Test your hypothesis! Every new product is an experiment

In a traditional product development model you would find a problem you want to solve, make a business plan, develop the product and then launch. Erik Ries propose that we instead treat every product like an experiment where the main goal is to learn about our potential customers' needs. That means making the distance between idea and launch as short as possible, and a very short production cycles.

If you have read Steve Blank's book Four Steps to Epiphany, you know what I'm talking about. He calls it the customer development model. He describes it as a way to develop products with customers, not the product, in mind.

Source: The Four Steps to Epiphany

Ries' describes the same concept as a way to test the underlying hypotheses behind a product. He brings up four questions that Mark Cook from Kodak would ask his team every time they develop a new product:

1. Do consumers recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve?

2. If there was a solution, would they buy it?

3. Would they buy it from us?

4. Can we build a solution for that problem?

"The common tendency of product development is to skip straight to the fourth question and build a solution before confirming that customers have the problem"

The takeaway is that we need to outline our hypotheses, test them and learn from the process. Only then can we create new products and services that form the basis of a successful business model.