What's the most important lesson you've learned about building a successful product?

Aizhan Asanbaeva
54 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

Severin Marcombes
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.
Aizhan Asanbaeva
@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!
Pranab Buragohain
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.
Ruben Lozano
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.
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
Venessa Perez
@erkin_bek we're all with ya! That's why Product Hunt is such an amazing source!
Mark Pavlyukovskyy
Solving a real problem for your customers is the key lesson I've learned. Create something that truly matters to them, and success will come knocking on your door.
Boris Rieunier
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.
Aizhan Asanbaeva
@borisr You're absolutely right! Having the user as the cornerstone of the process is crucial. Open communication channels and actively seeking user input should always be a priority to ensure a successful product. Thank you for sharing!
Elias Fares
I'm a Product Designer and I've worked at 5+ different start ups that built and launched successful products. I'd say the biggest lesson is that you will find the right features to build from outside your company, not within it. That is to say, talk to your users/customers/target audience. Don't sit in team meetings and guess what your users want. Then go out and test your assumptions and validate them.
Chaitanya Badave
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.
Bud Broesky
i’ve learned that my procrastinating in school has turned into a massive gift in building product. instead of spending months internally coming up with ideas and building… i cram and get an MVP out the door as fast as possible, then listen to the feedback i get… and iterate forward based on it. you’ll end up finding the right solution to your target problem faster that way, rather than spending months on R&D, and wasting money trying to “get it perfect” the first time.
Imran Razak
Focus on the problem, hold the solution lightly and always keep an open mind when starting to develop something that you may have to go back to the drawing board again and again but question why because it may beam underlying issue itself.
Dennis Zax
As a person who loves development I have made the mistake of getting addicted to the implementation and neglecting the business/marketing side. While our system was really good it was overenginnered and a lot of it we ended up not needing after actually getting customers. Now I know to follow the Lean startup method and minimize the implementation, but focus on the sales and finding PMF before developing an extensive backend
Dennis Zax
Also the Sunken Cost Fallacy, at some point your product is doomed and it’s hard to admit it as you’ve put so much time into it. The mistake is to keep working on it and being in denial
Vimal Kutmutia
My previous product failed, coz I didn’t give enough importance to marketing. Thought the customer would just come and buy the product. The reality is different.
Alexandre Duffaut
Find the killing feature, focus on this and that will drive your growth
Umar Saif
We don’t always stick to the initial plan till the end.
Simon Peter Damian
FlashApply
FlashApply
Launching soon!
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)
Tra Dao
Our product has just got 1000 users and the most important lesson is that you must be consistent with what you decided at first 😎
amanah alfian
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
Aizhan Asanbaeva
@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 ⚡
Venessa Perez
- 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.
Aizhan Asanbaeva
@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!
Launching soon!
that building is just 30% of effort needed and promoting is where most of the creators fail. speaking from experience 🥲