Recent Product Observations 8.4.23

Here are some observations from conversations over the past few weeks:

• Too many new products are built from the creator’s vision and solution desire, not problem or user-centric.
• Solving a problem for yourself can be a great starting place, but it may also give you a lot of biases and false positives.
• Too many new products aren’t product managed effectively or at all, with engineering or design driving the bus, and the product shows it.
• Investment monies are being stretched further. After all, smaller amounts force companies to only perform effectively in some areas because marketing, sales, product, etc., get less funding than each area truly needs.
• Not enough customer funding is being discussed and happening.
• UX/UI is undervalued and under-appreciated again, partly because of funding constraints and the first item in this list.
• Products starting too big and broad versus focused on a high-value, win-able niche
• Product demo skills have degraded (hence my recent post about product demos sucking)

The sad part is that none of this is new, except for investment needing to be spread further and, therefore, thinner. And just because your product and company are bootstrapped doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be problem and user-centric, product-managed well, and demoed effectively. If anything, I would expect a bootstrapped product and company to be even more focused on and better at fundamentals than venture-backed ones.