If launching a product was easy, you would probably read this article through your Google search. But there is no universally effective launch plan to follow, and even the most experienced product managers often struggle to launch new products. Achieving the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a balancing act. On the one hand, you want to thoroughly validate potential failure points, but on the other hand, you want to get to market quickly. My goal with this post is not to write a rigid formula that probably won’t work for your unique business – I’ve never been interested in turning art into a science. Instead, I’ll provide some guiding principles to help you feel comfortable taking the plunge. Here are the five most valuable lessons I learned from launching a product.

1. Start before you are ready for launching a product

The nature of building a  product or starting a new business is that you don’t have a lot of information on which to base your decisions. Established products have the luxury of history; their product managers can analyze years of usage data or survey statistically significant groups of existing customers to help them make decisions. On the other hand, new products are a clean slate. But that doesn’t give those of us who build new products a license to improve their validation to market. You still have to do the necessary work to achieve your MVP while launching a product. In other words, you should always talk to users and understand their workflows and pain points as much as possible. You need to ask them how much (and if) they are willing to pay to fix the problem your product intends to fix. And you need to solicit feedback on the prototypes and make changes accordingly.

However, once you are reasonably confident that your product is delivering value to your market, launch it.

Too many entrepreneurs and product managers wait until their product is absolutely “perfect” before putting it in front of customers. Of course, you naturally want to wow the market with a robust feature set and polished user interface, but waiting to reach “perfection” is a mistake. Getting your product into the hands of real users is precisely how you begin to build your knowledge base. The more time you spend creating functions based on assumptions, the more time you waste rehearsing real user reactions and behavior. For example, when I was on the team that validated the product to become GoToMeeting, we discovered the pain of the complexity and high variable cost of other online meeting solutions. We decided to launch a simpler product that was easier to budget for. It wasn’t about more features. This was to simplify the customer experience and reduce frustration.

2. You don’t build products. You solve frustrations

People don’t buy products because they have X, Y, and Z characteristics; they buy products to help them solve problems. Think about the products you use every day and why you use them. You probably wouldn’t say you like LinkedIn for its news feed algorithm or direct messaging feature. Instead, you would say it helps you find a job or hire talented people. In general, the benefits of using a product matter much more to customers than the specific features and capabilities. Your job as a new product launcher is not to create the best features, but to solve the most important problems. The best part is, if you’re able to effectively fix someone’s problem – whether that means alleviating a pain point in their workflow or helping them get home to their family on time – they’re probably going to forgive you. if the product is lacking in other areas. They will stay with you while you establish the initial kinks because the base value you provide is well worth it.

Lets see the scenario:

For example, when I was on the team that validated the product to become GoToMeeting, we discovered the pain of the complexity and high variable cost of other online meeting solutions. We decided to launch a simpler product that was easier to budget for. It wasn’t about more features. This was to simplify the customer experience and reduce frustration. Lots of startups fail because they lack money. The way to get around this trap is to focus on the problem first. Invest in understanding the context in which your potential customers will use your product. What’s the most frustrating part of their day? What motivates them? What does it mean for them to have a good week/month/year? Find a strong pain point that people are willing to pay to fix this problem, and develop those additional features only after collecting your first user tests.

3.All experience is the product. while launching a product

Another common mistake that product managers and entrepreneurs make is to focus only on the application itself, instead of looking at the product holistically. A customer’s impression of your product isn’t limited to the time spent on the app. The customer experience begins the moment they click on one of your ads or find their way to your marketing website, and extends to the interactions they have with your support and sales teams. It is important to consider the customer experience as a whole. Each element of the customer journey represents an opportunity for innovation and differentiation from your competitors. Differentiators don’t always have to be featured; they can be a single pricing model, a fast onboarding experience, or superior customer support. When you launch a  product, take the time to understand the entire ecosystem around it. There are probably areas of the user experience that can be simpler and more efficient. For example, how can you make it easier to find and buy your product? And what about the way you talk about your product in demos and on the marketing site? Are you clearly communicating the value proposition?

4. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Often times, we avoid testing new ideas because we think we already have the answers. “This obviously won’t work,” we say to ourselves. Established businesses are particularly to blame for this. They have thousands of customers who use a certain product feature, so they think it must be a good feature. Or their current pricing model has brought a lot of sales, so they are convinced that this is the perfect pricing model. No need to try something new, right?

NO, Its False.

You don’t know what you don’t know, and your own assumptions can sometimes be your biggest obstacle to success. An experimental approach can help you overcome blind spots and stay ahead of the competition. New products and start-ups are ideally placed to approach problems with a beginner’s mindset. Make sure to take advantage of this advantage and experiment as much as possible to see what works best. Another problem with assumptions is that they often hold us back from doing any actual work. You may think that customers want the X feature and not the Y feature. Or you may think that message A resonates more strongly than message B. But how can you be sure? Don’t be an armchair product manager. Get out of your building and interview potential clients. Or better yet, take a look at their current processes and working environments. The truth about what will make your product successful is in the world, not in your imagination.

5. Start with the end in mind. while launching a product

Before you dig too deep in the trenches to build a new product, it’s important to determine what you want to achieve. Just building the product and shipping it, or even getting financing, is not in and of itself successful. Think about the type of business you want to have in five or ten years. How are you going to do it? Sit down with your team to discuss your product’s vision and get an agreement on the high-level metrics you will use to assess its performance and guide your future decisions. This doesn’t mean that you need to set detailed statistics on activities and products upfront: you will need real customer data before you can accurately forecast conversion rates, lifespan, monthly active users, etc. . This will help your team stay aligned and motivated after you launch a product. Things are constantly changing in a growing business, and being agile is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean losing focus. Make sure you make changes with clear goals and don’t go blindly.