AMA: Matterport VP of Product, Preethy Vaidyanathan on Building 0-1 Products

For a new 0 to 1 product offering, prioritization is biased for rapid learning, user adoption and market feedback. So encourage thinking in the following dimensions:  Core value differentiation:  Prioritize features that drive a strong, compelling reason for why your product exist  Prioritize and focus on executing the single most compelling problem that reiterates your product’s unique value proposition  Once your top priority problem to solve for is identified, use the standard effort vs. impa ...Read More

Start by mapping your leading and lagging metrics  Leading metrics examples include sales and customer engagement, customer usage  Lagging metrics examples include bookings, revenue, retention rate, upsell  It is critical to plan your leading engagement KPIs, especially in new product launches. Think of these as your early indicators of success. For eg:  Sales metrics like number of outreach efforts, response rates, opportunities created, conversion rates Customer engagement metrics like daily o ...Read More

There are two types of common triggers for a second product: market saturation and innovation advantage.  Market-forces or market saturation:  When your first product has stabilized with consistent user adoption and satisfaction, consider expanding to a second product.  Monitor KPIs—if growth metrics like user engagement, retention, and revenue plateau despite improvements, it may signal time for new product exploration. It's key to dig deep here to make sure that this plateau is not because of ...Read More

Embrace prototyping. Especially for a 0 to 1 offering, asking customer and market feedback is hard because they have to envision the problem, your solution and on top of all this provide you with improvement ideas. So by sharing prototypes, you make it easier for potential customers to provide feedback.  Start with prototypes or user journey maps to demonstrate your product concept and solicit actionable feedback. Asking questions like will you find this useful, how often will be using the produ ...Read More

A common pitfall is over-engineering the solution. Instead of complex features and functionality, focus on delivering a simple, compelling first product launch that addresses the primary problem that customers will want to use and will find beneficial.  Minimizing scope not only accelerates your time to market but also facilitates quicker feedback collection. To architect your chance of success, focus on a specific sub-segment of your target audience, that is the most engaged and will actively p ...Read More