As a Product Owner, one has to dive deep into Product Management in order to create Valuable and Useful products. One of the key aspects in Product Management is to “know thy customer”.
Knowing, understanding the behaviours, attributes and traits of the customer can help the Product Owner greatly to know how a customer would respond to a product within a specific market segment.
‘Know thy Customer’ - the Customer Types
The Innovator
This customer type is recognized by their zeal to explore the unknown, take risks. It doesn’t matter to them whether your product is full of defects or yet unproven. It is their desire to stay ahead of everyone and curiosity that drives them to pick up any novel idea or product.
Why are they important to Product Owner
Innovators are great to get early feedback on the product and its features. They can help shape up the initial feature set and identify any flaws in the existing feature set through continuous feedback.
The Early Adopter
Early Adopters are very much like the Innovators except they take a more pragmatic approach. Instead of just taking up every new shiny toy, they are driven by a purpose. They are more focused on whether the product is actually going to solve a potential problem of theirs. These people can often be thought of as influencers in their domain.
Why are they important to Product Owner
Early adopters help the product gain the desired traction. The experiences (positive) and endorsements can help gain validation and credibility in the market. They also help with valuable feedback to solve real world challenges.
The Early Majority
This is a larger group made up of more innovators and early adopters; however they are more risk averse. They want to pick up a new product or technology but they also want it to be proven and tested thoroughly. These people focus on the typical benefits that they will receive from the Product and usually wait for some reviews and feedback from the innovators or early adopters before making a decision.
Why are they important to Product Owner
The success of a Product and its becoming mainstream depend a lot on the Early Majority. The market share and revenue of the Product can exponentially increase or plummet depending on how the Early Majority reacts to the product. The needs and expectations of this group can shape up the future of the product.
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffery Moore in his book “Crossing the Chasm” expresses the concept of a “chasm”, the significant gap between the early adopters and early majority. If the Product Owner wants to ensure that their product gets a strong foothold in the market and wants to be a market leader then crossing this chasm is important. If the Product Owner is unable to get hold of the needs or underserved needs of the early majority customers then there are high chances that even after having a good number of early adopters the product might disappear in the chasm.
Google Glass could be considered as one such product which was unable to cross the chasm. Although it had a good number of early adopters, it was not able to break into the early majority. Cost and usability were two major concerns that kept the majority away from Google Glass and both these factors are under the purview of Product Owner.
By deeply understanding the needs of their customers and providing a compelling, whole product solution tailored to their needs, Product Owner can create a product that really matters and solves the problems of its customers.
The Late Majority
The Late Majority is a set of customers who are highly risk averse. They are skeptical and only adopt a new tool or technology when it has become mainstream. These customers usually focus on low risk solutions that are widely accepted in the market and often offered by reliable brands. Think about it as investing in a Fixed-Deposit which gives a guaranteed return instead of investing in Mutual Funds. The people who prefer FDs will often be part of the late majority.
Why are they important to Product Owner
The late majority is not always the target customer for the product owner. However, understanding what is keeping these people away from the product can give the Product Owner a lot of insight into how to make the product more affordable, usable and supportive so that more and more customers start using it.
The Laggards
The last type of customers to be on-board onto a product are the laggards. These are the people who pick up the new product only because they don’t have any alternative left or their current product is no longer available or supported.
Why are they important to Product Owner
Just like the late majority, the laggards are also not the target customers for the Product Owner. Knowing and understanding the resistance of laggards will help the Product Owner to identify the limitations of the product.
Why the Customer Types Matter
For a Product Owner understanding the various types of customer segments is important. It helps the Product Owner to
- Target and position the product to the right set of customers and customize the product according to the needs of the customer segment.
- Define the Goto Market strategy i.e. how to communicate, what would be the marketing and sales strategies or identifying the distribution channels.
- Risk Management, knowing the needs of different customer types the Product Owner can better understand the risks associated and mitigate accordingly.
- Build the Right Product. Knowing customer segments, deeply understanding their needs and expectations will always help the product owner to make decisions that would lead to building the right product in the right way.
Conclusion:
Understanding the various types of customers the Product Owner will be better equipped to navigate through the desires and needs of its intended customers. This will enable the Product Owner to focus on value creation and create products that resonate with a wide variety of users.
P.S. If you are interested in learning more about Product Ownership then you are welcome to join our mentorship program or PSPO courses at www.agilemania.com