Bad products are everywhere.  Products that simply aren’t useful, don’t work right, are too difficult to learn, or that take forever to sell.  Little wonder, as there are so many things that have to  go right in order to create a successful product.  There are, however, some pitfalls that occur so frequently and are so damaging that we believe they are at the root of the vast majority of bad products.  The Silicon Valley Product Group reviewed each of these pitfalls and described why it’s so easy to get confused and fall into these traps. Below, paraphrased and in brief, are some of the most common mistakes that lead down a roadmap of failure:

1. Confusing Customer Requirements with Product Requirements 

Many product teams look to the marketing function or sales or the customer to define the product to be built.  If you’re building a custom product, or doing contract product development work, then letting your marketing or sales organization define your product may be fine.

However, there are several reasons why few good products are created this way.   

First, customers don’t necessarily know what they want.  Not because they aren’tsmart, but because it is very difficult to proscribe a specific solution and predict its effectiveness without actually building it, or at least building a prototype.  

Second, customers don’t know what is possible.  It takes significant time and expertise to stay abreast of the many developments in technology that may apply to your problem.   

Third, customers aren’t in a position to see the wide range of needs and opportunities.The customers are busy with their own lives and jobs and don’t have the time to learn about others in the market and how their needs may be similar or different. 

Product management is responsible for defining the right product.  It is the job of the product manager to deeply understand the target market and their needs, and then to work to combine what is possible with what is desirable, to create products that solve real problems.  This is why top product managers often come  from the engineering ranks; they understand what is possible, and when they see an unmet need they can often envision new and innovative solutions. 

2. Confusing Innovation with Value 

Innovation without a clear purpose is simply technology looking for a problem to solve. There are countless products on the market today simply because they were now possible, not necessarily because they solve a real problem, or solve the problem better than other solutions. 

What motivates the engineers on the product team may not be the same thing that motivates others.  Engineers care a great deal about the technical challenge itself, and the particular technologies that they get the opportunity to learn and use.  

However, if the engineering team is provided with a clear vision and product strategy,and if the engineers are provided the  opportunity to see the customer problems directly, then they can often come up with innovative solutions to very real problems, and breakthrough products can result.

The key is that innovation needs to happen in the context of a vision and strategy. The innovation needs to be in support of providing true customer value. 

Given that we live and breath our products for months or years at a time, we may anxiously await new releases, while the actual target customer may not have any time toeven think about what new features you might be delivering, let alone find the time to install the new version, and explore the new functionality. 

To keep us honest and on track, we must constantly put our products in front of customers directly from the target market, and consider carefully their response and constantly strive to keep their perspective in mind and not our own understandably skewed viewpoint. 

So many products today are unusable to all but the product’s creators.  Typically this is the result of poor product design and no usability testing.  When usability testing is performed, it is often too little, and too late in the product lifecycle to matter.  

3. Confusing Features with Benefits  

It is very easy to get absorbed with the specifics of the features that make up your product, rather than the benefits that those features may provide.  The product’s value proposition speaks to the benefits, not the features. 

Your product simply must have a crystal clear, simple and compelling value proposition.  Your target market must be  deeply understood, and the people in that market must perceive that your product solves a real problem. There are several possible reasons for poor value propositions.  

The most common is that the product is just not solving a significant enough problem.  It may be that it is an interesting technology still looking for the right application, or it may be that the product is valuable and useful, just not to the people in the target market.  It may also be that the product is simply too expensive relative to the benefits. 

It is also possible that the product is ideal for the target market, and very economically priced, but the messaging is so complicated that the value is lost in the haze.  If you can’t go up to someone in your target market and in less than a minute explain  what the product is all about and why the product is relevant to them, then you have asignificant problem, either with the value of your product, or your messaging. 

4.  Confusing Good Product with Good Business Model 

There have been countless good products that couldn’t sustain a business.  It is not enough just to develop a good product.  In a product company, the product needs to sustain the business.  You need both to be successful. 

A good product must be in support of,  and aligned with, the company’s business model.  Sometimes this can be difficult.  Consider the situation that TiVo faced.  Their mission was to dramatically improve the television viewing experience, and as we all know, commercials are not usually the favorite part of that  experience (with the notable exception of the Super Bowl). However, the television industry is largely funded by commercials.  While TiVo’s competitors decided to go up against the industry head-on, the people at TiVo worked with the industry and came up with a business model and product that customers loved and still let customers move quickly through commercials, but did it in a way that left room for the industry to continue to feed their families too. 

5. Confusing Adding Features with Improving Product 

Visit any product team with a product that is struggling, and you will almost certainly find the team racing frantically to implement a new set of features that the team hopes will address the problems and finally get the customers to take the plunge and buy. 

Sadly, adding features is rarely the formula for improving your product.  It is understandable since the sales force is likely telling you (quite loudly by now) that “the customer likes the product but really needs it to do x” or the marketing folks are saying “we simply have to add y and z immediately because our competition is killing us.”  Or  worse, you find the team following the shotgun approach of “we’ve tried a and b, so it must be c and d that we’re missing.” 

Occasionally, you really are lacking some crucial functionality, but if it is so very crucial, it is hard to understand how it was missed earlier.  More likely, your product has one or more of the other issues in this list of common problems, and rather than addressing the underlying issue, such as usability or value, we instead look to features as the answer.   

Too many product teams put too much trust in their requirements and design documents, and they don’t find out until the product is in beta that people either can’t figure out how to use the product, or they can use it, but they don’t care to because they don’t see the value.  This is not a sign of weak product managers, designers or architects, but rather an acknowledgement of the fact that it is simply the nature of high-tech products, especially software, that you need to interact with the product (or are reasonable simulation) in order to evaluate the actual experience and predict the eventual success. 

6.  Confusing a Complete Product with a Sellable Product 

Even with the best of products, if your organization is not set up to effectivelydistribute and sell the product, or if you cannot reasonably support the product, then your product will not get the response you are hoping for. 

You need to look closely at your organization’s structure, the business model, the sales and distribution model, and ask yourself  if the product you are creating can be. It is much easier, in general, to adjust the product to fit the company structure and business model than it is to change the company to meet the needs of your product. This is especially important to consider after acquisitions or changes in the company business strategy.  Remember that these whole product issues are just as important as the product itself, and that many otherwise good products have languished in the wrong company. 

7. Confusing Product Launch with Success 

Finally, many product teams lose sight of the real measure of success.  Success is not 

launching on time, or getting good reviews from the press, or winning competitive evaluations, or getting the product installed successfully, or even landing major new customers and cashing the big checks that come along with those sales. These are all good things but they don’t speak to the ultimate goal of having happy customers successfully using your product.  Unfortunately, many product teams stop short of this goal.   They either give up too soon, or they move on to the next product,or they get distracted. 

It is very easy to get obsessed with what a competitor is doing, or worry about how some new technology will impact the product, or any number of factors that distract you from the real prize, which is a rapidly growing community of inspired,enthusiastic, and loyal customers.

Summary 

Beyond these common product pitfalls, it is worth emphasizing in closing that everything starts with the right people on the product team.  These are the people that will make the thousands of decisions during the course  of the project that will determine the success of the product.  While good process and technique can significantly improve your chances for success, without the right team in place there is frankly little hope.   

Not every person on the team must be a  proven superstar, but each person on the team must be able to perform her job competently, and the team as a whole needs to work together effectively