For some, business is all about the product. What you make and what you do is naturally going to be what you’re focusing on. Others might temper this slightly by making the experience part of what makes their brand appealing to customers – their service or some other unique aspect of the interaction.

Even in that case, though, you likely still have a core product or service that you’re offering. What can be valuable, though, is examining the ways that you might be held back by the current iteration of this product, so that you can look for further improvements.

Fragility

Summing up every possible form that your product could take under the umbrella term of ‘products’ is too broad of a term to be useful at times. Some businesses won’t have an issue at all with fragility due to the relative simplicity or robustness of what they’re offering – others won’t have products at all, but services that don’t take on so tangible a form. 

If you are providing something that is inherently prone to breakage – such as glass, an engine, or something edible, you’re going to need a shipping company to work with that has these needs in mind, as opposed to one that’s more general in its approach. Looking to engine shipping quotes from various options can help you to work out how this would fit in with your business model, but the alternative could come with its own costs as well.

Lagging Behind

Of course, it’s not just your own product that you have to worry about; you also have to think about what your competitors are doing. Naturally, the broad strokes are going to be similar, but the specifics are where it really matters, and this can be something that can feel impossible to overcome when you’re too far behind. That might mean that finding your own USP and doubling down could be the way forward. 

To a certain degree, this might be an oversimplification. You have to conduct the proper market research, use customer feedback, and work with your own technicians or other professionals to best understand your possible options. However, it’s important to consider the ‘kill your darlings’ writing advice, even when it feels as though it doesn’t apply – just because there’s an aspect of your product that you like, that doesn’t mean that this aspect isn’t what’s holding you back.

Development Costs

This mentality can sometimes get you into an arms race with your competitors where you’re dedicated to releasing something that’s bigger and better than what else is available. It’s important to recognize not only that ‘bigger and better’ might not be actionable advice towards releasing a genuinely superior product, but also that it’s a mindset that could be racking up development costs beyond what they need to be. On the other hand, you don’t want this to get you into a situation where you’re cutting costs and releasing something that is underfunded, but it’s about being as efficient as possible with what you have available and using the limited resources at your disposal to your advantage.

By Adam Torkildson

Keywords: Business Strategy