NEWS
Dear Entrepreneur, Avoid This As You Launch Your New Product
You have created a really brilliant product [you thought]. You begin a journey to present it to selected (potential) Nigerian customers. They see the product, and in different ways remind you what you should do next. In other words, what you have not done at the moment. Magically, they shift the goal post with minimal acknowledgement of what you have actually done. We do this a lot in the land.
Your initial goal was not for people to tell you what should come next. You had expected to get people to pay for the product so that small revenue would come in. If you fanatically listen to those customers, you would be in a real problem. You would never finish that product because in this age, no product is ever finished.
Always remember that they are still developing Facebook, and if Mark Zuckerberg and friends have waited to “finish” Facebook, it would never be launched.
Sure, while it is good to listen to “pre-market customers”, know when to shut down the noise. Yes, switch off the noise and forget the reviews. Note that even if you make those improvements and return, most of those customers would not buy. It does happen.
You have visited a government agency. The end result is that the product needs to be massively improved for it to be considered. No one is interested in supporting it at the present state. You begin the scramble to raise further capital to upgrade the product. You make it back to the agency only to note the agency has no immediate need for that solution. Now, you have a real problem!
I have noted how Steve Jobs avoided the noise through perception demand construct. We certainly do not share his peerless mind. But there is a lesson there: if you focus on satisfying every comment on your product, you would never have a product especially in Nigeria. My suggestion is to focus on people who are paying for the “current product” in the form you have launched it. Yes, the product you have now as it is. Focus on them and find ways to get more to buy. Sure, you can reduce the price knowing that as improvements arrive, price can move north.
The Perception Demand Construct is a construct where you work on things which are not really evident to be in demand. Yet you go ahead to create that product. The demand may not be existing but you are confident you can stimulate it. Yes, you do believe that your product can elicit demand and grow the sector when launched. This is different from existing demand which could be met via starting a web hosting company or selling light bulbs where you know people actually need those services.
It makes sense to get the perspectives of customers but know when to cut-out the elongation of quality. The construct of MVQ is not in this age for nothing. Yes, beware of the trap of having a perfect product at launch.
A product Minimum Viable Quality (MVQ) is that version of a new product which allows a team to sell the maximum amount of products to customers with the least effort and at the best optimized price even when delivering value. That is where you need to build as you launch your product, and even at product maturity, do not deviate from it.
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