The Right It
Author: Alberto Savoia
Published: 2019
Category: Technology
Review
"The Right It" fundamentally challenged my approach to product development, shifting my perspective from "build first, find customers later" to "validate demand before building anything." This book came at the perfect time as I was working on my study app, Savantra, and had already started getting email signups for validation - reading Savoia's framework made me realize I was intuitively applying the fake door pretotype technique.
The book's core insight that 90% of products fail in the market, regardless of how smart the teams building them are, was both sobering and liberating. It reinforced that market validation isn't just a nice-to-have - it's essential for survival. The immediate feedback I was getting from my email signups gave me much more confidence that Savantra was worth pursuing, and the book provided a framework for understanding why that validation mattered so much.
What I Loved
The Pretotyping Toolkit: The variety of pretotyping techniques (Mechanical Turk, Pinocchio, Fake Door, Facade, YouTube, One-Night Stand, Infiltrator, Relabel) provided concrete, actionable methods for testing ideas quickly and cheaply.
The Market Engagement Hypothesis (MEH): The framework for expressing assumptions with numbers rather than vague words made testing much more precise and actionable.
"Skin in the Game" Validation: The emphasis on meaningful commitment (validated emails, scheduled meetings, money invested) over superficial engagement (likes, comments, survey responses) was a crucial distinction.
Real-World Examples: Stories like Airbnb's air mattress experiment and CarsDirect's facade approach made the concepts tangible and inspiring.
Key Takeaways
Market Validation Must Come First: The traditional approach of building first and finding customers later is backwards - validate demand before investing in development.
Data Beats Opinions: Focus on collecting your own fresh, relevant, trustworthy data rather than relying on focus groups, surveys, or other people's research.
Most Products Fail: 90% of products fail in the market regardless of team competence - the "Law of Market Failure" is blind and affects even the smartest companies.
Test Cheap and Fast: Use pretotyping techniques to gather market data quickly and inexpensively before committing significant resources.
Skin in the Game Matters: Look for meaningful commitment from potential customers rather than casual interest.
Tweak Before You Pivot: Don't abandon ideas after initial disappointing results - often small tweaks can dramatically change outcomes.
Reading Notes
"Most new products will fail in the market - 90% of products fail regardless of how competently they are executed."
Page Chapter 1
"The success equation only takes one key factor to mess up for the product to fail in the market."
Page Chapter 1
"Your data needs to be Fresh, Relevant, Trustworthy, and Statistically significant."
Page Chapter 3
"The best and most reliable way to get market data is to get Your Own Data (YODA)."
Page Chapter 3
"Testing now beats testing later - get your ideas out of thought-land and start testing with an attainable market size."
Page Chapter 7
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed it, feel free to check out my other book reviews below.