Product Innovation

Software development has historically been constrained by scarcity – high costs, specialized skills, and long timelines. So builders chased only big markets.

AI is making it cheap, fast, and easy to build – suddenly it’s economically sane to solve niche workflows for small…

— Madhu Guru ((realmadhuguru?)) August 7, 2025

The Lean Product Process

The Lean Product Process is a repeatable framework for systematically developing products that customers love developed by Dan Olsen.

It moves from deeply understanding customer needs (problem space) to iterating on solutions (solution space), always validating with customer feedback.

Problem Space

Target Customer

Identify the specific segment of people who will benefit most from your product.

Not “everyone who might use it” — your primary audience you will optimize for first.

User Personas

• Create 2–3 detailed fictional profiles representing your core customers.
• Include:
  • Demographics (age, job role, location)
  • Behaviors (habits, buying channels, product usage patterns)
  • Goals and motivations
  • Pain points and frustrations
• Use direct quotes from customer interviews when possible.

Underserved Needs

Determine what matters most to your target customers and where current solutions fail them.

Importance vs. Satisfaction

• Plot needs on a 2x2:

• Importance (how critical is it to the customer?)

• Satisfaction (how well do current solutions address it?)

• High importance + low satisfaction = prime opportunity.

Image source: The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen

Jobs to Be Done

• Frame needs as jobs customers are trying to accomplish.
• Format:
  • When I’m [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [desired outcome].
• Capture all:
  • Emotional jobs (how they want to feel)
  • Social jobs (how they want to be perceived)
  • Functional jobs (what they want to get done)

Image source: Jeff Dyer, Innovators DNA

Value Proposition

Craft a clear statement that answers:

1. Who the product is for
   
2. What it does for them
   
3. Why it’s better or different than alternatives

Keep it short (1–2 sentences) and customer-oriented.

Image source: Strategyzer

Customer Journey Map

A customer journey map is a tool that shows the step-by-step experience a customer has with a product or experience.

It can be useful because it helps you:

• See the experience through the customer’s eyes.
• Spot pain points and improvement opportunities.
• Align your team around what really matters to customers.

It’s a tool for designing a smoother, more valuable customer experience.

Image source: Heart of the Customer

Solution Space

Feature Set

List the features that directly address underserved needs.

• Rank features by customer value and feasibility.
• Avoid “feature creep” — every feature must trace back to a validated need.

User Experience

Translate features into an intuitive, delightful, and friction-free customer journey.

Principles of UX Design

• Clarity – Every screen communicates its purpose instantly.
• Consistency – Patterns, language, and visual design align across the product.
• Feedback – Users get immediate, understandable responses to actions.
• Efficiency – Reduce cognitive load and clicks for key tasks.
• Empathy – Design flows from the user’s point of view, not the internal org chart.

Dan Olsen’s iceberg reminds us that great UX starts deep below the surface.

• Conceptual Design → Drives Clarity: a solid mental model ensures screens make sense instantly.
• Information Architecture → Enables Efficiency: well-organized content reduces cognitive load.
• Interaction Design → Supports Consistency and Feedback: familiar patterns and responsive flows guide users.
• Visual Design → Reinforces Empathy: aesthetics reflect users’ needs and context.

A polished UI alone can’t deliver on these principles, they must be built into every layer of the iceberg.

## Pitch Deck

What do you have to believe for this to be a good idea?

Being non-consensus and right