Daily Inspired #14

The Topic

Methodology in increasing the user base. This is one important topic that I need to understand as thorough as possible through case studies and experience as this is one of the most crucial parts of a business. Without a good product that could help user, any business will not be there in the first place.

The Learning Points

Understanding users' pain point

From daily life, we can surely pinpoint some obvious pain points from the people, specifically the industry we are in or in the field that we are interested in. However, it is still very surface as we do not really look into the pain and understand the multiple parameters behind the pain. From the reading, it has listed 3 ways perspectives for us to look into a pain point:

Understand who is the target user, meaning to really know who are we serving and helping to solve this pain point. If we identify the wrong target audience, then the product may not be effective in the end.
Context of the user, meaning we need to know in what kind of context or background, the user has this pain point. This will help us to identify at what time should we deliver the solution. By getting the context right, we can relate to the users easier as we can visualize the context through our product story that can create a unanimous agreement. Not only that, from the context, we can also push the limit further to improve the quality of that very moment. This will create more possibilities for us.
The problem of the user, meaning in overall what is the pain, what is the problem that needed to be solved by the user. It may be an obvious problem or it can be some hidden desire that we may not know. For the hidden, it is another field to learn about which is psychology. I always will refer back to Maslow's Pyramid of Needs which is quite easy to understand and categorize my positioning for the solution.

The ultimate question to we always need to ask ourselves is:

Who is our target users under what event or circumstance and in need to solve what problem?

Experiment and proof the pain points

From experimenting with some simple solution and may not be solving the whole problem (perhaps around 50%) with affordable pricing range to offer the users and test it out. This is to collect feedback and data that the solutions are actually helping. The product can be upgraded from time to time with the different version upgrade. Users going to be happy if they see how their product can improve through time.

Hence, it is important to remember that the experimental or beta product should be at its simplest form. For example, like with creative learning platform. The simplest way to test my product is to offer the most basic art learning class online with a small group of students. With that, it enables me to have good interaction with the instructors as well as the students. All the feedbacks and learning experience are recorded and analyzed to come out with a better format to teach and improve the experience.

Another point is to be fast and use minimum resources. This is to enable us to upgrade the product faster and without the worry of wasting the invested resources as it is at its minimum. If the investment is too big, we will be trapped by the initial investment that we are going to waste if the upgrade is happening too soon.

Create a habit loop

Go deep and go wide, the product is to create a positive habit loop that the users can no longer break away. This is the ultimate goal that we want to go for. It is not about how good our product is but it is how well that the product can integrate with the user's life and improve their moment and solve the specific problem. For example, my target audience wanted to learn the art. This is the most obvious and basic desire. Yet, when we think deeper, we will question why they want to sign up if they can learn free online and with cheaper rate as well? Thus, we will go deeper to understand why they are willing to sign up and continue our product. In the end, we see that our value is about being a learning partner and provide confidence to them that would lead them to breakthrough. Thus, our aim will change from teaching complex art skill to basic skill and focus on interactive rate. By having a good interaction between the students, the student will gain the confidence to work on their art, when their art improves, they feel happy and get excited to learn more, at the very end, they will continue our service as it has formed a positive feedback loop.

How to be a good product?

It is extremely hard to build an all-rounder product. There are three important categories of products that can form a good product grouping:

Traffic generating product - a hot product that has the most sales and impression. This is the lowest entry point and maybe with the least profit margin. This type of product is to bring in traffic into the business ecosystem and have new customers to experience.
Profit generating product - this is the honey for the business. It may not be the hottest or the best product, but it is the most profit-generating. For example, consulting or training can be one of the most profitable product lines. With that, the profit can help to stabilize the cash flow and profitability of the company.
Image brand generating product - this is the ambassador, the face of the business, a superstar product. This is to push the reach of the business further through the brand effect. For such product line, it is to work together with great brands and individuals that could compliment the product and business. The higher we go, we can be position our company on par with the brand that we worked together. Just imagine that I could one day work with big brands like LVMH, Guggenheim, National Art Organization and so on, this would elevate my business to another level. The recognition will be different and of course, the perceived value will definitely change.

Inspiration

It is always an exciting process to be able to serve the customers and get feedback that our product is actually helping them. This is satisfactory that I need to remember and remind ourselves from the beginning. Building product is a whole spectrum of knowledge and skillsets which is both exciting and challenging. Product making is one of the key skillsets that are relevant in the 21st century as we are moving into a more individualism community where uniqueness could stand and earn a lot. Looking forward and keep hustling!