creating your first online product

Creating A Minimal Viable Product Part 3: A Look At Thrive Hive

In the series, “Creating A Cupcake: Instead of the Whole Cake”, I’m taking at look at how to create a smaller version of your digital product before going all out with the full version. This approach, known as a minimal viable product, allows you to focus on delivering a very specific feature without all the bells and whistles and build on it as you incorporate feedback and learn.

I see it as the K.I.S.S approach to product development (keep it short and simple) and can be applied to pretty much anything. For example- starting out with social media? Instead of trying to DO IT ALL- start small, join a few key platforms and then take it from there!

In this post, we will look at an example of a minimal viable product and the tools that were used to create it.

As a techy who loves to try every tool out there, I definitely have to reign myself in more often than not!

Creating A Minimal Viable Product

For instance, when launching Thrive Hive, an online community for women entrepreneurs, we could have chosen anyone of the following options:

($ no to low cost, $$ moderate, $$$ high)

  • Option 1: Set up a custom white-label network using Ning which starts at $25/month not to mention the setup time involved. $$
  • Option 2: Set up a new WordPress site with a membership plugin- costs: hosting, domain, membership plugin, development time $$$
  • Option 3: Use our existing websites + private Facebook or Google+ group $

Choosing The Tech

Cost was not the only deciding factor when we decided to go the direction we did (which was option 3) but rather what was it that we were trying to accomplish and who were we trying to serve.

We could have easily spent months developing a custom site and then promote it and share it with our communities. This would mean more time developing and less time learning what worked and what didn’t work. It also meant getting people in the habit of spending time on yet another site.

Removing Barriers To Increase Engagement

The same would apply to using Ning, while the development cost would be less we would still have to encourage people to spend time on another site.

However, our target market is already on Facebook (sorry, Google+) and spending tons of time there. Did we really want to add the barrier of having to go somewhere else to engage? Probably not.

Our goal is to connect women entrepreneurs in different stages in their business, share each other’s content and organize online events such as chats and hangouts.

After surveying our audience and getting clear on what was missing in the groups they were currently participating in, we were able to narrow in on our focus and priorities.

Now that’s not to say we would never consider the other options and we could re-evalulate if we outgrew the existing setup, but it was out of scope for our minimal viable product.

Thrive Hive: A Look At The Solution

Sales page: Landing pages on existing sites Amp and Pivot and SidekickPM.

Payment: Paypal recurring payments for subscriptions

Community: Private Facebook group

Communication: Google group for social media posts + Aweber (for sign up + autoresponders)

Group activities: Twitter chats (#thrivechat) and Google Hangouts

Because we used our existing websites and free platforms we were able to keep the actual cost down and the only expense was our time.

Time to development: From idea to launch we were able to execute on this in only 4 weeks (between 2 businesses).

As you can see, when creating your minimal viable product, it helps to look at what solutions already exist but to choose based on what you are trying to accomplish. And as you learn and grow, you can make changes to the technology that you are using.

In the comments below, I’d like to hear what you are launching and if you are considering the “cupcake” approach!

In the final post in this series, we’ll look at some tools you can use to easily create and launch your first digital product.

 I like to practice what I preach..check out the new live online-workshop I am running in beta on August 30th.

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*does not include cupcakes

Three keys to online product launch.

How To Create Your First Online Product Part 2

In the last post, I talked about getting started with your online product and compared the process to creating a cupcake vs the whole cake.

Now we’ll look at how to decide which product to develop (because you have tons of ideas, right?)

To be successful, your product really only needs three things:

  • Solve a problem
  • People who want it
  • A way to get paid

Before we get into the actual tools that you can use to develop your minimal viable product, it’s important to figure out who you’ve created this product for. So how do you figure that out?

Step 1: Identify The Problem   Things to consider to launch a new digital product

  • What areas do people generally ask you questions about?
  • What pain-point can you solve for people?

Think in terms of problem and solution

Step 2: Who has this problem?

  • Talk to people: Both online (in Facebook/LinkedIn and Google+ groups) and offline at networking events
  • Pick up the phone and talk to key customers- it helps to have structured questions to start the conversation and to let them know how much of their time you will need.
  • Survey your audience using a poll on Facebook, or using a survey tool like Survey Monkey or by creating a Google form.
  • Use tools like Google Keyword Search to see how people are searching for problems that you are hoping to solve

STEP 2 is critical. It’s better to start with an interest list then creating a product that no one wants. And by surveying customers and talking to your audience you will get additional insights as to what problems your ideal customer is struggling with.

In the next post, we’ll start looking at easy low-cost ways to produce and deliver your online product.

Your turn:
Start investigating and figuring out who you would create your first online product for…Leave me a comment below and share the results of a survey you’ve done / or share a link to your survey!

Sign up below to get the entire series delivered in ebook format (for free*).

*does not include cupcakes

Launch your first digital product

{Online Product} Create A Cupcake Instead Of The Whole Cake Part 1

Cupcakes and product launch? Huh?

You’ll see what I mean in just a few…

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions about launching digital products. How should I get started? What tools should I use?

In my years working in the software industry, I’ve seen that LESS is MORE and this can pretty much apply to any type of product you want to launch (and any industry) whether it’s an ecourse, ebook, telesummit and so on.

Especially when it’s your first time at it, you’ll be surprised how many moving parts there beyond just creating the actual product.

Creating A Minimal Viable Product

The minimal viable product (which is getting a lot of buzz these days) is an approach where you focus on the core features *without* all the bells and whistles. So take that giant feature list you’ve started with and whittle it down to the bare essentials–say bye bye to the “nice to haves” and focus on the musts..the things that solve your customer’s problems.That’s definitely a good place to start.

You can think of the minimal viable product like a cupcake. Instead of going ahead and building a huge cake with many layers and frosting and then taste-testing it with your potential clients, why not build the cupcake version and have them try it out?

twitter-bird-light-bgsInstead of building the entire cake, make a cupcake and see if your customers like it.  

Start With The Core and Build

I know what it’s like and know how tempting it is to create something even when you may not need all the features.

Figuring out your minimal viable product does take work (talking to people, surveying, testing) but the idea is that you are not creating the whole thing in isolation for months/years *and* then coming out with a product where there is no longer a market or any interest to begin with.

Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize!

What needs to be done now vs what can wait? Does your first online program need to be 10 modules or can you deliver a shorter version that is 3-5 modules?

Do you absolutely need transcripts for your videos or can that wait until you’ve established a larger audience?

And I say this not because I don’t believe that you can do it all but and this is a BIG but…there is SO Much that goes into creating and launching your first product beyond the actual creation..why not start small and build on it?

In the next series of posts, we’ll dive deeper and look at the steps to take to create your cupcake first digital product.

Sign up below to get the entire series delivered in ebook format (for free*).

*does not include cupcakes

8 Time Saving Social Media Tools For A Product Launch

Guest post By Jen Havice

Whether you are launching a new product or a service online, being efficient with your time and resources are a must. There’s so much to do and inevitably not enough hours in the day to get things done. Using social media to work for you is the key.

Have Your Ducks In A Row Ahead Of Time

Get your systems in place and tested well before your launch date. Chances are you might end up feeling a bit overwhelmed no matter how well you’ve planned things out. If you’re scrambling just to keep up with your regular influx of emails, think about how stressed out you’ll be remaining full steam ahead when it’s crunch time.

  • Get familiar with a management system such as Hootsuite. It allows you to post across several different social media channels from one hub. It’s free up to five profiles. The best part is that you can pre-schedule to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ along with a few others. Plus, it’s an easy way to look at several profiles quickly to see who has been sharing your content and interacting with you.

  • Think about implementing a way to organize the content for your blog. A launch is not the time to abandon adding fresh content to your site. If you have a WordPress website, installing plugins that keep content writing on task can be a lifesaver. There is the Cleverness To Do List plugin which allows for the creation of an internal To Do list that can be shared between multiple users. The WP Editorial Calendar plugin provides a post overview of your blog with the ability to drag and drop pending posts to different dates. This makes it a lot easier to know where the content holes are by the week and month.

Be Interactive Not Reactive

Knowing what people are saying about you and your products are a good idea at all times. During a launch, it’s a critical time to engage with your target market by responding to questions or comments made via social media.

  • Whether it’s launch time or not, having search queries set up on Google Alerts makes good business sense. Google Alerts allow you to monitor the Internet to see who and what is being said about you, your product, service or competitors. Depending on your need, you can receive an email immediately, once a day or once a week.

  • Mention.net works in a similar way to Google Alerts but seems to be far more powerful. It does a far better job of finding mentions across the social media platforms and you can look at all your mentions in one place. It’s free for up to 3 alerts and 500 mentions per month.

Keep The Content Stream Alive

Encouraging the people buying your product to share your message and help promote you never should leave your radar screen. With everything else that needs to be managed it can be tough not only to come up with snippets of great shareable content but ways of getting others to do it for you.

  • Click To Tweet is a handy little tool that generates a custom link of whatever tweet you want to create. When someone clicks on the link, the message automatically gets added to that person’s Twitter status box. Basically, it creates a ready made retweet of whatever you want shared.

  • Graphics are always a great way of getting attention. Between Facebook and Pinterest, image quotes have become one of the most shareable pieces of content. However, spending any significant amount of time putting them together rarely makes much sense. Using either Quozio or Recite This makes short order of creating this kind of content. Quozio has a bookmarklet that when clicked will bring up a box on top of whatever web page you are looking at. This makes it extremely easy to highlight and paste whatever you want.

  • Quozio.com

    You don’t need to be everywhere at once. Be where your customers are and make your message count.@jenhavice http://bit.ly/12g5r2u    Click to Tweet

Give some of these a try and see what works for you. They may help implementing a launch a little less daunting and a whole lot more enjoyable.

jenJen Havice is a forty-something blogger, writer, and social media consultant. When not helping small businesses navigate the social networking jungle or writing commentary for her humor blog, she chases after two large dogs and rides an even larger horse. She and her husband call Minneapolis home.

 

 

 
TechTrainingVault

Launch Your First Online Product In 3 Easy Steps

In this webinar we’ll look at the 3 essential steps in creating your first online product. Host: Sandy Sidhu

REGISTER FREE NOW! It’s happening THIS Friday
February 15th

  • 12 PM Pacific
  • 1PM Mountain
  • 2PM Central
  • 3PM Eastern
February 15th

Click Here To Claim Your Spot Now!

We’ll look at:
-How to decide which product to develop
-Why you should think big but start small for your first product
-How to pick tools and technology to use without having to invest hundreds of dollars

And we’ll take an inside look at a successful product launched in just 4 weeks and how you can do this to.

Make sure to register and then show up at least 15 minutes early, spaces are limited.

Click Here To Claim Your Spot Now!