Create profitable products/services
You can have the best product, but It doesn’t matter if the market isn’t there or your product doesn’t properly meet the market needs. To have a better understanding of this, think about the smartphone we used as an example or any other product/service you used this week. Now ask yourself the following questions:
Who will use my product?
What problems do they have?
How can my product help solve their problems?
As you might be already understanding, your products/services have to be market-oriented.
The simplest form of your product/service
You can use it to test if you’re solving people’s problems (and attracting a good amount of interest). If everything has been done correctly, then it will be much easier to finalize the product and market it later. Also called MVP (minimum viable product), this is the simplest form of your product/service you can use to make sales.
“New product development is the first stage in the product life cycle management process, the strategic process that is used to manage products and market share. An effective product development process helps a company to:
Grow through the creation of new business opportunities
Boost profitability for stakeholders
Increase customer satisfaction through better products meeting specific needs”
Ideation – designing – building the simplest form of your product/service
According to IDEO Design thinking, “Thinking like a designer can transform the way organizations develop products, services, processes, and strategy. This approach, which is known as design thinking, brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable.”
Benefits of building the minimum viable package
It come down to 2 major questions:
Focus on building the core
It focuses on one idea, and it does not include any other function. The approach of the MVP belongs to your entrepreneurial ideology & culture. Having some of the main features can reduce the cost of the product/service development. It helps you strengthen the value proposition and design sales strategies.
Early testing opportunity
It is good to find out from the beginning, if your idea will work without investing your whole budget. The MVP offers the possibility to find out your potential users’ opinion, and how the market will react to your final product/service. It could even be used as a way to fund part of your product/service.
Allows market validation
It should present your brand well to the users and show them how your project is unique compared to others in its category.
Budget-friendly
Your financial resources are focus on building the core of “what would work”. It is an easy way to test the market economy maturity level.
Key performance indicators
Since it’s your product/service, you should nurture it by take care of the “nutriment” it really needs. In order to do so, while testing your MVP, monitor the following checkpoint:
Word of mouth
Some studies show that referrals tend to help business close deals easier than any other type of communication method.
Engagement
If your product/service create engagement, then your potential market noticed it and could be waiting for your to improve or continue what you’re offering.
Client acquisition cost (CAC)
You must know how much it costs to get a paying customer. This helps you stay updated on whether your marketing efforts are effective, or changes need to be made. (CAC = Money spent on traction channel / Number of customers acquired through the channel).
Client Lifetime Value (CLV)
It demonstrates how much time a user spends on the app before uninstalling, or stopping to use it. (CLV= (Profit from a user *App usage duration).
Churn
It shows the level or percentage of people who have uninstalled, or stopped using your product/service. (Churn = Number of churn per week or month / Number of users at the beginning of the week or month).
Yeah it works, For real!! below are some example:
Last checkup
Now let’s do the last checkup on how to build your market-oriented product:
Define Success
Define The Minimum
Define The Viable
Define Services
Define The Stack
Request feedback from users
Define The Persistence Layers
Define The First Strategy For Each Service/Product
Deploy
