Isn’t it common sense that for a great company you need a GREAT PRODUCT? Yet, too many people think that throwing a generous amount of money in marketing and PR will sell the product. If the product is not good, then eventually all the marketing and storytelling about the product will be just a waste of time and money. To bring the WOW factor in the product, Entrepreneurs should be obsessed with observing the users, passionate with design, always on top of latest tools and technologies and have the capacity to build a product through trial and error process.

Headstart Gurgaon, with its flagship initiative Startup Saturday for September 2018 edition, addressed the topic which is the need of the hour of every Product person viz. “Building a WOW Product”. The event had some of the great industry experts to touch base on all the aspects of building a great product that users love. The session started with the most informative talk on “Identifying and launching features which Users want” given by Divya Jasmera, Product Partnerships @ Ixigo. Below are the major insights on how to increase user adoption and generate revenue growth on the product:

• The journey to build a WOW product starts by understanding the target audience and the market. Identifying the features that you can bring to your audience which will outstand you as compared to your competitors.
• It is important to make sure what you plan to build is exactly what the business requirement is & for every step involved in the process, there is an estimated tech effort & corresponding impact.
• Asking your users the right set of questions for the product gives you the right purview of what exactly users want and are you on the same page with your users.
• One of the most crucial steps in the product management journey. Would you give your product/feature as Premium or Freemium? Basis the engagement hence received & the user behaviour pattern, the monetization plan can remain the same, be improvised or might need to be changed. 

Success Story of Building a WOW Product:

The second talk of the Startup Saturday was conducted by Deep Bajaj, Founder @ Peebuddy. The session was moderated by Ashutosh Kumawat, City Lead @ Headstart Delhi. He narrated his journey of how the magical idea of developing a unique product like Peebuddy came into picture which helped women to avoid using dirty toilet seats at public places.

The product Peebuddy is nothing less than a sensation among women, especially athletes and those who have to be in outdoors for long hours. The idea behind the product stroked when Deep was on a road trip with his wife and after listening to his wife’s complaints about dirty toilets, he realized how grave the situation is. He figured out the biggest problem that can be solved by developing a product that can be easy to use, easy to carry and most importantly helps in maintaining hygiene. After improvising more than 50 designs, the team @ Peebuddy designed a product which along with maintaining hygiene also helps expecting mothers and women who are suffering from arthritis.

Developing Peebuddy required him to put his own money along with the funding from India Angel Network. The design was patented in 2015. The team has used social media and direct channel to promote their product. They now have a B2B tie-up with Flipkart, Amazon and Religare among other online retail stores to reach out to potential clients. Along with that, Peebuddy has a National Partnership with Pinkathon.

Disrupt with Empathy and Design:

Designing plays a huge role in the success and failure of the product. To understand the role of designing and how the product that can be developed by creating a right balance between Disruption and Empathy, the third session was conducted by Anand Jha, VP Design @ 1MG.

Below are the few points designers should consider before playing their pivotal role:

• Empathize with your users by observing, enquiring and communicating with them. The only way to understand what the user is going through while facing any particular problem and how the product can help him or her in getting a resolution.
• User acceptance can be impacted by understanding the mindset of the users by measuring different aspects like attitudinal, visceral and behavioural impact on the usage of the product. It helps in understanding how people are getting affected by your product be it emotionally or mentally.
• Identify your own biases and perceptions. Understand the impact your own biases can have on the design of the product.
• Once the empathy route is taken for the product designing, disrupting the market with the product becomes relatively easy.

Minimum Viable Product and Product – Market Fit:

To understand all about Minimum Viable Product and Product-Market Fit, Ojasvi Bhatia, City Lead of Headstart Gurgaon Chapter, moderated a panel discussion with Saurabh Srivastava, Ex-CXO @ Jabong and Mobikwik and Radhika Mehra, Global Product Lead @ Expedia.

The major insights from their session are as follows:

• The viability of the product is the basic features that are sufficient to satisfy the early adopters of the product. However, the only way to understand that the product has reached its MVP is to validate it through the users.
• Over the years the MVP of the product has evolved dramatically, as the users have raised their expectations from the product. These days any product is compared to the likes of Amazon and Uber.

For more details on the Panel Discussion, please read here.
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About Headstart:

Since our inception in 2007, we have built a grassroots level ecosystem in 23 Indian cities and organised over 1000 startup events focused on networking, mentoring, hiring and fundraising. Our work has played a role in getting over 10,000 new ventures off the ground. Some of the young startups that made their early stage demos on our platform are now unicorns. Cumulatively all these companies have created over 20Lk jobs and added over 148,000 Crores to the Indian economy. 
You’d be surprised to know, Headstart is almost entirely run by passionate volunteers. We have a bold vision for India, and as empowered citizens we do whatever little we can do, to further it.