5 Product Discovery Tips for Building Solutions Customers Will Buy
Products aren’t made… They’re discovered.
It doesn’t matter if you think you have a “brilliant” idea – what matters is if the customer thinks so, too, and is willing to pay for it.
You see, customers don’t buy anything they don’t want. So the question is, how do you figure out what customers want and give it to them? Product discovery.
Here’s how product discovery works, why it matters, and some tips for pumping out products your customers are virtually guaranteed to buy.
Let’s start with a brief explanation.
What Is Product Discovery?
Product discovery is a process of rooting into the mind and emotions of your target market to understand exactly who they are, what they care about, and all of the problems they wished they could solve.
Those problems will lead you to discover the solutions they require and the products that must be created to deliver them.
Why Does Product Discovery Matter?
Product discovery matters because creating products that don’t serve customers will ruin a business. And so do products that make customers say “meh.”
Businesses don’t survive that long with apathetic customers settling for 10th best in a competitive market.
What you should be aiming for is to hear the customer say, “This is what I’ve been waiting for!”
And the only way to get that kind of reaction is by identifying your markets’ genuine needs. Too often, products are built on assumptions made by your team and company – instead of your customers’ preferences.
Products should be evidence-based and informed by listening to customer desires, which is the process behind product discovery.
How Does Product Discovery Work?
The “what” of product discovery is straightforward, but the “how” is a little trickier to grasp.
The first step is challenging your assumptions as we mentioned in the last section. If your executive team pushes product initiatives forward, then you have to challenge the assumptions they’re making about customers’ likes and dislikes. If your product team suggests features based on past experiences, they need to be closely examined.
Regardless of where product ideas come from, they must be weighed against fresh customer insights and reliable data.
What you think you “know” about your customers should be rephrased as what you “hypothesize” about your customers. And then move to the next step:
Conduct empirical research.
There are 2 types of data you can collect for empirical research:
Qualitative
Quantitative
Qualitative data is subject and is all about how your customers and prospects feel about your brand and products.
Customer surveys such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) help you understand the way customers currently view you and your solutions . It helps you empathize with your...
