It is not marketing budgets that sell products, it is the products themselves. That’s right! A product needs to solve a problem that a customer has. If it does, it will sell, if it is presented to the right customer in the right market. 

It is very common that companies get stuck into the detail of building a product without asking the right questions and harnessing the right information. These are 3 important things to keep in mind. 

Intuition is not enough - use data

Do you have a great idea? That’s amazing! But most of the time it is not enough no matter how good your intuition is. Take advantage of the data available in your market. This is data that you can collect from our customers or your competitors. Keep validating your intuition and refine your hypothesis as you go along. 

What are the main customer problems?

In order to build a product that works you need to solve a problem or a need that the customer has. Understand what the customer needs and work your product around that need. This is a key principle in lean startup methodology. It is more important to talk to customers about their life than your ideas. This is key to finding what the customer need is and how it can be solved. 

What is your product’s value proposition? 

You need to be able to understand what makes your product special. How is it different from what is on the market? What are the key selling points to your product? What is the value for the customer in buying your product compared to what is on the market already. Even if there are no products like yours out there, there must be alternatives for customers to be able to achieve the same outcomes that your product achieves. What are they and how is yours better?