The vast majority of businesses die because they offer a product that consumers don't want. This is a famous quote by Eric Rees, the author of the Lean Startup methodology. How not to fall into this trap with your project?
The answer is simple - before making a product, you need to conduct research to find out the demand for your future product. Any product exists to solve some consumer problems. Therefore, it is worth starting the study with drawing up a set of hypotheses about the needs of consumers. That is, come up with answers to the question - what problems and difficulties will your future product help solve?
The creation of hypotheses is a creative process and it is difficult to lead it strictly according to a certain algorithm, but it is worth trying. In this article, I describe such an algorithm that will help create a set of hypotheses for their subsequent testing using problem interviews.
About Me
My name is Igor Sheludko.
I have been an entrepreneur in the field of software development and sales since 2000. I have a higher technical education. I started my career as a programmer, also led small teams, and was engaged in both product and custom development.
For 3 years now I have been cooperating with the Southern IT Park Accelerator (Rostov-on-Don) as a tracker of startup projects. During this time, more than 20 projects have passed through my caring hands as an individual tracker, and more than 200 projects have passed through the Accelerator in general.
Where to start?
In my opinion, it is worth starting with an understanding of who will be the target audience (CA) of your future product. If you already have an idea for a product, think about who might need such a product? It often happens that an idea is not about a product, but about a process or technology. Nevertheless, you may well think of who it can be useful for and for what.
How to generate hypotheses about needs?
Hypotheses about needs are answers to the question - for what tasks of the target audience can your product be used? How can it be useful?
I recommend generating hypotheses in the form of a tree or a mental map (mind map), adhering to the following algorithm.
At the top level (right from the root), place your assumptions about the main needs of the target audience that you can satisfy with your product. Try to give specifics to these hypotheses, if possible, use measurable parameters in the formulations.
If you have a very large list of needs hypotheses, then think about priorities. It is unlikely that all needs will be equally important for the target audience and for you. Mark the most important hypotheses. If you feel comfortable, assign priority ratings to the needs hypotheses and then work through the most important needs further.
Example:
Situation - a young man wants to buy his first car.
TA - motorists who buy their first car.
Need Hypothesis No. 1: The client wants to buy a used car no older than 7 years with automatic transmission and a budget of no more than XXX tr.
Next, assume that the target audience really has such a need and think about what tasks need to be solved in order to satisfy this need. Tasks may not immediately turn out to be specific and this is not scary. A task is an answer to the question “what needs to be done to solve a problem?” Not the desired result, not the process, but the action.
The tasks that arise when solving a problem are a set of sequential actions that lead the client to the desired result - solving the problem. Tasks form the second level of the hypotheses tree.
If you had a lot of needs hypotheses in the previous step, then work on the tasks for the most important hypotheses. Less important - leave unfinished for now. They are worth checking during problem interviews, but you should not devote much time and effort to them now.
Example:
To buy a used car you need:
1. Decide on a model (not just a “model” and not a “model choice”)
2. See the model "live", try
3. Decide on the package and color (not just “color”)
4. Find multiple instances to compare
5. Check the accuracy of information about each instance (do not “break through the traffic police database”, because this is far from the only check)
6. Conduct an assessment of the technical condition, estimate the costs to bring it to good condition (not just “go to the service”)
7. Select a specific instance
8. Conclude a contract of sale
9. Get insurance
10. Register, register the sale
To solve each of these problems, different methods and tools can be used.
At the third level, there are products and services - our possible competitors.
Example:
To determine the model of the car, you can:
1. Go to avito, set the criteria - price range, age of the car and other parameters, view ads and select several options for the car model
2. Ask more experienced friends - what would they recommend?
3. Stop by several car dealerships that sell used cars - this way we can immediately solve the next problem (see it live, try it on for ourselves), but we may not see all the interesting options - these are already difficulties, we will deal with them further
4. Hire a professional consultant for this and the following tasks - delegate several tasks at once.
In the latter case, an interesting situation arises - such a consultant will still solve the above problems. Despite the fact that we can delegate a number of tasks to one solution, one performer, the tasks still remain. In this case, the target audience will change and solutions may change, but the tasks remain. So in the course of studying one segment of consumers, we came to the hypothesis of the existence of another segment of consumers.
Each of the solutions can cause difficulties and inconvenience for the consumer - this is the fourth level of the hypothesis tree. At this level, there are functions and distinctive features - "features" of products.
examples:
1. For avito - the issue in the avito application is inconvenient, since we wanted to see model options, but we are shown specific ads.
2. It is inconvenient to enter the salons, since there are none in our area and you need to go to the outskirts of the city.
3. Our friends have no experience with cars in this price range.
4. There is no confidence in the consultant, all of a sudden he will offer only those options for which he will receive an additional bonus from the sellers.
Difficulty hypotheses may not be worked out in detail at the initial stage of hypothesis formation, but you should definitely ask about difficulties when conducting problem interviews.
What do you get as a result?
As a result, you will have a map (tree) of hypotheses, which will serve as a good basis for developing a plan for conducting problem interviews. During the interview, you will need to cover all the important points that are present in the hypothesis map.
Source: habr.com
