What is a Product and when not to build it?

Product, as misattributed for Kotler’s 4Ps (Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Place), is McCarthy’s 4Ps. Back in history, we had a notion that Product is tangible and services are intangible but this faded as we created Software as a service which we commonly called SaaS and it changed the game.

When not to build a product??

A Salesperson calls up for an ad-hoc meeting and notifies the potential customer is asking for a specific piece of software that has never been built or failed. Very apt and prevalent in a start-up world right??

There are a few things we need to keep in mind:

1.??????One customer does not make a market

2.??????Risks/Experiments like this lead to an unstable and undesirable product that doesn’t align with the product vision

3.??????Providing ad hoc services is divergent in comparison with ad hoc products.

?Additional to the above points this might lead to losing the self-confidence of one organization to build effective and great products. It’s very vital to understand a few things before concluding to build a product.

1.??????We have to understand the market and common challenges that business is facing which we are trying to tap

2.??????Build a single primitive solution that satisfies all the challenges and users can effortlessly acknowledge and appreciate

3.??????Market research and competitive benchmarking are other aspects to ensure building?capabilities that align completely with the market

The Product managers would barely need the help of salespeople for the existing customers if the solution deployed is fulfilling their needs and can always be a talking point about what needs to be enhanced around the solution.

For example when Microsoft realized that Email can be used as a channel for communication and portability of a laptop is one thing a customer is looking for they created a suite of products with Excel, PowerPoint, and Word and called it Microsoft Office.?They tapped into the business environments where exchanging the information, storage which was ultimately considered a productivity tool for everyone. Lotus 1-2-3 also served the same market.

Enhancing product as per Market Needs: Initially, the Microsoft communicator was used to send chats to co-workers and it became a very effective tool for sharing instant messages in the working environment. But as we progressed there were upscale features like sending a GIF. Video calling or sending some important documents magnified the tool and people switched to Skype. These kinds of augmentations gave better opportunities for the sales team and product team to be open for feedback as well as to keep working on better features for a constructive User experience.

Apart from Microsoft organizations like Adobe, Novell launched their own products with effective solutions.

Licensing the Product: Soon it was realized the customers are willing to pay the price for the solutions and hence the licensing came into the place where vendors will give lessor or enhanced features basis on the license customers will purchase. As the features advanced there were a few levels of licenses that were introduced to become value-oriented.

Hence from a single individual product organizations moved to build suites with several features and they are built on various engineering platforms to be able to develop and deploy software smoothly for customers’ ease.

It is rightly said “To do great work is to love your work”

There are ten postulates I would like to quote for good products:

1.??????It’s important to create products that are easy to use

2.??????It should bring value to the customer in his business in terms of numbers and usage

3.??????It is easy to lose an existing customer if you fail to deliver what is expected from you

4.??????Understand and keep learning industry best practices to inculcate in your product and work-life

5.??????A great product has to be minimal and not complex

6.??????Work on a user experience that delights the?customer?

7.??????Be interactive with the internal teams especially customer support teams as they know the customer closely

8.??????Say No: It might be difficult to say no to the customer but learn to back it up with great validation also which will bring more value

9.??????Be AGILE

10.??Do less but better