About 5 months ago, I joined Social Lens as a Data & Tech Associate. My primary responsibility was to work on revamping our newly reimagined M&E tool, Measure 4 Impact (M4I), although I don’t think I fully comprehended what this entailed. I remember being told, very warmly, by the CEO that she is resting this otherwise huge responsibility on my young shoulders while assuring me that I would get all the support and guidance needed. So, as you can guess, I was simultaneously nervous and excited. I had the opportunity to get in on the ground of rebuilding a technology product, a task which I was extremely passionate about albeit a little inexperienced. Since then the journey has been one of learning, asking a lot of questions and gaining confidence.
Over the past few months, I’ve been a part of countless brainstorming sessions, heard insights from industry leaders, and have spent a lot of time pondering on what makes a great product great?
So here are three observations I have made on the same.
1. Building products are like building blocks
I enjoyed playing with Lego growing up, the building, planning and then finally seeing your design come to life as you execute. However, in retrospect, I never could have built the complex Legos had I not completed the simple ones first.
Building products is similar. For instance, if you launch a fully built product with a high level of complexity you are most likely to confuse and inundate your users. This will eventually lead to users giving up on your product.
On the other hand, if you launch a simple product that succeeds in fulfilling just one or a few needs of your users, but over time get their feedback to help you add more features to this product, then you’re essentially allowing your users to help you succeed.
Every market-dominant product had a v1 that was extremely simple but over time and thousands of upgrades became the product it is today.
So, start simple!
2. Simple and easy are different things
Easy is something that can be accomplished without putting in any real effort. But easy makes life difficult. Easy sounds ideal as everyone wants an easy life where they get their dream job or car or house without putting any effort. But we all know this isn’t the case. Simple on the other hand is something that is uncomplicated and can be understood easily but it cannot be achieved without effort.
Simple products feel incomplete in the beginning but over time payoff by ensuring adoption of the product. Building simple products is hard as you don’t get instant success but it’s rather like delayed gratification where your product gets a long-lasting reward in the long run. The thing about a well designed product is that you don’t notice the design, it’s that seamless.
Building simple products hinges on reciprocated effort and that’s not easy.
3. Adoption of solutions depend on breaking habits
We all have our way of doing certain things and we continue to do them in that way because it works for us. The same is for products. Unless products deliver substantially higher value causing a behavioural shift, users will just continue to use existing solutions available. For example, someone who has been using MS Excel for their data collection needs will not suddenly use an online data collection tool as they won’t find the need to use it. But if the online tool provided them with analytics and insights that otherwise MS Excel couldn’t, then they will understand the value in it.
According to Paras Chopra, any improvement below 2x over the existing solutions is marginal will see users resorting to their day-to-day habits that include sticking with existing solutions.
My journey at Social Lens has been extremely enriching with a tremendous amount of growth personally and professionally. I hope that this is just the beginning in my journey and aim to work towards building great products.
