Nobody cares about your product (or service)

A 5-3-1 is a strategic planning framework that works through 5 questions:

1. What's the problem you're solving?

2. Who's the customer that you're solving it for?

3. What's your solution?

4. What's the right strategic positioning?

5. What's the plan and execution to get there?

You know what problem you're solving, and who you’re solving it for, now we can talk about the favorite topic of most CEOs: their product or service. 

Note: This post won’t help you with better UX or feature design.  It will help you ensure that your product is truly aligned strategically now and going forward so that it can do more of the heavy lifting to drive growth.

Problem/Customer -> Product vs Product ->Problem/Customer

Everyone loves to talk about their product or service. It's the thing that they do. It's their baby. It's what they’ve focused on for the longest time. It's also the place where the greatest risk is created for any business. Let me explain. You built a product (or service), and it's amazing, it's fantastic, and you spent all this time and energy building it, and you’re proud of it.  Unfortunately, nobody cares about your product (or service).  I don't mean to be harsh, but the point is that potential customers don't care which product or service they're using. They have a problem, and they want that problem solved. So, if your product or service is the way for them to solve that problem, then they'll be all over it. If it isn’t, regardless of how amazing the solution is, it is way tougher to sell.

You can start with the problem and customer and then align your product to those elements, or you can start with the product that you believe has real utility and then point it to a target customer and problem.  These approaches may seem like they are the same, but they aren’t.  Your entire approach to building the right solution changes when you start with the problem and customer in mind.  It’s a paradigm shift but one that can yield much stronger results long term.

it's with that in mind that companies create the best strategic formulas, the strategies that break through because they are fully aligned when they begin with the problem and the customer versus from the point of view of their product.

Three Critical Product Questions

Ok, so let’s assume you’re clear about your problem and customer.  I know this post is titled “Nobody cares about your product” but, having said that, obviously your product is extremely important, and you need to get it right.  You've already invested a lot of time and energy into it and it is great. Let's go through the 3 critical questions you have to answer to develop a strategy around your product:

1.        What does it do?

2.        How does it solve the problem?

3.        How does it do that better than competition?

The answers will provide you with the clarity on the core of your product, how to position it and where to focus going forward with your product roadmap.

What does it do?

This one is pretty obvious but no less important.  Here’s your opportunity to describe the product, and all of its capabilities.  Is it hardware or software or a service or data or a process, etc?   Know what you are first.  I’ve seen products referred to as software when the product is actually the data that comes out of the software.  The software itself is fine but the data is what customers are actually buying so knowing your customer is essential.

Sometimes we get too close to our own things so make sure to really flesh this out and get as much detail as you can about the product or service.  Here are some questions that we cover in a 5-3-1 that you may want to ask to drive that conversation:

·      What business are we in?

·      What does the product (or service) do?

·      What is it exceptionally good at?

·      What's the wow factor?

·      What's the product or service not good at?

·      What are we not good at (knowing your own weaknesses is critical too)?

How does it solve the problem?

Now take the details you’ve laid out from the first question and be specific about how it solves the problem that your customer has.  What we’re trying to do here is tightly link the product to the problem.  Don’t be general.  The clearer you are about how you solve the problem, the easier it will be to understand where you fit in the minds of customers.

For example, if you have CRM software, and the customer problem is not enough leads, you needs your software to help the customer get more leads.  All the features that manage leads and scheduling are nice but they don’t solve the main problem.  

One more thing, it drives me crazy when I see a solution searching for a problem.  I’ve seen it many times and I’ve seen those solutions fail more often than not. 

How does it do that better than competition?

Every company and product strives to be different and better.  What’s important is that you’re better in the areas that matter (or at least an area that matters).    Those companies that start from the product perspective (vs problem/customer) tend to focus on feature or ease of use differences.  But when you take a strategic approach, the question you’re really asking is “how does our product solve the customer’s problem better than competitors?”  That’s true differentiation. 

Here are some additional questions to drive toward differentiation: 

·      How does the product compare versus competition?

·      Who is the competition?

·      What's different, better, worse, etc?  What does it do that other products or services don't?

·      How are you viewed in the market versus them?

·      What would your customers say you're really good at or really not good at?

These questions help to understand and articulate how your product is better and different.  You hope that the wow factor aligns with the problem you’re solving and works particularly well for the customer you’re focused on.   

As you get clearer on what differentiates you, the next step is to build a path that accentuates those differences vs competition – increasing your lead in those areas.  It’s easy to fall victim to adding the features that everyone else has but true strategy compels you to double, triple, quadruple down on the stuff that matters that you’re winning with to maintain that lead.  Some customers will try to push you to add things they want.  You could build that into the product roadmap, but what we're trying to do first is create a really clear understanding of how all these pieces will align and fit together.  If you have a clear strategy that aligns, it’s much easier to make product choices and not be overly influenced by the market around you. 

Here are some questions to ask as you build your roadmap: 

·      What are product table stakes and are they on the roadmap?

·      What do we have to do to maintain our lead in key areas?

·      Where’s the competition heading? Will we still be different/better?

·      How is the market/technology evolving and what are our capabilities to evolve with it?

Next, we’ll go through how to piece together the problem, customer and product to build the ideal strategic positioning.