Problem-first approach to product strategy

Problem-first approach to product strategy

Product strategy to me is about 3 things:

  1. User needs
  2. Market positioning, and
  3. Business goals

I like to always start in the problem space and then work my way towards the solution space. This is what I mean by problem-first approach.

So, when we started Lávi, I wanted to first fundamentally understand why leading a healthier lifestyle is so uncommon in India. Talking to people was the obvious first step to me.

"The Mom Test : How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you", by Robert Fitzpatrick struck a cord with me. After I read it, I distilled the learnings of the book and my product management career into a list of dos, donts, good questions and bad questions for talking to users.

These are my notes which I try to apply while I engage with users either through interviews or surveys. To anyone curious to further learn about problem-first approach, I highly recommend reading the book.


How to Start?

  1. Pre-plan the 3 most important things you want to learn.
  2. Prepare a questionnaire, go out there and ask people to talk to you.
  3. Keep iterating your questions as you learn.


Do's

  • Understand their goals.
  • Ask about specifics in the past instead of opinions about the future.
  • Talk less and listen more.
  • Learn through their actions instead of their opinions.
  • Start broad (big picture) and dont zoom in until you've found a strong signal.
  • Give as little information as possible about your idea while still nudging the discussion in the right direction.

You want the truth, not a gold medal for your idea.

Dont's

  • Dont get excited and start pitching your idea.
  • Dont ask if your business is a good idea.
  • Dont talk about your idea. Instead talk about them and their life. If you've mentioned your idea, people will try to protect your feelings.

You're not here to collect compliments; you're trying to learn the truth.

Good questions

The questions to ask must be about your customers' lives: their problems, cares, constraints and goals. You want truth, not opinions, compliments or validation.

  • Why do you care about the problem?
  • Talk me through the last time that happened.
  • How are you dealing with it now? Have you tried searching for a solution?
  • If they haven't solved the problem, ask why not.
  • What are your goals?
  • What are the barriers or constraints to achieving them?
  • (Any strong emotion is worth exploring) Are they frustrated / angry/ overjoyed by something?
  • Who else should I talk to?
  • Is there something else I should have asked?

Anchor them back to specifics about their life they already lead and actions they're already taking.

Questions to dig into emotional signals:

  • Go on..
  • Tell me more about that.
  • That seems to really bother you. Can you tell me more?
  • What makes it so frustrating?
  • Why haven't you been able to fix it already?
  • You seem pretty excited about that - is it a big deal?

Keep an eye out for people who get emotional about what you're doing. First customers are crazy. Crazy in a good way. They really, really want what you're making. They want it so badly that they are willing to be the crazy person who tries it first.


Bad questions

We invite bad data by asking the wrong questions. Bad data gives us false negatives and more dangerously false positives in the form of compliments, fluff and ideas.

  • What do you think about this idea?
  • Would you like to use such a product if it existed?
  • What would your dream product do?

Opinions dont matter. They have no idea if the business is going to work. Only the market knows.

Notes

  • If they haven't looked for ways of solving it already, they're not going to look for (or buy) yours.
  • Anything involving the future is an over-optimistic lie.
  • People often know what their problems are but dont know how to solve those problems.
  • Even learning that a person is non-customer is useful.
  • Startups are about focussing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good idea which crosses your desk.
  • Every time you talk to someone, you should be asking at least one question which has the potential to destroy your currently imagined business.
  • Learning that your beliefs are wrong is frustrating, but its progress. It brings you closer to the truth of a real problem and a good market.
  • Everyone has problems they know about, but don’t actually care enough about to fix. And if you zoom in too quickly and lead them to that semi-problem, they’ll happily drown you in all the unimportant details
  • Your time is valuable; dont feel obliged to repeat questions you already have solid data on. Pick up where you left off and keep filling in the picture.
  • Start with friendly first contacts.

You're probably the first person in a long time to be truly interested in the petty annoyances of their day.

Personal experiences and my own learnings

Going out there and asking people for their attention was uncomfortable when I started. The fear of rejection was real. Self-doubt was real. The thought of no-one willing to talk to me or fill a survey was also real.

Often, I would procrastinate on reaching out to more people, only to realise I have not met my goal for the week.

Memorising the questionnaire was hard and probably not a great way to go about it. I quickly realised I dont have to do it that way and instead just be genuinely interested in the other person and be curious. Questions would follow naturally.

I think user interviews and surveys is a good balance of generating user insights with pros and cons to both approaches. For example surveys is a great way to generate quantitative, structured data but inadequate to establish a personal connection with users and in-depth understanding of their life.

Creating a 'quiz' rather than a 'survey' has thus been my strategy and I've tried to make it reflective so that the quiz taker also benefits for the time they spend. Link to the quiz at the end.


Last words and an ask from you!

I find many entrepreneurs and product managers starting from an idea or a solution or some technology (read AI) they love and then find a problem to solve. I strongly believe it has to be the other way round if we humans want to make this planet a better place to live by solving meaningful problems. I feel problem-first approach must be adopted by more and more people - not just entrepreneurs or product managers but everyone!

On that note, I leave you with this lifestyle quiz we developed for Làvi to understand user needs and behaviour. If you've reached until here, I'm sure you will benefit by taking this quiz because it will make you introspect and think harder about your and your family's health and lifestyle.

Link to Làvi Lifestyle Quiz .

Link to my calendly if you'd like to connect

What would you like me to write about? Let me know in the comments or DM me. Cheers!

Shubham Giri

Frontend @Aarc

7 个月

this is gold

回复
Woodley B. Preucil, CFA

Senior Managing Director

1 年

Himanshu Gupta Fascinating read.?Thank you for sharing.

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