So, you have a startup idea?
How to make a product that people need not just like
The solution you build should be based on this carefully trained mechanism of understanding the customer, and not just pure instinct. Having your ear close to the ground helps build unparalleled conviction about the severity and scale of the problem you’re solving.
-Ritesh Agarwal(Founder-OYO Rooms)
So, you have an idea? That’s great.
So, you are ready to do which you always wanted to do? Awesome.
Are you thinking about it all the time, even in your shower? Amazing.
Can you not sleep due to the various thoughts of innovations that you’d bring in your own company? That’s it.
Well, my friend, you have got every trait of an entrepreneur. But, there’s always a but. With a great idea, comes great execution and planning and the most important part is talking to the right customer.
The Myth Vs Reality
Well, I’m building a great product! People would be thrilled to use it. Yes, you probably are right but have you ever asked them, do they really need your product? Have you ever asked them, are they willing to pay whatever amount you are going to charge them for your product? Have you ever seen their pupil dilate when they use your product for the first time or heard them saying,’Dude, this sh*t is nuts’! Well, if you haven’t talked to your customers about your product or heard such adjectives about it, you might not be in the right direction. You might not be satisfying a need and your product is acting kinda a vitamin rather than an antibiotic. You must understand the difference which you can only achieve when you go out of your building.
I know, many of the bright and young entrepreneurs out there, are often intimidated and feel awkward in talking to people. If you have ever tried to talk to your customers, you might have seen some awkward replies and pauses that they take. Some of them co-operate but not many. Some of them laugh at your idea and some may give you the advice to change your idea. Some may inspire you and some may give you suggestions to make a few tweaks in your idea. Embrace their views, their ideas, their concerns and even their attitude of laughing at your idea. You need to keep your head clear and believe in your idea. When it comes to the customers, you can follow some techniques to talk to them. You can learn what to ask them and more importantly what not to ask them. Let’s learn a bit about talking to people and their behaviours.
What to ask and what not to?
Remember the famous quote?
First impression is last impression
Don’t start your conversation by describing your product or its features
It would make an impression of a salesman, and trust me, nobody likes it. For example, if you are selling a dog shampoo, start by asking, Do you have a dog? What according to you are the best things about keeping a dog? What do you think are some concerns about keeping a dog? You may want to start noting down these details, but, if you are having a face to face conversation don’t do it. Instead, try to see the excitement or pain in the customer’s eyes and gestures or expression that he puts before you while describing his pain or gain about keeping a dog. Maybe, in his case, how the dog smells, is not a big deal and so he might not want to use your shampoo. Maybe he has a problem with the high price of dog food or maybe he is worried about his dog when he is out. Your shampoo may or may not come in his list of problems or it might be at the 10th or 11th number or even more. So, you might wanna think of making a cheaper dog food or a chain of caretakers for dogs when their masters are out. This would enable you to actually solve the need rather than being a vitamin that your shampoo could have been in the first place.
What people say and what they really do are different
You have to understand this because people really have high expectations and hopes for their life. What they say and what they actually do could be very different. I asked one of my friend about how his workouts are going. He told me that he is working out 6 days a week, only taking nutritious food and stopped all kinds of junk foods. If you are selling some fitness product, you might think that he is your potential customer, right? Well, I said that’s great, but, what did you have for your breakfast. He said, well, I was getting quite late for my office, so, I took a quick burger from one of the stalls. Do you see the difference? People generally want to follow an ideal life but they can’t, due to many reasons. So, you might want to think about selling a fitness product for people like him, right? Well, then what should we do in such a case? The answer lies in user behaviour. You might want to ask him whether he uses fitness products. If he does, then, what are the products that he bought recently? Why did he buy it? What does he like about those products? This would really give you an understanding of the customer segments like him and also give an idea about whether he will use your product or not. If he doesn’t show much interest in your product you might wanna think about people of his segment might not wanna use it. But you should also ask a few more people from his segment before taking any decision.
Where to find the customers for your startup?
Let’s say you are building a carpooling startup in your city. Now, first of all, you should think who could be my customers? Let’s say you made a hypothesis that your customer segments are the people who drive to their office daily by their car. In fact, they are the people who would actually pay for your service because they might want to save their daily commute money. But, you have to take into consideration that many of them out there might not want to give a ride to a stranger. What you can do is that you can talk to the people at Malls and ask them about how do they feel about a ride-sharing platform? You have to see their first reaction when they hear it and you can really identify whether you are solving a need or not. You can even ask your office colleagues about how they feel about such a platform. If they say they have heard of it in the past and are not really sure that they could use it or not, you might wanna ask them why do they feel so? Have they heard about a company that has failed in the past which had the same idea? What did they find wrong about that company? You see, in this whole conversation you haven’t spoken much about your features or about your platform and you might have gotten details about some past companies which have failed and what are the things that they did wrong or what they couldn’t achieve to provide good customer satisfaction. There are many other places to find your customers. For example, if you're building an education platform you can talk to students in schools or colleges or you can ask them about it in some kind of gatherings(like fests or sports meet etc). It depends upon what the startup is.
A quick tip
I know many of the young entrepreneurs have the potential to disrupt and innovate but there are many kinds of problems that prevent them from doing it or taking a risk. Talking to customers is one of the major problems they face. You might find someone doing your idea when you are stuck in the middle of a war in your head. I suggest, start talking to people. Go to public gatherings and see what people want, what problems they face in their day to day life. You have to be the first and the most knowledgeable person about your customers. You have to live a day in the life of your customer i.e you must have the customer archetype totally clear in your head. Steve Jobs was successful because he knew his customers better than anyone.
Conclusion
I know it might be quite hard to talk to strangers, but, once you know the art you’d be able to build a successful startup. If you are new to startups and need some guidance on how to find your customers and talk to them or about anything related to startup connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d be happy to help you on your journey to build your own successful startup.
