Test, iterate, repeat.
A free guide to product development for startups.
Market research
Where is the gap in the market? Does your product fill it? Would your potential customers buy it?
There’s only one way to find out and that’s by carrying out market research.
Go through this process early on in your product development process to be sure that you are exploring the right avenue with your idea.
You can use online tools such as the Office for National Statistics and British Library's Business & IP Centre (BIPC) , Google Trends, Statista and AI services like Perplexity AI and Chat CPT to get general market data, but conducting surveys, focus groups, customer observations and interviews are required for more specific feedback.
Competitor analysis
When you’re starting out, discover as much as you can about the industry you want to enter so there are no nasty surprises later on.
Conducting a competitor analysis can help you to find out what’s already on offer, gain further insight into your target market, identify industry trends, see where your business’s strengths and weaknesses lie and set targets for your business.
The more detailed, the better. You might think that your product is of a higher quality or more affordable, but how does your customer service compare, or your packaging?
Competitor analysis can identify the areas where you can develop your business further to help you better target - and serve - your customers.
Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
All products, from software to the physical, should start out as a minimum viable product (MVP). Your MVP is the first and most simplistic version of your product with the minimum features required, that will be used for testing.
The feedback you receive about this initial iteration will inform how it’s developed and improved upon.
So instead of pouring all of your resources into creating a whole range of products, create your MVP, test and improve (again, and again, if necessary) until you’ve nailed it.
Feedback and reviews
Gaining as much feedback and as many reviews as you can about your MVP is crucial for making it the best it can be, so make sure that you’ve got multiple reliable feedback channels in place. Be where your customers are so that it’s easy for them to shout about how fantastic your product is. This includes social media, emails, review sites, customer service interactions and your website. And just as you’re doing with your product, refining what feedback channels you’re using can be helpful.
Don't think what's the cheapest way to do it, or what's the fastest way to do it. Think what's the most amazing way to do it.
Sir Richard Branson