Products Aren’t Projects

Sagrada Família is a cathedral that’s currently under construction in Barcelona. Like most cathedrals it’s taken a very long time to build — 133 years and counting. Once construction is finally complete in 2026, 144 years after it began, the construction will be complete, but the work will not be far from over.

The priests will need to write and deliver mass, week after week. These sermons will need to connect with attendees and be made relevant to their lives so they will continue coming. The church will need to plan, host, and market events, solidifying it’s place in the community. Each week they will need to collect donations. The building will need to be repaired.

All of this is work that must happen to keep the church operating after completing construction. None of this comes to mind when we think of a church. We don’t see the planning and todo lists that result in the activities of the church. From the outside looking it, it’s all automatic.

As product builders we observe the world around us and other businesses seem to “just get” sales. There are no systems and people keep coming to buy week after week happen as a matter of course.

This isn’t the case. Finishing the building is just the first step.

After working very hard on our product — we launch. Usually to crickets. We wonder why the sales don’t come pouring and and continue pouring in. After all, the other guys don’t seem to do anything. It just happens. So we drop the product and make a new one.

However, this is a flawed approach. We must exert continuous effort if we want them to be successful.

Your product is like a church. If you want it to be healthy and vibrant for the years to come, it’s going to take a sustained investment of time.

We need to communicate with our customers or potential customers — let them know who we are and what we’re about. We need to support our existing customers so they continue coming back, or even better, tell their friends. We need to continue to update our product, so it’s relevant in the current market. We also need to collect money on a regular basis, so our operations can continue.

Building a product is easy. Everything that goes on around the product to maintain it is difficult. By avoiding the difficult part of our product we often declare our products hopeless prematurely and get stuck in a vicious cycle.

Break the cycle. Do the hard work.

James Van Dyne is the co-founder of Kwoosh.com