Be strategic when developing your products (physical, digital, or services), and make mindful decisions to build a product that customers will actually buy. Not sure where to start? Find out more below!
Founder Chat Series
with Kae Gruner, Founder of Start Up Heart Up
Are you an entrepreneur considering starting a new business or developing a new product idea, either physical, digital, or service-based? If so, my first question for you is this— How do you know that your customers (or potential customers) are going to actually buy your product? If you haven’t thought through this question yet, then read on for advice and must-try techniques to validate your product ideas before you over-invest in the wrong direction.
But first, a word from Bill Gates, who once said:
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
This is some stellar advice from Bill! As an entrepreneur, you may be excited about the ideas in your head, but you must also LISTEN to your customers and ADAPT in response to their feedback. The short of it is this: don’t fall in love with your product idea and refuse to change it later.
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How often are new product ideas actually successful?
When somebody has an idea for a new product, how often is that product eventually successful? While I can’t get into the boardrooms & brains of product developers in companies, I can look to public information about patents which often are sought in order to protect a company’s ideas for new products. (And if you ever watch Shark Tank - the sharks are always asking whether the entrepreneur has any intellectual property!)
As a patent lawyer, my heart breaks to see the staggering statistics of failed product development in the patent world, and I suspect the failure may be for lack of deference to the business’s key stakeholder, the customer. I’m going to get patent-y for a second, but stay with me. The product development principles in this article apply to all products, not just patented ones.
Did you know that only 52% of US patent applications are even granted? Yup. It’s not easy to get a patent, and only truly inventive inventions are patented in the first place. And then, once a patent is granted, shockingly only 5% of patents are ever licensed or commercialized as an actual product. That means only 2.6% of all applied-for patents are ever commercialized… Um, where are all the products?!! A patent without a product is merely an expensive piece of paper. Now, imagine all the non-patent-pending products out there. If only 2.6% of patent-pending products are actually commercialized, after a potential $10,000 price tag of filing patent applications, then what teeny-tiny percentage of non-patent-pending inventions end up as actual products in the marketplace?
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Four Key Milestones of Creating a Product that Sells:
Let’s dive in to how you can avoid being a statistic in this space. See my four steps below for making mindful & strategic decisions about developing great products that your customers will actually buy.
(1) Write down your ideas.
Write down the problem your product would solve, how it would solve it, and for what population of potential customers.
Make a list of key product features and benefits of each feature. Aim for 3-5, and no more than 10 in bullet point format.
(2) Embrace lean prototyping.
Start as cheaply as possible by simply writing down the specifications of your product idea. If it’s a physical product, what are the materials and dimensions? If it’s a service, are there tiers/levels with different offerings? If it’s a digital product, describe the customer experience & user interface.
Use your kids’ glue stick and carboard if you need to, but see how many prototype versions you can make without hiring a professional. Adjust where you see trouble spots!
(3) Beta-test your prototypes.
Build as many prototypes as you need to make something that you can put into the hands of trusted friends, family, and early adapters (but let them know it’s a prototype for collecting feedback & and that you appreciate their time and willingness to check it out!).
Ask directly or make an anonymous survey to collect feedback about your prototyped product. What features did they appreciate, what did they not like, what would they add that’s missing?
(4) Incorporate customer feedback.
One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is to feel married to their original idea and take personal offense if it’s criticized. To use Bill Gates’ words, your “unhappy customers” will give you the key to success in product development. Listen intently to what they have to say!
Review and incorporate suggestions from your customer feedback that are still aligned with your overall business mission and values. Pay special attention to any duplicative feedback -if more than one person brings up a particular feature or piece of advice, that deserves your attention as a potential change to your product.
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P.S. Want to learn more about this topic & apply these steps in your own business?
I'll be hosting a product design & development workshop on Thursday 2/27/20 at 7 pm EST on Instagram and Facebook - join me to learn how you can validate your own new product idea. Pick up your cheat sheet at startupheartup.com/productworkshop to apply the learnings to your own business idea in real time.
Watch the product development workshop on Kae’s Instagram page ➡️ @kae_gruner or on Start Up Heart Up’s Facebook page.
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