“No area of interest is just too small if it’s yours” — Seth Godin
We’ve all heard the saying, “for those who attempt to please everybody, you please nobody.” That is very true for startups and new merchandise. Focus and with the ability to discover a area of interest generally is a big unlock for merchandise.
Sq. began as a POS (Level of Sale) machine, Lululemon began as yoga clothes for girls, and Amazon began as a web-based ebook retailer.
Every of those corporations at the moment are valued within the billions (trillions in Amazon’s case), which matches to point out that we must always by no means be too afraid to ‘area of interest down’.
Actually, I’d argue that it’s a standard sample of success for early-stage corporations and merchandise.
Focus is a high-leverage talent. Having the ability to focus your restricted time, assets, and other people can usually be the factor that makes or breaks an organization.
I had an instance of this a few years again after I did some work with the ABC right here in Australia while I used to be at ustwo — ABC as in Australia Broadcasting Company, not the American Broadcasting Firm, simply to be exact!)
We had been introduced in to assist them with a Product-led transformation, and naturally, that meant beginning with a evaluation of their product portfolio.
To chop an extended story brief, as a part of that evaluation, we checked out their “flagship app” which few may actually describe what its goal was…aside from rattling off an extended record of options and issues that it may do.
In essence, their flagship app was making an attempt to be all the pieces for everybody. No kidding! It was an app that you may use to learn the information, hearken to the radio, and even set an alarm clock the place you may “get up with the ABC” — sure, you learn that proper!
Sidebar: Whereas I can see the attraction of the notion of flagship-or-tremendous apps, I stay skeptical. Sure, you may level to WeChat and AliPay, however each tremendous app instance more-or-less appears to be contained to Asia — or extra particularly, China — which, by the best way, is a really distinctive context and a part of the world.
For the remainder of us, nonetheless, I’m but to see such super-apps work out. As an alternative, the sample I observe is that the extra centered merchandise carry out finest — suppose Instagram; do you imagine that it might have been (and proceed to be) as profitable as it’s as we speak if Fb merged all that performance into the primary app and tried to be a type of ‘super-app”‘? I don’t suppose so.
With the ABC, their app was making an attempt to be all the pieces, and because the saying goes, it was not satisfying anybody.
The problem turned, what can we do with this app? We are able to agree that there’s a area for a cellular app for the ABC — maybe a couple of — however what would its most important goal be?
To chop one other lengthy story brief, we did what all nice product individuals do, and we did the analysis. We spoke with customers, with non-users, and checked out utilization information (no, the alarm clock was not a closely used characteristic — go determine!).
What we found had been just a few issues:
- ABC’s product portfolio largely delivers the corporate’s media content material by way of 3 key mediums (content material you learn, watch, and hearken to)
- Present customers of the app used it to learn the information (and never a lot else) — some even referring to the Flagship app because the “information app.”
What they actually had was a information app that was making an attempt to masquerade as half a dozen different issues.
Over the following 12 months, some good individuals and I helped pivot the app to be news-centric. Even rebranding it to be clearly the “ABC Information App”.
This resulted in not solely a much better expertise but additionally elevated adoption by 6% that 12 months (of reminiscence) and engagement.
Very like Instagram, which does one factor rather well, that’s what we had managed to unravel.
Quite than a ‘Flagship app’, what they actually wanted was a Information app. This turned out to be a very good strategic transfer two years later when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred, and other people had been tuning into the ABC Information app in document numbers to remain updated with the ever-changing scenario.
However the ethical of this story is that being centered and clear on what your product is and for who — and likewise what it’s NOT and who it’s NOT for (arguably extra necessary) — generally is a superpower. It may make or break a product.
“Cease managing you time, begin managing your focus” — Robin S. Sharma
