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By Gomati Garware – Head of Product Management, TraceLink
What is a product? It is a contract between a buyer and a seller. A product can be a software, a commodity or even a service. In today’s IT world, people usually assume that the product industry and service industry are different. A service is also a product. Let us clarify this further with the help of an example. Companies like Swiggy, Big Basket, Zepto, etc. provide services for groceries, food, etc. Even though we are calling these services, they still fall under the category of products. There is a certain contract between us and them. We provide them with our information and give them money, in return for which they give us their service. So the product is actually helping serve the company to give us the deliverables.
A successful product involves having a good product vision. These include certain necessary short-term and long-term parameters that should be taken into account while building a new product. This article discusses these parameters in detail.
Whenever product leaders identify product problems in the market, they should always consider whether the solutions that they come up with are actually worth the investment. The confidence to make such decisions comes after strategically analyzing market dynamics, customer base and competitive landscape. This helps them ensure that the solutions they come up with are actually aligned to the company’s short and long-term goals.
It is crucial for product managers to assess the technological infrastructure and talent pool within the organization. They need to ensure that there is a sufficient number of tech professionals who are skilled in utilizing emerging technologies to solve product problems.
Product leaders need to be able to understand whether the product will survive in the evolving market. It is crucial for them to keep it clear in their mind whether they are building a long-term product which will stay in the market for long, or if they are building a short-term, temporary product which they want to work on for only for a short period.
To understand the importance of targeting a particular market to attain maximum profit, let us take an example of a manufacturing industry- car manufacturing. You must have observed that the production process and selling of cars slightly changes whenever there is a change in the taxation policies.
Identifying the right market helps product leaders in focussing their marketing efforts to ensure that the product reaches a focussed group of people, which leads to higher profit generation and building a loyal customer base.
Building a product from scratch is a long and tedious job. It requires all possible resources, money and time to build a good product. But even after that, the idea might fail. One major reason behind why this frequently happens is that the product leader fails to ensure that their vision is aligned with the investing company’s vision.
It is very important for them to not simply bring up a product which probably works for them or their target market, but does not align at all with the leadership that is going to invest in you. Your stakeholders should be able understand your product vision properly in order to invest in your business.
A good product vision acts as a guiding force behind successful product development. It includes important considerations such as the worthiness of an identified product problem for investment, importance of technology and talent pool, sustainability of the solution, strategic market targeting, and alignment with the company’s vision.
By strategically addressing these factors, product leaders can easily navigate the path of a successful product development.
Product vision defines why a particular product exists, what problems it solves, who it serves, and how it is different from other products in the competitive landscape.
Identifying the right market helps product leaders in focussing their marketing efforts to ensure that the product reaches a focussed group of people, which leads to higher profit generation and building a loyal customer base.
Important elements of good product vision are the worthiness of an identified product problem for investment, importance of technology and talent pool, sustainability of the solution, strategic market targeting, and alignment with the company’s vision.
About the Author:
Gomati Garware – Head of Product Management, TraceLink
