On Products ( Part I)
It's all about consistently discovering the right consumers, and their pain points, and finding solutions worth selling. And Pivoting to newer business models is often necessary.
Product Positioning. Market Segmentation. Product-Market fit. Every other product manager or brand manager is talking about these buzzwords. Me? Well, I’m aware of these concepts and have used a few of them in more of a tactical context (Automotive Product Development). While these terms are highly contextual and sometimes confusing, they are of importance to anyone looking to research, build, or sell products, or even services.
In my next few posts/ mail newsletters, I will try to deconstruct a few of these concepts using simple examples :). Let me start with the most misunderstood concept of all. Product itself.
First of all, not all problem areas necessitate a solution in the form of a product or a service. For example, CRED(https://cred.club) is a credit card payment solution. Now managing multiple Credit Card payments is a problem, but then there are other ways to track and pay these bills such as online banking (autopay), and setting reminders(using a notetaking app such as google keep).
And even if the problem statement looks promising, the end user might not be motivated to use the proposed solution.
And even if both the problem statement and the solution look promising, the whole business needs to be viable. ( VC Money/savings on the line. OR maybe both).
That is where the Product Manager comes into the picture. His/her job is to ensure that these three dimensions: desirability, feasibility, and viability are driving the product.
A more visual representation can be found here:
In more practical terms:
One could also look at the Problem space and solution space ( Here is an example for food delivery apps:
Problem space: A target customer is hungry and needs food, within a reasonable time frame.
Solution space: Delivery apps, Heat pre-made food using a microwave, nearby restaurants offering quick service and/or delivery.
What the above framework demonstrates is that an end user, might not need a fancier alternative (such as an app) to access food.
Now, how does one track these metrics and reduce the risk of building products and services that one might not use? An approach one could take is called Lean Startup1.
This approach essentially mandates us to learn more about the user, build MVPs2 and then measure the relevant metrics.
Moving on, If one were to check for the feasibility, desirability, and viability of a problem statement, one could think about the following:
Desirability:
What are the existing competitive alternatives?
What are the switching barriers for him/her to move to the proposed solution?
How do his existing needs align with the proposed solutions? And what could be his end goals which he could achieve by using the proposed product or service?
Viability:
What is the size of the Addressable Market3?
What is the revenue/sales figure per customer4 ?
If it is an already established market5, What is the sales growth of the market leader/ major player?
How does the product align with the organization’s business strategy and ambitions?
Feasibility:
How can we use existing technology know-how to solve the proposed problem?
What are the investments necessary to optimize sales, experience, and support to operationalize new products/services?
That is all for now. In my next few posts, I will talk more about some more product-related topics.
Cheers :)
Lean Startup is a Product Management and Product discovery process that was popularized by Eric Ries
Minimum Viable Product: A simpler product proxy that can provide a similar user experience as the intended product. It may also provide new insights regarding user requirements and use cases
Total Addressable Market: The Total Addressable Market (TAM), also referred to as the total available market, is the overall revenue opportunity that is available to a product or service if 100% market share was achieved
A larger sales/ spending per user/LTV (lifetime value) could lead to potentially better profitability in the future
An established market is one where pricing, category, and user requirements are already discovered to some extent. In such markets, we see established players/pioneers.