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  • What qualities does a product need to have in order to be viable?

    Ryan Yu
    6 replies

    Replies

    Eliza Crescini
    Hmm, this is a good question. Let me share my 2 cents :) 1. Solves a real problem. 2. Is easy to use. 3. Provides value. 4. Is well-designed. 5. Is reliable. 6. Is affordable. 7. Is marketable.
    Beep! - New Era for Collaboration⚡️
    Just for context, I'm a CMO of an SaaS Startup that got selected to take part in this year's TechCrunch as well as the 500 Global's Accelerator Program. Here are some tips: 1. Most important: A big enough market that has a need for your offering (or, if it's small, one that is able & willing to pay a lot - depends on how niche or wide your target market is). The bigger the pain point it solves for people, the better. 2. Do you have competitors? If you do, then your product should either be focused on serving an underserved niche in that market, or should offer a better solution than the market leaders. If you don't have any competitors - check again to confirm. If not, then you'll need to virtually create a market from scratch. 3. Profit-margin. What price or pricing strategy are you going for? If you are going for a competitor-oriented pricing and matching their prices - can you offer those prices and survive for the long term? You can also implement premium pricing (charging high like Apple does) but you have to consider how to justify this through your marketing and product efforts. 4. It should be easy to explain in a simple tagline or headline. (Trust me, this would save you time and effort in the future having to pitch your idea or market it to others across various channels). 5. Scalable. Whereby your operational costs do not increase with every new user. Costs should either decrease to give you more profit (from, for example, economies of scale) or remain the same. 6. Conduct research on potential users. Get people's opinion. I recommend reading "The Mom Test". It's a great resource to get you started in soliciting feedback for products. Ultimately, your market is the ultimate judge of viability. 7. (If you're seeking investment or seed capital) At times it's less about the product, and more about the team. No matter how great a product idea is, if the people behind its execution lack the capabilities, it won't scale as fast - if at all. There are countless more, but these are the foundational ones. Hope it helps :)
    Clyde Garrett
    @rockyperezz These are very in-depth and helpful tips. Experience talks!
    Shajedul Karim
    hey, for a product to be viable: 1. it needs to solve a real pain. 2. make sure there's demand. 3. keep it user-friendly. 4. think sustainability. 5. adapt to feedback. 6. and yeah, stay consistent. hope that helps. cheers.