How to Build a World-Class Product Team ⭐

What does every successful business have in common? Happy customers — and these ideas will help you better understand yours, and develop products they’ll love.

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After 12 years of designing, I’m constantly humbled by the confused faces of users testing designs that I thought were battle ready. It pays to spend time testing before sending designs into development.

Learn how to research customers (5 mins)…

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Products that are disruptive go after non-consumers who are currently priced out of the market. They are inferior to existing products in an important way, but also radically cheaper. Being inferior is important, because it allows these products to slip under the radar of existing players.

Learn about disruptive innovation(3 mins)…

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Questions that begin with, “What do you think of . . .” will give you opinions, not facts. Opinions sound a lot like validation but they aren’t — and this makes them very dangerous. When it comes to businesses and products, even seasoned experts are wrong most of the time. Just speak to any angel investor, or serial entrepreneur, or product manager about their success rate.

Learn to ask the right questions (5 mins)…

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Most feature ideas turn out to have little or no impact on important metrics. For every feature idea we have, we identify which metric the feature is intended to affect — and brainstorm at least five different ideas that could also affect that metric. More often than not, this uncovers a simpler way to achieve the same thing.

Learn about product principles (5 mins)…

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Creating an automated feedback flow doesn’t take long if you’re using email tools like MailChimp, Sendgrid or Mailgun. But the benefits of continuous organic contact with your customers are hard to overstate.

Learn how to automate feedback (7 mins)…

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The rule of thumb is that your LTV (Life-Time Value) should be three to five times greater than your CAC. If the ratio is too low, you’re probably charging too little, and if it’s too high, there is an opportunity to grow more aggressively.

Learn how to price your product (5 mins)…

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Best wishes,
Dave

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How to Build a World-Class Product Team ⭐ was originally published in The Founder Coach on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.