Who else is out there?

One of the most important pieces of building a new product is doing research to see what else is out there. Has someone already built what you want to build? What are they doing well? Where can they improve? “Are you saying I’m not the only person in the world with this idea?” That seems odd. Surely I’m completely unique!!

I’m not going to lie, this part can be pretty disheartening. You find products with similar features that either didn’t do well or are doing so well that it seems like you will never be able to compete. This is where you have to remind yourself that everything you find that is already in the market reaffirms that there IS a market for your product. Knowing the other players on the field simply helps you strengthen your position. I looked into the people who are building the products, the stats around their customers, how they monetize, and I even read user review after user review on the App Store. I was able to gather early data on what these products were/are doing well and where they could improve.

The next step I took in doing market research was to do some early customer interviews. I created a brief survey and conducted interviews with those who I thought could be my future customer. I initially targeted people like myself–mothers who work full time and value active social lives, but rarely have time to pull everyone together. I found that they were all having the same pain points I was experiencing! No time to deal with the back and forth of trying to coordinate a date and plan with friends.

All of this research will coalesce to help me determine my VALUE PROPOSITION. This is the "essence" of my product and what makes it stand out from the competition. So here I go, looking for my essence. This could take a while . . .