Launching a new product is an exhilarating experience, but it can quickly turn sour if the market rejects what you have to offer. A successful product launch hinges on thorough market research and validation to ensure there is a genuine need for your product. This is where the Sales Safari method comes in handy—a technique that helps you deeply understand your target market by observing their behaviors and interactions online.
Common Reasons Why New Products Fail
Even well-thought-out products can fail for a multitude of reasons. Understanding these common pitfalls can help you avoid them.
No Product-Market Fit
Achieving product-market fit means developing a product that offers value to the right market. Indicators of a successful product-market fit include increased sales, low churn rates, and high usage among core customers. For instance, Microsoft’s Zune failed despite great promises because it did not offer compelling reasons for customers to switch from the iPod.
Solving the Wrong Problem
A product must solve a genuine problem for its users. Maxwell House’s Ready to Drink Coffee flopped because microwaving the coffee was no easier than making a fresh cup at home. Businesses often become overly attached to their ideas, convinced there's no need to change course.
Aiming for “Perfect” Instead of “Done”
Balancing value and development time is crucial. Over-polishing a product can mean missing the market window. Google Lively, for instance, took too long to develop and launched just as the recession started, leading to its quick demise.
Not Gathering Regular Feedback from Customers
Regular customer feedback is crucial for understanding if the product delivers value. AT&T’s Picturephone failed because it ignored negative feedback during trials, leading to poor adoption.
Iterating too Slowly
Rapid iterations based on customer feedback are essential to keep up with changing needs and competition. Slack’s success is attributed to quick iterative development cycles, evolving from a communication tool for a gaming company to a popular work tool.
Using Incorrect Assumptions About Your Customers
Incorrect assumptions about how customers will use your product can lead to misaligned features. PayPal initially aimed to be an online banking service but became successful as a digital payment platform due to user behavior.
Pricing Your Product Wrong
Incorrect pricing can hinder product adoption. Too high and customers won’t buy; too low, and the business isn’t sustainable. Apple Newton PDA failed partly due to its high $700 price point.
Not Enough Market or Industry Research
Comprehensive market research is essential for aligning product features with market needs. Instagram’s pivot from Burbn to a simple photo-sharing app was successful due to in-depth user behavior research.
Investing in the Wrong Areas of Your Business
Allocating resources to the right areas is crucial, especially for budget-constrained startups. Joost’s failure was due to various architectural and content issues that the company couldn’t address in time.
Problems with Your Competition
Intense competition can stymie new products. Pivoting based on competitive advantages can help, as demonstrated by Twitter's pivot from a podcasting platform (Odeo) to a micro-blogging site.
Poor Execution
Poor design, bad user experience, sloppy implementation, and lack of quality control can doom a product. Microsoft’s BOB and Windows Vista suffered from poor execution, impacting their adoption and usability.
Recommendations to Avoid These Pitfalls
Test Market Reactions: Frequent testing and validation of product ideas can preempt market misalignment.
Focus on Core Customer Problems: Engage constantly with customers to ensure the product solves real problems.
Iterate Quickly: Adopt fast iterative cycles to adapt to changing needs and competitive landscape.
Manage Expectations on Pricing: Establish a sustainable pricing strategy that balances customer affordability and business profitability.
Conduct Thorough Market Research: Regularly update market and industry insights to remain relevant and competitive.
Resource Allocation: Prioritize investments towards areas that offer maximum value to customers and product sustainability.
Sales Safari Method for Product Research
The Sales Safari method, developed by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman, is a research technique that applies the principles of ethnography to the digital space. This method focuses on observing conversations and behaviors online to identify existing problems without conducting direct customer interviews.
Method Philosophy
Sales Safari is based on the idea that all problems already exist, and we don't need to invent new ones. It challenges the reliability of customer interviews by preferring observation to capture genuine, unfiltered data.
Step-by-Step Process
Identify Target Market
Begin by homing in on a specific market.
Locate Online Watering Holes
Search for places where the target market congregates online using search terms like "[Market] + mailing list", "[Market] + forum", "[Market] + competition", and additional keywords such as Twitter, group, list, community, help, wiki, questions, meetup, resources, association, customers, tutorials, awards, user group, blog.
Example: Airliners.net for airline industry enthusiasts.
Conduct Observations
Spend 30 to 50 hours going through conversations to note:
Jobs
Pain points
Beliefs
Questions
Complaints
Products used
Struggles
Desired outcomes
Pay attention to keywords like "easier", "faster", "less", "more", "relief", "finally".
Analyze Comments and Patterns
Extract significant insights focusing on:
Pain points: What troubles they face.
Opportunities: Ways to help prospects generate revenue, reduce costs, and make tasks easier.
Read our mega-guide on how to Mind Read Your Audience and Creating Wildly Successful Content Bombs for a step-by-step approach to the method.
Benefits of Sales Safari
Deep Market Understanding
Enables a profound understanding of the market, allowing for better value proposition, marketing copy, and objection handling.
Uncovering Opportunities
Identifying pain points that can be addressed by:
Pain Killers: Reducing risk, anxiety, stress, fear, uncertainty, guilt, or frustration.
Money Multipliers: Creating new revenue streams, extending customer reach, reducing costs, increasing pricing potential.
Practical Application
By thoroughly understanding the market, businesses can anticipate needs, predict reactions, and tailor their products or services to better serve the identified pain points and opportunities. The Sales Safari method provides a systematic approach to discovering product opportunities through online observation, making it a valuable technique for both new and established businesses.
Achieving Product-Market Fit
Achieving product-market fit (PMF) is crucial for any product's success. Rahul Vohra, the founder and CEO of Superhuman, outlines a comprehensive framework for achieving PMF, involving strategic metrics, surveys, segmentation, feedback analysis, and iterative improvements.
Anchoring Around a Metric
The core metric is based on Sean Ellis’ survey question, “How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?” The goal is to get at least 40% of users to say they would be “very disappointed” if they could no longer use the product. For example, Hiten Shah's research on Slack indicated that 51% of users would be very disappointed without Slack, highlighting strong PMF.
Four-Step Process for Optimizing Product-Market Fit
Segment to Find Supporters and High-Expectation Customers
Group users based on their survey responses and identify personas of those who would be “very disappointed” without the product. For instance, Superhuman focused on executives, founders, managers, and business development professionals who found the product indispensable.
Analyze Feedback to Convert On-the-Fence Users
Understand why users love the product and what holds others back. Focus on users who valued speed and address their feedback to turn somewhat disappointed users into fanatics. Superhuman identified the need for a mobile app and features like better integrations and calendaring.
Build Your Roadmap
Split efforts between enhancing what users already love and addressing what holds others back. Superhuman devoted half their roadmap to speed enhancements and design flourishes, while the other half focused on a mobile app and other requested features.
Repeat the Process
Continuously survey new users, track PMF score, and rebuild the roadmap to ensure continuous improvement. Superhuman’s PMF score increased from 22% to 58% in three quarters.
Importance of a Singular Metric
The PMF score (% of users very disappointed if they could no longer use the product) should be tracked on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. This metric simplifies hiring, marketing, and raising capital while making operations more efficient.
Strategies to Avoid Launching Unwanted Products
Solve Significant Problems
Prioritize solving significant problems that matter to customers. Offer a range of benefits, from functional improvements to enhancing user well-being and self-actualization.
Leverage Emerging Technologies and Radical Approaches
Innovate by completely rethinking traditional solutions. James Dyson, for example, revolutionized vacuum cleaners by using centrifugal force to fix air filters, creating over 5,000 prototypes before succeeding.
The Power of 10x Thinking
Aim to make products ten times better than existing solutions to overcome customer resistance due to loss aversion or status quo bias. Silicon Valley tech giants often employ 10x thinking to tackle significant challenges and foster out-of-the-box solutions.
Conclusion and Call to Action
In conclusion, thorough market research and validation are paramount to avoid launching a product that nobody wants. Techniques like Sales Safari, effective product idea validation, and achieving product-market fit are essential strategies every entrepreneur should employ.
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