Understanding Product

Let’s say you’re cooking without understanding your ingredients. You might mix things that don’t go well together, cook something at the wrong temperature, or serve a meal that doesn’t meet anyone’s taste preferences. The result? A dish that no one wants to eat. This is what happens when you start strategising without understanding the product, but we are going to avoid that.

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What are some of the questions you can ask to understand the product better?

1. What is the fundamental need or want that the product is solving for?
   This would be the core benefit of the product at its most basic level. By understanding the core benefits, you can align their messaging and positioning strategies to effectively communicate the product's primary value to users.
2. What are the basic features and functionalities that the product provides?
   This helps you identify the basic features and functionalities that customers expect as a minimum requirement. This knowledge will help you highlight these features that meet users' expectations and differentiate the product.
3. What features are industry standards? What do users expect when they purchase? how are users solving other ways other ways same problem is solved? If it is a new catageory, how else were people solving the problem?
   Here, you need to pay attention to user expectations within the product category. By meeting these expectations, you can build trust and loyalty among users, ensuring that your product is seen as reliable and dependable.
4. What are the features that will exceed customer expectations?
   This level of added value can be the differentiating factor that convinces users to choose your product over another.

These questions align with Kotler's Five Product Levels Model, which helps in understanding the product more comprehensively. But you don't have to stop here. The more you know, the better you can tailor your acquisition strategy to effectively reach your target audience.

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The above questions can also be applied to understanding B2B products as well. Although the specifics of the answers may differ due to the nature of B2B relationships and customer needs.

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So, how to go about getting this information?

1. Using the product atleast 10 times
   Use the product as an actual user would. Go through all the features extensively. Gain insights into the primary value proposition. Use the product in various ways a potential user might. You can even use competing products to see how your product differs. sign up like a new user.
2. Speak to users
   Speak to users, visit the store if the product sells in retail. Understand what people are talking about the product and how they are perceiving it.
3. Secondary research
   Review any available product manuals, technical documents, and user guides to understand the core features and functionalities. Go through reviews on platforms like Google, Amazon, Youtube, and industry-specific sites.
   
   

This section will help whoever is reading this document get a context of your project. Do not just paste the screenshots here; explain your understanding from the research.

Understanding Users

You need to know your users inside out. Understand the problems they are trying to solve by using the product, where they spend their time and money, and everything else that's relevant. The only way to build a sound strategy is by knowing your user. This is not just a skill needed for your projects or capstone, but a life skill in general. And so, like any other skill it will take practice, but let's shoot for the stars, right?

1. Reaching out to users
   Identifying and reaching out to users is the first step in gathering valuable insights. Don't just stick to your GX Slack channel for reaching out, go beyond Slack. Reach out to your family members, friends, colleagues and social media connections.
2. Speaking to users
   Directly interacting with users, observing their behaviour, tone, provides rich qualitative data. And asking random questions about product won't actually help.
3. Data, Observations, and Insights
   What good is talking to users if you don't put them to use? Documenting your findings is essential. It ensures you capture valuable insights and can leverage them in your acquisition strategy.

To nail all the above 3 points and more, you can refer to this guide- Ultimate Guide to User research

Link UD's video

Let's talk B2B

For most B2C solutions, there is just one set of end users. B2B solutions involve multiple users. The one who is buying the product is not one who would be using it. So who do you speak to?

1. Decision Maker- person with the authority to make the final purchasing decision for the product.
   This will help you understand what influences the final purchase.
2. Influencer- An individual who can sway or toward the decision maker's choice
   Speaking to influencers gives you insights into what features or benefits they find most appealing.
3. Blocker- someone who can slow down or stop the purchase because they have concerns or objections.
   This helps you identify and understand any concerns they have. This lets you tackle objections before they become a problem.
4. End user- who use the solution hands-on
   Engaging with end users shows you how the product is actually used.

The background, needs and challenges of each of these four roles are very different from each other, hence the research goals and questions may slightly vary with each role.

In B2C research, we look at the user's life in general, beyond just using the product. But in B2B research, we focus on what they need for their work. B2B solutions are used during work hours to get specific tasks done. While the emotional and social needs from their personal lives are still important, they aren't the main focus when defining user needs. Conversations revolve around their professional background, usual workflows, and current barriers with specific tasks at work.

To make the conversation flow better, use these as anchor points. Instead of the usual ice-breakers, start with questions like, "How does a typical day in your life look?" or "What does your workday usually entail?" This acts as a bridge between the introduction and the more specific questions.

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User calling is the biggest insights generator and absolutely nothing can replace it. Nailing this will help you build actionable proof of work.

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Elevator Pitch for your product

Why would anyone listen to you about your product, don’t we all unanimously hate it when someone tries to sell their product to you. Your Elevator Pitch needs to ensure that the person next to you in that elevator gives you the chance at that 2nd meeting.

The goal is to keep it short yet it should tell the other person all they need to know. You pitch could include a personal greeting, your statement mission, a hook to get their attention, a real time example. The listener should be invested to know more about your product at the end of the pitch and it could look like anything, there are no hard and fast rules, tweak them for your product!

A strong elevator pitch is key—it quickly conveys your value and captures interest.

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Understanding your ICP​

You need to know who your customer are. Everything about them- inside and outside
Great way to do this is segmenting them not only on demographics but also by their behaviour.

There is so much we can explore under this segment:

1. User insights and observation
   Users will not always give you the answers you are looking for, you will have to ask the right set of questions and lead them towards the correct path. You would need to read under the lines and for that to happen you would need to have a crystal understanding of what you want to know and convey the same to your user.
   It is a great idea to have a questionnaire in place and tweak the same for different personas!
   
   Example: You could ask a customer of a coffee brand how often do they drink a coffee from a coffee shop and ask a cafe owner how much of coffee's do they sell in a week?
   Remember not to ask any leading questions because you will always get biased answers!
   
2. Use this table to map down your ICP's in a table format:
   

You could look at some of these Behavioural and Demographic Factors:

(this is not an exhaustive list think more about how your customers are!)

3. Draw a customer journey map
   We could make a story map the customers and discover their pain points and solutions. This could involve following the customers right from the discovery, exploration, selection, purchase, post payment, delivery, customer service.
   This is a great way to get more nuances into the customer journey!
   

Here's some sample ICP's:

(Make sure you present your final selected ICP in a table format)

Danvanth is a 21-year-old intern residing in Chennai with his family. He earns 20K/ month in stipend. He spends around 45 mins every day travelling to his office by bus. During travelling, he consumes a lot of content from OTT, especially Netflix. His typical day consists of him working, travelling and Netflixing. During weekends he spends time playing cricket and helping his family do things. He loves collecting stamps which are his favourite hobby. He started to invest some amount of his stipend in stock markets. He has a credit card since his stipend is not enough for his spending and he is reluctant to get money from his parents. He is review-conscious and buys things online only if his friends and surroundings recommend him to buy them and the price matter to him the most. His comfort wear is t-shirt and sources a lot of t-shirts for his day-to-day casual looks.

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Harini is a 28-year-old cloud engineer residing in Bangalore in a 1BHK apartment. She earns 1.5L/mo. She loves to spend a lot of her girl gang shopping, watching movies and clubbing. Her typical day will have her working out, going to the office and post office parties or movies. She loves dressing up and does styling for her friends. Quality matters to her more than quantity. She does online shopping 5-7 times a year. She is health-conscious and spends a significant amount of time in the gym. Her most used app is Instagram and her feeds are full of fashion, memes, styling and workout. She does shopping on myntra, AJIO, Nykaa and Amazon. She likes to collect sweatshirts and dresses.

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ICP Prioritization Framework:​

All businesses will have multiple customers but it is extremely difficult to make personalized strategies for all and hence we need to prioritize whom to build acquisitions strategy for.

Use this framework to prioritize your ICP's!

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​(nothing can replace this, users are the ultimate guiding lights)

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Understand Market

Imagine you are preparing for a big race. While knowing your own strengths and training regime is crucial, understanding your competitors strategies and strengths can give you the edge you need to win.
The same goes for businesses in a competitive market.

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​Classify yourself as a new product in an existing category or a new product in the new category?

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If you think you know you product category/market try answering these questions:

1. Who are our competitors?
   Identify both direct competitors (those offering similar products) and indirect competitors (those offering different products that meet the same customer needs)
   
2. What differentiates us from our competitors?
   Understand what makes your product unique. Also, analyze the unique selling points of your competitors. What gives us the right to win in this market?
   
3. Who all are your competitors?
   Identify current competitors that pose a significant threat. Also, consider potential future competitors who could disrupt the market and never forget the traditional competition because we as internet first companies are not only competing in the digital landscape but also with the offline businesses.
   
4. What features or propositions do our competitors have that we don’t?
   List features or value propositions offered by competitors that you don’t have. Understand the reasons behind this – is it a strategic choice, a resource limitation, or something else?

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This section helps you understand where you stand in the market and what needs to be done!

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Calculating the Market Size​

Before we dive into fleshing out the acquisition strategies, let's lay a solid foundation by understanding the market size where your business will operate. Think of market sizing as the first step in mapping out your business journey. Here's a breakdown of the three major types of market sizing:

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(scroll the table for example)

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Market Sizing helps understand if the business is viable and every round of raising money you'll hear TAM, SAM and SOM all the time!

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Understanding Core Value Proposition

Just what is a core value proposition?
The primary advantage a product offers its customers is called the core value proposition. Additionally, it helps the user in understanding the fundamental purpose of the brand.

Your core value proposition is not your product or service. It’s the overall essence that makes your business stand out from the competition.

Step 1: Begin by asking yourself and your team about the Main Benefit

1. What are you really in the business of?
2. What problem is your product or service solving for the customer?
3. What are the key features and key customer benefits?

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Step 2: Ask your best customers about the Customer Benefits

1. Why did you choose us over our competition?
2. Why do you keep doing business with us?
3. What words would you use to describe our company?
4. If you were referring a friend to our business, what would you tell them about us?

Step 3: Gather all the insights

Now you should have all you need. Sit down and remove all bias and actually understand what is your business doing actually?

The value you add beyond your products and services—your core value proposition—is the reason customers keep coming back.​

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Designing Acquisition Channel

Choosing the acquisition channel needs to be done on the basis of data and not just gut and intuition. The right acquisition channel will fit in the budget, will optimize for the stage of the business, compound the user growth over time and also change by the stage of the company.

Remember this graph from the live session?

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At the PMF Stage, the channel selected the acquire new customers must be cheaper, faster and feedback driven. At the Early Scaling Stage, the business should focus on one channel partner and one paid channel and during the early scaling stage, the company should double down on the of the existing channel and experiment further.

Experiments with channels selection are always done with keeping in mind the stage of the company and its goals at that particular stage.

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Channel Selection Framework:

You have multiple channels to acquire customers, how do you prioritize what to channel to bet on?
(Use this framework and feel free to tweak it to your product!)

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Channel Selection Framework gives the base for detailing the channels!

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Organic Search

The biggest chunk here is to actually understand what are the keywords already being used in the market and what is the volume for such searches.
(suggestion: you could use the same channel selection framework here as well and tweak it as you like)

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For Example:

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Let's understand what actually happens at each stage:

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Organic search is like a shortcut—when you’re on top, people find you quickly and keep coming back.

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Content Loop

Building content loops is not something that happens by shooting in the dark, you need to scope it down bit by bit. Let's begin!

Step 1: Understand Your End Customer

• Identify where your target audience spends their time online.
• Research your audience's online habits, preferences, and the platforms they frequent.
• Example: If your target audience is millennials interested in fashion, Instagram may be more relevant than Quora. Think about where your audience engages with content similar to yours.

Step 2: Analyze Each Platform

• Examine the strengths and weaknesses of each platform for your content type.
• Look at how each platform aligns with your content goals.
• Example:
• • Instagram: Great for visual content and engagement.
  • Quora: Useful for in-depth answers and building authority.
  • Inshorts: Ideal for concise news and updates.

Consider the nature of your content and the interaction you want with your audience.

Step 3: Gather User Insights

• Use tools like surveys, analytics, and social listening to understand user behavior and preferences.
• Collect data on where and how your audience interacts with content. Use surveys to ask your audience directly or analyze existing data from your social media and website analytics.
• Example: Conduct a survey to find out which platforms your audience prefers for consuming content. Look at engagement metrics on different platforms to see where your content performs best.

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Content Loop Selection Framework:

Visual Map explaining Content Loops:

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Content loops are like a binge-worthy series—once users start, they’re hooked and keep coming back for more!

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Paid Advertising

I recommend you watch the Foundational Guide on Paid Marketing in order to understand the paid marketing from the inside, this will actually give you a great understanding of all the elements and help you pull off this proof of work very well!

(@gowri need to know if we need to add anything else here)

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"Paid Ads are more than CAC:LTV!"

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Product Integrations

Remember the David vs Goliath Case?
Why would someone partner with you, why will you partner with someone and why would it work. These are some questions we need answer to while building a product integration plan.

Product Integration Framework:​

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Selecting a partner for integration is not enough, we need to also think this through well enough that it can be pitched on the coming Monday Morning. Think about it, how would it look and feel to the user, what would the integrated product flow be like?

/call

Consider how the integration is shown to new vs old users.

Paritosh wants to travel from Kailash Colony, New Delhi to Select City Walk Mall. Here's how the integration works for both new and old users.

​(ps: I made these mockups in 5-10 minutes with zero design experience, it is super easy yet has a huge impact. This was made on whimsical itself, give it a try!)

User Journey:

This user flow ensures that both new and old users can easily access and book Uber transport options through Google Maps.

"Defining the give and take is another name for Product Integration"

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Referral/Partner Design

Just like Product Integration, you need to solve for discovery and incentivization of the referral program. Begin by having some research on why are you even introducing a referral program.

Let's take Zepto as an example and break down their referral program:

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1. Rising convenience culture is a trend that would give a push to Zepto's Referral Program, everyone wants the comfort of being at their home and groceries being brought right to their door at the 14th floor of your building.
   
2. Zepto asks us the refer someone once we have placed the order or via the Settings Tab.
   The mode of referring is either Whatsapp or Share a Link, why not LinkedIn? This is because Zepto's target audience for referral program is on Whatsapp-your mom, your best friend not your boss. Experiment and understand what would that be for your product?
   
   
   
3. Another important element is referral copy, once you click on share what would your message say and what would be the CTA here? Is it brag worthy enough for you to share and is it attractive enough for someone else to download the app?
   
   
4. Showing your members how much money they have saved/earned via referrals is a great way to keep them motivated. For Zepto, the currency could be saving money and time!
   Try and design the mockframe for your product!!!

"Referral programs are like a secret handshake—invite friends, everyone wins, and your user base grows faster!"​

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