In this post, I want to talk about 3 dimensions every engineer can consider while building a good product.
If a product exists, it must solve a pain, or a problem OR at least elevate the experience of the user if there was never a problem before. A good example of this is the iPod.
In short, a product must do
- save time for a user
- save money for a user
- make money for a user
Let’s look at these dimensions in detail now
1. Save time
Most users will pay for your product if it will save them time. Time is money and it plays a role when it comes to software products. If a user needs a solution for a problem, they can look at various aspects. But they also look at if the solution can save them time. That’s why we have reduced the usage of Mainframe around the world. With advanced hardware, building performant software has become easier.
Depending on the problem a consumer is facing, the product can also improve the user experience. From a suite of productivity apps to convenience apps, all help us to save time. Uber helps us get a taxi in a short time without leaving our house. Doordash delivers food without wasting our time in commute.
Time is money. Save time, save money.
2. Save Money
If you exclude luxury items, most people love to save money on many things they buy. A great example is Amazon Shopping. You can buy anything on Amazon and there are multiple options available to users. Users can choose any option that can save money to them.
Cheap flights, cheap tickets for the show, cheap houses. You name it. People love to save money. With the current market of inflation, everyone would love to save some money.
Black Friday is a shopping holiday and people spend thousands of dollars to save some money on things they want.
If your product can save money for your users, and for your company, then it is worth building that product.
You can use this dimension to decide what features to build, and what bugs to fix.
3. Make Money
I intentionally kept this dimension of product building at last. At the end, who does not like to make more money? If your product can make money for others, you will be at the top of a pyramid of wanted products.
This dimension has two aspects to it. One to make money for your users and one to make money for yourself if you are the product builder.
If you build a product that solves a pain for users, they will pay you to use that product. Can your product also make money for your users in the process? Can you leverage your product in a way that can open another stream of income for yourself other than subscription users?
A lot of fintech products become custodians of their customers’ money and solve various problems for customers from payment processors, invoicing, taxes, purchase parity, etc. But they also make money by keeping that money for their customers. Stripe is a good example of this.
Other Aspects of Product Building
What about user experience? What about user ease of product usage? And what about the security of the product?
Yes, yes and yes. They are all important and necessary to build over some time. If you ask the question Why are you building something or why are you fixing something, you will find an answer that aligns with these 3 dimensions of product building.
User experience will enhance product usage for users and in turn, users can pay money to use the product.
Security will help to avoid future risks from hackers and save you time and money.
Next time, you build a feature, a fix or an entire product, look at every task with these 3 dimensions in mind. If you can’t find the right reason immediately, you can put that feature or fix it on the back burner.
Conclusion
In this post, I shared the three dimensions of product building. These 3 dimensions are fundamental block for products. As a product engineer, if you look at these fundamental blocks and solve your next problem, you will be able to a build a product that people want.