10 Things To Do Right Away Before Starting Your Product Journey

We all have different roles to fulfill during a product’s journey. Some of us are heavily invested on the sales and marketing side while others consider the technical decisions as their day to day job. While segregation of work is important as well as useful for founders, there are a lot of things that all founders need to learn to make sure they are ahead on the curve as they take continuous decisions for the product and its growth.

Here are 10 things to do right away as you start your product journey

1. Learning About The Product Development Cycle

You want your product developed ideally- No delays, just the right features, quick iterations and perfect collaboration- Isn’t it?
Well, then learn about product development lifecycle.

A Product lifecycle understanding will cover understanding of MVP, features priorities, feature specs, development cycles and so on.

There should be structured planning for development of a product with specific goals on each cycle. The goals can be different from increasing users to increasing retention. The ideation of new features and upgrades should be well planned and excite the team.

Missing understanding of the Product Development Cycle would lead you to unplanned scope creep, lack of understanding of what is working and what is not which in turn would make your judgement ineffective.

Some major aspects to follow in your Product Development Cycle are

• Building Consensus in the team
• Clarity in measuring success and setting up KPIs
• Determining goals and priorities
• Planning ideal development cycle length

By having a proper product development cycle, you can iterate fast, make best use of resources and avoid team issues.

Suggested Reading- Product Development Cycle Fundamentals

2. Learn About The Difference Between MVP And Full Product

• What Constitutes An MVP And What Does Not- Do Not Get Confused By Making Too Small Or Too Large Product For MVP

Most new startups often make a big mistake that they think that their full product is the complete MVP and that the users need everything but that is not the reality.

In Fact, Michael Siebel of YCombinator says- “the goal of a pre launch startup is extremely simple. Step one, launch quickly”

Remember that AirBnB did not have a map view or payments when they launched. Stripe founders themselves integrated Stripe in the user’s system by coming down to the office.

The idea for MVP should be to make a minimal product that you can get customers to use and give feedback. You should then be able to iterate faster.

Products fail when the product you are developing isn’t the requirement of the user at all. Hence, firstly understand the user requirements and then start building the product.

In this way, you’ll be able to deliver the appropriate product to the user. This can be done by talking to users, getting to know the needs, and not think of your product as the best because you need to be flexible to change.

That being said, your MVP would still require work and would need a proper development cycle, unless you just want to launch a webpage.

Check out the full talk by Michael Seibel on How to plan MVP here.

3. Learn About Talking To The Users

As we continue to emphasize learning from your users, it is really important to learn how to do it. While many people would claim to talk with their users and take feedback, it is important that user surveys/feedback are done in the right way so that you get to the right answer.

When planning your product, you should ask your users

• How do you solve this problem currently? If the end-user is not solving the problem currently, he/she may not be having that problem.
• What tools do you use for solving this problem?
• Is there any gap you find in the current solution?
• How likely are you to switch to a better alternative?

Always take surveys via phone or in-person meeting and not email etc.

Being able to decipher what the users really want is one of the most important to do for a startup founder.

By doing user surveys right, you will understand your user requirements and the need for your solution.

Here is a video by YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlining a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users.

4. Start Building Your Target List Or 20 Initial Customers List

As you plan your product, start finding your set of initial customers. If they are not known to you, reach through Linkedin. The plan is to get in front of at least 20 people with your product idea or demo. Keep them engaged by giving them updates as the product grows. Make them your Beta customers gradually.

This initial reach and pitch has to be done by you- the founder. A salesperson cannot replace you here. Remember while these early customers learn about your product, you learn about them and you get to know they interact with your product. Hence, the importance of doing it yourself. The initial period is going to be consultative sales where you may be fixing errors and answering questions as they come.

Another reality check during this phase is would these early customers miss you if you stop your product.

Major channels to get your early customers would be Linkedin, networking events, references, paid ads, etc.

5. Learn About Prioritizing Your Time

Time is the most precious thing for anyone and especially for a startup founder, it is the only thing that is getting spent continuously. It is important for everyone to manage time and stay frugal with time.

The important thing to learn would be to set out priorities and focus areas.

One nice trick to get your focus would be dividing the activities into 4 buckets between high impact to low impact on one axis and high time is taken to the low time taken on another axis.

You need to first take up the high impact and low time investment activities and leave the low impact and high time ones.
Another way to identify gaps is by making logs of your day for a few days and looking back into it.

6. Find Mentors

Mentors can help you make less mistakes. As a product journey will take you from different situations, a mentor can help you take better decisions and solve dilemmas.

In fact, many times you would find yourself in a situation where you have to choose between to do and not to do. Mentors can help break these stalemates. Mentors help you see things that you may miss. Constructive criticism can help you improve and rectify your own faults.

Other advantages of having a mentor are getting connections, someone to bounce ideas with, encouragement, and even discipline. Ask them the ‘stupid’ questions and the things that seem silly or small.

Primarily looking for a mentor from a similar domain who can tell you about customers and scale in the particular domain you operate in. 1-2 mentors is a good start as too many mentors may mean you are not able to execute fast enough on the advice.

Arrangement with mentors can be on a fee basis, equity basis, or a mix of both. 

To find a mentor, you first need to think of your expectations from the person. You may require different mentors at different points in your journey. Linkedin is a great place to start your mentor research. You can reach out with a sincere message seeking help. You will get it often.