8. Start with an idea, then build it. It's that simple, right?

There are three popular reasons to build a product:

1. To automate an internal business process.
2. To provide eCommerce for products or services.
3. To sell new functionality to a new or existing market; build a new product

This post is about number 3... Building a new product.

It is impossible to build a successful product without a good idea. With thousands of products in the market, the process to clarify and validate your idea is more important than ever.

Does the product already exist? Does the solution the product solves already solved by another product? Is your idea original or does it look very similar to another product?

I am not a big fan of software patents. Mainly because it causes innovation to be dictated and controlled by lawyers instead of innovators. If you have a unique idea that can clearly give you an unfair advantage, then a patent might be necessary, from a business stand point.


Trademarks are another story, they protects your identity in the market. It takes a lot of work to successfully build a product, and that work is protected by it's identity in the market though its trademark. 

Long story short, It is best to file to trademark for a new product the day it is released. This is due to it's classification, which can be defined as "a product in use". If you want to reserve your trademark for later release, it is going to cost you a lot more money.

"The Software process is an iteration!"

I will repeat this many times in the future to emphasize my point! You will constantly be changing your mind about the product, its features and even its name. This is another reason to not spend money on a trademark at the beginning.

Patents do give you an unfair advantage, especially to your lawyers. But, it is your product identity, its features and functionality in your market you are reaching that can ultimately be the difference between success and failure.

Know your customer

The more you can articulate about your customer, the better you will be at coming up with the functionality they want. If you can build something that someone wants, you have the potential to sell it to them.

Analyze how your customer uses other products that are similar to your idea. 

Consumer vs. Business

Consumers are very different from businesses and there needs are very different. Businesses will pay to save time or money. Consumers usually pay based on emotion or for basic needs like education, transportation and communication. 

Here are some ideas for finding functionality for a business product.

Analyze your customers daily routine. What is the most important thing in their daily routine that they would like to automate.
 
Define how the product will be used in specific circumstances, also known as "Use Cases". Create a "Use Case" by writing a list of things they do now and how it can be sped up with a software product. 

How will the customer benefit from the software? What is the most important benefit the new product has to offer? How much will the customer pay for this benefit? A benefit is usually speed, quality or savings.

Consumer products

To build a consumer software product, you first need to ask yourself the following question; Are you going to copy another idea or find a new market? Another way of saying this is: do you want to duplicate or innovate? Dell was very successful by duplicating HP and putting it online. So, if you duplicated another product and add something new, you might be able sell your product to a market that already is buying similar products. But, if you want to innovate, be prepared to spend years developing your product (unless you have deep pockets).

Market Positioning

Focus the functionality on the features that the competition does not have. Inspire your ideas by looking at products that do what you want; Then come up with advantages and benefits that the other products do not offer to their customers. 

Once you have identified the customer and the product you wand to build, create a list of minimum requirements that you need to build to sell the product. 

Describe how the product could be used in steps, called use cases.

Build a small prototype or large platform environment
From a requirements list and use case descriptions, you can usually get a bid on building a  prototype from any platform engineer. If you have enough resources or time, you can build a multi-platform application environment as I will describe in detail in this blog. If you need help, you can contact me at john@sonomadatasolutions.com and I would be happy to assist you.

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