Find out how to Come Up with New Product Concepts (That Do not Suck)

So that you wish to discover a new product thought to promote on-line? Nicely, likelihood is you typed one thing like “new product concepts” or “good product concepts” into Google, hoping you’d discover the reply.

Nothing fallacious with that.

Nonetheless, the issue is you’re looking out (and discovering) the very same factor as everybody else. These “new” concepts actually turn out to be what everybody’s already doing and promoting.

We’re not going to record out a bunch of product concepts right here—that’d defeat the aim of you discovering what your buyer wants.

As an alternative, we’re going to point out you tips on how to provide you with new product concepts (that don’t suck) you possibly can promote on-line. Your brand-new concepts could be impressed by merchandise that exist, however you’ll be empowered with creativity and freedom to make them your individual.

Bear in mind good ol’ Henry Ford? There’s a quote attributed to him that goes like this: “If I had requested folks what they needed, they’d have stated quicker horses.”

This text will make it easier to give your prospects what they want as an alternative of simply quicker horses.

What Makes a Product Thought “Good”?

First, let’s assist differentiate the great product concepts from the dangerous ones. Right here’s just a few tell-tale indicators of every:

Indicators of a Good Product Thought

1. Addresses a Want: Good product concepts clear up issues. These might be big issues (like Elon Musk battling local weather change) or minor issues (like assuaging somebody’s physique odor). Don’t got down to discover a product. First, discover the issue. Subsequent, discover (or construct) the proper product to resolve it.
2. Offers Strong USP: Your product wants a distinctive promoting proposition (USP) that makes it higher than some other product available on the market. That USP might be associated to options, pricing, scalability, and even pace of supply. product might be precisely what’s available on the market, however possibly your manufacturing is extra scalable, so you possibly can drive down costs for patrons? That’s a brand new product thought.
3. Has Revenue Potential: The most effective thought is only a notion except you can also make a plan to (1) create it and (2) make it worthwhile. Which means you’ll want to contemplate bills, pricing, provide and demand, the scale of your addressable market, and present competitors.
   Can Be Simply Communicated: You’ll possible must safe funding from lenders or traders. In case your thought’s too advanced, you’ll battle to get financing. Plus, your prospects will face a barrier to entry.
4. Makes You Completely happy: Don’t begin promoting a product you don’t care about—that’s a recipe for a sleazy MLM. You need to be in a position (and excited) to connect your identify and picture subsequent to your product. That’s an indication you’re happy with it.
5. Is Value Paying for: There are many merchandise on the market that make you assume, “Oh, cool!” Nonetheless, you don’t wish to simply impress passing-by prospects—you need them to open their wallets. Guarantee your product is price paying for and never only a enjoyable idea.

Crimson Flags of a Unhealthy Product Thought

• Provides No Identifiable USP: Your prospects ought to be capable to establish your USP. If they’ll’t determine what makes your product totally different from the remainder, then it’s possible insufficient.
• Confuses Prospects: If you must persuade prospects it’s a great product, it’s most likely not. Your product ought to be capable to market itself with out a 60-minute infomercial.
• There’s No Demand: Some issues aren’t price fixing. You’ll must validate your product thought to make sure your goal market doesn’t simply assume it’s a good suggestion, however they’re keen to spend their hard-earned cash to purchase it.
• It Already Exists: Do your analysis. There are numerous entrepreneurs on the market, so guarantee your new product thought doesn’t exist already. If it does (or did), study extra about it. How’s it doing? Why did it fail (or succeed)? How will you do it higher?

Write these concepts down, and share them with somebody you belief. In the event you provide you with a product thought you’re in love with, you’ll possible see all the great and not one of the dangerous. It’s pure. Nonetheless, in case you give your thought an goal look-through, you would uncover deadly flaws earlier than it’s too late.

Don’t Skip: Ecommerce Enterprise Concepts That Yield Highly effective Outcomes

Find out how to Discover Your New Product Thought

Now that what you’re on the lookout for, it’s time to begin looking out. If inspiration comes from mountain meditation or lengthy hikes within the wilderness, go get after it. But when these product-finding strategies allow you to down, listed here are some locations to begin:

1. Ask Your Prospects

This method goes towards Henry Ford’s well-known quote, however your prospects nearly (nearly) at all times know greatest. Begin there.

In case you have prospects, ship out surveys or conduct interviews to determine their issues. In the event you don’t have prospects but, establish your goal market and begin there.

You might even discover a subreddit you’re considering and open up conversations there. For instance, in case you’re into mountain climbing and wish to discover a product concept that solves hikers’ wants, you would possibly be part of the r/Climbing, r/Backpacking, or r/Ultralight subreddits. Browse the conversations there, probe into complaints, or simply flat out ask folks what they need.

You might begin by asking what’s difficult them or what they want fastened. Dig deeper and ask what they assume may clear up it. They may not at all times know the reply to the second query, and that’s OK—that’s finally your job to determine.

When you establish an issue, begin figuring out your prospects’ willingness to pay to repair it. If it’s nothing (or not quite a bit), it’s most likely not a difficulty price fixing.

If the issue is price fixing, begin pondering of a product. Don’t fear about perfecting the design and all of the parts simply but. After getting a prototype or a draft, ask your prospects if they’d be considering one thing like this. If the reply is “sure,” then you’re heading in the right direction.

2. Spot What’s Scorching

Search for what’s trending on ecommerce websites or social media platforms. What’s doing properly? Why? Are you able to replicate it and make one thing higher?

For instance, if everyone seems to be raving about on-line studying, is there a course you possibly can create to resolve a necessity? If a course already exists, are you able to make one which’s higher or extra reasonably priced?

Bear in mind, fads come and go. In the event you soar right into a development early, you possibly can capitalize on the second and get out earlier than it cools off. In the event you be part of too late, you would possibly find yourself investing in a product with rapidly diminishing demand.

A method to make sure you keep on monitor is recognizing wants inside the developments. For some time, air fryers have been a scorching subject throughout the information and social media feeds. Nonetheless, they didn’t clear up any determined wants—they simply gave folks new healthy-ish methods to prepare dinner meals. After some time, the hype petered out, and now there’s a bunch sitting unused in client’s closets.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Steal

“Good designers copy, nice designers steal.” These well-known phrases spoken by painter Pablo Picasso apply to far more than design. You don’t want a wholly unique thought—you simply want to repeat, steal, and iterate to make the following smartest thing.

Even smarty-pants Elon Musk didn’t do something exceptionally revolutionary—he simply took a well-liked mannequin of automobiles (which have been round for over a century) and made them electrical, highly effective, attractive, and unique. OK, he did greater than that, however you get the thought.

Or check out Jibbitz. Jibbitz capitalized on Croc’s recognition (nonetheless don’t perceive why folks put on these footwear) by creating charms to let wearers personalize their footwear. Jibbitz primarily piggybacked on one other model’s success to hit it huge, and Crocs ended up shopping for the tiny startup for $10 million.

You might additionally take into consideration all of as we speak’s social media apps. Bear in mind when Instagram stole Snapchat’s mannequin and added Tales to their platform? After which each different social media platform did the identical factor?

Or bear in mind when Chook and Lime began littering each metropolis within the US with electrical scooters? A few months later, Uber, Lyft, and several other different manufacturers have been already on the scene.

You don’t must provide you with one thing brand-new. Borrow, steal, and Frankenstein your individual product thought—simply be sure that it has a USP that beats out the competitors.

4. Consider Upsells and Cross-Sells

In the event you’re already promoting items, you don’t essentially want an out-of-the-box product. A intently associated product has the potential to succeed, and it additionally may enhance your current merchandise gross sales.

For instance, in case you promote footwear, you would increase into shoelaces or socks. In the event you promote on-line programs, you would increase into e-books or in-person courses.

Whilst you’re eager about it, have a look at methods you would enhance your current product. Are there less complicated, cheaper or extra strong, pricey variations you would present? For instance, you’ll find about 3 totally different fashions of each new soccer footwear: budget-friendly, middle-of-the-road, and premium.

Are you able to do the identical factor together with your merchandise? In the event you promote an internet course, you would have a condensed cheaper model or a extra complete costly model.

5. Discover Your Personal Issues

You (sure, you) are a client, too. What issues do you’ve gotten? Is there a day-to-day situation you would like you would clear up? There’s a great probability your private persona belongs in a distinct segment market—if you’ll find an issue you wish to clear up, there could be different people (hopefully numerous them) with the identical situation.

Don’t fear—we’ll get into validating your thought later to make sure it has legs to face on. However don’t low cost your issues. This technique doesn’t take lengthy processes or intensive analysis. Simply take into consideration what actually bothers you and the way you would like you would clear up it.

Take Airbnb, for instance. Founders Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky struggled to pay lease, so that they determined to lease out airbeds on their living-room ground to convention attendees in San Francisco. The subsequent day, the pair created a web site—6 days later, they’d 3 tenants sleeping on their ground.

Codeacademy began as a Columbia College programming membership. Co-founder Zach Sim struggled to study new coding expertise on his personal, so programming native (and cofounder) Ryan Bubinski used Sims as a guinea pig to create a self-paced studying expertise that turned Codeacademy.

Don’t overlook your individual issues. Create an answer that’s price paying for, and also you’ll possible discover different prospects identical to you.

Validate. Validate. Validate.

Have an thought for a product? Improbable! Don’t do something with it but.

Hear us out.

Earlier than you go off to the races or begin digging down deep into rabbit holes, validate your product thought. You don’t wish to commit any time or cash (or worse—get personally hooked up) to an concept that’s going to crash and burn.

Whereas we will maintain asking theoretical questions and taking part in with concepts, sustainable companies are solely constructed when cash modifications arms. If it’s going to reach the long-term, it must cross a stress take a look at. Right here’s tips on how to do it:

Smoke Take a look at With a Touchdown Web page

Construct a touchdown web page that highlights the advantages (and pricing) of your product. Drive visitors to the web page with natural (social media and electronic mail) and paid (PPC adverts) methods, after which see what your prospects do.

Do they click on the “buy now” button, or do they go away with out taking motion? Set a click-through fee aim for what you need the web page to attain. If it hits that aim, then you possibly can really feel assured in really creating and scaling the product. If not, then you definitely would possibly wish to rethink your thought.

This smoke take a look at helps you discover out if persons are actually keen to purchase your product. Mates, households, and colleagues would possibly say your thought is nice, however an actual viewers with actual cash offers you the chilly, onerous reality.

The entire course of on your smoke testing touchdown web page ought to solely take just a few days. Don’t spend an excessive amount of time making a flowery touchdown web page—maintain it minimal with the fundamentals.

At foundr, we’ve launched lots of on-line programs, and we make it a observe to validate each one earlier than we put within the money and time to make it a actuality.

Flesh Out Your Total Technique

GTM. Manufacturing. Delivery. Financing. All of it. Work out the logistics of how your new product thought goes to return to fruition. Do all of this analysis earlier than you begin constructing prototypes and web sites.

You would possibly discover a logistical part that shuts down the entire product thought, so do your due diligence:

• Sourcing Your Product: How are you going to construct or purchase your product? Do you have the funds for and sources? If it’s one thing like an internet course or e-book, do you’ve gotten the abilities and bandwidth to carry it to fruition? If not, are you able to rent somebody?
• Go-to-Market (GTM) Plan: How do you propose to launch and market your product? What value does it have to be to beat out rivals, attract prospects, and make it easier to earn a revenue? What channels will you’ll want to use to succeed in your viewers?
• Delivery: How will you get your bodily or digital product from you to your prospects? Will it’s by way of electronic mail or the publish workplace? Will they want a login, or will it’s a downloadable product?
• Financing: The place are you going to search out the cash to make this occur? Do you’ve gotten a wealthy uncle, or will you’ll want to ask a financial institution for a mortgage?

It’s quite a bit to consider. We all know. But it’s essential you concentrate on all of this stuff earlier than pursuing a brand new product.

The most effective thought may examine all of your packing containers, however in case you don’t have the cash, time, or means to make it occur, it’s not going to be a good suggestion.

Maintain Studying: What Can I Promote On-line to Make Cash?

New Product Concepts FAQs

Make Your New Product Thought Come to Life

New product concepts are nice and all, however they solely reside in your mind and on the again of a used serviette till you launch them to the world.

Sound intimidating? It may be. Nicely, with out the appropriate mentors and processes, that’s.

Allow us to assist stroll you thru the whole product improvement course of. Sourcing specialist, Kian Golzari, will share his confirmed blueprint that may take you from “questioning what to promote”, to having your individual distinctive product manufactured, shipped, and making gross sales quicker whereas avoiding pricey errors.