What's the most important lesson you've learned about building a successful product?
Aizhan Asanbaeva
56 replies
Are you a product builder? Come share your insights on the most important lesson you've learned about building a successful product. Let's learn from each other! 🤝
Replies
Erkin Bek@erkin_bek
I certainly haven't learned my lesson yet, but I'm looking for an outlet :) how to find it, where to look, what to do :) if there are answers, hint
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@erkin_bek we're all with ya! That's why Product Hunt is such an amazing source!
Still have tons to learn, but so far I've learned that it's important to think in the future but build in baby steps. If you think to far ahead while actually building you can skip important details, and overwhelm yourself because the end result feels so far away.
@michael_lowndes Thanks for sharing! I agree, balancing future thinking with incremental steps is key. It helps avoid skipping important details and feeling overwhelmed. What specific baby steps have been most helpful in your journey?
@asanbaevazhan A good example would be that we have a large number in mind of where we think our user base needs to grow to. However, to start we've taken some really small and simple steps like setting up social channels, joining the right communities, and building relationships with influencers in our space. This obviously isn't enough to achieve our larger goal, but it does help us build momentum and get some small wins on the board. Hope this helps!
One of the most important lessons I've learned about building a successful product is the significance of customer-centricity. It's crucial to deeply understand the needs, pain points, and preferences of your target audience. By actively listening to customer feedback, conducting user research, and iterating based on their insights, you can create a product that truly solves their problems and delivers value.
100% @adith_168! It never stops amazing me how much people are willing to share and guide if we're willing to listen. Building this relationship has been integral to seeing opportunities I would have never seen on my own.
@adith_168 Spot on!⚡ Customer-centricity is key. Building a successful product means understanding and addressing their needs for real impact. Thanks for sharing!
Know when to stop, if our idea and hypothesis doesn't work. And, start over it again. Those are the most priceless learning curve of being product builder
@ammanahalfian Absolutely! Recognizing when to pivot and start anew is a valuable lesson in the product-building journey. It's through these experiences that we gain invaluable insights and continue to grow ⚡
Use organic marketing strategies like SEO, building in public, social media, etc.. Focus more on linear slow growth to build your audience and nurture them instead of focusing on new customers
Launching soon!
Tech is your major cost but has no value. Only the product and more broadly your product offer matters for the user. So you should build your tech to be super modular, and be ready to pivot your product offer (messaging + pricing + branding + product ui/frontend) very often until it takes off.
@severin__ You nailed it! While technology is a significant cost, its true value lies in the product and overall offering for the user. By building modular tech and being open to pivoting product elements frequently, we can increase our chances of success and find the winning formula. Thank you for sharing!
You can't do everything everywhere all at once.
Don't build/test anything without having the user (potential or actual)
as the cornerstone of your process.
Meaning that you should have an opened communication channel with users at all time.
If you don't have that, you should spend all your energy on finding ways to get it.
you can not be right all the time , so keep going 😀
Snehe Nair
- Don't fall into the fun of design and building, test and learn to see if there's a market and need. Otherwise it's not a product, it's a hobby.
- Keep your overhead small (tech stack, service stack, process, etc) so you can pivot as learnings come in.
- Not comfortable selling? Get over it :-) your product depends on your voice. The stronger the voice, the bigger the audience the greater, the chance your product has to thrive.
@venessa_perez Great advice! Testing and validating market need is crucial before diving deep into design and building. Keeping overhead small allows for agility in pivoting based on learnings. And embracing sales and developing a strong voice maximizes the product's chances to thrive. Thank you for sharing!
Shared understanding and communication are pivotal. Taking the time to address and elaborate on tasks, scope, and changes make a world of difference. Don’t assume “well this is obvious”, or “I’m sure everyone on the team knows this.”
@beardedparagon Absolutely! Clear communication and fostering shared understanding are key. Taking the time to address tasks, scope, and changes prevents assumptions and ensures everyone is on the same page for better outcomes. Thank you for sharing!
Everything takes 3x the amount of time in your plan.
@diana_iun it gets better if what you’re dealing with is simply the implementation of an idea that is well understood. But, if there is innovation involved (meaning you need new ways of solving a problem) then I think 3x of a padded eval period still stands.
building a successful product? it's an art and a science, a dance between vision and reality.
my biggest lesson has been to fall in love with the problem, not the solution. this keeps you nimble, open to pivot when needed. your solution may change, but the problem you're solving remains the anchor.
listening is key. users may not always know what they want, but their feedback, their pain points, are nuggets of wisdom. observe, engage, empathize. they're not just users, they're co-creators of your journey.
then there's simplicity. in an era of feature glut, less can indeed be more. value isn't about packing in features, but making the user's life easier, better. simplicity isn't just aesthetic, it's functional.
finally, remember the human behind the screen. every click, every swipe, is a human seeking to fulfill a need, a desire. don't just build for users, build for people. weave in empathy, emotion, experiences.
building a product is like growing a garden. it requires patience, care, and a lot of love. but the bloom, the harvest, is worth every effort. happy gardening!
I don't have a successful product under my belt just yet but I do have a number of failed products. The only advise I can give is to get it out there as soon as possible and listen. No matter how much of an innovation you think your product will solve it means nothing if there are no customers willing to try it and potentially pay for it (if this is your goal)
Find the killing feature, focus on this and that will drive your growth
Far from being able to say it's successful, but the biggest learning while building https://kloudmate.com is that all the Product Marketing I thought I'd mastered in corporate work life, had to be 'unlearnt' so I could re-adjust to a new ICP (developers) and learn newer ways to approach and market at them.
I think is the idea to share real value to users. Not just write content because we want to catch emails, not ads because we want the people to click but just the idea of SHARE VALUE. Try to ask your users how you can help them and give them value, give answers to more waste of time or useless information.
To build a successful product you will first need to understand your customer's needs, market gap and build a product that meets those needs while keeping it simple and user friendly. You also need to be willing to iterate quickly and constantly improve the product based on customer feedback.