So you’ve got a brilliant idea for a Software Product. You’ve talked about it to everyone you know. They’ve confirmed it, the idea’s good… Next thing you know, you’re packing your bags for Silicon Valley and changing your Linkedin title to “Tech Entrepreneur”.
You’re ready to make big things happen in the world! But hold your horses partner, what if you didn’t really think this through before jumping head first into it? You have a budget, maybe even some investors, but what if you are underestimating what this will really cost?
Or worse, what if there’s a better solution to the problem you’re about to try solve?
Hmm… Uncertainties, uncertainties… Well, fear no more! I’ve got exactly the Six Point Recipe that you need to cook up the perfect software product. So listen up…
1. Validate Your Concept
Or as I like to call it VCP (Ok… nobody actually calls it that. I just made that up). Regardless, you have got to make sure your assumptions are sound. You need to ask yourself a couple of important Key Important Questions (KIQ for short, ok.. I just made that up too..)
- Who is your customer?
- What problems are you solving for that customer?
- How does your product solve these problems?
- What are the key features of the product?
I’m trying to be economical with my words here, so I’ll leave the answering of those questions to you. I think they are pretty self-explanatory. Moving on…
2. Talk to prospective customers!
All the way back in Step 1, you identified who your customer is. Now we need to go and talk to them. I know genius right? Everything we’ve defined back in step 1 were assumptions. We need to then validate those assumptions. How are we going to do that?
It really depends on who your target customer is. Most people don’t have a sign on their head reading “Hey, I’m a customer, come question me!” but you’ll never know until you try. This is where it helps to be a people person. Or having someone on your team who is. Or maybe you digitally connect to your customer base and find ways to engage with them. This is going to differ from case to case based on your preference and your potential customer’s preference.
Also, final note on talking to prospects, you really need to be careful in conducting your due diligence here. Sure, I can tell you in conversation I’d gladly pay for your App. and it sounds amazing to me, sign me up! In practice though, when the moment comes to part with my hard earned cash… I could ask myself “Do I really need this?”
You want that question answered before it’s asked.
3. Data, data, data!
Data is your guide. Betting on risky assumptions doesn’t always pay off. You need to make sure you’re betting on the right product before you think about building the product right.
Before you spend time debating about the small details, the intricacies of the technology or the amazing features your product will have, you need to go back to the drawing board and ask the all important question…
Does the market really need this? That question needs to be answered backed by actual data, not just opinions. Also, I must add a caveat here – you need to be careful that this data is sound and related to your idea. And that you’re not manipulating data to fit your purpose. Trust me, I’ve seen people do this. Stay detached, objective and question everything.
4. Hire talented people to build your product for you
At Dev Centre House we help companies by providing “Software Developers-as-a-Service” to build enterprise-grade products. We’ve built products used by millions of people and are very proud of our long-standing enterprise relationships. We are always looking to build and nurture more.
Hiring the team to build your product is probably the single most important variable that will determine success or failure of your project. This will be covered in a separate article but I’ll briefly touch on the subject here.
You’ll decide whether you want to do this project in-house or hire help from the outside. There are pro’s and con’s to both. But regardless of whether they are in-house or external, there are some common traits that separate the “good” from the “excellent”.
Assuming the years of experience and competencies are equal, attitude is the key here. Is the person you’ve hired to build your product fully invested in the outcome? Are they simply doing their tasks and waiting for their payslip? Or are they working on helping you leave your competitors in the dust with good design and solid coding. This is an attitude thing. I only want to work with people that will be all the way invested in a project, 110%, as much as I am. They’ll work outside their office hours, they’ll research what else they can bring to the table, and most importantly they’ll work on understanding and improving your business proposition, not just “Here’s your coding, thanks, bye!”
5. Start by building only the features people will actually use
Initially, your focus should be on building a decent Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This should be good enough to put into your customer’s hands. Then, refine this based on testing and measurements. This will not only save you in terms of money and time, but also streamline the journey to reaching the right product. Make small measurable changes and test often!
You have to become the user. Frequently using your product may seem obvious, but this has got to become a daily thing once you’ve developed the MVP. You’re putting yourself in the user’s shoes and you can understand the user experience – the good, the bad, the ugly – and naturally you’ll optimise it.
This can be simple things. For example, the placement of an “Enter” button. If you’ve placed it on the right but your hand instinctively looks for this button on the left side of the screen, that could be a tweak that is subtle but makes the user’s journey more natural. Or, if there are parts of the user journey that you’re telling yourself “God, I wish I could skip this…”. You need to take mental note of that. Being self-aware and detached is quite important here. Also, there are great examples of user journeys all around us that we can take lessons from and apply to our own product.
As Bruce Lee once famously said “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.”
6. Get more paying customers by creatively marketing!
Marketers are an opportunistic bunch. And really good marketers can see an opportunity like wolves see their prey. (Notice the Burger King Ad in the above photo, you’ll notice the text boxes are subtly in BK colours). You don’t need to be a genius to see the creativity all around you. In any built up or metropolitan area, there is literally marketing genius all around you to draw inspiration from. From colour patterns used, to word usage, imagery, texts and font styles, etc. You’ve got to be able to see the genius in other things to be able to use it in your thing.
“Good artists copy, Great artists steal” – Pablo Picasso
Also, you may not even need to go that far. As in, without even leaving your home. Pick up your smart phone and you’ll see you are being targeted by marketers left, right and centre. I usually like to make quick notes of when I’m being marketed to and it’s working. By the way, two notes on this:
- Effective marketing will differ from product to product. It depends on where your customer is – don’t spend resources on social media marketing for example, when your customer is not on social media. Common sense…
- The subconscious mind can’t differentiate between something you’ve imagined and something that actually happened. Meaning, the deeper the connection the person has had with your marketing experience, the more likely it will resonate with them (And they’ll crave your product).
And lastly, marketing works… I’ve literally lip-synced ads word for word that I don’t even care about… (I’m sure other people do this too, it can’t just be me, can it?) so we need to keep this in mind when developing a product, how are we going to find or create our customer?
