Market demand analysis — search, spend, and signal

Why market demand is the most important signal

You can fix a bad product. You can raise more money. You can hire better people. But you cannot create demand where none exists. If people are not actively looking for a solution to the problem you are solving, no amount of execution will save you.

How Skip or Ship measures demand

The demand signal checks whether people are searching for this problem, whether search interest is growing or declining, and how much community chatter exists around the topic. It looks at real behavioural data — not surveys or opinions.

Strong demand means people are actively seeking solutions. Weak demand means you would need to create awareness from scratch, which is expensive and slow.

What to do with demand data

If demand is strong but competition is weak, you have found a genuine opportunity. If demand is weak and competition is strong, that is a clear Skip signal. If demand is weak but you believe it will grow, you need a specific thesis for why and when that will happen.

Demand signals you can check today, for free

• Google Trends — is interest growing, flat, or declining over 24 months?
• Reddit and forums — are people asking the question in their own words?
• Existing tool revenue — competitors with public revenue prove there's a wallet open.
• Paid ad cost — high CPC means competitors believe the buyer is valuable.
• Pre-orders — the only signal that actually counts: can you take payment today?

Fake demand red flags

• Surveys showing "people are interested" without paid commitment.
• Search volume in low-intent queries ("what is X") but not high-intent ("best X for Y").
• Community enthusiasm but zero willingness to pay (free is the only price that works).
• Investor hype without operator revenue.