How to do product development properly (1/2): Who is the customer?

There are many pitfalls when you want to develop a great product. Start-ups as well as medium-sized businesses are often not sure how best to approach this endeavour.

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Do you have a product strategy?

Product strategy is a road map of a product. It should contain a vision of the product and big picture context defining all relevant features of the product. Any product strategy is based on a desire to enable customers to recognise the value the product provides.

Aim at satisfying a burning issue

Ideally your product should tackle a problem which is faced by large numbers of people. Put simply, you need to meet customers’ needs in a way other brands are unable to do.

Anyone developing products should feel a desire to make someone else’s life easier or simpler. Listen to customers, then give them what they want. This is the message from business2community.com.

Research the target audience

Always start by investigating who your customers are. Who are the people who will benefit most from your product? Chances are you need to understand several segments of your prospective target audience.

Identify your ideal customer segment. These are people whose needs you can satisfy well with your product. When you understand what characteristics these ideal customers have, your team will be much clearer about for whom it is creating a product. Such research has the following stages:

  1. Analysis of your product or service
  2. Investigating what your competitors are offering
  3. Selecting criteria for customer segmentation
  4. Conducting the research itself

After this you will be able to construct a persona, in other words an ideal customer image. Usually, this research is carried out using prepared questions. You then share your findings with top management in order to ensure everyone is on the same page.

-jk-

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