Does your product solve your problem or your customer’s problem?
As you move on with your entrepreneurial life, you find yourself facing a plethora of situations. One day you will be basking in the glory of success and the next day you find yourself almost drowning. Post you getting familiar with this constant turmoil, you realize a lot of things, some that were right in front of you and you missed and some that were hidden someplace else and you deciphered them.
One of the lessons I learned with my current venture was when I was faced with a question by one of the angel investors. After a couple of telecons and a few mails we had a face to face meeting. He asked me, “Mithun, from what I have seen and heard, your product has potential which is why we are having this conversation today. But let me ask you one question, does your product solve your problem or does it solve the customer’s problem?”
I had done my market research and had an answer to this question which luckily he bought. That is when I realized how imperative this question was to a start-up before it went all out for its venture. And for a fact, I hadn’t thought of this. I was just lucky that it worked out and people started using it. But what if I was wrong and people hadn’t used my product? Then this question would have been that one question I could call as the crux of my business case analysis prior to development.
8 out of 10 start-ups come up with a product because it was a solution to the problem they were facing and wanted a solution to it and that is why most of them do not work because they can not find a group of people (prospective customers) who share the same problem. They lack the community that would use their product in other words, their target market.
Every product that is made has a market, there is nothing like a useless product. The key is to find the people who can use the product, once you have that figured out, the next step is to make them use it. Whether it is for free or not. Revenue models will fall in place once you have a modest user-base. Why go far, look at Twitter or Facebook or You Tube. These were products that had a mass appeal whereas another product might just have a state appeal or further restricted to a city or merely a small community. That is enough, trust me.
You do not always have to be the next Google or You Tube or Facebook or Twitter or My Space.
A few things you must check out on the to-do list before getting your product up are;
- Develop a product that has at least one differentiating aspect/feature compared to your competitor
- Do not hesitate because there are other players in the market. It is all about the target market
- Ensure that you have a community around you just before you commence building your product or as you finish
Once you have the product developed;
- Give it to them for free (pilot phase). Let them play around with it. If it does not work out there, it won’t anywhere, stop running behind it
- If it works with them, find a way you can make them pay for it. Even if it is a small amount, generating revenue is always good
- Consult industry experts, friends, mentors on how you can better the product and what would actually make the users pay for it
- Focus on quality, deliverance and most importantly look and feel because 80% of the users of any product are laymen and purely judge a site by its look and feel. If you have a differentiating aspect, you might still lose a credible number of users if your site is not presentable.
All my views pertain to low cost products that do not require heavy investment and resources. A simple yet effective solution to a problem.
Cheers
image reference: http://images.clipartof.com/small/15663-Nerdy-Man-Standing-In-Front-Of-Mathetmatical-Equations-On-A-Chalkboard-Clipart-Illustration.jpg, http://www.princetonol.com/groups/blawenburgband/bb%20group%20sm.JPG
Tags: customer, deciphering success, erradicate, problem, Product, solve
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Interesting post, although I don’t agree to the idea that most start ups fail because they make a product to solve their problem. The reason for this failure could, as you rightly said, tapping the wrong audience. In fact, I feel that you’re more likely to succeed if you make a product that solves your problem and here’s why –
1. You have the domain knowledge! It’s much easier to start off since you already know what the requirement is. The most crucial thing to the success of a product is that it gives the user what he wants. More often than not, start ups goof up on the requirement because of the sheer fact that they lack the domain knowledge or the basic business understanding.
2. You are well aware of the current products /contenders. If you were digging for a solution of your problem, then you must have searched what products are in the market, what features they offer / lack and what price do they come at. Plus, you may even have gone through some forums, blogs etc. to find out how others facing the same problem are handling it .This is great stuff for your research / “market survey”
3. You can add your “wish list” (read features not provided at the moment by other vendors) as the differentiating aspects/features of your product.
4. You can market it better… coz duh! It solved your problem….so it gotta work
You’re absolutely right about the fact that most of the users are laymen and that’s why another important aspect that we need focus on not just the look-and-feel but also the “usability”. Coz face it, you can make your product eye candy but if its not gonna help your users accomplish their tasks they are not gonna use it.
Cheers to your “giving competitors a run for their money” attitude.
Chandni,
Your points precisely mention the advantages you have when you come up with a product that solves your problem. I was referring to those start-ups who, in the process of having found a solution, fail to raise a community that share the same problem and concentrate solely on the product and invest all their capital on that. As you might also agree, without a target market it is extremely hard to achieve what you set out for, because you haven’t set goals for yourself. You do not know who will buy your product. You are absolutely right, but if that start-up hasn’t figure out who will buy their product, they will either run out of funds in search of the market or crumble due to lack of morale when no one buys their product. If the combination of your points along with a thorough knowledge of your target market is present, your job is half done. Without that, it is nearly impossible to succeed. I was merely comparing the scenario where a start-up has the solution and target market figured out and when one does not have a target market. What do you think? Do I make some sense?
Cheers,
Mith
My bad, I misunderstood your point. So, what saying is that these startups spend most of their resources on their product and none in actually tapping the potential client? I was assuming, that these start ups at least know who their potential clients are, because otherwise it doesn’t matter whose problem the product is solving, it’s going to fail!
Essentially, you should start out with first deciding your target audience and then making your product around their needs and not by first making your product and then looking for potential buyers. This is perhaps the mistake that start ups make.
Cheers
Very true, I have come across over 4 start-ups during my visits to entrepreneur meets and found out that they had very niche and smart products but when asked by anyone, “Who will buy your product?” They replied, “Everyone”. That is the worst answer someone could give, the only thing everyone would buy, would be water, when there is no more left. Otherwise your audience is always restricted except for exceptions like Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter who still have a large chunk of people not using it.
The reason why there are so many failures in the entrepreneurial world is basically because of 2 and only 2 reasons namely; either the product is not strong enough or they haven’t figured out their target audience. Every other reason is a spin off of these two points. As simple as that.
Thank you for your valuable comments. Appreciate
Mith