AMA: Mezmo Sr. Director, Product Management, Ashka Vakil on Building 0-1 Products

To ensure that you are investing your resources wisely, it is critical to have a high degree of confidence in the problem you are going after. You do not want to spend engineering resources on a problem that may not be large enough or is technically not possible to solve. Here are some key indicators that can signal you are ready to allocate engineering resources to building out the product. However, it's important to continue validating, testing, and iterating on the product as you move forward ...Read More

Prioritizing validated problems ensures you are focusing on the most pressing problem that will have the largest impact. It is finding out what will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Prioritization requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Here are some ways to prioritize various validated problems: Assess the impact: Evaluate the impact of each problem on the user and the business. This can include factors such as how many users are affected, how much time or money is lost due to the ...Read More

Projecting revenue for a product that hasn't shipped yet can be challenging, but there are some steps you can take to estimate potential revenue: Define your target market: Start by defining your target market and estimating the size of the market. This will give you an idea of the potential customer base for your product. Estimate market penetration: Estimate the percentage of the target market that you can realistically capture with your product. This will depend on factors such as competition ...Read More

Getting feedback is a great way to validate the problem and make sure you are tackling a pervasive problem. Make sure you have a clear and concise articulation of the problem and who your target audience is. There are many different ways to get feedback; listing a few here. Conduct a survey - This is a great way to get feedback quickly from a large group of your target persona. It is very easy to create a survey using google forms, survey monkey, and Intercom to validate the problem. When creati ...Read More

The decision to invest in a second product versus innovating on an existing product depends on a variety of factors, including market demand, core competencies, competitive landscape, resource allocation, strategic goals, and financial viability. By carefully considering these factors, a company can make an informed decision that aligns with its overall vision and mission. Market demand: Is there a clear need and demand for a second product? Are there opportunities to address new market segments ...Read More

Validating problem statements requires a user-centered approach that involves collecting data through user research, defining the problem statement, prioritizing the problem statement, developing a hypothesis, creating a prototype, testing the prototype, and iterating based on user feedback. Let's talk about each of them in a little more detail. Conduct user research: The first step in validating problem statements is to conduct user research. This can involve talking to users, observing their b ...Read More

Building a 0 to 1 product is challenging even for experienced product managers. Here are a few things that can make it challenging to successfully build a 0 to 1 product. Ignoring market research: It's important to conduct market research to understand the needs and preferences of your target audience. Ignoring this research can lead to building a product that doesn't meet the needs of your target audience. Focusing on features, and not customer problems: Product managers can get caught up in bu ...Read More

Reed Hoffman's quote is a reminder that it's important to get a product to market quickly, even if it's not perfect, in order to gather feedback and iterate based on that feedback. Mark Zuckerberg championed "Move fast and break things" at Facebook which is similar philosophy as well. However, in a larger company, there can be internal anxiety and pressure to release a polished product, which can make it difficult to live out this quote. Here are some ways to navigate this tension and live out t ...Read More