2023-12-01 08:37:56
When you first launch a startup, you, along with your small initial team, can build something incredible from the ground up, and that’s because you’re all intimately connected to the company’s vision.
But as your company grows in number of employees, maintaining that connectivity becomes a little more difficult. When all employees are aligned with the company vision and culture, and truly understand the value of the product they are creating, that is when you have amazing impact.
Connecting to your company, connecting to your product
Your company and your product are totally codependent: one cannot exist without the other.
The development and evolution of a product is greatly influenced by the company’s culture, vision and core values. When teams within a company feel connected to their main goals, they are more motivated, committed and creative.
A positive company culture is one of the most important things you can create. Understanding company culture fosters a sense of purpose and drive among employees. You give your workforce a roadmap to help them direct their actions, aligning them toward a common goal. This alignment not only improves the product development process, but also creates a positive and empowering work environment where creativity thrives.
This is important from day one. That’s why you should personally take the time to meet with all of your new employees as part of the onboarding process to discuss the company’s values and mindset.
Know the competition
To create a product that stands out in the market, it is crucial to fully understand the competition. Getting a sense of the visions and cultures of similar companies can offer valuable insight into their strategies and focus areas. By doing so, you will be able to identify your company’s unique advantage and really focus on areas where improvements can be made to better serve your users. It is important to not only meet industry standards, but knowing your competitors will also allow you to go above and beyond.
Using competitive analysis to map industry standards, help set benchmarks and strategize the unique selling proposition; This understanding also positions your company to develop the best possible product for the user. When you launch a new product, subscription tier, or feature, work with your teams to first do a competitive analysis and drill down into the value proposition.
Understand the user
Look at user comments. Getting to know your users closely is one of the best ways to stay connected with your product. It’s important to look at the user and their experience from all angles: needs, pain points, workflow, and skill level. By doing so, you can adapt your products to provide real solutions and even exceed customer expectations.
To help understand the user better, delving into the voice of the customer is one of the most valuable and insightful ways to guide product development. User surveys and sentiment analysis allow you to collect feedback directly from your customers, allowing you to measure customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Customer service interactions are also an invaluable source of information. Analyzing customer service data can reveal recurring problems and pain points that users experience. This information allows you to proactively address issues and encourage greater customer loyalty.
Lastly, A/B testing is a powerful tool that helps compare different versions of a product to determine which resonates best with users. Through A/B testing, you can make data-driven decisions and continually improve your products based on user preferences.
Direct interaction with users and collecting real-time feedback ensures that the user and the delivery of the best possible product are at the center of all decisions. A customer-driven approach builds trust and loyalty.
Become your own client
To fully understand every last detail of your product, employees must not only think like customers, but become them.
By using the product like your customers do, teams get first-hand information about its features, flow, and user experience. This exercise allows employees to identify potential obstacles, adjust the product to improve the user experience, know which features are most useful, how best to market the product, etc.
Ultimately, your product and your organization are mutually inclusive: to have the best product on the market, your company must have the clearest understanding of why it does what it does, who it is for, and feel personally connected. By emphasizing the importance of aligning goals and making customer-driven decisions, both your organization and your product will feed off each other and thrive.
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