5 ms·

Is your product a “must have” or “nice to have”?

14 points by bhousel 17y ago

edw519 17y ago
I always thought it was a mistake to position your business as if your product was a "must have", mainly because it's not. Treat it as a "nice to have". That will force you to do everything else better. A lot of people have learned the hard way in the past year that very little is a "must have".
- delano 17y ago
  It's more important as a mental exercise than as absolute advice. Some people put it another way: is your product a vitamin or a painkiller? For a business to become successful, the product will need to become a must have at some point. If it's not right now, then you need to keep pursuing it until it is.
  - AlexTheFounder 17y ago
    Vitamin vs painkiller is a better analogue. Consider Facebook, it isn't really a "must have", but seems to be doing just fine
    - unalone 17y ago
      I couldn't disagree more. When you start using Facebook, it becomes a must have. When I went about deleting all my online accounts, it was one of the two I didn't get rid of. If I got rid of that, I'd lose the most valuable communications medium I've got.
launic 17y ago
I would say even more, every product has to be first a "nice to have" and hopefully for you to become later a "must have". Nowadays in our society we already can live a very comfortable life, there is no real "must have". I support my point here saying that we already have a product that saves you money, but not a single person that I have talked about it was impressed by this feature alone. Instead the other way round if they like the product and I tell them about the cost saving it is a serious factor for them to decide to adopt it.
launic 17y ago
The article in my opinion does not say much, but the following paragraph caught my attention: >>"In the end, the best way to test whether you have a ‘must have’ product is to threaten to take the prototype away from your early users," says Rakowski. "If they don’t riot, start again."<< Is this really doable? How can you threaten to take the prototype away?
- _pius 17y ago
  Is this really doable? How can you threaten to take the prototype away? Takeaway: http://blog.tr.im/post/159369789/tr-im-r-i-p http://blog.tr.im/post/159369789/tr-im-r-i-p Riot: http://www.google.com/search?q=tr.im+shutdown http://www.google.com/search?q=tr.im+shutdown Giveback: http://blog.tr.im/post/165049236/tr-im-to-be-community-owned http://blog.tr.im/post/165049236/tr-im-to-be-community-owned
zaidf 17y ago
Another way to test would be to use survey.io: http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-surveyio/ http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-...
araneae 17y ago
Nice to have. GODDAMMIT. runs off and looks for a real job
quizbiz 17y ago
Everything online is merely "nice to have" but we are still capable of becoming dependent on it. ie: google/gmail

14 points by bhousel 17y ago

I always thought it was a mistake to position your business as if your product was a "must have", mainly because it's not. Treat it as a "nice to have". That will force you to do everything else better. A lot of people have learned the hard way in the past year that very little is a "must have".

delano 17y ago
It's more important as a mental exercise than as absolute advice. Some people put it another way: is your product a vitamin or a painkiller? For a business to become successful, the product will need to become a must have at some point. If it's not right now, then you need to keep pursuing it until it is.
- AlexTheFounder 17y ago
  Vitamin vs painkiller is a better analogue. Consider Facebook, it isn't really a "must have", but seems to be doing just fine
  - unalone 17y ago
    I couldn't disagree more. When you start using Facebook, it becomes a must have. When I went about deleting all my online accounts, it was one of the two I didn't get rid of. If I got rid of that, I'd lose the most valuable communications medium I've got.

launic 17y ago

I would say even more, every product has to be first a "nice to have" and hopefully for you to become later a "must have". Nowadays in our society we already can live a very comfortable life, there is no real "must have". I support my point here saying that we already have a product that saves you money, but not a single person that I have talked about it was impressed by this feature alone. Instead the other way round if they like the product and I tell them about the cost saving it is a serious factor for them to decide to adopt it.

launic 17y ago

The article in my opinion does not say much, but the following paragraph caught my attention: >>"In the end, the best way to test whether you have a ‘must have’ product is to threaten to take the prototype away from your early users," says Rakowski. "If they don’t riot, start again."<< Is this really doable? How can you threaten to take the prototype away?

_pius 17y ago
Is this really doable? How can you threaten to take the prototype away? Takeaway: http://blog.tr.im/post/159369789/tr-im-r-i-p http://blog.tr.im/post/159369789/tr-im-r-i-p Riot: http://www.google.com/search?q=tr.im+shutdown http://www.google.com/search?q=tr.im+shutdown Giveback: http://blog.tr.im/post/165049236/tr-im-to-be-community-owned http://blog.tr.im/post/165049236/tr-im-to-be-community-owned

zaidf 17y ago

Another way to test would be to use survey.io: http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-surveyio/ http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-...

araneae 17y ago

Nice to have. GODDAMMIT. runs off and looks for a real job

quizbiz 17y ago

Everything online is merely "nice to have" but we are still capable of becoming dependent on it. ie: google/gmail