With the tech industry ever expanding, customers have a myriad of options of products which in turn raises the bar for competing products to earn their business. No offense, but you will say whatever it takes to sell your product but if you, as a customer, sum it up, it comes down to hard work, that’s what should reflect in your product, and once that’s done, it will be a habit building product.
My Philosophy
There's always a way to do it better.
I will help you find it.
- If you ask why enough times, eventually you’ll work it out and get to the root cause.
- Embrace iteration as the road to improvement, but don’t let that lull you into rolling out poorly-thought-out crap.
If your company has all been product-driven company and product has been your special sauce, then you’re better off growing your product team. Hire your product team which share your “DNA”. You need a person who can own your product like a newborn baby, starting from nurturing to making it capable and ready for the wild world.
I always act as a product junkie and keeping my curious mind busy to geek out new products. If you are discussing a product idea with me, be prepared for a serious discussion around every aspect of it, starting from execution to business. I equally get excited to try new things and find ways to improve when it comes to process and organization. I do live and breathe customers, and work with engineering & design to get closer to the customer.
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.
I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.
HABIT FORMING PRODUCTS
A company can begin to determine its product’s habit-forming potential by plotting two factors: frequency (how often the behaviour occurs) and perceived utility (how useful and rewarding the behaviour is in the user’s mind over alternative solutions. A behaviour that occurs with enough frequency and perceived utility enters The Habit Zone, helping to make it a default behaviour. If either of these factors falls short and the behaviour lies below the threshold, it is less likely that the desired behaviour will become a habit. Some behaviours will never become habits because they do not occur frequently enough. On the other hand, even a behaviour that provides minimal perceived benefit can become a habit simply because it occurs frequently.
These habits are good for a business because it increases customer lifetime value, amount of money made from a customer before that person switches to a competitor. It can provide pricing flexibility, as customers form routines around a product, they come to depend on it and become less sensitive to price. User habits are a competitive advantage. Products that change customer routines are less susceptible to attacks from other companies.
One aspect is common to all successful innovations = they solve problems. Investors want to invest in painkillers — as they solve an obvious need, relieving a specific pain, and often have quantifiable markets. Vitamins, by contrast, do not necessarily solve an obvious pain point. Instead they appeal to users’ emotional rather than functional needs. What about social media? Many people would say they are selling vitamins as their users are not doing anything particularly important than perhaps seeking a quick boost of social validation. However, consider this idea: a habit is when not doing an action causes a bit of pain. Habit-forming technologies are both vitamins and painkillers. They are at first offering nice-to-have vitamins, but once the habit is established, they provide an ongoing pain remedy.
MY FORMULA
IDENTIFY HABIT ZONE
Answer these questions: What habit does your business model require? What user behaviour do you want to make into a habit? Remember, a habit is when not doing an action causes a bit of pain.
FIND TRIGGER
New habits need a foundation upon which to build. Triggers provide the basis for sustained behaviour change. It acts as an actuator of behaviour and comes in two types: external and internal.
FIND ACTION
Fogg Behaviour Model; B = MAT; where B = behaviour, M = motivation, A = ability, T = trigger. If any component of this formula is missing or inadequate, the user will not cross the “Action Line” and the behaviour will not occur.
PROVIDE VARIABLE REWARD
To keep users engaged, products need to deliver on their promises. You reward your users by solving a problem, reinforcing their motivation for the action taken in the previous phase.
INCREASE INVESTMENT
The second most important factor in habit formation (besides frequency) is a change in the participant’s attitude about the behaviour, and for that to occur, there must be a change in how users perceive the behaviour. The more users invest time and effort into a product or service, the more they value it.
People who change after change, will survive.
People who change with the change, will succeed.
People who cause the change, will lead.
What I believe in
Removing dependencies between siloed departments, setting up autonomous teams, and giving them the space to do their best is ultimately how your product will be successful.
Build continuous processes for discovering new ways to solve customer problems and deliver value. Your customer should be at the heart of everything you do.
Listen closely, ask better questions, and nurture the capacity to relate to your customer and your colleagues.
Teams that feel safe to take risks, have difficult conversations, and be vulnerable in front of one another far outperform teams without this attribute.
Diverse teams build better products, but it’s not enough. Make sure every voice gets heard in the conversation by fostering inclusive cultures and amplifying quiet voices.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Working for excellence and not success is only invoking, invigorating, igniting, inspiring and indefatigable motivation within me to encourage, energize, enthuse, enrich and empower environment inside and outside.