Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan is a co-founder & Partner at Upekkha, a SaaS Accelerator where he has worked with over 100 early stage startups.
In the dynamic and cluttered B2B SaaS world, an exceptional product that your customer falls in love with is the key differentiator. However, creating a product that wows your customers and keeps them hooked is extremely tough for early-stage founders. What helps is understanding your desired buyer persona and creating a product that solves their biggest pain points. Each problem statement and product is unique, so it’s crucial to take the time to find the right approach.
Having interacted with hundreds of founders, I have learned a few essential product lessons. Here’s how you can build a product your customer wants to keep buying.
1. Talk to customers, competitors, and others.
The secret to building a successful SaaS product lies in communicating with the other stakeholders of your ecosystem. For instance, talking to customers in your ICP (Ideal Customer Persona) lets you understand whether the problem exists for a more significant audience segment. It also enables you to comprehend the customer’s pain points better. Moreover, it can be a facilitator for building customer loyalty and establishing trust.
Just like talking to customers, talking to your competitors can unlock a new perspective for you. They can provide valuable insights into your business model’s shortcomings. These insights can help you refine your product and strategies and differentiate your product. You can identify gaps in the market and see how they position themselves.
While your customers and competitors are top-tier entities, engaging with other stakeholders, such as employees, or investors, is equally imperative. Possessing all the knowledge required to run a successful and sustainable startup is nearly impossible. It is always wise to lean on people with a more in-depth knowledge of the subject. They can help you understand what is working for your product and what isn’t. By tapping into their expertise, you can identify opportunities and risks you may have missed.
2. Prioritize a high value, frequently occurring problem.
While being the one true hero for all the evils is a dream, even Batman has limitations. Committing to solving one critical and frequent customer problem for a significant amount of time can be a great decision. It will enable you to concentrate on and fully comprehend a single issue.
By prioritizing a single problem, you can differentiate yourself and establish yourself as a domain expert. You can develop lasting ties with your clients. However, choosing the right problem to solve is a crucial aspect. Analyze and solve problems with a more extensive base that aligns with your vision and capabilities. Ultimately, the success of this approach relies on a continuous commitment to delivering the best solution.
3. Explicitly position products to avoid category faults.
When selling, how people perceive your product is crucial. Effective product positioning can help a startup differentiate itself from its competitors and effectively communicate its value proposition. It can help the startup establish its brand identity, build a strong reputation in the market and gain a competitive edge.
Identifying the accurate positioning can feel like a confusing puzzle. However, by adhering to some fundamentals, this task can be simplified. To determine the appropriate position, you should consider two key factors: category and differentiation of the product. To determine the optimal category, select a descriptor that is familiar to your ideal customer profile. Overall, a narrow positioning can help you establish a strong presence in the market and avoid losing out on sales.
4. Design to delight and reduce time to wow moments.
One of the critical factors in ensuring customer retention is to make your product a habit. It can help you retain customer loyalty and reduce churn rates. The more frequently customers use your product, the more likely they will incorporate it into their daily routine. Therefore, you should identify your customer’s everyday problems and offer an accurate solution.
You must understand your customer’s behavior to make your product a habit. This requires understanding your customer’s preferences and lifestyle patterns. You also need to understand your competitor’s product to differentiate your product and give better value. By understanding all these verticals, you can create a product integral to their routine. This will, in turn, lead to higher ARR (Annual Return on Revenue), and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Iterate, rinse, and repeat. You won’t get it right the first time.
Many roadblocks hinder the journey to success, and it is essential to remain flexible and adaptable. The early days of any startup are characterized by experimentation and uncertainty. It is not uncommon for the product to undergo significant changes in the early stages. Often at this point, you’ll truly understand your product’s value and how it addresses customer needs. Continuously seek feedback and remember numbers have power. Consider an iteration if a larger segment points out the same problem in your product.
Having said that, product development changes require a larger resource pool. You should only allocate the resources if you are sure about their ability to spur growth and customer satisfaction. It is crucial to balance being open to feedback and making strategic decisions that align with your long-term vision. Therefore, it is essential to remain adaptable but wise to stay relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace.
Final Word
If you don’t understand who you are building for, then what you create will be like a painting for the blind. Knowing customers deeply through direct conversation (at least 50), talking to competitors (at least 20) and stakeholders to understand how customers make buying decisions will help shape a great product.
Narrow positioning makes it easy to message them to customers and not waste sales cycles. Designing wow moments and ensuring repeat usage creates the opportunity for the product to be sticky and improve retention to negative levels. A pivotal muscle to build as a product leader is patiently going through several iterations of this cycle.
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