Chicken or Egg?
The Product or the Research - which comes first?
Photo by Grace O'Driscoll on Unsplash
In last Sunday’s post, “Outliers”, I alluded to a hybrid approach to customer research.
These are two separate approaches to qualitative customer research.
Find what customers expect - and provide it to them. Follow the numbers.
Find how and why customers use products in unexpected ways - and use that to suss out either a deeper understanding of existing product expectations or brand new expectations that haven’t surfaced yet in the mainstream.
But essentially, both approaches are centered on learning what customers value so that we can design the best product. I could make a case for using both approaches together, in a hybrid program.
Here’s how I see a hybrid approach working in practice.
Founder 1 - The Builder
A founder is entitled to start a business based on a “hunch”.
We can assume that founders are intelligent, and that their hunches are actually born from experience and observation in the market. Their instinct is a thoughtful result of their expertise. The product they see in their head is similarly thoughtful and soundly based in expertise. Their instinct suggests the sales numbers will be big.
Let’s respect that and give them the freedom to build what they want.
It’s the quickest way to market.
The market will tell them their level of success via sales numbers.
They can adjust (pivot) later if need be.
Founder 2 - The Researcher
A founder is entitled to notice a market opportunity and research it before building.
Here, the founder takes time to study the market. They research and test the market need before building a solution. Interviews, observations, listening sessions, surveys. Then, and only then, do they build a product. Building a solution informed by actual market needs suggests the sales numbers will be big.
It’s not the quickest way to market.
But the market has already given its input, so success is more likely.
They can still pivot, but the odds that they’ll need to are less.
Founder 3 - The Hybrid
A founder is also entitled to combine the two approaches in a hybrid form.
Start to build your hunch. Trust your expertise. It gets you started quickly.
But, start by creating a simple prototype to test with the market. Inexpensive, quick, but a tangible solution. Use that during research. Interviews, observations, listening sessions, surveys. Make changes (pivot) to the prototype rather than make a costly complete product redesign.
Once you see from your research that your product solution matches the actual market needs, build it and launch it!
It’s neither the quickest nor the slowest way to market.
But the market has already given its blessing before you finish product development, so a successful launch is more likely.
You can still pivot later, if need be.
My Point of View
You can get to the same end point - a market-validated product launch - by any of the three methods.
Years ago I worked in an innovation consulting firm where Research was king. I can assure you that front loading market research takes time and costs money. This works best for well-funded incumbent companies making the next generation of a company-critical product. Startup entrepreneurs sometimes feel a more urgent need to move more quickly - and to save money.
Later, I worked as an entrepreneur coach, employing techniques like Lean Startup. I can assure you that founders who believe in their product idea (and who doesn’t?) become impatient and are likely to skip the MVP / prototype research and just build the dang product. After all, their instinct says it will sell! Unfortunately for some, they may be the only person on the face of the planet who loves that particular product idea. We’ve all seen products like that where we thought, “What in the world were they thinking? Who would ever want THAT?”
Today, I believe that the Hybrid model is what the Lean Startup model, focusing on Customer Discovery until your product idea is validated, was / is all about. At Steve Franks Innovation, I train companies to use a hybrid model to get what I consider to be the best of both worlds. I’ve seen the value of Research. I’ve seen the value of Building and testing. Let’s use both!
So, the answer to the Chicken / Egg question "What comes first - the Product or the Research?” is …
That’s the wrong question. Either can come first, but both are necessary. The real question should be, “How do we make the two work together?”
Happy inventing and entrepreneuring!