What Makes a Truly Great Product Great

Roughly five months ago, my responsibilities at LinkedIn expanded to include directly overseeing product. Consumer web product development has long been a passion of mine and was one of the reasons I was initially hired as CEO, so I was excited about the opportunity.

My overall objective for the team was simple: To build great products. LinkedIn has been able to create a lot of value for our members and customers, but there's clearly plenty of room for improvement throughout the platform.

A few weeks into the role, I realized that as obvious as it was to me what qualities comprised a great product, defining "great" in this case could be a highly subjective exercise. If we were going to be successful as a team, it was important to ensure that we all shared the same definition of greatness, and were working from the same playbook. With that in mind, I shared the following thoughts regarding five dimensions shared by all great products.

1. Delivers on a singular value proposition in a world-class way

Above all else, great products have a clearly defined sense of purpose, deliver value in a singularly focused way, and do so as well or better than any other product in the marketplace. Google presents a canonical example.

When first introduced in 1998, many questioned why Google would even bother with search. Alta Vista had already come to define the genre and for the most part, people thought the search problem was essentially solved. However, through its singular focus (a search box offered on an otherwise blank page), a game-changing approach towards search relevancy called Page Rank, and an audacious goal to index the entire web, Google not only surpassed Alta Vista as the clear category leader, it went on to fundamentally change the way society organized and accessed the world's information. It would eventually become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Not every company needs to be as renowned as Google in order to fulfill a singular value proposition in a world-class way. Lesser-known products are more than capable of doing the same. Take Headspace for example, an app exclusively focused on how to meditate.

For years, I was interested in learning meditation, but could never find the time or inclination. I finally made the point of asking a number of respected friends with long-standing meditation practices how they would suggest getting started. Each mentioned a different book, but all of them recommended Headspace. I'm now meditating daily, and having used the app for months, the reason behind the universal acclaim for the product is obvious: Headspace focuses on one thing and does that one thing extremely well.

2. Simple, intuitive, and anticipates needs

Waze is a mapping app that combines the best of driving directions and the collective intelligence of drivers to provide real-time updates regarding the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. It's extremely simple and intuitive to use: Just type in your destination, pick a route, and you're off. As good as that experience has always been for me (can't count the number of times it's shaved 10-15 minutes off of what would otherwise have been an hour-long trip), it was a simple, anticipatory feature that took my appreciation of the product to another level.

Leaving the office one night before beginning my regular commute home, I opened up the app to see what traffic looked like. Repeating an almost daily use case, I was about to select my destination, when up popped the question: "Are you on your way home?" I immediately thought to myself "Yes, I am on my way home, and that's pretty cool." This wasn't rocket science: The app was relying on the consistency of previous inputs during that particular time of day to make an educated guess on where I was going. In doing so, Waze not only saved me a few keystrokes, it demonstrated an understanding of my needs and made an indelible impression as a quality product that's lasted to this day.

3. Exceeds expectations

I've long been a huge fan of Sonos. The product is extremely easy to use and delivers on its singular value proposition in a major way: Enabling customers to listen to music on demand from any room in the house. After installing several units many years ago, it re-introduced me to my love of music and dramatically increased my overall music consumption. However, that's not why it's been included as an example of exceeding expectations. The reason I'm writing about Sonos is the company's customer service.

Well over a year ago, my wife and I were hosting a holiday dinner. As always, she had everything under control, but did have one request of me: To handle the music. "Easy," I thought. "I've got Sonos." As I sat down to select a playlist, that triumphant self-confidence quickly gave way to dread as it turned out our Sonos was down. Things got worse when I saw that as a result of the holiday, the customer service department would only be open for another 15 minutes. With most companies, this would not have ended well. However, Sonos is not most companies. The rep who answered the phone went way above and beyond the call of duty, staying on with me for nearly an hour while we ran a series of diagnostic tests. It turned out the service was unavailable as a result of our recent home Wi-Fi reconfiguration. We eventually got it working, the dinner went off without a hitch, and in addition to blowing my expectations away, Sonos had acquired a loyal customer and someone who recommends the service every chance he gets.

4. Emotionally resonates

Shortly after taking on the new product role, one of the first things I did at the weekly staff meeting with product executives was have them write down a favorite product and a description of how it made them feel. Once completed, each person was asked to stand up to explain their answer. The point of the exercise was for everyone on the team to see how much enthusiasm and passion people conveyed when talking about a great product experience.

When it came time for one of the more laconic execs on the team to stand up, he excitedly began talking about his Tesla Model S, and remarked it was like "driving the future." I replied, "You've got to be kidding me," and held up the piece of paper I had written my response on. It said, "Tesla Model S: Driving the future."

We had both cited the same product and described the exact same feeling, despite having never talked to one another about it, and Tesla never explicitly marketing itself that way. Turns out, the company doesn't need to. That's simply the way customers feel when driving a Tesla.

5. Changes the user's life for the better

In ways large and small, great products change their customers' lives for the better. Every product mentioned here does that. Yet, perhaps the clearest manifestation of this dynamic for me is the one product that enables all of the other product experiences I've written about thus far: The Apple iPhone 6+ (yes, there's even an app for the Tesla).

The iPhone makes things more convenient and productive in countless ways. It provides services that inform, entertain, educate, and inspire. To a large extent, it's become more than a product: It's an extension of who I am. It's essentially become the control panel for my life.

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Though I've shared singular product anecdotes for each dimension listed above, I could just as easily have used any of these products to exemplify all five dimensions, e.g. how Waze exceeded my expectations the first time it predicted to the minute how long it would take to reach my destination despite multiple traffic jams, how Tesla's overnight software updates have redefined the ease and intuitiveness of the automobile dashboard, how Headspace has changed my life through a greater understanding and appreciation of mindfulness, etc. What makes great products truly stand out from alternatives in the marketplace is that they don't just deliver on any one of these five dimensions, they deliver on all of them.

What dimensions would you add when it comes to describing a truly great product, and what are your favorite examples?