{"id":11509,"date":"2022-05-09T16:16:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T16:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revuze.it\/?p=11509"},"modified":"2022-12-15T13:06:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T13:06:22","slug":"how-to-use-product-insights-to-inform-product-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revuze.it\/blog\/how-to-use-product-insights-to-inform-product-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Use Product Insights To Inform Product Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
When it comes to improving your products and developing the strategy by which you intend to market them, nothing is more important than knowing what works and what doesn\u2019t. In business, very few stakeholders will want to take a step forward unless there is a decent chance of return on investment.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, we live in a world where changing expectations and shifting culture means that it isn\u2019t always clear cut what will be successful and what won\u2019t. That\u2019s where <\/span>product insights<\/span><\/a> based on market research can help.<\/span><\/p>\n Product strategy is a plan encompassing everything that you want to achieve with a specific product, what steps you intend to take to see that through and how that strategy links to the overall goals of your business.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n There are a number of elements to a product strategy, starting from the very beginning with the drawing board and finishing up with where you want the product to sit in the market. Each step posits certain questions that you need to ask yourself before moving forward:<\/span><\/p>\n Design:<\/b> What do you intend to sell? How will your design attract consumers? Will your design stand out amongst the market or will it conform to the accepted norm?<\/span><\/p>\n Features:<\/b> What will your product do? How will that set it apart from others in the same market? Are you going to combine multiple features into one item?<\/span><\/p>\n Quality: <\/b>What will your product\u2019s quality be? Are you intending to create disposable or multiple use items? Your product\u2019s quality should match those already within the market at the least, and exceed if you intend them to be reusable.<\/span><\/p>\n Branding:<\/b> Will you market your product as part of an existing line? WIll it be standalone? Brands have <\/span>reputation and power<\/span><\/a>, something that will help a lot when you\u2019re starting out.<\/span><\/p>\n Target Market\/Demographic(s):<\/b> Who do you intend to sell to? Do you have a niche audience or is this new product something anyone would buy? You can charge more for specialized products that few will buy, but there will be fewer sales overall.<\/span><\/p>\n Positioning:<\/b> Where do you plan to position this product in the market? Is it intended to replace the current frontrunners? Is it going to be an affordable alternative?<\/span><\/p>\n All these questions are easy enough to answer from your own perspective, but you need to remember that you and your team aren\u2019t necessarily going to be representative of your customer base as a whole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to answer these questions for consumers in general, you\u2019ll need information on what they want and what you can give them – product insights.<\/span><\/p>\n [banner_text text=”Research insights on any product” button_text=”Get started” button_link=”https:\/\/sentimate.com\/signup\/”]<\/span><\/p>\n Product insights are a peek into the consumers\u2019 minds when they\u2019re using a product. Put simply, it\u2019s a broad term that covers any and all information you might have that describes a <\/span>user\u2019s experiences<\/span><\/a> related to a product and the analysis of those. You can split product insights into two types:<\/span><\/p>\n Qualitative insights are factors that you might call arbitrary or without a scale. This type of insight is usually found in the more expansive surveys and reviews that users and buyers leave behind on products. Don\u2019t be fooled into thinking that these types of insight aren’t useful because they can\u2019t be measured, they can give you details that mere numbers never could.<\/span><\/p>\n As an example, someone stating that they didn\u2019t like your product falls under quantitative insights as it\u2019s a simple yes or no answer. If they state <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> they didn\u2019t like it, that falls under the qualitative insights umbrella.<\/span><\/p>\n This type covers anything that you can statistically measure. It can potentially come from pre-existing data, for instance customer retention rates, ratio of online to in-store purchases, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The trouble is, most of the data that already exists isn\u2019t set in a vacuum. You can say that the sales of a certain item went up at a certain time that coincides with a holiday season, however there are likely multiple factors at work that could influence the shift in sales. Breaking the data down by demographics, location etc. will help but not entirely eliminate this problem, and often product insight teams will find themselves trying to set up surveys to fulfill specific niche questions their existing data doesn\u2019t cover.<\/span><\/p>\n In the end, finding quantitative data that\u2019s absolutely controlled isn\u2019t necessary though, as the accuracy in your predictions you get has diminishing returns. There\u2019s a certain point where you call it a day, and it\u2019s up to you to decide where that line lies.<\/span><\/p>\n Product insights come from your consumer base. They\u2019re the ones using your product after all, and will have far more insight into how it functions and where its strengths and weaknesses lie than anyone who looks at it through an analytical lens. Post-It notes were originally created to be bookmarks for example, but found much more success in their main function today as reminder notes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to data sources, there are plenty of them out there to pick from. Which ones you put the most weight on will depend entirely on your industry, business model etc. but they\u2019re all generally useful to some extent. Some of the more popular ones include:<\/span><\/p>\n Analyzing product data isn\u2019t easy, but there are software packages out there that can help you. Most of the more commonly used ones contain several key metrics that you can look at in order to determine what you data is telling you, including:<\/span><\/p>\n These metrics are designed to be easy to understand and therefore easy to implement – most reports will tell you their key points at a glance after all!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You need to keep in mind though, that the more specific the issue the more you\u2019ll need to delve into the data. Be selective about what data goes in and you\u2019ll get a more specific answer out, though that will require some understanding of the data you\u2019ve collected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The term \u201c<\/span>north star metric<\/span><\/a>\u201d is one that\u2019s linked heavily to the success or failure of a particular product strategy. The term comes from an old sailing practice, where one would \u201cfollow the north star\u201d to find which direction is north at night since the star in question didn\u2019t move relative to the Earth\u2019s rotation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Essentially, it is the key metric by which you define how successful you\u2019ve been and whether or not you\u2019ve hit your targets and solved the base customer problem that your product team was attempting to solve. You can use the term to reinforce what you\u2019re doing as the campaign goes on, aiming your sights directly at the metric you\u2019ve decided to target.<\/span><\/p>\n A good north star metric contains both the problem you\u2019re attempting to solve and the desired outcome. An example metric might be:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cTo raise the quality of our product\u2019s manufacturing so that they don\u2019t break as often\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In this case, the product breaking is the problem and the quality being raised is the vision of what you want to achieve. The key measurable metric in this case would be the number of customers reporting broken products, with a decrease in the proportion being considered a success.<\/span><\/p>\n As mentioned above, a product strategy is set out by defining several characteristics that you want your product to have, based on questions that you ask yourself about the market, your consumer base and the product itself. Let\u2019s break this down and see how product insights can help you when you\u2019re generating a product strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n When you look at the information on design preferences, you might find complaints or reviews that indicate flaws in existing designs that you can take advantage of. This could be in the early stages when you\u2019re analyzing what exists already in the market, or later in testing when your product has been designed.<\/span><\/p>\n Some folk might be adverse to making changes when the development process is part way through and manufacturing has already taken place, but you shouldn\u2019t hesitate if major issues crop up. A design modification early on in the process is less costly than one further on or your product, or if it fails.<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019re deciding what features to put on a product, oftentimes you\u2019ll end up with more than it can support in the beginning as every suggestion is noted. Using product insights, you can narrow down that list to a more feasible one.<\/span><\/p>\n Product insights will tell you which features are the most sought after, which are seen to work well together and what features can be safely dropped without complaints from customers.<\/span><\/p>\n What you want your quality to be depends mostly on what market you\u2019re going into, and product insights can tell you a lot about that space. An example of high quality products bringing success were the <\/span>Dualshock game controllers<\/span><\/a> initially released in the early 2000\u2019s, which overtook all others to become the standard in the industry.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat Is Product Strategy?<\/b><\/h2>\n
What Are Product Insights?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Qualitative Insights<\/b><\/h3>\n
Quantitative Insights<\/b><\/h3>\n
The Value of Data<\/b><\/h2>\n
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What Do You Get Out of Product Insights?<\/b><\/h2>\n
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North Star Metric: Your Defining Vision<\/b><\/h2>\n
Combining Product Insights With Product Strategy<\/b><\/h2>\n
Design<\/b><\/h3>\n
Features<\/b><\/h3>\n
Quality<\/b><\/h3>\n
Branding<\/b><\/h3>\n