How Do I Know if My New Product Idea is Any Good?
This article covers question 1 of 5 from the series: ‘Getting Started with a New (Software) Product’. You can access the rest of it here.
The first thing you need to ask yourself is: even if you like your idea, do the people who’ll eventually pay for it like it too? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a product manager, or an independent developer, it is your responsibility to find this out. This is called validating an idea (or in product lingo: are you building the right product?).
The best way to do this is to ask potential customers. But don’t ask them if they would like to use your product — their yes-or-no responses won’t be helpful. Instead, ask your customers what problems they are facing right now and see if your idea is actually equipped to address any of the problems they mention. If it doesn’t, you need to go back to the drawing board (and focus on the problems you discovered).
A product without a problem to solve is a fancy toy no one asked for.
Bear in mind, you shouldn’t be discouraged if you don’t have an explicit problem statement at the end of this exercise. If you’re proposing nothing new per-say, but your product would have a markedly better user experience, that too is a problem being solved.
Think of a problem as a crack in the pavement. However small it may be (and easy to jump over), if people exist who are tripping over it, it may be a something worth addressing.
But when thinking about a problem, it is critical to be impartial. You may have noticed famous inventors often site their product idea originating from a problem they faced while using existing products. It’s likely your idea has a similar origin story. Sadly, it is surprisingly common — even in big businesses — for product creators to rely solely with their intuition. A product creator can easily become fixated with a solution that they lose touch with the bigger picture. This is why, while it’s a good start to use yourself as a reference for a product idea, you need to figure out not only whether your solution will meet the needs of your future customers but also if there are enough number of such customers facing the same problem. Without both, your product may not be worth the time, effort and money required to build and maintain it.
Once you’re certain there is a problem to be solved, you need to move to the next stage. Ask the question: how will this new product solve the problem differently (i.e. better) from what is already being done today. This is called as the value proposition of your product.
You need to make sure you’re doing something more useful than what is already in the market for people to adopt your product.
A rule of thumb to judge if you have a good value proposition is to find out if it is objectively worth for someone to switch from another product to using yours, considering the inevitable friction it would cause. Value can be in the form of some special features, or lack of them (making it easy to use). It could be the time you take to solve a problem, or even the low cost involved (although a price-based value usually disappears very quickly and has known to harm the industry in the long run).
The best way to identify appropriate value is to not jump to a solution quickly. Initial solutions are often the result flying solo and tend to be based on flawed assumptions. They can end up causing disappointment later on in the product development process, or worse, after the product is released. The most common way leading product creators use to identify value is to involve as many people as possible, from potential customers, to subject matter experts, to even mentors and friends. But many people worry about sharing their idea in case someone steals it. To this I say, stop overthinking! Even if someone tries to copy your idea, they would lack your nuances for that idea. Execution is everything and for that you need to know as much as possible. Your objective should be to find the right solution, and the more you share the more you will learn about what to do and what to avoid.
Once you have both a problem and a value proposition, the final step in validating your product idea is to test it for market interest. Many startups create an MVP (or a minimum viable product) to do this. But unlike popular belief, it is not necessarily a running piece of software (thought many developers take that route). An MVP can even be as simple website with a video of a running mockup and a signup form, which it creators use to gauge engagement.
An MVP can also be a partial or limited functionality product to test the idea before investing in the required technology or infrastructure. Most famously, in its initial days, Amazon’s founding team would buy books from distributors only when orders came in and personally ship them to customers. They continued this till they had a strong enough demand and source of income to incrementally invest in the technology and infrastructure they have today.
You may take any route to validate your product idea, but the bottom line is to share your idea with and get feedback from as many potential customers as possible.
If you can identify an appropriate problem to solve, add enough value while solving it, and test how well received the idea is, you have a solid foundation to build a great product.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments.
This article is a part of the series Getting Started with a New Product, where I address five crucial questions every product creator should ask before starting on a new product journey:
1. How do I know if my idea is good? (What You Read)
2. What is the best way to monetize this product? (Up Next)
3. Am I implementing the right technology?
4. Is now the right time for this product?
5. What kind of marketing do I need?
You can also read the series summary here.
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