How do you come up with ideas for new features (products)?
Sveta Bay
83 replies
We're all different. For some people, coming up with new ideas (products) is a system. For others - inspiration.
Let's share the experience 👀
Replies
David Sarlos@david_sarlos
Hi Sveta, good question, and I think discussions with users should be the key to lean (on).
Prospects are very good at pointing out future features, yet existing clients (and the team, ofc) should be deciding what to prioritise based on the value proposition of your product.
As a PM, this always brings new features to my focus. So many of them actually, that we internally refer to the "myth of the missing feature" as we are always one more feature away from the product being ready for a public launch.
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@david_sarlos love thus answer. An especially love the reasoning behind. Thank you for sharing, David!
Hey Sveta!
Personally ideas come to my mind whenever I encounter problems in my life, that's my biggest source.
@flavio_li_volsi Does this happen only for software or hardware too?
@ionelvlad it usually happens with software since I'm a software dev, but from time to time I get hardware ideas too (but I don't pursue them since they're too much overhead)
Hi! I find talking to customers directly very insightful. Of course, there are different customers, but this is a great feedback channel if you know who your ICP is and whom to talk to.
Also using your own product on a daily basis is also helpful :)
@valerii_androshchuk Yes, customers are a great source for innovation. Their problem should be base of our innovation. Moreover, I find new ideas randomly like while walking in my locality or garden, etc.
Sometimes everything is in the front of your eyes but you cannot just see, I believe!
Gathering feedback helps a lot, and I also like to examine the problem and its potential causes systematically to come up with solutions for them instead of going only with creativity and inspiration
Look at your competitors and see what they are offering. Would your target market benefit from those features? If so, design a specific flow that your target market will love.
I would start there and then move on to more cutting edge features
I get product ideas from:
- Customer Feedback: Listening to them or via surveys
- Product Analytics: Using tools like hotjar to check heatmaps
- Market Research: To understand the trends and user behavior
- Competition: See what they are doing and how to improve
Our ideas come from our community:
1. Our community suggests features
2. We consolidate the suggestions into votable options
3. We prioritize the most requested features and plan them quarterly
Here's our roadmap: https://www.formaloo.com/en/road...
It is kind of easy.
For new features of existing projects - talk to your existing customers or, at least, listen to their support requests.
For new product ideas - just keeps your eyes open. Any inconvenience or a feature in another product that doesn't work as expected or missing is an opportunity for a new project.
An example, I got tired of just uploading all my travel pics to Google photos because it gives you no way to display the trip on the map, add comments to individual photos or days etc. So I decided to build my own https://pictur.app/. I know that this product will make at least one person happy, me.
By listening to complaints of customers
Hey, I think the best way to come up with new feature ideas is to find out the problems that people are facing.
The more problems you find, the more ideas you will have for new features.
Fortunately, they just arrive on their own, all too often and with great frequency. It's a blessing and a curse. Staying focused, 1 at a time is more important, currently.
Hey Sveta, there are many things you can do to get ideas for new products/features, I'll mention some of the most popular methods:
1. Look at your competition. What do they do that you think could be improved or changed?
2. Think about what your customers are asking for. What do they need that you can provide?
3. Keep your eyes and ears open. What are the latest trends in your industry? What are people talking about on social media? What are the latest developments in technology?
I tend to fixate on the first method because an essential aspect (validation) would've been satisfied.
I believe that it's more or less a mix of both system and inspiration. At some point, all of us are inspired with an idea for a new product but only a system helps to push it closer to reality. At the end, it's about if the idea is worth all the process. The struggle of realization that the idea was not so smart after all and then creating a more mature product.
As a starting point, identifying the problem areas for customers is a good way to zero in on the features you want to change or replace alltogether.
And if everything is amazing with your product (which is never really their case):
Just Google, "Latest consumer technology" and you will find a goldmine of ideas to inspire yours.
I think you can brainstorming sessions with your product development and sales team can help you in coming up with creative and unique product ideas. Creative, interesting and original ideas should be considered even if they require a lot of hard work. After the brainstorming session, analyze the ideas generated and plan further on the ones that are workable.
Great question! I always start with market research to spot what's trending. Asking colleagues and customers is also a good idea. Some other personal tips include:
- browsing popular consumer marketplaces
- following influencers and industry leaders
- following product discovery platforms
I usually listen to the complaints from users from our competitive products
- Competitor Research
- User Interviews
- Personal Aspirations/Org Mission Statement
- Technology Trends
we as humans always have ideas to solve problems and run things in their own way to make things simple and work easly...to make it possible by understanding such requirements will always enables to introduce new features.
