When releasing something new to the world, like a product or a work of art, there just a few types of reactions from the masses:

1. Love it!  Solves my problems wonderfully.  I will give you whatever amount of money you desire in exchange for it.
2. Hate it! Doesn’t solve my problems.  It looks like crap and works like crap.  It is crap.   It doesn’t even do X, Y, and Z!!  The creator is obviously a clueless, talentless moron.
3. Don’t understand it.  What’s the big deal?  I don’t really get what it’s trying to do.

The group with the positive reaction is in the right market, but since they are being satisfied, they won’t be able to offer much useful advice for improvement.  The good news is that they can spread the word about the virtues of the product.

The group with the indifferent reaction is in the wrong market, as they do not suffer from the problem the product is attempting to solve.  Going to them for advice, unless you’re trying to enter new markets, is going to be a long, hard slog with low returns.

The group with the negative reactions is the most valuable for product improvement.  The group that hates the product has the problem but doesn’t like the solution provided by the product.  They can provide all sorts of reasons why the product sucks, and although one must filter such advice, it can be valuable to receive such brutal honesty.  Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get this sort of feedback.  Friends are notoriously poor sources; they don’t want to risk damaging the relationship, so they stay quiet instead of subjecting themselves to the discomfort of friend-to-friend honesty.  External, impersonal reactions are essential.

My hope is that Blurity!, in its mission of removing blur from photos, finds many people of the first and second persuasions.  The first, to evangelize.  The second, to improve.

According to the “release early” philosophy, the first version of software should be so bad that it’s embarrassing.  I think that this first pre-alpha prototype, version 0.0.1, of Blurity! fits the bill.  It isn’t that great, and I know it.  (That doesn’t mean I’m not proud of it.)

So why release early?  Doesn’t doing so risk damaging the reputation of the brand?  Maybe, but I feedback, and keeping the product close isn’t going to get me it.  With the early release, I can see how real users are actually interacting with the product.  I can show the prototype to different users and validate my assumptions about the market.  Update my assumptions, too.

Having the product out there, live, means that I’m forced to keep on top of updates and bug fixes.  No slacking off.

Finally, there is the tempting possibility of revenue, if only a few dollars.