I was reading an e-mail from a friend a couple of days ago, and he threw out a great piece of advice that I wanted to share here on this blog.  My friend and I are working feverishly on getting an informational website up and running.  He’s working on the technical side (without which, I’d be nowhere), and I’m working on the content side. 

In an e-mail exchange, we were talking about the framework for the site and what kinds of components it should include.  My friend is an entrepreneur, and he has his own company.  So he has extensive experience in product creation.

The Myth Of The Perfect Product 

During the e-mail exchange, he wrote the following statement that resonated strongly with me:

“One thing I’ve learned with my products is don’t try to create the ‘perfect’ product out of the box because (1) you have no idea whether anyone will use it and (2) you will spend a lot of time with potentially no return.  I prefer to get something up there and see where the users take us.”

This advice can be applied to any process in which you’re creating a product.  I’ve heard of people who spend hours, days, months, etc., trying to create the most perfect product that they think will make them money.  That method, however, often fails.

But why??  How can so much work and so much effort on a product fail?   

Perfect ProductLet The Market Determine Your Product

The key to creating any product is understanding the market for that product.  If there’s no market, there’s no product.  I’ve written before on how to create a product.  Simply put, it begins with the market.  You have to figure out what market you’re targeting and what that market needs.  Only then do you create your product.

In our case (with this informational website), we have a good idea of what market we’re targeting, but he understands that even that is not guaranteed.  Thus, while a significant amount of work should be put into the product itself (or, in our case, the website), that shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all.  Just as much effort should be thrown into getting your product out into the market and evaluating how it performs.

It doesn’t matter if our website doesn’t look perfect or isn’t running without any glitches.  The idea is to see how users will respond to it.  User response (and not our isolated brains) is our only true indication of the website’s potential.   

By “testing” your product and seeing how the market responds to it, you will know instantly whether that product will succeed.  If it doesn’t perform well, it’s not necessarily a failure.  You can identify the mistakes, weaknesses, etc., and go back to the drawing board and correct them.

This trial-and-error approach is the only fool-proof way of determining whether you have a product that actually sells.  Don’t be afraid of throwing your product out there and seeing what happens.       

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