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Building a problem solving product

I've spent a good number of years now designing products for clients, advising them, and as of not long ago, building my own—be it a startup or side-project. Over the course of that time, I've realized how critical it is to ensure you’re working on identifying and implementing the right solutions for your product. I’ve noticed and experienced how extremely easy it is to become caught up trying to solve all of the problems all at once. More often than not, product owners spread themselves thin trying to focus on several issues instead of perfecting one and allowing that to transition smoothly into the others.

Not long ago, I was asked how I identify which problems to solve and which features to tackle next when building a product. Given that, I figured I'd share my insights on how it was done for Liberio and other products I’ve worked on, along with a general approach to doing so for your company:

Become an expert

A big part of knowing how to go about solving a problem is: understanding what needs fixing in the first place, creating the base to solve said problem, and prioritizing that feature list. For every product I start, I spend a lot of time educating and submerging myself into that world as much as possible. For Liberio, it meant involving myself in the world of writers and self-publishing. You need to be an expert in your field, no matter what it is. If it’s messaging, know the ins and outs of communication, for productivity, how people tick—personally and professionally.

Granted, you have users to provide insight, but allowing yourself to be educated in the world they live in, makes solving the problem a hell of a lot easier. Becoming an expert also allows you to see things you thought may have needed fixing before, are actually quite fine the way they are. It’s the things that continue to pop up and are continually mentioned that are the real problem to zone in on.

Communication is key

Communication with customers is the ‘big secret’ sauce to productive development. By that I mean within your app and actually talking to the people who often run into the pain points of your market, so you know how to improve, provide and grow from there. At the end of the day, your product’s growth is dependent on your ability to receive feedback, iterate and provide the people using your product with a solution they came to you for in the first place.

With Liberio, we made it a point to create a brand that positioned itself as warm, encouraging and supportive. Along with that, we saw to it that it was always carried over in the way we actually speak to our users 1:1. I set out 2 hours per day to email majority of individuals who are in the process of publishing their eBook on the platform. I provide them with any help it looks like they may need, ask what problems they’re running into (if any) and most importantly, congratulate them on accomplishing all they have so far. On top of that, surveys are sent out once in a blue moon to collect bulk feedback and also spend time emailing or video chatting with those who contact us for support.

Trust me when I say, speaking with your users in this capacity really opens your eyes to the world they live in and what it is they need. There comes a point where you can no longer survive by basing your roadmap solely off assumptions; and if you’re communicating properly with your users, there’s also no need to.

One thorn at a time

Resources in most startups are scarce unless you raised enough to take you into the next 3 years—which is unlikely, despite what you hear about with the Uber’s of the tech scene. There are companies who don't have this luxury though and therefore need to make the best of said resources. As a founder, when looking at the product from the inside, all you can do is notice the problems and often, there are many. “We need to build this, but first this needs to be built, but this is priority so we need to trade this off for that and focus on the other thing later.” How often do you find yourself running this over in your head? See how crazy it can become? For this and this reason alone, product roadmaps are essential. This can be anything from a Gannt chart, to a Wunderlist or Trello Board. Here are two different examples of product roadmaps:

Ghost (Blogging Platform): Trello board with an overview of all that is in progress, coming up, etc. Cards get assigned, moved over when ready for next step until release.
ghost_roadmap

Liberio (Simple eBook creation and publishing): Wunderlist broken down into design, dev, marketing, etc. Items get assigned, dated, etc. When an item is complete, it gets moved on to next step until release. Using hashtags is a great way we keep track of more granular stuff too and differentiate between features and regular everyday stuff.
liberio_roadmap

Kneadle (Creative Agency): Up on a wall with simply paper, Kneadle has their funnel set up from start to finish in a structure that works best for their agencies multiple projects.
kneadle_roadmap

Whether you have something listed out digitally or you tape it to a wall, what matters is that you have some visual order for your product. User behavior and feedback will allow you to create said order and not waste what little runway you probably have. Sit down and figure out in what order problems need to be solved based on that feedback and the initial problem you set out to solve.

For every product, there a ton of features, both big and small, that can be built and added. But the important factor to keep in mind is an understanding of what’s needed versus what’s wanted—critical to product success versus vanity, if you will.

Don't deal with competitors

You can look at as many competitor sites as you want, but the last thing you want is to obsess over their features, assumptions, etc. without doing your own research. Oftentimes, companies end up building what competitors have and spend all of their time trying to keep up with them, not realizing the competitor decisions are based on what has already been seen and tracked. And realistically, who knows whether or not their solutions were even valid.

Until you do your own research and speak to human beings about their experiences or issues, doing so is just as bad as designing completely blind without data.

Allow your product to evolve

You’ll notice as your product evolves, something natural will happen. Some people will use it the way you intended and others will do so in a way you never imagined. Feedback will pour in, along with complaints and feature requests necessary to improve and enhance what they want and need. This is by far the best part and the reason I recommend all team members—be it designer or engineer—handle support tickets in rotation. Everyone on the team should have an understanding of this process, interact with the users and welcome the change that can and should happen.

The evolution of your product, be it intentional or not, is what grounds the relationship between it and the user. Don’t be afraid to kill off a feature that is never used. The only thing it does is collect dust, waste resources and makes your UI a lot heavier than necessary. Pay attention to the high-demand requests that occur, harness it and figure out how to use them to your company’s advantage as best as possible.

Building a product is certainly not easy. From design and engineering to marketing and support, there are a number of hats that need to be worn on a daily basis to ensure the success of the company. And even then, the chances are still so high for failure. At the end of the day though, the process to doing so can be much easier than many lead on, and creating a framework, roadmap and open line of communication with the human being on the other side of the screen is guaranteed to get you closer to where you want to be. Every time.


Everyone is different, so I’d love to hear how you focus on building your product. Want to talk shop about it? Let’s do so on Twitter (@imcatnoone). Want more posts like this in your inbox? Be sure to sign up for my newsletter.

Thanks to the Kneadle and Ghost team for sharing their roadmaps. Full disclosure, I use and love Ghost.