P.S.: I HATE HOW THIS ARTICLE TURNED OUT. IT WAS MEANT TO BE ABOUT HOW WE NEED TO CONSIDER HOW OUR ACTIONS CONTRIBUTE TO THE WORLD AROUND US; THE VALUE WE ADD TO THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE WE LOVE, TO OURSELVES, TO THE PEOPLE USING THINGS WE BUILD, ETC. INSTEAD, IT LOOKS MORE LIKE SOME MARKETING BLOG POST. I'LL KEEP THIS HERE, BUT I'LL WRITE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS LATER.
there's only one metric that decides if a product is going to make it or not: the amount of value it adds to the lives of its consumers.
and even if the statement above uses business-y verbiage, it is true for everything we do in life. and by everything, i mean literally everything.
if the added value of a product is inferior to other alternatives, it will, without fail, fail.
"but," you might think, "what about that product? it was so successful even though there are many products that offer way more functionality."
by pointing out the apparent flaw in the premise of this post, you actually shine a light on the flaw in your logic. value does not (always) equate to functionality.
our brains are actually amazing added-value calculators that run at full speed for every decision we make, no matter how small or big. from "should i scroll on this reel?" to "should i spend the rest of my life with this person?", it all comes down to the value each option promises to add.
this added-value calculator is, however, error-prone, even when all the information needed to gauge the options is available — which is rarely the case. and that's why we make mistakes.
also, these computations are usually done inside a black box, and we might not even know they're running. but they do. always.
sometimes the value of a thing is transparent. the iphone? sure! almost everyone agrees that the apple-made smartphone is a solid piece of tech. is that value worth 1,000 dollars? that's debatable, but almost everyone agrees it's far greater than zero.
for that silly, grainy 9-second video that everyone seems to be sharing and, worse, mimicking? the value is not that obvious. the reason is that we usually associate value with things that are more objective: knowledge, functionality, ease of use, etc.
but we often forget that "entertaining" is also a virtue that has its own value. a joke reel might not teach anything new, or the pink stanley cup might not offer additional practical features compared to other cheaper cups, but it gives bragging rights that no other competitor can provide.
but bragging about what, you might ask. if the product has nothing special to offer, what are people bragging about? the mere ownership of the product is the value here. and it might be useful to remember that human beings, despite what economists might say, are NOT rational creatures.
the perceived value might only be an emotional one.
all this to say that if a product you're working on is not catching on with people, it might be because it is not of real value to them (or that the added value is too small to justify an investment in money/time/etc. to switch), or the value added is not easily detectable, and the marketing is failing at highlighting this value.
in both cases, of course, there's a solution.
in the first case, it is always a good idea to make sure the added value of the product is 1) concrete and 2) greater than any friction to obtain/migrate to it. the maker of the product must, at this stage, be as honest as possible with themselves, which is not always easy. in other words, the product must alleviate a pain that truly exists.
in the second case, the key is to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has not only never heard about the product but also never realized they had the problem you are solving. the marketing material must be as clear as possible when stating the pain, and even clearer when describing how the product aims to solve that pain.
when these two conditions are met, the product will almost always find buyers. that, however, does not mean that the company will always succeed, as the size of the market might be too small for it to realize any considerable profits.
but that's an entirely different problem.
see you tomorrow.