The Product Comes Last
When building a new product, it’s tempting to dive into what the product will offer, what it’d look like, its features and speculations on how people would use it. I often hear & see people talk about a product they want to build, and they focus solely on the technology. I’ve also been there; I get excited about products and brainstorm around the technology that I forget one hard truth: The product comes last.
What Comes First?
A Product is simply a vehicle that carries a solution. The first point of discussion when building a new product is the problem that the product is going to help solve, not the product itself.
For example, say there’s an elderly man who walked with a limp and you were asked to build a product for him that you believe would help him walk better, you could delve into the different details around the kind of product you’d build; something along the lines of a wheelchair, cane, walking stick, crutches, etc. These are the products you might think of because you believe they’d help this man walk better.
What’s the problem with that? Well, you’re building a product for a problem you don’t fully understand. You haven’t spoken to this man to understand the problem yet. Sure, you can see he has a limp, so he must be in pain, or because he’s old, you could attribute it towards his age, but you still don’t know the problem.
Perhaps, that man walks with a limp because of a recent injury, and all he needs to do is take painkillers for a few days and the limp is gone. In that case, you’d have spent valuable resources building a product that he doesn’t need.
The first area of focus is the problem, not the product.
In cases where the product isn’t for a direct problem, then the first area of focus is the value it’s providing.
What Comes Second?
When you have established and understood the problem, you then begin to think about a solution. Keep in mind that the solution is not the product either. Those are two different things entirely. Let’s look at some examples of solutions.
Uber
- Problem: It’s hard to get a taxi when I need one
- Solution: Make taxis available when & where people need them
Stripe/Paystack
- Problem: I want to be able to receive payments from my customers seamlessly (merchant) — I want to be able to pay for products online seamlessly (customer)
- Solution: Create seamless transactions between merchants and customers
HotelsNG
- Problem: I don’t know what hotels are available for bookings in the city
- Solution: Collate information on all available hotels and make them accessible to customers
In the aforementioned example of the elderly man walking with a limp, his solution, as discussed, is getting rid of the pain. Simple.
These are solutions; solutions aim to tackle the problem head-on; however, these solutions need to be delivered in a way that is appealing to those that have the problem. That’s where the product comes in.
What Comes Last?
When you understand the problem, it’s easier to understand the solution, and when you understand the solution, it’s easier to understand the product. Now let’s use the same examples above and see where the product comes in.
Uber
- Problem: It’s hard to get a taxi when I need one
- Solution: Make taxis available when & where people need them
- Product: A mobile application where you can hail a taxi whenever and wherever you need one
Stripe/Paystack
- Problem: I want to be able to receive payments from my customers seamlessly (merchant) — I want to be able to pay for products seamlessly (customer)
- Solution: Create seamless transactions between merchants and customers
- Product: A payment gateway that merchants can embed on their eCommerce platforms that will allow seamless payments from their customers
HotelsNG
- Problem: I don’t know what hotels are available for bookings in the city
- Solution: Collate information on all available hotels and make them accessible to customers
- Product: An online platform where people can view & make reservations at hotels in any city in Nigeria.
As you can see, the product is simply a vehicle in which the solution is provided. It’s a bridge between the problem and solution. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s relatively easier to build a product when you understand the solution the product is carrying, and it’s easier to find a solution when you understand the problem it's solving. In the example of the old man with a limp, the product is the painkiller. The pill. It provides a solution of walking without pain.
So, remember…
- Start with the problem, then the solution, and finally, the product
- There’s a difference between products and solutions
- It’s easier to build the product when you understand the solution, and it’s easier to come up with a solution when you understand the problem.
End.
