback. We repeat for a few weeks. I end up with two lists of TODOs– the features I’d love to implement because it sounds awesome, and the list of bugs and features that they really need. One of those lists of TODOs is irrelevant busywork and the other is a clear roadmap to a product that might be useful to many people.

If I was really seeking to fill my life with purpose, I could look at problems that are shared by many members of my community, either locally or online or whatever that means, and I could make the things that they would want. Tools to improve the community itself and the lives of the people in it, fixes for things that have been broken for too long, or even just little things that make day-to-day life better.

Most communities have the same problems and the same needs. It’s possible that by fulfilling some need for my own people, there may be a product that is useful to many other people as well. However, I have hedged my bets. If the product fails for any reason, I’ve still succeeded in making something useful for the people I care about.

I think that society is generally on a good path, but there are many social ills as a result of the sudden increase in complexity in our world. One of the ways we can improve our society, as makers and entrepreneurs, is to integrate our relationships and our work more closely, and to see our work broadly as an extension of being in service to the people we care about.

It’s a good way to focus on what really matters. And in the end, I think that’s going to be a lot more likely to make you a billion dollars than most if not all of the ideas you might come up with on your own.