Why it's so hard to "see" demand

And how to start seeing it everywhere

When a product doesn’t fit demand, we have a chance to see that demand and supply are two separate concepts. Something about what we’re trying to sell isn’t fitting what they’re trying to achieve. The dissonance looks like this:

But here’s the issue: We pretty much only learn about products that fit demand. The iPhone. Louis Vuitton. Starbucks. Harley. When we look at these products, their supply fits demand so perfectly that it’s as if “demand” = “desire for supply”. People sure seem to want a Harley, to have demand for an iPhone! In this case, demand and supply - two independent concepts - collapse into one, like this:

And this is why we weren’t taught about demand at Harvard, or at McKinsey, or in just about any business book:

Demand is invisible when products “fit” demand… and the businesses we learn about about are the ones with supply that fits demand!

Because we’re not taught about demand, it would be weird if we found it. The main reason startups don’t find demand is not because it’s hard to find, but because we don’t actually look for it.

The end result? At best, we think our job is to “build something people want”: This task, as stated, is doomed to fail. Now you can see why.

No, our job is to “find demand out there and build supply that fits so well that they behave as if they want our product.” This doesn’t make a good slogan, I admit, but it makes a damn good survival guide.

Start seeing demand everywhere

You have to train yourself to see demand, in a world that mistakes “demand” for “wanting a product.” Fortunately, there’s a simple way to do this: From now on, when you do things, when you buy things, try to articulate the “demand side” - what’s on your mental to-do list. What’s your PULL?

What is the demand that, for example, causes you to listen to a podcast? It’s not that you want to listen to a podcast - that’s conflating “demand” with “desire for supply.” Demand might be that you think the hosts are your friends - why I listen to Sharp Tech! Or maybe demand is that you’re trying to avoid your own thoughts by having other people’s voices in your head.

As you do this in your own life, you’ll be better able to see demand everywhere, and you’ll start to understand why people really buy things. What was on the demand side that caused the first people to buy the iPhone? What is on the demand side when someone gets a Harley tattoo? Or when we doom-scroll, what’s really happening on the demand side?

When we do this, we see the world much more clearly. We can actually understand why certain products take off. And we can find real demand, so we stop pushing products that people “should want”, but never will.