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Hey legend,
My biggest mistake as a digital solopreneur & creator has been making products or services nobody wanted or needed.
And I don’t want you to make the same mistake.
In the past, I’ve sunk embarrassingly large amounts of time, money and effort into developing ideas on my own, only to launch them publicly to a roaring crowd of…
*crickets*
It’s reminiscent of an Instagram influencer with over 2 million followers that failed to sell the minimum number of t-shirts necessary for her manufacturer to start a production run, back in 2019.
Just because you, your mates or your mum think it’s a good idea, the reality is that they’re not the best judge of whether your idea will sink or swim.
The market is.
The market will objectively give you feedback on whether your idea is valuable to others by solving a real challenge or problem they’re actually facing (not just something you think they are).
- ✅ It’s valuable if: You’re receiving DMs, comments, subscribers, downloads, inquiries, calls etc
- ❌ It’s not valuable if: No one engages or responds to what you’re offering
That said, everything is valuable feedback – even a flop.
Because that’s a sign of what not to do.
However, these experiences can be costly, embarrassing and a real kick to your confidence.
(Trust me, I’ve experienced all three)
So this is the guide I wish I had when I first started creating products or services that my audience would find valuable.
It’s broken into 3 simple steps that you can apply when creating products or services for your customers or community:
- LISTEN – Listen for common questions and challenges that your customers regularly mention
- LEARN – Survey or talk directly to your audience to understand more about their challenges
- LAUNCH – Take (scrappy) action and launch a ‘naked’ offer to see how the market responds
Let’s dive into each.
👂🏽Listen
As much as I hate complaining & whinging, everyone around you is a non-stop goldmine of potential ideas.
Every day, your clients, customers or community are saying things like:
“Damn, I find it so hard to…”
“It’s so frustrating whenever I…”
“I just need something that could help me…”
Disguised in each of those types of statements is basically:
“I wish someone created a solution for my challenge”
If you’re working directly with customers or clients, practice actively listening to, and recording, the phrases they’re saying in your conversations or emails.
If you’re an online creator, study and save the recurring challenges or questions popping up in your comments section, DMs or story replies.
🤔 For example
My idea for forming a live cohort-based content accountability offer (The Storyteller Sprints) was formed when I started tuning into the recurring challenges or issues that other digital solopreneurs and creators were having:
💡 For you: Where are you already receiving ideas and what are the recurring challenges you’re hearing?
💬 Learn
It might seem painfully obvious, but I’m astounded how many people (including me) skip over this step but…
Actually, talk to your (potential) customers.
You need to go deeper into understanding their problem.
It’s why a doctor won’t immediately prescribe you with medicine within 10 seconds of you telling them where the pain is.
They need to clarify and understand the pain you’re experiencing before providing an informed solution.
Your aim in this stage is to drill down, get super clear on what’s driving their symptoms so you can to form an informed hypothesis on the best way to solve it (i.e. prescribe the medicine)
- How long have you been experiencing the problem?
- How has it been impacting you across your life?
- How much are you willing to spend to fix it?
- What have you tried before to solve it?
- What’s worked? What hasn’t?
There are so many simple and free ways you can engage directly with your potential customers such as:
- Video Calls: Use Zoom or Google Meet to connect in real-time
- Surveys: Use Typeform or Tally to create an online form to email to your audience
- Polls: Use the native poll feature of your preferred social media platform to gauge preference
🤔 For example
I used LinkedIn poll feature to learn what type of content would help my audience win with video in 2023 and used that to inform my content strategy.
💡 For you: How can you talk to and understand your customer’s challenges with more detail to help form or validate, your hypothesis?
🚀 Launch
Now you’ve got an informed hypothesis around how you can help your audience solve their problem, it’s time to take action.
Brainstorm and build the scrappiest, cheapest and easiest way of launching your offer.
This can also be called your “Minimum Viable Offer” (MVO) – the “naked” offer with just the core elements/features necessary to solve your customer’s problem.
No bells or whistles.
No flashy launch campaign.
Just scrappyAF.
So many people fall into the trap of sinking way too much trying to perfect their first product or offer, when that time would’ve been better spent putting it out there and getting real feedback from real customers so they could improve and iterate.
If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
– Reid Hoffman | Co-founder of LinkedIn
Launch it as quickly and cheaply as possible and let the market guide you in terms of whether what you’ve hypothesised is valuable or not.
Nowadays, there are so many free (or insanely affordable), beginner-friendly internet tools you can use to launch your MVO, including website builders, email software programs and payment processors that are more than enough for you to get started launching your idea for a product or service.
🤔 For example
I started this newsletter scrappyAF at the start of 2023 with the free plan on ConvertKit and used their free one-page website (“landing page”) builder to create a simple website to direct my audience to subscribe to this newsletter
💡 For you: Are you overcomplicating your offer? What would the “naked” version of it look like, especially if you want to get it out quickly?
So in summary,
- LISTEN – Listen for common questions and challenges that your customers regularly mention
- LEARN – Survey or talk directly to your audience to understand more about their challenges
- LAUNCH – Take (scrappy) action and launch a ‘naked’ offer to see how the market responds
And if you’re looking for a freshly updated playlist of certified eargasms, then slap on the MambaFM – July 2023 playlist and get groovin’ my friend.
See you in the next one,
🕺🏽 Mamba