Hei defties,
in case you haven’t noticed, it’s a new week already (happy Monday 🎉) and also I’m furious!
Although, now that I’m thinking about it, I don't know whether I’m not just really really heart-wrenchingly sad 😞
But let me start from the beginning.
I’ve been around the startup scene since 2010, meaning I’ve had different positions in various companies and know a lot about the joys and sorrows that come with building and scaling a company. Having specialized in product management over the last 5 years, brought me even closer to the shop floor: I was present where new tech products were being researched, tested, built, launched, and monitored. The whole cycle. You could argue I know a thing or two about how to create a product 😉
And this is why the following scenario makes me MAD as hell, every time I see it. And I saw it twice in the last 7 days…
So, are you ready?
It goes like this:
You have this fantastic idea.
In fact, it’s not fantastic. It’s the absolute best in the world. Everybody needs this and you’re going to be super rich.
And because this idea is so genius, you’re not going to tell anybody about it. You need to protect your idea because they could steal it 😱
So you’re building it in super secret stealth mode.
After some time, you’ll appear out of nowhere: Tadaaaa, we launched!! 🎊
And then:
Crickets… 🦗
(For real feels, hear 10 seconds of crickets chirping)
Now, pardon my French, but if you do this, you’re not a founder, you’re a gambler.
You’re betting on the future with zero proof.
And 100% risk.
You are investing your own energy, money (hopefully just your own and nobody else’s), and time (which you can never recover) into something that is just a guess, an idea.
Yeah, that doesn't sound healthy!
What can you do? Well, there's a process actually that you can follow.
It's called Design Thinking.
And while the two words design and thinking might be a bit misleading, it’s actually a mindset focused on doing (not just thinking) with people in the center of attention.
That means you definitely have to talk to a lot of them, listen to their concerns and observe their behavior. It’s called validation.
Then, during the prototyping phase, you will try to build something that mimics the user journey so people can experience what it would feel like to have your product in their life (like I did with the crickets above). This way, they can perceive the value of your product or give you feedback on what’s missing.
All these methods have one single goal: Reduce risk as early as possible, test hypotheses, and learn from real people’s behavior.
It’s not a linear process, it’s actually very iterative and the faster you go through this (including throwing away your prototype and going back to user interviews), the quicker you will get to the valuable learnings.
And this 👆 is how you develop an idea into a product!
Collaborate with a lot(!) of people, get the word out, openly seek feedback, accept trial and error as your operating mode, and test, test, test your hypotheses.
Pleeeease, stop gambling!
Do it for me, okay? 🥺
This was a rather serious talk so try not to laugh now ^^
Photo credits: Preview Image