{"id":4796,"date":"2017-03-31T20:05:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T20:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/blog\/product-validation-building-app\/"},"modified":"2022-07-01T18:37:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T18:37:20","slug":"product-validation-building-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Valida\u00e7\u00e3o de Produto: o que considerar antes de construir uma aplica\u00e7\u00e3o"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building a product is no easy task. It’ll take months of planning, design and engineering work, but with dedication, hard work and the right professionals by your side, it can be accomplished. However, how can you know if you’re building the right<\/strong> product? Dedication and hard work alone won’t be enough. There’s another factor to consider on the equation: if it solves a real problem<\/strong> for real people<\/strong>. Many startups often decide to go straight to the building phase and end up missing some important steps of the product development process, such as validating their business idea with potential customers and analysing the market. Let’s go over some things to take into account when setting a product strategy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Connecting with customers<\/h2>\n

Finding a pain point<\/h3>\n

Every business starts with an idea. Someone sees an opportunity and decides to do something about it. Good opportunities are usually inspired by an actual problem: a scenario that can be improved, something that is currently done manually and can be automated, or a process that’s poorly done and can be more efficient, for instance. Situations like these indicate that a pain exists and that it can be solved, changing someone’s life and habits. A good question to ask is: what is someone going to stop doing when they start using your product<\/a>? If you find the answer to that, you’re on the right track. Still, that’s only an assumption. To validate this assumption, it’s paramount to talk with those that experience that problem directly, a.k.a. potential customers.<\/p>\n

Talking to potential customers<\/h3>\n

With a problem and a proposed solution on your hands, the next step is to validate that hypothesis. Is it an actual problem? Is the solution something that people are willing to adopt on their day-to-day routine? Good ways to discover that are by interviewing potential customers and learning more about their habits and behavior.<\/p>\n

There are a handful of techniques for performing research: ethnographic studies, online surveys and face-to-face interviews, to name a few. Ethnographic research, for instance, is the observation of customers in their most common context, where they face the problem previously mapped. It works really well to get insights on behavior, which might confirm or refute assumptions without influencing the results \u2013 since it relies on observation and analysis.<\/p>\n

Influencing results is something to be aware of when performing face-to-face interviews, though. When performing an interview, try not to induce customers to answer what you expect to hear. Not so effective questions are usually too direct, like: “Would you be willing to use a product that does X for you?” or “Do you face problem Y?”. These can generate false positives, as people tend to answer them positively just to please the interviewer. Better interview questions are more broad: “Please, tell me more about your day-to-day work.” or “Please, explain how you perform this specific task on your routine.”. The answers to your hypothesis will emerge naturally from the conversation, as people talk about their needs and motivations.<\/p>\n

Studying the market<\/h2>\n

Mapping out the competition<\/h3>\n

Roughly saying<\/a>, hundreds of new products are launched worldwide every day, so the chance of a similar product already existing out there is high. With that in mind, it’s important to look for other competitors that might already be on the market solving a similar problem. Start by searching keywords on Google, App Store and Google Play \u2013 depending on the kind of product you’re planning to build \u2013 and mapping it out on a spreadsheet by listing names, market size, features, strengths, weaknesses and any other information can be relevant<\/a>. That way, you’ll be more prepared and able to detect opportunities and strategies to make your solution unique.<\/p>\n

Even if a problem seems similar, the approach to the solution can be very different \u2013 either due to simplicity (easier to use), innovation (something that hasn’t been done before) or niche (focusing on a specific set of customers). Use that on your advantage. Also, the answer for differentiation might not necessarily lie on the product itself, but on external factors \u2013 such as expertise on the business area, networking etc.<\/p>\n

Product idea validation<\/h2>\n

Now that you’re confident about which way to go, it’s time to start thinking about solutions \u2013 what might be the best approaches to solve the customer problem. At this point, it’s important to generate a lot of hypothesis, test and iterate quickly over them.<\/p>\n

Deep dive and Design Sprint<\/h3>\n

Deep dive<\/a> \u2013 created by IDEO \u2013 was one of the first rapid and iterative product development approaches created. It relies on generating a lot of hypothesis based on the information gathered on the research, prototyping and validating them to learn as quickly as possible<\/strong> before jumping into the build phase. You might have also heard of the Design Sprint<\/a>, a more recent approach created by Google Ventures with a similar idea. Both methods are a really valuable way of generating ideas, learning and uncovering possible usability flaws.<\/p>\n

The process is structured in five steps: Fo<\/strong>cusing on a problem<\/strong>, Sketching solutions<\/strong>, Choosing the best<\/strong>, Prototyping<\/strong> and Testing with customers<\/strong>. These steps can be done in a very short time. The Design Sprint, for instance, proposes a five-day sprint, one for each step. By the end of the week, you’ll certainly have learned more about your customers and if the solution you’re willing to build makes sense or not. If it doesn’t, go back to step three and try out different solutions to get more feedback. When you (and your customers) are happy with the outcome, time to move further on the design process and begin building a full prototype with visual design in place!<\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/h2>\n

With these insights in place, planning and building a product becomes a much more accurate process. Bear in mind that these tips don\u2019t necessarily guarantee the success of a product, but will certainly reduce the chances of failure, since customers \u2013 the heart and soul of any business \u2013 are taking part on the process from day one. And it shouldn’t stop here: validation is a continuous and iterative flow, serving as a base for product development decisions and business growth. For further studying on the matter, I’d recommend <\/span>The Lean Startup<\/span><\/a> by Eric Ries.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building a product is no easy task. It’ll take months of planning, design and engineering work, but with dedication, hard work and the right professionals by your side, it can be accomplished. However, how can you know if you’re building the right product? Dedication and hard work alone won’t be enough. There’s another factor to consider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":4392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[341,345],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-br","category-negocios"],"yoast_head":"\nProduct validation: what to consider before building an app<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Things to take into account during a product development process, such as setting a strategy and business idea validation with potential customers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pt_BR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Product validation: what to consider before building an app\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Things to take into account during a product development process, such as setting a strategy and business idea validation with potential customers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cheesecake Labs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cheesecakelabs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-31T20:05:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-01T18:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ckl-website-static.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/productdesign_blog_cover.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheesecake Labs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cheesecakelabs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cheesecakelabs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. tempo de leitura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/\",\"name\":\"Product validation: what to consider before building an app\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-31T20:05:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-01T18:37:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@type\":\"person\",\"name\":\"Thiago Victorino\"},\"description\":\"Things to take into account during a product development process, such as setting a strategy and business idea validation with potential customers\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pt-BR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/product-validation-building-app\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Valida\u00e7\u00e3o de Produto: o que considerar antes de construir uma aplica\u00e7\u00e3o\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog-stg.cheesecakelabs.com\/br\/\",\"name\":\"Cheesecake Labs\",\"description\":\"Empresa de desenvolvimento e design de aplicativos mobile & web que est\u00e1 reinventando o desenvolvimento de produtos com times remotos. 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