The traditional market research believes that customers will use your product and then will give you ratings for design or functionality. However, Apple’s co-founder and marketing expert, Steve Jobs, was famous for having a profound disdain for market research. He felt customers were unaware about what they want unless you presented it to them.
For a successful organization, you need to first build a revenue generating product. No doubt, great product development is a unique skill for which formal training is not available. If you are not making the product for yourself, you will constantly be in search for the right product-market fit. Building a great product is a dynamic process.
In this blog let us discuss the strategies that help you build great products using the latest tools and technologies like the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development.
One can follow these strategies to create a winning product roadmap:
“Why” of the product
A vision for the product is one of the most important parameters. Clarify the need for building and marketing the product. How is it different from the other products that are already present in the market? Answer the question, 'should my product be built?’ instead of ‘can my product be built?'
Build the ‘right product’ instead of building the ‘product right’ using marketing tools. Align the product with the market issues. Early in the product development process, defining and refining the target market is necessary.
Find Out Who’s Who of the Process
There are various stages in the product development cycle such as discovery, defining, designing, implementation, marketing, and launching. Various skill sets are required when the product design is being created.
Experts are required in a team to build a product at each stage. It is vital to achieving success in product building. Assign experts with different skills so that they can examine each and every minute detail related to their area of expertise.
Complete Focus on Prototyping
Prototyping is an experimental process. It is an early model of a product to test a concept or product or process where ideas are transformed into tangible forms i.e. from paper to digital. It is used to enhance the precision of a new design by system analysts and users. Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) based on earlier testing should be your first goal.
The refined model is marketed later on, after spending months on difficult parts/steps for prototyping. Making small changes in the product/process, testing and refining accordingly are easier than making big changes as these are time-consuming, more difficult to test and refine. MVP development is a lower cost and quicker method to build the right product.
Create a Steady Feedback Loop
Meet customers, observe and assess their needs. Try to understand what they are looking for by learning about their goals through the use of your product/service. Observe your product at various stages and co-relate the needs of customers with your product.
This is extremely valuable at the product designing phase. There are various tools available to perform systematic customer research such as surveys, data analytics tools, behaviour tracking tools, and feedback tools. Use the data available in the market through data analytical services.
Illustrate A Simple & Compelling Story
Customers engage with stories more than facts. Storytelling has a greater impact when founders play the role of storytellers.
The Bottom Line
A strong base for building your product is necessary. Therefore, instead of working on trial and error methods, take advantage of future-ready solutions such as MVP development, tools for compatibility testing, performance testing, usability testing, etc. to complete your goal.