Customer traction.

Customer traction is the moment of reckoning. Either the customer would want our product and sign up. Or they would decide it's not for them.

One way or the other, it moves us forward.

And customer traction is also the hard part. It requires emotional labour. It requires overcoming the fear of rejection and putting something specific in front of someone specific.

When fear wins, we hide away from customer traction. We keep ourselves busy with details that don't matter, at least not at this stage. We choose not to be specific, neither about our (smallest viable) audience nor about what the product or service does for them.

It's not easy. It's not going to be easy. But it is the most effective way of bringing the change you seek to bring, whether it works or not.