What are the top mistakes product managers make when building a 0 to 1 product?

The following stand out to me for what I've witnessed: The team is acting like the product they're creating is going to be successful. I'm amazed at how many successful companies try to build new products like they do for their existing successful ones: same processes, same success metrics, etc. They don't have the urgency, move too slowly, learn too little, are complacent. The market is a graveyard of failed products and businesses: the most likely outcome, when creating a product, is that it w ...Read More

There are a few common traps I’ve seen (and fallen into!) during 0 to 1 product development: Trying to do too much too soon: It’s tempting to build a broad set of features “just in case.” But this often leads to unclear user value and longer dev cycles. Instead, pick one or two core use cases, go deep and solve those really well. Overengineering for scale: Your first version is a probe - not a final product. Optimizing for scalability too early adds cost and friction. It’s better to ship somethi ...Read More

There are several things that you can consider mistakes, but I do view them as learning opportunities. Every PM goes through some of these in their career (including myself). Here are some of the common mistakes I have seen PMs make: Not talking to customers to validate the problem: A lot of times I see PMs jumping to solutions for a not well-defined problem. How will you know you have solved the problem when the problem definition itself is not correct? Ignoring customer feedback: Worse than no ...Read More

I might even abstract this out further to answer "What are the top mistakes product managers make when building a product period?" The best advice I've been given — and what I try to follow in my own work — is to be obsessed with the problem and not the solution. It can be really easy to think you know what the answer is based on what a user tells you in research, what a PMM counterpart reports back or what sales is saying the customer wants. Solutions are sexy and it's fun to build! And yet, be ...Read More

I think the two most common mistakes in building 0-to-1 products are: Not acknowledging or checking some assumptions about the problem your product is meant to solve Over-investing in the first iteration of that product (the MVP) without having proven out the riskiest of your assumptions Under-investing in product market research (specifically the other products in the problem space and their strengths/weaknesses) I see a lot of PMs attempt to build things that are bigger and more complicated th ...Read More

A few that we see repeatedly: Skipping problem validation. Teams jump to solutions before they have real conviction on the problem. Building fast on a shaky foundation just means failing faster. Building for the loudest customer, not the right customer. Early customers are vocal and that is valuable, but one power user's workflow is not a market. Define your ICP early and stay disciplined about whose problems you are actually solving. Waiting too long to ship. Perfectionism kills 0 to 1 products ...Read More

I first want to acknowledge that mistakes are normal and can be very valuable. They're experiences from which we can learn and grow. Here are a couple ones I've seen: Believing the first version is the final versionDon't start with a v1; start with a v0. Your first version is for learning. Treat it like a foundation upon which you build. In some cases, you might discover you actually need to build a whole new foundation 😬 Getting too attached to the original idea / not knowing when to walk awayI ...Read More

That is a good one! Building a product from scratch is hard. I'll share some I did in the past and how I learned through them. Falling in love with an idea: Classic. Real. The biggest mistake I made. Committing to an idea that we think is brilliant without thoroughly understanding the user’s problem. This often leads us to build something that no one needs. A 0→1 PM must be almost obsessive about user research early on and always question bias situations. I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) to ...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

The top mistakes are: Having too narrow a set of customers, or none at all, who help validate the solution and approach. You need a diverse set so you can factor in requirements that lead to customer adoption from the target customers you want to sell to. Not exploring options - different solution approaches, experiences and even pain points to focus on. Getting married to an idea early on will dramatically limit future work. Not shipping early and often - it’s important to build incrementally, ...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

Here are some high level issues that come to mind: No market or end user need: many startups try to build a tech that is in search of a problem. Like Steve jobs said, find a real user issue and build tech that solves it. Validating this need is important. The user need is just not large enough: the market has to be substantial for it to gain traction. Not iterating fast enough: if feature set is not gaining traction, key is to iterate on it quickly and pivot as many times as needed. Continuing t ...Read More

Hello from ex-founder who built startup and launched 3 products from scratch. Please meet my favorite personal mistakes with the biggest learnings. All coming from my startup Flawless App which we eventually successfully sold: 🥇"Always run user research."Back in 2015, I and Ahmed Sulaiman released our first product.It Failed Dramatically. We spent one year of development without proper user research, without defining the customer journey, or even having personas.Obviously, we built something we ...Read More