Step 1/5 of Product Development — Identify The Needs and Target Audience

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Have you ever thought about developing a product? Sometimes you may have seen that a product you had in mind was developed by others.

Each time, it is very triggering to put ourselves in their shoes and think we were so close to success. But do you know how you can implement your idea?

If you’re unsure how to start, I believe this article could be helpful to you.

In this article, I will try to compile important points I’ve seen in my professional life, both good and bad practices, and those retained in my memory after various research on the internet.

I will also enrich it with a product example at the end of the post.

Although this article might not have a direct impact on creating a successful or unsuccessful product, I hope it serves as a guide in implementing your ideas.

I’d like to describe this process in 5 steps:

1. Identify Need and Target Audience
2. Define the Solution
3. Market Research
4. Create a Roadmap
5. Gather Feedback and Make Decisions

This article contains information about the first step, which is identifying needs and the target audience. I’d like to share the other steps one by one. Since each step includes valuable sub-steps, I intended to make detailed posts that are readable for each.

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Identify Need and Target Audience

Identifying Needs:

Everything we position as a product in our lives can be relatable with a need in the background. Sometimes these needs can be easily seen, but sometimes they are related to an emotional or subconscious.

For instance, although globally selling fidget spinners may not seem to emerge as a solution to a need, they have become popular by focusing on relaxation themes with good branding and marketing.

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In this article, we’ll focus on how to build products that target as much longer-term success as possible.

When you develop a product, you can start from scratch. At this stage, you might not have any ideas in mind or you might have set off with a product idea.

If you have a product idea, you typically believe in the product’s features and how successful it can be and find yourself seeking approval from your network that the product is excellent.

Even if you believe you have all the details about the features of the product, it’s essential to question the need to which the solution or product responds.

In this process, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• Why is there a need for this product or solution?
• What kind of process exists if this product doesn’t exist?
• What are the reasons for the current process or workarounds?
• What are the most challenging or complaining aspects for people or customers in the current process?

If you’re starting from scratch outside of an existing product idea, I would advise you to start to identify a problem. Focusing on the underlying needs of the problem will significantly benefit us in the product development process.

Needs and problems can be found directly in our own experiences as well as through research outside our own lives. What can we do?

• We can search for complaint and objection posts shared in blogs or forums on the internet. For example, sites such as Reddit, StackOverflow, X, and LinkedIn.
• We can examine consumer reviews on websites or blogs where trade is active in areas that interest us. Such as customer review sections of e-commerce platforms.
• We can make inferences about the relevant sector on platforms where individuals can share their complaints. Complaint-sharing platforms specific to your country can help you make inferences about that region.
• If we’re already working in a sector, keeping track of sector dynamics is beneficial for identifying the needs here.
• Many sectors have their internal regulations. Changes in these regulations can necessitate a solution in that area.
• Tender announcements of companies can be useful in determining the needs in that sector.
• Monitoring the decisions taken by the government in a specific area and 10-year roadmaps. Government decisions can affect the needs of the sectors.

For example, in recent years, some European countries have made new decisions regarding the methods of killing male chicks. Accordingly, companies affected by these changes will need to develop new methods before the deadline. I see that some startups established in this area and have received investments and grown.

While looking for answers to our questions in identifying the need, we will start questioning who the people exposed to this need are. We include the other step in the process at this stage.

Identifying the Target Audience

Truly defining the target audience is very valuable. In the development process of many products, the lack of clear identification in these steps makes it difficult for us to make decisions in subsequent steps.

We can ask these questions to identify the target audience:

• Who is directly affected by this issue or problem?
• What are the common characteristics of the audience facing this problem?
• Where does this audience generally reside or operate?
• What do you think about the age range and income level of this target audience?

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The target audience is a general group definition representing the group in need. Understanding the needs, preferences, and daily life of our target audience more deeply will help us in the next steps. Therefore, I recommend conducting persona studies.

Persona Studies

The persona represents a detailed individual or a typical user profile within the target audience we’ve identified. This study extracts details such as demographic information, habits, preferences, challenges, and goals, allowing us to deeply understand the needs of our target audience.

I find this article on Medium to be detailed and beneficial for the persona identification process. If you are unfamiliar with the product persona, I advise you to read this article. I think it would be better to support each sub-step with more detailed articles.

In my own career, I always found the persona studies difficult to carry out as a Product Manager or, after conducting persona studies, I had difficulties in how to proceed in the next steps. If you have someone who can provide professional support in terms of UX, I suggest including them in this step.

In my work, at least when moving on to the solution process, I try to detail my target audience as much as possible. I believe it’s more beneficial to carry out persona studies, especially within the product lifecycle by using potential or active customers.

Interviews

So far in the process, we’ve determined what the need is and who has this need. But we may have made these decisions based on our knowledge and experience. This way of thinking similar to ourselves can affect the failure of the product.

For this reason, if possible, we should conduct interviews with people who could match our described persona.

For example, we can find some people who fit this profile and ask open-ended questions to understand what they think about whether such a need exists, what they currently do for this need in their lives, and what kind of character they have.

We might not know or access many people in the relevant target audience. In this case, I recommend conducting studies that indirectly feed our data. These include:

• Examining comments written in blogs or forums related to the need.
• Trying to reach this audience through surveys or similar tools.
• Interpreting research conducted in the relevant field, if possible. You can use scholar.google.com to find academic research.

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I advise you to question whether the idea you set out with is supported by the persona interview outputs. Sometimes, the effort and money spent on ideas not supported with enough data can go to waste until the product is brought to life.

If our hypotheses (identified need) are not sufficiently supported at this stage, we can start looking for another need by starting from the first step.

Is everything OK? Let’s continue.

Brainstorming Sessions

In the process of identifying the need and the target audience, sometimes we can be alone or with a team. It would be good to organize brainstorming sessions or workshops as much as possible in this process. You will see that the idea you set out with has evolved or enriched during this process.

Again, speaking about the need with people who have a product mindset or good analysis ability around you will be very useful at this stage.

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If you are progressing with a team, apart from people who support the ideas within the team and those who contribute to the idea, you should also add people who make constructive comments to invalidate the idea. These characters’ concerns and comments will enable us to take proactive actions in the product development process.

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Research:

According to the research I have done on the internet(blog, article, news) and seen around me, pet owners may struggle to care for their pets due to work commitments, travel, or other personal situations.

Need:

One of the challenges in pet care is the need to find a reliable and loving caregiver. Additionally, pet owners may want to track their pets’ daily activities and health status.

Audience:

In this scenario, the target audience consists of pet owners, particularly those living in urban areas, having busy schedules, or frequently traveling.

At this point, we’ve identified the need and the target audience. Now, we can proceed to the next step, which is defining the solution.

Happy reading!

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