The Unified Theory of Product Development: Part 3
Find some models
I’m feelin’ rough I’m feelin’ raw I’m in the prime of my life
Let’s make some music make some money find some models (for wives)
MGMT — Time To Pretend
God that one is a stretch isn’t but the mind works as the mind works. As I said previously I think in song lyrics. When I sat down to write this section on the importance of models and modeling in the product development process, the MGMT song “Time to Pretend” just kept spinning in my head. And like all great music, I realized it contained some truths (even if it is a distortion to extend the truth of nihilistic rock ’n roll debauchery to the craft of product development). But as the song says you do want to make stuff. You do want to make money. And to do that you are going to have to find some models. You can probably safely ignore the next line about shooting heroin though.
By now you should have a pretty good idea of what problem you are solving and the approach you are going to take to solve it. You should be able to explain what problem you are solving to the person in your life who represents the ignorance of older generations. You should have some very rough ideas sketched out that are the product of the creative sessions you have undertaken. And everyone on the project (and I would argue everyone in the company) should have a working knowledge of both. You probably still don’t have a line of code nor is a wireframe or a high fidelity mock anywhere in sight (hopefully this is the case). Maybe this scares you. Maybe it doesn’t. But it’s OK. Cause what you need to think about now is how this idea, this solution to a problem is going to interface with the real world. This is the proverbial rubber meeting the metaphorical road.
It seems obvious to say but innovating is inherently risky. There is so much that can go wrong between great idea and great product that you need to spend some time and energy thinking about those risks. There are enough unknown risks that can trip up the best ideas that being tripped up by risks that you should have known is downright negligent. It’s important to spend some creative and business capital at this point to examine your idea in the context of the real world. I guarantee you will thank yourself for this work later.
You need to start to think about and identify all the different people, businesses and organizations, including your customers, you are going to need touch and interact with as you start on your journey of building your product and taking it to market. While the blinkered vision of founders or teams can be a very effective way to get something built, this is the time to take those blinkers off and think about your idea in the real world. Because when you do this right, that where it’s going to end up.
A word about models. A model is a representation of a thing, not an actual thing. Building models is not about getting everything perfect. Think about what your are going to do, undertake lots of research but do not let perfection be your enemy here. Assume you are going to get some things wrong. Be as comprehensive as you can be but don’t obsess. This is an output not an outcome. And expect that you will refine this over time.
Some things to think about as you start to model your idea into a business:
- Value proposition. What makes you different to everyone else out there? How are you going to explain this to prospective customers or partners?
- Customer segments. Who are you going to target to be customers? How big is this group? What can you find out about them?
- Revenue streams. How are you going to make money? Any idea how much you think you can make?
- Costs. Whats it going to cost you to get this up and running? Lots to think about here.
- Partnerships. Who are you going to need to work with to make this happen? What do youj need from them and they from you?
Just from the list above there’s lots to think about and I guarantee there is even more to think about that I haven’t highlighted. You need to start to think about all of these kinds of questions in a manner that makes sense to you and your business. There are lots of different frameworks you can use to help you make sense of all of this. There’s the Four Box Business Model, and there’s the Strategy Diamond. There are probably hundreds more. All have their supporters and detractors. For me, I have great success using the Business Model Canvas. Search Medium and I am sure you will find 1,000 stories about the good, the bad and the ugly of this as a tool. For me, it provides a framework for thinking about all those real world interactions and is very effective at putting fences around your thinking. You don’t need to solve all the world’s problems at this point but you do need to be aware of the big issues and how you plan to deal with them. And please don’t think of this as some kind of static document. This will change as you dig in to actually building your product.

The real point I want to make is that I don’t think it matters what you use as long as you go through a process of mapping this out. The process itself, no matter which one you undertake, will help you understand your business a little better. And will put you in a good place to start to build your business.
After you have done this what you will have now is the first draft of your product strategy. Your strategy really just defines your product’s journey. You have the vision (the why) and a destination (the how). You can now start to plan your route to your target destination and take that journey of a 1,000 miles.
