Building The Perfect Product
A friend of mine asked a question on IG — How long does it take for you to take ideas into execution; 2–3 weeks? 2–4 months or 6 months?. When I saw the questions my answer was; it depends on the size of the project and the resources available. Was I wrong? Is there a correct answer? What would be your answer?
Having been in the world of tech and seeing how brilliant founders develop products every day, I assure you that they are not the only ones with that same business idea. But do you know what makes them different? — They didn’t just have the idea, they executed it.
I once wrote a TVC for a microfinance bank and I shared it with my boss. She liked it and said that this has been done by another brand. I was so shocked, it can’t be because it took me all night to come up with that idea. But yes that idea has been executed by another brand.
Creativity is all around us, you are not the only one with that brilliant idea, you are not the only one with the mindset but the only thing that can make you stand out and be known is if you EXECUTE your idea.
I have reviewed and tested so many products, I’ve had conversations with tech enthusiasts and I realise that — There’s no perfect product, if there is, there would be no reason for updates. Consumers change and your product needs to evolve to meet the consumer needs at every point in time, so there really can’t be a perfect product.
The first person to go to the market doesn’t necessarily mean that the person came up with the idea first, it just means that the person has a large appetite for execution.
As a business, you don’t need to have it all figured out at once, heck you shouldn’t even figure it all out at once. Put out an MVP, test it for 4–6 weeks, see what customers like, look at the features they use the most, and learn from that. If your product is solving a customer’s problem, you wouldn’t need millions of marketing budgets every month because your product would automatically sell itself.
Even if it is one feature, I advise you to go to the market, do not waste too much time thinking for the customers trying to build a perfect product for them. Let them use your product and they will let you know what they need or use the most. Take Instagram for example, when Instagram launched, the app had numerous features, they had check-ins, you earn points from hanging out and posting pictures with friends etc. It was not very successful because there were too many features and it confused users. But based on analytics, they discovered that people used the app mostly for photo sharing and tweaked the app to adjust to what users want. Even at that, the brand keeps upgrading the product to suit users need e.g filters, IGTV, IG live etc. Building a product is a continuous process, it is not something you figure out at once. There are so many things to be learnt from customer usage — sometimes you might have to change the whole product based on demands and data gathered from users.
I urge you not to waste time in the development phase because while you are still at it another founder is already in the market with an MVP, gathering data on how to make the product better. Having an idea is not enough if you do not execute it.
This is not to say two or more people do not offer the same services, they do. For example, ride-hailing services; Uber and Bolt. These two companies offer the same services but their business model is different. If you want to launch an existing product or do what someone is already doing, it has to be different. Your unique selling proposition needs to be well spelt out so the customers would have a reason to choose your product over other players.
Let me know what you think, follow me to read my next article where I will be talking about how time and customers’ behaviour affect the success of a product.