The minimum viable audience
The smallest group that could possibly sustain you in your work…
If you could pick the members of this audience, who would you choose? Their dreams, their worldviews, their energy, all up to you.
If you could pick them and needed to delight them because you had no one else available, would your product or service improve? If you had no choice but to ignore the naysayers (they’re not in the group) or the people who don’t think they need you or your work, would that force you to stop compromising and start excelling?
Two things happen when you delight your minimum viable audience:
- you discover it’s a lot larger group than you expected
- they tell the others
On the other hand, if you aim for mass (another word for average), you’ll probably create something average. Which gets you not very far.