Hypothesis Not Hype For A New Product

March 2nd, 2013 Sean Murphy

Resist the temptation to hype your new product, treat it as an hypothesis not just in your own mind but also in how you describe it to prospects.

If strangers tell you what they like about your product or particular ways that  they found it useful then you can use that in your messaging for the product since this is independent substantiation of value.

The real challenge is to continue to refine your offering by ongoing engagement with prospects and customers. This enables you to evolve a viable product into a delightful one.  But if you don’t ship until you believe it’s delightful then two things can happen:

1. You may raise the bar too high in your own mind and never ship: you will miss out on the criticisms and suggestions that will help you refine and enhance your product.
2. If you believe that your product is awesome then you may ignore useful criticism and real possibilities for continued improvement.

Entrepreneurs should not be content with a “minimum viable” product but that should not you from shipping it: this won’t  prevent  you from creating an awesome product, on the contrary it will actually start the real conversations with customers that will allow you to discover the gestalt of key features that a great product embodies.

Entry Filed under: Demos,Early Customer Stage,skmurphy