Articles - Snippits

Have you ever used a program that was designed as an every man's type of offering (MS Word comes to mind) and then switched to another piece of software that had less features and fewer abilities? It probably came as a breath of fresh air to be able to perform the tasks you needed to with minimal learning and interference. In order to have winning products, you will need to specialize your own software or information products.

The basic idea is to do 1 thing and do it very well. If you are developing a product about article writing, don't cover writing a novel. If you are developing a piece of software for novelists, only provide features that are usefull for novelists. Purposefully exclude people. This is counter intuitive, as we want the product to be right for the greatest number of prospects. True enough, but I find that the more generic a product is, the less remarkable it is. The less remarkable, the less sales.

The second thing to do is to pick a side. If you are providing a tutorial on how to write software, give your own views on how software should be developed, don't cover all 15 different ways of managing a software project just to make sure no one is offended. Your product needs to have a bias. Controversy sells and you should leverage this in your product. Some people will love your product and tell their friends others will hate it and tell their friends. The good thing is they are telling their friends! Their friends may not have the same needs as the person who hates it and their friend may find it suits them perfectly!

Obviously, this means you're going to lose out on some customers when your product doesn't cover all of their needs. Most likely their business would have cost you money anyway - in support or post sale interactions. You're better off without these people as your customers anyway. The definite upside is that you will create some evangelical customers that will spread the word about your product. When people can accomplish a task with minimal fuss, they tend to tell people about that product. Focus on solving real, simple problems first and foremost and you will end up with an army of people talking about your product. These are recommendations and exposure that cannot be bought.

So limit the scope of your project, pick a side, enable people to finish the tasks they want to finish efficiently, create evangelists and you will be on your way to offering a winning product that is remarkable. The watch phrase for 2008 is remarkability is always good for your bottom line.