Why I Started Using Google

I still remember when my friend Z. first introduced me to Google. It was the winter of 1999, and Z. was working on her Master’s degree in Computer Science. As I was studying there, I often came to hang out with her and her colleagues in the open space at Tel-Aviv University. One day, as we were sitting by her desk, she wanted to show me something on her computer. She opened a browser window, and Google showed up on the screen. As she was typing what she was looking for, Z. explained to me that “this company did something really nice” and that she really liked “this website.” She told me that she had set it as her home page because it loads so quickly, so it’s very convenient for her to use it as her starting point. I was convinced and did the same for my computer when I went back home that day.

Google is mostly known for being so much better than other search engines, while “better” usually addresses the quality of the search results. This has guided Google from day one with the famous PageRank algorithm, which brought real innovation into this space. In 2000, Sergey Brin was interviewed for Internet Magazine and said: “When users come to Google.com, all they want to do is search. And that’s our product”.

But Z. and I weren’t looking for the best search engine out there. That wasn’t what we had in mind. We were looking for the best starting point for the internet. The search capability was part of it, and a good search quality was undoubtedly needed, but the game-changer for really using it was something else.

It is very common to confuse your product’s core functionality or your company’s truly innovative technology with your value proposition. As a product leader, your job is to make sure they are distinct and that the product delivers its value and not just great technology. Here is a quick guide to get you started.

How to Identify Your Value Proposition

There are many ways to find your value proposition, and you probably need more than one to do it right. The first part of my e-book, Speed-Up the Journey to Product-Market Fit, provides detailed guidance on this. But if I had to pick one quick method that is relevant to any product at any stage, it would be to ask yourself why people are using your product over and over again.

Here is an example of what it could look like if you were the product manager of Google in the late ’90s:

Me: “Why do people use Google?”

You: “To search the web.”

Me: “Why do they do that?”

You: “To get quickly to the information they are looking for.”

Me: “Why is it important?”

You: “Because the internet is so huge, and you don’t know where to start.”

And there you have it — the starting point for finding your way on the internet. Along the way, throughout this process, you also uncovered other things that are important, like speed, the usefulness of the information, and the accuracy of the results. But quick, useful, and accurate are qualities of your product. They define neither the product nor its value.

How to Use the Value Proposition

Once you have a clear understanding of what the value proposition of your product really is, you need to make sure that everyone in the company (and, most importantly, everyone in the company management) is aligned and understands why this is the right value proposition to work with.

It might sound as if, at this point, you simply need to tell everyone what the value proposition is, and they all say ‘yes,’ but that is rarely the case. Some people won’t agree with you — at least not immediately. That’s a great thing.

Give these discussions some room. They will bring up great insights. It will help you refine the value proposition, ensure it is indeed the right one, and align everyone on the outcome as part of the process.

As a reminder, when I say “make sure it is the right one,” it doesn’t mean that there is an answer out there, and you simply need to find it. It means that considering everything you know about the market and your target audience, it seems like the right path forward.

How to Keep the Value Proposition Intact

Now that you have a clear value proposition, it’s time to compare what you have on paper to what you have in reality.

First, conduct a quick assessment: does your current product actually deliver on the new or refined value proposition? If not, what’s missing?

Don’t skip this step even if the value proposition is very similar to what you already had in mind.

Sometimes, what you had in mind didn’t manifest itself in the product, and that’s a great opportunity to identify this gap. And sometimes, even one word can change everything.

For example, if your product is helping companies comply with certain regulations, your value proposition might be “never fail an audit.” That would mean that the product must come with a comprehensive set of rules to enforce and perhaps guide the customer through the audit process. But if you realize that you best serve those who have already failed an audit and are lost in the process, your refined value proposition might be “never fail an audit again.” Just one word was added.

That word, however, can have many implications for the product and its capabilities.

For example, they now know exactly where they failed and would want to ensure that you support precisely that in the process. Even if they use the product the same way, the sales process can be very different in terms of how deeply they want to test it before the purchase. If your product doesn’t serve its entire lifecycle well, it will be hard for it to succeed.

Depending on the outcome of the gap analysis, you can come up with a strict plan to close all the gaps or close them on the go. Whichever you choose, you need to make at least sure that from now on, any new addition to the product delivers on the value proposition. Have it in mind when you write requirements, and ask this explicit question in every demo and design review of every feature.

Over time, as everyone aligns and sets their eyes on the value proposition, the gaps will diminish. You now have the entire team as the gatekeeper of the value proposition, not just yourself.

I remember the happiness I felt when someone in QA called me once to say that something “didn’t feel right” about a certain feature. He said that what the product does is probably not what I meant. He was right, and I slept much better at night, knowing that the team understood exactly what we were doing there. It felt like I had grown octopus arms that were working for me while I did other things. So, here is the bottom line: Do you want to sleep better at night? Crisp up your product’s value proposition, and make sure everyone understands it. Make yourself an octopus.

Our free e-book “ Speed-Up the Journey to Product-Market Fit” — an executive’s guide to strategic product management is waiting for you at www.infinify.com/ebook

Originally published at https://infinify.com on August 16, 2020.