Every time we start a new project, we want to make sure that we begin with the end in mind. That means we should have a vision of what our final product will look like.
We’ve covered at a conceptual level what your product will be. We created this concept based on what our target customer needs. Our product concept also takes cues from our investigation into the type of product our target customer would hire to meet specific needs.
Today we are going to dig deeper into the details of our products. We will start outlining the architecture of the product and creating definitions for each element of our offering. The word definition in this context means more than just the meaning of a word. In this context, the term ‘Definition’ refers to the detailed word-based description of each component and sub-component of your product. An example of this would be the definition of the home button on an iPhone.
**The home button, when pressed, will allow a user to return to the Home Screen. This button can also be double tapped to achieve alternative functionality, like revealing the app-switcher or displaying the user’s digital wallet to be used for payment. **
An example of a digital offering, perhaps an online training course, could look something like this:
When the user clicks on the checkbox next to the ‘Completed’ label, the screen displays a congratulations message and then displays a prompt asking the user if they would like to move on to the next module or save their spot to return later
These two definitions are about product details. And defining the details become much easier when you have a product definition that applies to the finished product. So, let’s work through the following framework to create a product definition that applies to our full offering. Then we can work our way down to the details as we go.
- Define your product
- Define the primary function of the product
- Define the features of your product
- Define the primary function of each feature
- Final thought: features vs primary product purpose
Define your product
A good product definition has a few crucial elements; (A) the type of thing the product is, (B) the primary function(s) that it performs, and (C) an opportunity/problem the product is designed to address. After reading a product definition, you should have a pretty good idea of what the product is, what it does, and who might benefit.
Let’s test out this definition on a few products to see how well it works. We can start with something simple, like a kitchen knife.
A Knife is (A) a kitchen utensil that (B) cuts food, (C) to help in the preparation or consumption of a meal.
That was pretty painless; clean too!
Let’s try something more complex to see if the definition holds up. We’ll do a product definition for iPhone.
An iPhone is (A) a hand-held electronic device that (B) has a presentation, capture, and communication hardware to (C) enable the creation, consumption, and communication of digital content.
Ok, I’m actually pretty impressed that we could define the iPhone – in generic terms – in only 3 lines. What’s amazing about defining a product this way, is that once you’ve distilled what job your user is trying to get done, you can then work your way backward in your product definition until you have a complete picture of what features you need to include. More importantly, you’ll see what features you don’t need to include without negatively impacting the primary purpose of the product. It’s brilliant!
Ok, let’s define one more product. This time we are going to use a digital product. specifically, we are going to use an online training course offered by a university. We’ll make a product definition for an online computer science course.