While the guy shopping at the hardware store might think he’s comparing the features and benefits of the latest drills what he’s actually doing is imagining all of those shelves beautifully hung.

We like to believe that our product story begins with the customer’s relationship to the product, when in actual fact what the customer is focused on is his relationship to himself (in the presence of the product). When he asks himself (or you), “How is this better?” what he really wants to know is, “How does this make me better?”

4 Questions To Ask Before Developing Your Product

1. What’s the change that will happen in your customer because your product exists?
2. How will he look, feel, think and act?
3. What will he say, believe and do once he is using it?
4. How exactly will he be a better version of himself in the presence of this product?

You can make the most technologically advanced drill in the world, but if the product doesn’t match your potential customer’s worldview then you’re going to be stuck spending time and money trying to make him care about it before he ever considers buying it.

Product development doesn’t start with the story of your factory, the technology or even the number of those features and these benefits.

It starts with the customer’s story.

Image by Roben Joyce.