As a small business owner, you have very little wiggle room when it comes to successfully developing and launching products. Your company's success greatly depends on your team hitting the mark every time in putting out effective and engaging products for everyone to enjoy.
Although this sounds like a daunting prospect, it is actually easier than ever with a look into the playbook of the leader in product development: Amazon. From the very beginning, CEO Jeff Bezos made it their mission to create products customers love and drive their success with effective launch tactics.
Here are just a few of their most effective tips you can use to green light product development projects that are sure to win over your customers.
Know Your Target Customers Well
In absolutely everything Amazon does, they keep their eye on their customers' needs and purchase preferences. Bezos always has his team set their sights on truly understanding their target audience for every product they launch.
With that understanding, they can build products that speak to their customers' pain points and help resolve those problems with ease. They can also look at how they will optimize the customer experience, starting with the earliest stages of product development.
To work toward the same level of success, provide your team with buyer personas that highlight information about your ideal customers, including:
As your product development team uses these stats to guide their creative tactics, your products will better speak to the needs of your customers, promoting improved sales across the board.
Always Support Your Mission
In creating his annual shareholder letter, Bezos always includes a copy of the very first letter sent out to his shareholders. With this reminder, he aims to keep the team on the same mission they have had from the start: providing customers with fast delivery of all the products they could ever want.
When you center your product development around your company mission, you ensure that each product supports your long-term goals and vision for your firm. You can then launch the products with confidence that your customers will see how they fit in their lives -- and your company's bigger picture.
Address Past Problems
From their e-commerce platform to a hotel booking site, Amazon has lost billions of dollars in failed product launches over the years. Yet, they are still wildly successful in developing products their customers will find helpful, fascinating, and necessary in their everyday lives.
They accomplish this goal by using each misstep as a learning tool that helps them build better products in the future. These highlights guide the product development team in creating products that speak to the needs of their target customer and perform better than expected every step of the way.
You can do the same by taking a close look at any product failures in your company's history and finding out why they did not pan out. Your product development team can then use those findings to avoid past mistakes that impeded your success.
Plan a Future Press Release
Any product launched without a press release sharing its benefits and applauding its features is not off to a great start. To follow in Bezos's footsteps, you must drum up interest by writing press releases that look to the product's future success. As your press release explores how the product will solve problems and benefit customers, you can drive interest for your launch and ensure your product development efforts will not go to waste.
When you apply these tips to your product development tactics, your small business can green light effective products more often than ever. Turn your sights to success by picking up these tricks of the trade from the leader in the industry.
About Sonu Shukla, CPA, CFP
Sonu Shukla is a Certified Public Accountant as well as Certified Financial Planner. He believes in proactive tax planning and has the skills, education and experience to demonstrate passionately planned financial strategies. His firm tailors highly efficient tax plans for his small business clients, all in a one on one environment where he and the client can bounce ideas around until every detail is worked out. Located in Orlando, FL, he services all of Florida.
