Creating things

There are only few ideas that really click big time with a wide reach. The novelty of an idea does not automatically imply a great traction. You may have found a very unique way to search the Web for information. This may be very different from all the existing crop of Search Engines out there.

But to gain traction with a wider audience, it has to convey value in a way that the existing ones do not give. The value it brings to someone is a tangible thing. It should be saving his or her time or it should be saving money for them when compared to using current products or it should be giving a new experience that is not found in others.

Traction happens on a wider scale when there is a personal value gained by the user. The user should be able to tell why he is using your product easily. If that happens, there is no need for advertising your product. The user can now become your marketeer and word of mouth will really work.

Again it is easy to fall into a trap here. It does not mean everything an user says as great will pick up momentum. Your friend may recommend you to use a mobile payment app to make your payment when you are a person of Credit cards. You may try it and find it easier than a Credit card. But this should have happened on a large scale for you to adopt it. If you are one of the initial set of users while the thing is catching up still, you may revert back to using Credit cards or keep it as a plan B as the market for phone payment is still being made.

So it is incredibly hard to sell a product which doesn’t have a market yet. The initial people have to establish all the infrastructure to make it happen for their product. Like Electric cars. But if a market exists and is mature like Search Engines or a Social Media, a more novel thought in that space that adds a new experience or a value that is not offered by others is much easier to get across.

In both cases above, whether you are building something for a mature market or a yet to be primed market, it is easy to find traction if there is both novelty and value in the product you build. This should guide the product creation phase.