In some sense, it has to be yourself. If you’re not fully bought-in to the value to the extent that you genuinely enjoy and benefit from using it, you’re forced to hypothesise about that first true fan, even if she sits across from you.
More likely you’ll get lost in discussion of personas and market segments and user journeys and end up condescending to your audience.
In short, you’ve got feel the need for the thing to exist—for yourself.
I think the 1k true fans approach means going deep instead of wide. And in order to do so you need to really understand what would make people fans of your work.
A mistake many people make is that they mistake low intent interest as a proxy for opportunity. You can’t always ask people what they want. You have to build a thing that intersects with their (often subconscious) needs. This is where scratching an itch you have a deep understanding of is helpful.
More likely you’ll get lost in discussion of personas and market segments and user journeys and end up condescending to your audience.
In short, you’ve got feel the need for the thing to exist—for yourself.