From Beta to Bedrock: Build Products that Stick.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched promising thoughts go from zero to warrior in a few days before failing to deliver within weeks as a product developer for very long.

Financial items, which is the area of my specialization, are no exception. It’s tempting to put as many features at the ceiling as possible and hope someone sticks because people’s true, hard-earned money is on the line, user expectations are high, and a crammed market. However, this strategy will lead to disaster. Why, you see this:

The perils of feature-first growth

It’s easy to get swept up in the enthusiasm of developing innovative features when you start developing a financial product from scratch or are migrating existing user journeys from papers or telephony channels to online bank or mobile applications. You might be thinking,” If I can only put one more thing that solves this particular person problem, they’ll appreciate me”! But what happens if you eventually encounter a roadblock as a result of your safety team’s negligence? don’t like it, right? When a difficult-fought film fails to win over viewers or fails owing to unanticipated difficulty?

The concept of Minimum Viable Product ( MVP ) is applied to this. Even though Jason Fried doesn’t usually refer to it that way, his podcast Rework and his book Getting True frequently address this concept. An MVP is a product that offers only enough significance to your users to keep them interested, but not so much that it becomes difficult to keep up. Although the idea seems simple, it requires a razor-sharp eye, a ruthless edge, and the courage to stand up for your position because it is easy to fall for” the Columbo Effect” when there is always” just one more thing …” to add.

The issue with most fund apps is that they frequently turn out to be reflections of the company’s internal politics rather than an experience created purely for the customer. Instead of offering a distinct value statement that is focused on what people in the real world want, the focus should be on delivering as some features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the needs and wants of competing inside sections. As a result, these products can very quickly became a mixed bag of misleading, related, and finally unhappy customer experiences—a feature salad, you might say.

The significance of the foundation

What’s a better course of action then? How can we create products that are user-friendly, stable, and, most importantly, stick?

The concept of “bedrock” comes into play in this context. Bedrock is the main feature of your product that truly matters to customers. It serves as the foundation for the fundamental building block that creates value and maintains relevance over time.

The bedrock has to be in and around the regular servicing journeys in the world of retail banking, which is where I work. People only look at their current account once every blue moon, but they do so daily. They sign up for a credit card every year or two, but they check their balance and pay their bill at least once a month.

The key is in identifying the core tasks that people want to complete and working relentlessly to make them simple, reliable, and trustworthy.

But how do you reach the foundation? By focusing on the” MVP” approach, giving simplicity precedence, and working iteratively toward a clear value proposition. This means avoiding pointless extras and putting your users first, making the most of them.

It also requires having some guts, as your coworkers might not always agree with you immediately. And in some cases, it might even mean making it clear to customers that you won’t be coming over to their house to prepare their meal. Sometimes you need to use the sporadic “opinionated user interface design” ( i .e. clunky workaround for edge cases ) to test a concept or to give yourself some more time to work on something more crucial.

Practical methods for creating stick-like financial products

What are the main learnings I’ve made from my own research and experience, then?

What problem are you trying to solve first, and make a clear “why”? Whom? Before beginning any project, make sure your mission is completely clear. Make sure it also complies with the goals of your business.
Avoid putting too many features on the list at once; instead, focus on getting that right first. Choose one that actually adds value, and work from there.
Give simplicity the precedence it deserves over complexity when it comes to financial products. Eliminate unnecessary details and concentrate on what matters most.
Accept continuous iteration: Bedrock is not a fixed destination; it is a dynamic process. Continuously collect user feedback, make improvements to your product, and move toward that foundation.
Stop, look, and listen: You don’t just have to test your product during the delivery process; you must also test it repeatedly in the field. Use it for yourself. Run the A/B tests. User feedback on Gatter. Talk to users and make adjustments accordingly.

The bedrock paradox

This is an intriguing paradox: sacrificing some of the potential for short-term growth in favor of long-term stability is at play. But the payoff is worthwhile because products built with a focus on bedrock will outlive and outperform their rivals over time and provide users with long-term value.

How do you begin your quest for bedrock, then? Take it gradually. Start by identifying the essential components that your users actually care about. Concentrate on developing and improving a single, potent feature that delivers real value. And most importantly, make an obsessive effort because, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker ( whew! The best way to foretell the future is to create it, he said.