The Product Approach
Core principles and practices for building successful products
Your Progress
Section 3 of 5Product Principles
The product approach is built on five core principles that guide decision-making, prioritization, and team behavior. These principles distinguish successful product companies from those stuck in project mode.
5 Core Product Principles
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Start with User Problems
Begin by deeply understanding user pain points, not solutions
✅ Best Practices
- •Conduct user research and interviews
- •Identify jobs to be done
- •Validate problems before building
- •Create user personas and journey maps
❌ Anti-patterns
- •Building features without user validation
- •Starting with technical solutions
- •Assuming you know what users want
Product Development Workflow
Discovery
2-4 weeksKey Activities
- • User research
- • Problem validation
- • Market analysis
- • Competitive research
Outputs
- • User personas
- • Problem statements
- • Opportunity sizing
Key Takeaways
- •Product approach starts with user problems, not solutions
- •Build-Measure-Learn cycle enables continuous improvement
- •Success is measured by outcomes, not output
- •Teams own the full product lifecycle