Learning from Product Failure

An entrepreneurial venture is a daunting phase, where stakes are high, and so is the risk of failure. Learning from failure is a critical part of every startup journey, and Craig Daniel, Co-founder and Head of Product for VisibleGains shares his journey to offer valuable insights.

Back in 2011, VisibleGains was a SaaS company that helps B2B marketers and salespeople use content more effectively in their interactions with their prospects. He had previously worked at five startups;  some successful, some not. Personal growth came from experiences in the failures, particularly how to avoid them by using Lean Startup techniques and some common sense and intuition.

Drawing from experiences, develope comprehensive guiding principles offering inspiration for overcoming failures for every person venturing into the dynamic realm of startups. In the path for attaining success, failure is inevitable, which shapes the approach towards building a successful startup. Failure proved to be an essential learning tool, which I would advocate you handle as a stepping stone. Where getting disheartened by the failure of a project is common, it's better to take a step back, analyze what went wrong, and how it could have been avoided. Life is long road, and our goal should be to avoid making the same mistake twice.

Where some failures teach new approaches, others reveal silly missteps that could have easily been avoided, but each, being a truly learning experience demonstrating where you need to stop, and where you must rethink your approach. The highly competitive domain demands agility and emphasizes the value of bouncing right back up after a failure to achieve long-term success. He highlights the fact that failures are simply a part of the process, and the role of lean startup techniques in helping overcome them.

If you build it, does not mean customers will come

One of the biggest missteps I see with product leaders is over building in the early stages. Instead, prioritize creating an mvp (minimum viable product), examining ideas early on, and developing iterations of the product based on the collected market feedback. Instead of spending resources on creating a fully formed final product, and perfecting it without any market tests or feedback loops, shipping an MVP and iterating alongside market demands ensures greater success. A good rule of thumb - if you are not a bit embarrased to ship your first version of the MVP - you've likely overbuilt. 

Often, product leaders fall in love with their idea and then set out to create the product that fulfills that idea, all without assessment of what consumers actually need. This method highlighted the importance of getting an idea validated from the target market before expending too much time, effort and resources into its development.

After spending a lot of time and resources developing a feature-rich product, Craig's company failed in the market, revealing that despite having a lot of features, the products did not address the consumer challenges. However, by learning lean startup techniques, he listened to what the consumer wanted, and pivoted the development early to create something that was a hit.