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  It’s one thing to build a product, but quite another to create one that people love. The former is simply about meeting the minimum requirement for potential buyers to want what you offer. The latter points to fashioning something that users are really enthusiastic about.
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If you want your brand to do more than just succeed in the market, you’ll want to make it something that can gather a loyal, committed following. This isn’t easy to achieve, but it’s doable. All you need to do is to identify the right steps towards making it happen, and following those steps judiciously. This article takes care of the first part—it discusses tips you can follow to craft a product that people love. Adapt them to your peculiar situation, and you’ll be on your way to making something truly remarkable. Here they are:

Build A Solution

People have problems. And they want solutions to those problems. Present them with those solutions, and they may be willing to pay you just to get them. Ideally, that’s what your business does. But here’s the problem: far too many entrepreneurs in these parts start with a solution before looking for a problem that it solves. As a result, they get stuck trying to find the right product-market fit. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Come up with a solution after you’ve noted (and investigated) the problem that it’s supposed to solve.

Solve Your Own Problem

A lot of really successful products have been built as a solution to a problem that their founders had. You may take this path too. If you have a pain point that you want to take care of, by all means, you could build a product that deals with it. You may be more passionate about it than you would be about a problem you don’t have. This in turn means that you’ll put in more effort into solving it. At first glance, all of this appears to run counter to what you’re trying to achieve: a product that people will love. But you’re very likely not the only one who the problem you’re thinking about. If there are many others like you, they could benefit from the solution your build.
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Validate Before Building

Another mistake that entrepreneurs make is that they build their product before trying to validate it. This isn’t a risk worth taking. A lot of the time, the people in your target market won’t be interested in the product you’re thinking about building. You can save yourself the misfortune of losing resources to a failed project by checking with potential future customers while your would-be product is still an idea. This exercise will reveal a good deal about your target market, and what they really want in a solution. Take note of their opinions; watch out for a common thread in their feedback; closely examine the overall response. Decide, based on what they say, whether to go ahead with making the product (or a tweaked version of it) or jettison the idea.

Keep It Simple

Your customers will want something simple and easy to use. If your product is complex and requires work on their part, it won’t be their favourite purchase (and that’s putting it mildly). Design a product user experience that builds ease of use and cost-effectiveness into your solution. If you achieve this, you’ll be on your way to making a product that people will be enthusiastic about. The easier and more pleasant it is to use, the higher your chances of building a solution that’s widely loved. The first step to doing this would be to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would you want to see in the product if you were a customer? Are there features that make it easy (or difficult) for you to use the product? What design improvements would you want to be implemented? There’s more about user experience in our article, How to Design the Perfect User Experience for Your Product.

Work With Feedback

If you intend to build a product that customers love, you may have to get it through several iterations. There are at least two reasons for this. First, your first product sample may have things in it that your customers don’t like, or things that they’d like to see that are missing. Collecting and analyzing feedback from them will enable you to discover what these things are, and make the necessary changes. Another reason your product needs continuous iteration is that consumer’s wants and tastes change over time. The fact that your product is widely sought after today isn’t a guarantee that it will be in the near future. Take preemptive steps to identify shifts in customer tastes, and incorporate new preferences into your product as you go.

Final Words

Building a product that people love can be challenging. It takes a lot of work to discover and define their needs, and create something that meets them. But if you have the right insights into your target market and leverage them properly, you could make something that the public will be attracted to. Featured Image Source: Corporate Finance Institute
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This article was first published on 21st September 2021

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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