Which came first, all the eggs, or your public?!?

“Don’t put all the eggs in one basket”; some will say “This is a financial lesson”; others will say “No, this is a life lesson”. I prefer to say that this is a lesson learned from my father. It works for finances, to organize yourself, for bets, references; it works for everything…..including your Digital Product!

When we start to give life to the imagination, we need to have in mind that the digital universe is a dynamic environment, which expands and changes its concepts and necessities overnight, and mainly, it allows all of these things to happen fast. Thus, it makes no sense to plan long-term development without first being sure of what is needed. The chances of making mistakes are too high, or worse, when you reach the final stage, the pain that you want to heal is not a pain anymore.

To avoid this risk, you should have a mindset to “learn fast by failing fast”.

— Ok, but how do I fail, learn…. fast?!

The best way to learn is trying, you’ll only be sure if it is good, or bad, when you test it. So test it; learn with every second of your test, pay attention to the minimum details of it. During this process, you will identify what makes sense and what not, rapidly.

— Right, but… where do I start?!

There are 2 groups of main clients when we talk about the lifecycle of a digital product: the “Innovators” and the “Early Adopters”, and they want a special advantage in using your product, whether they’ll use it to be more productivity, or organized, doesn’t matter but they want, and, mainly, they are the ones who will influence all the other users. They will create cases of success by using your product and they will provoke others to use it also, so give them special attention.

— I’m still confused, how should I start?

These tribes want a competitive advantage that your product gives to them, a novelty, something that gives them value, that adds to their routine, or as Clayton Christensen would say, a “Job to be Done”.

For example, if you would like to help people to find a mechanical workshop when they have an emergency, don’t be focused to create a list of many mechanical workshops, with scores and comments and many other features, the “Job to be Done” is not that. Focus on delivering to your user the path to the closest place, or even an emergency button which will trigger a winch immediately. This is how your user will see value: the product solved a problem without him thinking.

When you have in your mindset your “Job to be Done”, starting your Minimum Viable Product becomes simple. But be careful, do not try to reinvent the wheel: an MVP is an MVP, if your product uses maps, use Google Maps as part of the MVP, or if it uses music, try Spotify, or Deezer, even if it uses Film/Series information, IMDb has enough. Optimize your time and money, find options that are already done and can help you validate your “Job to be Done”.

So now that you already know what you want in your MVP, start to think of the journey that you need for your Personas, how the transitions between each stage will be, how your Personas will take each action in your product, how everything starts and ends.

— Wait, what do you mean by Personas?

If we get here without you having defined your personas, stop everything you are doing and define who are your Personas, that is, who are your ideal users? If you still have doubts about this topic, check this previous article: My name-a Borat, I’m your user, Is nice.

— Ok, ok, I remember what is Personas, so…. let’s start, shall we?!

Yeah, we can start, but how about creating a prototype before any development?

Prototyping helps you to test your user journey and features faster, it assists you having insights of what makes sense existing, and what doesn’t, and mainly, if the purpose is to experiment and fail fast, prototyping is always faster than developing.

— Wait…..User Journey?…. What is that?

If you have no clue on how to start the Journey which your user will do in the product, I suggest you take a look at this previous article: Have or not to have, that is the Journey’s question!!, it may help you start your prototype by defining your User Journey.

— Ok I got it, I know how my User Journey will be, but how do I prototype?

There is no exact way to do it, it all depends on what is your purpose. The prototype can be made in a paper, Lego, Powerpoint, or any software available specifically for this. Just think about what fits better for your situation and create a replica of the journey which you think is the best for your Persona.

There is a phrase said a long time ago by the Design and Innovation company, IDEO, which express exactly what is the main reason to prototype. “If a picture is worth a 1000 words, a prototype is worth a 1000 meetings”.

Validating a product, an idea is much more exhaustive than we think, it requires determination and perseverance. There will be many moments that you will need to take a step backwards and rethink all the User Journey, the features and even the “Job to be Done”. But nothing beats the moment when you see your client realizing that a blank was filled, that pain was healed, making your product essential for his/her routine.

Remember, you, the PM, is the greater preacher of your religion, so learn with the old testament, create a new testament, recreate whatever is needed, rethink and always have in mind that there is always a “God” to be done.