Aug 5, 2020
Isn’t it the right time to achieve the Product-Zeitgeist fit?
Isn’t it the right time for Indian origin companies to gain the traction, isn’t it the right time for the Tech heads to enter into new verticals? The answer I got for these questions is the Product-Zeitgeist Fit, coined by D’arcy Coolican
Now that the GOV has started banning the Chinese products, the relevancy of it is a topic of discussion for another day, for now, let’s see the positive side.
New ideas can come up from this situation, new strategies can be built, this opportunity can be used to build new products, scale existing products, enter into new verticals
It turns out the best way to see the future isn’t to look for what’s working, its to look for what’s not working but people still really care about it, said so, the best way I can see here is to stop looking for what’s working (we don’t say the name here, wink) and to look for what’s not working(few Indian products) but people still care about them, people want to use products made and backed by India, there’s this strong emotion building up
These products, resonate with the mood of times, these products are in the moment, they are in the Zeitgeist. That’s when the Product-Zeitgeist Fit
That’s how crypto got in, at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, with angst at Wall Street and big banks, declining trust in traditional, centralized institutions.
These products which are built now, gaining traction now(Chingari, Share chat, google files, etc), resonate with the users not because they are better but because it feels extremely culturally relevant to use these products at this particular moment in time for the people, the ultimate users, those who want Indian products to win. These are generational, reactionary, and are organized around a really compelling villain(we don’t say the name here, wink).
My friend @Sriramanax always says our focus has to be more on the emotions of users rather than the functions, features of the product, which I completely agree with. Products having the product zeitgeist fit are emotionally connected to the users. These products got a line in something emotional, not just functional, they have high empathy towards users.
Anyhow finding the PZF is just the beginning, we still have to figure out a way to reach the product-market fit(it’s easy though), a functional use case, and mainstream adoption. All these are in the platter at this time for the Indian products, Indian economy, to take advantage of.
That’s why, despite everything, I’m optimistic about how the Indian companies both product-based, service-based, and FAAG companies, etc can leverage this opportunity.
I think it’s the right time for Indian companies like Micromax and Karbon to come up with their own Softwares instead of Chinese as in the past. Hope Zoho and HCL, Jio with Facebook and the alternative products for Chinese products will leverage this opportunity
What’s your take on this? Please do let me know your point of view in the comments.
