Solve customer problems, build a lasting brand.
In the early days of a product, there are many objectives fighting for a team’s attention. But the number one goal for any new product should be connecting users to value as quickly as possible. Before you go about building the thing right, you need to ensure you are building the right thing. No matter how well your product is designed, how advanced your technology is or how fancy your marketing tactics are — without understanding the user intent and creating an experience that delivers on that intent, you won’t generate value for your business.
Before you go about building the thing right, you need to ensure you are building the right thing.
Although this sounds obvious, with limited resources and so little time, teams often focus their efforts on brand marketing, messaging and awareness generation; while continuing to develop the product based on hunches and assumptions.
Creating buzz and refining ad copy might increase click-through rates on your site, but it won’t be enough to get people to convert. Even if people do convert, if the product doesn’t deliver on the promised value, sustaining those customers will be next to impossible.
So, what should young products be focusing on as they set out to acquire more customers and scale their offering?
Focus on getting people to experience your product and demonstrate value as quickly as possible.
Start with looking at every part of the user journey and identify the biggest gaps and opportunities for improvement. The best way to mitigate risk is to start small, test quickly, learn and iterate. The faster you do this, the quicker you’ll deliver on the promised value to the customer. At N5, we help our clients test, learn and iterate on ideas in 5 days through the Design Sprint process, dramatically speeding up execution.
Design sprints can help you validate your biggest assumptions and answer tough questions like:
- Is the business model appealing enough? If not, how can we pivot to achieve a successful outcome?
- Is the value proposition valid?
- Are we addressing key use cases that will help us achieve product-market fit?
- How can we quickly get people to experience the product and continue to engage with it?
And many more, from high level strategic questions, to tactical challenges.
Early testing and validation ensures that what you bring to your customers will fulfill their needs and in turn generate value for your business. Solving the right customer problems is the first step to building great products. And building great products is the first step to creating a lasting brand.
Solving the right customer problems is the first step to building great product. And building great products is the first step to creating a lasting brand.
