3 Guaranteed Ways to Make Your Digital Product a Market Leader
Discover the incredible three-point framework used by MBAs to sharpen digital products and cut through competition with ease
Creating digital products is becoming easier. Standing out against your competition is not.
In this post, I will cover a three-part framework used by MBAs to create and 'sharpen' the angles of digital products.
By doing so, you can create digital products that stand out in the marketplace and cut through the competition.
I will discuss all three angles and provide examples of brands that have created razor-sharp products using this framework.
Ideally, you should incorporate all three sharp angles in your product for maximum impact.
Lastly, this framework appears in 'The Visual MBA' by fellow designer Jason Barron. Thanks for a fantastic read packed with great insights.
Let’s dive in!
The 3 sharp angles your digital product needs to slice through competition:
Solving a single pain point
Your digital product must solve a specific pain point for your customer. It needs to help them overcome a particular hurdle.
The key to really sharpening this angle is to solve just one problem, really well.
It’s not about solving many problems in a half-hearted way, which leads to a blunt product.
You need to solve one problem exceptionally well. This is how you create a razor-sharp digital product that cuts through the market.
This is especially important for new products that need to make a name for themselves.
Example: Uber
The Uber ride app solves a single problem exceptionally well. The app doesn’t try to do many things in a mediocre way. Its sole focus is to get the user a ride. That’s it. A single-use product that solves a single problem exceptionally well. Uber is a razor-sharp digital product.
Distinction
The next aspect you need to sharpen is distinction. What makes your product different from your competitors? This can be achieved in various ways.
Your digital product could be the simplest, the cheapest, the fastest, the most premium, or the opposite of everyone else. It could have a really distinct design aesthetic or a unique name.
There are many ways to create distinction. Consider how you can bake a sharp distinction into your product or use marketing to achieve that crucial distinctive impact.
Example: Tinder
What distinguishes Tinder from the dozens of other dating apps and sites on the market? The swipe. This single distinct feature catapulted their app past the competition in a very crowded marketplace.
Personal connection
A personal connection is how your product connects to your customers on an emotional level. How can you sharpen the personal connection between your product and your audience?
This can be done in many ways. You could create a product for a specific audience, for example, a dating app for divorced 50-year-olds living in New York City.
Humor is another way to create a personal connection—you could inject humor into your product’s copywriting. Social causes like the environment, particular sports, seasonal events, or even appealing to fans of specific dog breeds can all create the personal connection you need.
When it comes to cultivating a personal connection with your audience, it can be baked into your product from the start or layered over your product in the form of marketing and design. Ideally, you should aim for both to achieve maximum personal connection and impact.
Example: Goop.com
There were millions of online stores, blogs, and email newsletters before Goop.com launched in 2008. But it was the personal connection fans had with its founder, Gwyneth Paltrow, that skyrocketed this website into a $250 million behemoth.
Granted, you may not have a celebrity to front your digital product, but it can be done with a ‘normal’ or even fictitious character. Duolingo’s Owl is a great example of a digital product fronted by a character to drive a personal connection.
In summary
Your digital product must solve a problem. To achieve maximum impact, your product should solve one problem exceptionally well.
When creating a new product or optimizing an existing one, there's a natural tendency to make it like everyone else’s product and for everyone. Don’t. You need to think hard about distinctive product features, design, branding, or naming.
Lastly, don't forget how you’re going to cultivate a personal connection between your product and your audience. This doesn’t have to be complicated; it can be as simple as making your website low carbon, appealing to social issues like the environment for example.
It’s a crowded marketplace out there. Technology is lowering barriers to entry. You need every advantage you can get!
Be sure to sharpen these angles on your digital product to cut through the competition and win.
