Commercial questions for developing high-growth products

A great product might not make a great business. Holding back on selling to customers can skew the ideas of what business a product is actually in.

For new products to succeed at being businesses, they must figure out how to grow most effectively. So unless the business is plied with cash from buoyant investors, the future of the product is based on cash of paying customers today.

Below are some questions I use to help ideas for strategy, pricing, sales, product development, etc.

Moving the customers’ money to spend on a new solution

• Where is money already being spent by a customer? When does it get spent? Who by?
• How satisfied are customers with their solution? Are they actively looking for a new solution? Why?
• How easy is it for customers to switch into a new solution?

Reducing the costs of getting new customers

• How can we get customers to do the marketing for us?
• What parts of the product are shareable – or how do we facilitate more sharing?
• Where are the places in which one-to-many distribution is possible? Who needs to be influenced?

Getting customers to buy the product before further development

• How can we sell to potential customers whilst the product is developing? What is good-enough to make customers buy?
• What data do we need to prioritise the next product features?
• How might pricing need to change with the product roadmap?

Maximising profit margins to fuel more growth

• What prices are customers offended at? Why are they offended?
• What are the trade-offs: effort of selling the product vs. quality and profit margins?
• How frequently can we sell to the same customer? What is their estimated LTV (Life Time Value) over a financial year?
• How is profit managed and reinvested into getting more customers to buy the product?