Decomposed risk, your new product launch partner

Righto, you think you have a product that’s going to stick. Let's dive into the best practices for de-risking that product and getting the most out of all your resources.

First things first, conduct some damn market research. Don't be a fool and dive headfirst into a market without understanding your target audience, competition, and demand. By doing your due diligence, you'll identify potential challenges and opportunities that will help you make informed decisions.

Next up, if you haven’t already, build a minimum viable product (MVP). This allows you to test the waters and gather feedback from early adopters without throwing all your resources into a fully developed product. It's a smart way to validate your idea and identify any flaws before investing more money and time.

Third, set clear objectives and metrics for success. You gotta know what you're striving for and how you'll measure it. This allows you to track progress and make data-driven decisions. This is where you  nerd out on data, identify patterns and make data-driven decisions about how to improve the product. Don’t be

Fourth, De-risk. Create a risk management plan to help identify potential risks associated with the product launch. So when things don’t go as planned, and they won’t, you’re ready with contingencies to plug the hole and pivot in real time. That all sounds pretty bearish however, think of risk as a silent partner in the product development stage. Once you discover a risk, solving that gives you the opportunity to strengthen your product now and into the future. Get your spreadsheet out and start by decomposing large risks into smaller buckets, this way you create actionable smaller tasks that move the product forward. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, understand your most pressing risks and make them less so.

Fifth, test and iterate the sh*t out of your product. Continuously gather feedback and data from users and use it to make improvements and adjustments to the product based on real-world usage. Don't be complacent and think your product is perfect - there's always room for improvement.

Finally, establish a strong team with diverse skills and expertise to support the product development process. You need product managers, designers, engineers, marketers, and customer support representatives all working together to make your product a success. We have found that a single minded hero tend to be meaningfully less impressive that a bunch of degenerates working together with a common goal. Create culture that people care about and feed it with a balance of risk and rewards.

The best practices for de-risking a new product.

Stay Sunny xo

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