Will you invest in your Product, if you are the user?

Kireeti Varma
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

PS: This is purely an Opinion Blog.

This is a simple target board depiction for what it takes to install an application, spend time on it and finally pay for the subscription.

See the above graph.

I would prefer to, but I will not take myself as the ideal user for this scenario.

I have 360 applications on my mobile and I do not mind downloading new apps to just test them. This is an interest to explore applications.

An ideal user is someone just like me, minus the approach to download so many apps every week just to test and uninstall.

There are three rings which a product has to cross to reach a prospective user.

The Outer: Ring of Interest

The first approach of a user to the application is his Interest. A person would search for something online only if he is facing some problem, or he needs to solve something to ease his life, or he is too jobless to find new things.

While there are 3Mn apps on Android and 2.2Mn apps on iOS, we still have just 200 to 400 maximum applications on phone.

You download what you need.

What you just need on your phone.

The limitations drawn here are around these numbers because of the size and space one’s handset can handle. But what could be the numbers if there was no limitation?

Will that surpass 500?, 1000?, Or 5000, maybe?

Yet, those downloaded applications are still picked from the humongous — vast — WTF — Why do we need these many apps — AppStore/PlayStore.

You download applications only upon mere Interest.

To break that further down, only upon mere Necessity.

The Median: Ring of Time

You have so many applications on your phone. How many do you use daily? How many do you use weekly? How many do you use Monthly?

How much time do you have in your day to spend on so many applications on your phone?

Most of my friends ask me after opening the app drawer on my phone: Do you use all these applications?

No. But all the applications that I have on phone are those I use in some point in my life in a week or a month (BLR Airport, Bumpr) or those I use once in 3 or 6 months (MotorZo).

There are apps that are useless too.

Android Pay (In India), DriveU, AirWayBill etc.

But, they are here to stay as I might not find them later when I need them.

It is all about finding what you need in the very few seconds after you need it.

But, do you have time to use them?

When a product finds its user who uses it frequently/ regularly is when it will have certain monthly/weekly/daily active users.

This in numbers is equal to the strength of the application value.

The Inner: Ring of Investment

This is a step closer to the prospective user. It is so difficult too, to get through this.

A product gets its returns when its user can invest into the application.

By Invest, I mean to subscribe to the product, pay to buy the product one-time or invest in the product by creating data on the platform (For example: Facebook, Google Maps etc)

This is crucial for any product to sustain.

And so is, as difficult to achieve.

Product companies follow different techniques to onboard users, engage them and retain users and reduce churn to help themselves become a sustained product.

A recent majority of them have begun to gamify the processes to let the user to comeback to the product, whatsoever.

In practice, this stands true.

I will go back to Product Hunt to check if I have been awarded the privilege to comment on the products.

I will go back to Facebook or Twitter to check who has updated something new. To know what’s trending.

There is always a hidden gamification technique that’s run to let you comeback, stay, spend time on the product.

A product that acquires a user who is so prospective to bring in even more users will succeed.

It is difficult to find your initial set of prospective users for your product. But not impossible.

This is a simple initial check to assess yourself.

Will you invest in your Product, if you are the user?

If Yes, build that Product.

THECONCEPT

Kireeti Varma

Written by

Product Designer working towards enhanced User Experience.

THECONCEPT

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