Ask HN: Story about a company using 404s to demonstrate customer demand?
I have a distant recollection of hearing some big name company that had done this with a lot of success.
From what I recall, it may have been a travel company that would add a call to action link to some new area of business that would go to a 404 page. Then they judged demand based on how many users click to that page and used that data to justify building $new_area_of_business
Does anyone know the story I'm thinking of or have any other successful examples of a similar technique being used?
Thanks! I've done this on some small sites, and it doesn't have to be a 404. Though that could work. I also do not recall the origin, but I definitely stole the idea. I tend to use a "call to action" – "Sign Up", "Register," etc. And then link to a landing page with a "Coming soon ... " message. I have also had an option to submit an email to get updates. So I could track both hits to the page and compare to how many also submit an email. I am not sure which is better. A 404 may detract from confidence of the site, and it may also lead to a single user refreshing the page or visiting multiple times, thereby skewing the results. Though, a landing page may also be annoying for the user. I do think it can be done in a way that can both test actual interest without abusing the user. I remember reading that the authors of Django framework (Lawrence Journal) used some thing like this in the early days. Basically a 404s without a referrer header but under another valid url were likely a case where someone edited the url (think /list/export/csv -> list/export/json) and they used that to demonstrate demand for a particular feature. Thanks for the great other examples.
For anyone else curious, I found the original I was thinking of, it was Stephen Kaufer from TripAdvisor. https://techcrunch.com/2011/12/22/founder-stories-tripadviso... Mixcloud.com have done similar to gauge demand in new product features, explained in this interview with the CTO Bill Gross of Idea Lab has discussed doing this with whole businesses. The example I heard him give was a website that allowed you to purchase cars online.