How to Avoid Issues that Could Kill Your Product
P.S. You can read my latest article now: What Exactly Is a Product?
You may not believe it, but it’s true: The most common pitfall for startups and product teams is that people often have different ideas about what’s being built and why. Frighteningly, most teams — and possibly yours included — don’t even realize these disconnects exist.
Sure, team members may see eye-to-eye on high-level details, but don’t let this fool you; micro misalignments can turn into macro problems if they aren’t addressed early on. If you do the work to collaboratively establish a clear, cohesive mission, you’ll steer clear of deep frustration and failure down the road.
This may seem like common sense, but it’s rarely followed. Most founders only begin to pay attention once they start showing their product to users. It’s then they see nobody understands their value proposition, and in hopes of fixing that, they bring on a marketing consultant. This idea seems logical. After all, a marketing consultant’s job is to help teams tell the story of what they’re building. But if teams aren’t already aligned on key ideas and goals, a marketing guru’s help will be nothing but a band-aid.
“Collaboratively defining goals and strategy with your team is like sugar in a cake recipe — a key ingredient for success.”
A great way to unite your company, is to hold an “inception”. Generally lasting about 1–2 days, inceptions are group product-defining sessions done with your entire team, and ideally, they’re held at the very beginning of a business or product’s creation. Collaboratively defining goals and strategy with your team is like sugar in a cake recipe — absolutely pivotal to success.
Get to Know Your Customer
Begin your inception with a short intro and welcome. Talk about what will happen during the inception and establish goals for its end. What will success look like for this inception? Give your team an idea of what to expect so they remain engaged.
Then, jump right into the action! First, identify your users. To do this, collaboratively create 2–5 personas, one for each important user segment. For each persona, include a name, a sketch, demographic info, behaviors, and problems. Completed personas should look something like this:
As you go over your personas, answer key user questions like, ‘Who are the early adopters?’ and ‘What problems does the user need solved?’. This latter question is particularly important. Understanding user problems builds empathy with the customer and helps your team make a meaningful product. So, dig in deep on this one. Have everyone spend 5 minutes creating a six-up depicting a different user problem to maximize understanding.
“Whoa!” you say. “What’s a six-up?” Simple. It’s a brainstorming exercise in which everyone sketches their ideas on sheets of paper folded into six parts. By prompting people to be visual, you’ll help them think differently.
Once you understand users’ problems, define your company’s solutions to them. Think about what’s valuable, usable, and feasible, and identify how the user is solving problems today. Then, break it all down with more six-ups. Using large sheets of paper (big ideas need space!) have everyone storyboard your company’s solutions. Each member of your team should create something like this:
Have everyone present their solutions six-ups. If ideas radically different, do a second set of six-ups so people can consolidate ideas.
Examine The Outside World
Once you’ve thought all about your user, you need to examine external forces. This will require bringing in a new brainstorming technique: the infamous sticky note session. These collaborative sessions involve having your team write their ideas on sticky notes. Once this is done, put all notes on a wall and group them in clusters to pin down important points. This will help you quickly identify your team’s biggest agreements and disconnects.
“You can’t be the Muhammad Ali of your domain without knowing what you’re up against.”
Start your examination of what lies outside with your competitive landscape. After all, you can’t be the Muhammad Ali of your domain without knowing what you’re up against. Use a sticky note session to identify your competitors and highlight your company’s unique advantages.
These unique advantages will become the building blocks for your value proposition. Work together to come up with 1–2 sentences of value proposition messaging. This will help everyone be on the same page as they talk to press, investors, and customers.
Last, address customer acquisition. Use a sticky note session to get everyone’s ideas on how customers can be acquired. Once ideas are clustered, you’ll quickly see the best channels.
Money and Metrics
Enough of outside influences! It’s time to look at the internal aspects of your company. First, analyze your company’s cost structure. Work together on a sticky note session to figure out costs you’ll face, from salaries, to office rent, to server hosting fees, and so on.
Once you’ve figured out where the money is going, pinpoint where it will come from. Use a sticky note session to identify revenue streams so everyone knows how profit will be generated.
Money coming in is good, but it isn’t the only indicator of a company’s health, so sync on your product’s KPIs. Briefly introduce AARRR to make sure your team knows key startup metrics to keep an eye oh (see image above). Then, explain and implement a simple business model. Lastly, create and reverse a simple product funnel so that you can, as a team, see just how you’ll hit your goals.
It’s also important to know what to watch out for, so last up here, single out risky assumptions that could upend your product. Together, review all sticky pad notes written over the course of the inception and identify those which are risky assumptions. These could be financial, technical, distribution channel related (If I build will they buy?), execution-focused, or pertaining to another facet of your company.
Prescription for Internal Company Health
“Once everybody knows what their teammates need first-hand, they'll be able to help each other as happy as a kid in candy store.”
As you start winding the session down, visit the internal health of the company, starting with individual contributor goals. Use one last a sticky note session to establish what each person wants to accomplish and learn, and why they’re with the company. Once everybody knows what their teammates need first-hand, they’ll know how to help each other as happy as a kid in candy store.
Wrap up your inception by creating a team working agreement to keep your company productive and content. Collaboratively decide upon a unified company culture and processes for all to abide by. Outline preferred communication methods (email, IM, etc.), choose task management tools, agree on normal work hours, decide on other software to use, talk about your communication culture (response times, interruptions), and so forth.
“Armed with the answers that come out of your inception, your company — and everyone it employs — will enjoy greater cohesion, clarity, and success.”
With your inception complete, your team will have a unified vision of your product, goals, and company culture. This umbrella understanding will prove invaluable. It will keep your team together. It will help you present an impressive image to investors and press. And, it will prevent endless confusion and frustration. Armed with the answers that come out of your inception, your company — and everyone it employs — will enjoy greater cohesion, clarity, and success.
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Thanks to Brooks Hassig, Aline Lerner, Kate Larsen, Hannah Rothstein and Gon Zifroni for helping with this.
