Smart Questions Lead to Better Products

What questions are you asking before you start developing products? Have you really got under the skin of your customers? Do you know what they will buy? Or are you going to give them what you think they ought to have?

Before you rush in to develop your own product, it really pays to really understand your market and deliver exactly what they are looking for.There are three primary types of categories for markets… Everyone, Subcultures & Niches. Remember, if you try to develop a product that is for everyone then you're not going to succeed.

When products are developed with a massive market appeal they are underpinned by multi million advertising campaigns to get them off the ground.

Here are some facts that you must not ignore… It takes 3,000 ideas to come up with 1 successful product for large multinational organisations. That's pretty frightening! For every 3,000 ideas, only 100 will make it to the next stage of an exploratory project. From those 100 only 10 will make it the next phase where a well developed business plan and projections are developed and analysed. From those 10 only 2 will make a fully fledged product and launch… and of those two launches only one will survive.

But even that may not have a long and fruitful life.

Now the learnings here are that product development can be an expensive business… and even if all the numbers stack up you're still not guaranteed a winning product. So, with corporate giants who have gazillions available to spend on new product development and advertising struggling what chance have us solo entrepreneurs got? Well, the answer is actually we have a very distinct advantage over the big boys as long as you follow a few simple rules. Don't try to develop a product for everyone.

Laser focus in on a subculture or niche.

Listen really carefully to what your market is looking for and then give it to them. Extremely simple… but Wallet Bustingly Powerful.

So what do you need to know about your subculture or niche market before developing a product? Here are 10 questions that you should be able to answer before you put pen to paper, finger to the keyboard or switch on the video recorder to make your product. What keeps them awake at night?

What are they mad about?

Ask what is the one thing that frustrates them most?

What do they secretly desire the most?

Who are they mad at and why?

How do they make their buying decisions?

What jargon and language do they use?

Who else is selling something to them?

Who has tried to sell something but failed… why?

What is it that you have or know that could be turned into a competitive advantage?

If you can answer these questions in depth then you'll have a good grounding to start your own product development. Actually, here's an additional tip for you that is worth it's weight in gold.

Question 9 above states "Who else has tried to sell something but failed?"… an imaginative entrepreneur will turn the question round and ask themselves; "Who else is selling and winning?" More importantly… they also take this question a step further and establish WHY! I've heard some pretty dumb people over the years talk about competitor intelligence and doing their homework… but many aren't sophisticated on how they do this. They see another entrepreneur or business doing well and think I'll just replicate that but they don't dig deep and understand the unique thread that binds the customer to the product and the entrepreneur. Even worse, I often see people putting marketing methods in place that just don't work.

Product development is no different and you can't simply buy one product… disassemble it and then build your own… Note the above - all these factors and more have to work together for winning product design, development and marketing.


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