Products is product or service.
New ideas - We are bombarded with new ideas all the time. But is it a good one? In this post, we look at product ideas that are worth exploring or killing off.
Firstly, any idea is worth exploring, until you start working on it. That's when you know a new idea sucks. What model do we use to consider?
The most important question is when it's out there, do people really want it?
Quantify the volume and value.
Volume, how many people do you think wants this?
At low volume, you'll probably spend an awful lot of time seeking people who want it. Read Fundamental of Marketing.
Value, e.g. Fixing a ceiling fan. If they were to do it themselves, how much would it cost them? Man hour + tools + expertise.
Everything has its value.
The equation is Volume x Value.
Where does it fit your line of products?
Sony is one of those companies who'd try to beat the ordinary. Here's one weird invention which doesn't fit in their product line (not in music, computing, camera, gaming).
Apple is notoriously good at making adjacent products.
First, it launched the hardware and software (iPhone + iOS), then the AppStore, then the storage (iCloud). Which made an ecology.
Once you're in Apple's ecology, it's very difficult to escape. They will tie you down with your own data (or at least make it difficult to switch).
Another way to look at it is, will my current customers buy it from me?
Finally, are you good at it?
We can roll out MVP, but if it's barely good. You are likely to fail. Take a cue from Zune (Microsoft) which aim to be an iPod killer.
Microsoft tried to sell it for 5 years before calling quits, losing $289 million in the process from 2006 to 2011.
In Zune's defence, it was actually a good MP3 player. What Microsoft failed to see were the upcoming smartphones. Why would anyone carry 2 devices, when a smartphone was good enough?
While it's easy to come up with new ideas, killing them before it starts may save you money, effort and time.
Here's an idea, put it on a table.
| Market | Adjacent | Deliverables | Score | |
| Web Design (current product) | 8 | - | 10 | - |
| SEO | 9 | 10 | 5 | 22 |
| Performance Ads | 9 | 8 | 3 | 20 |
| Design Training | 7 | 5 | 5 | 17 |
| Chat System | 6 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Cosmetics | 7 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
We can clearly see what I can and should not deliver. I'm not cut out to sell cosmetics no matter how appealing the market is.
(Some would argue that you don't have to be good at it, you can outsource it. We'll save that for another time).
Spend 10% of the total time on thinking and making decision.
- Ultralearning, Scott Young
