Identifying Market Needs
Ask a hundred students "Would you use an app to buy cheaper second-hand textbooks?" and ninety will say yes. That tells you almost nothing. Saying yes costs nothing, while real needs leave evidence behind.
The rule
A need is real when people already spend time or money working around it.
A workaround is the messy thing people do today because nothing better exists. It is the strongest sign of a need, because it shows people care enough to act. Before ReShelf, students at the pilot campus:
- ran a "Books Buy/Sell" WhatsApp group with 1,800 members, where posts were buried within an hour
- pinned handwritten notes on the hostel notice board
- shared one copy between three roommates and took turns
Weigh each piece of evidence by what it cost the person:
| Evidence | Strength |
|---|---|
| "I'd probably use that" | Weak: hypothetical, costs nothing |
| Complaints about the current way | Medium: shows pain, not action |
| Time spent on a workaround | Strong: they already act |
| Money spent on a workaround or rival | Strongest: they already pay |
Then check three dimensions of the need:
- Frequency: how often it comes up. Every semester, for every student.
- Intensity: how much it hurts. ₹5,000 is a large share of a student's budget.
- Reach: how many people have it. A rough size for the pilot campus: 2,000 first-years a year × 6 books × ₹900 = ₹1.08 crore of new-book spending every year.
That size is rough, and it doesn't need to be precise. It only has to tell you whether the need is big enough to matter.
The shortcut
Follow the workaround. Find the hack people use today, measure how much activity it gets, ask what goes wrong with it, then size the need.
Find the workaround
The campus group "Books Buy/Sell" has 1,800 members. That alone shows students already try to trade.
The trap is trusting enthusiasm. "Everyone said they'd love it" is not evidence until someone has already spent effort or money on the problem.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
Which is the strongest evidence that students need ReShelf?
A campus has 1,000 first-years, each buying 5 books at ₹800. What is the yearly new-book spend?
Posts in the book group spike in week one of each term and almost vanish mid-semester. What does this say about the need?
Why is "Would you use an app that…?" a weak way to test a need?
Remember
- A need is real when people already spend time or money working around it.
- Follow the workaround, measure it, ask what breaks, then size it: people × frequency × spend.
- Trap: treating polite enthusiasm as proof.