**Early adopters, by definition, need to have been triggered by a problem that drove them to some tangible action**. This action could range from researching possible solutions, all the way to buying, or even building a homegrown solution to the problem

People who:

• encourage you to keep working on the product
• give you a bunch of feature ideas
• ask to let them know when you have something ready for them to beta test

are not early adopters.

Furthermore, these interviewees aren’t in the best position to tell you what to build because they haven’t yet attempted to solve the problem before themselves.

How to find early adopters

At any given time, what percentage of people are in the buying mode for a product?

• Only 3% is really attuned to listen to what you have to say when you are pitching a solution.
• 67% are open to the idea of buying.
• 30% definitely know they are not interested.

The Buyer's Pyramid: Ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes

So where would you start?

• The place where we definitely don't want to start are the non-buyers because they know they are not interested.
• Active buyers are very sophisticated buyers. In the beginning they are more sophisticated than you because they have done a lot of research. In the early stages you are probably not really ready to pitch to these kinds of people.
• The bigger audience can be influenced. This is where we find the majority of early adopters.

1. Start with active buyers to learn

   Study how people are actively buying. We don't have a product yet and we are not ready to pitch, so this first phase is very much about learning.

   Go and see, in the space we are competing, what people are doing today:

   • What are they buying?
   • How are they buying it?
   • What friction are they running into?
   • What problems are they running into?

   Many techniques for doing this. We use a lot customer interviews.

2. Go to your early adopters to refine your pitch/offer

   Look to see where we are going to place our products. So go after the early adopter segment and decide whether to focus on:

   • those who are open
   • those who are not thinking about it
   • those who don't think they are interested