As a product manager, I am in the business of building and delivering products. Although there is no perfect science on how to make good products, some proven principles help get it to a quasi-ideal state (I don’t believe perfection exists in a product world). It always helps to ideate, prototype (or build), test, learn, optimize, re-learn & repeat same cycle until a product achieves “defined success” state across customer, product and business dimensions. Every product is a journey in undertaking until it becomes deprecated or reaches its EOL and gives way to fresh thinking which ultimately leads to new, innovative products. As they say “proof of pudding is in the eating”, building good products is easier said than done. “What makes a good product” is a loaded question and you will get different answers depending on who you ask.
This post is an attempt to share from my PM experience, the six principles that differentiates a good product from a bad product. My goal here is to educate PM’s who need a quick litmus test of their current or future product. I suggest if your product fails any of these principles, to go back to drawing board and dig deeper to come up with a plan to fix.
1. Good product has a clear defined problem statement with a direct usable solution that is relevant to its target audience
vs.
Bad product solves a problem that does not exist or defined poorly or lost relevance with its target audience
2. Good product motivates a customer to want to use it more, in some cases builds a habit
vs.
Bad product demotivates a customer and makes them want to use it less
3. Good product offers real tangible value to its customer
vs.
Bad product offers little or no value, in addition to grief and aggravation to its customer
4. Good product is simple to define, use and hence remembered easily (high visual recall)
vs.
Bad product is fuzzy or hard to define or use and hence easily forgotten (poor visual recall)
5. Good product often leverages clean and timeless design
vs.
Bad product rarely uses clean timeless design
6. Good product speaks for itself, creates a self-reinforcing loop that reduces cost of doing business (development, maintenance, marketing, customer acquisition etc.. )
vs.
Bad product is costly in every possible way (less be told.. you get it)
Are there others from your experience that you want to add to this list ? Please share your thoughts or POV’s or opinions to continue the conversation. Thanks for taking the time and hope you got something out of it.