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, please:

The fatalities 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 client journeys from papers or phone channels to online bank or mobile applications. They may believe,” If I may only add one more thing that solves this particular person problem, they’ll enjoy me”! But what happens if you eventually encounter a roadblock as a result of your safety team’s negligence? don’t like it? When a battle-tested film isn’t as well-known as you anticipated, or when it fails due to unforeseen difficulty?

The concept of Minimum Viable Product ( MVP ) comes into play in this area. Even if Jason Fried doesn’t usually refer to this concept, his book Getting Real and his audio Redo frequently discuss it. An MVP is a product that offers only sufficient value 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 brutal edge, and the courage to stand up for your position because” the Columbo Effect” makes it easy to fall for something when one always says” just one more thing …” to include.

The issue with most funding apps is that they frequently turn out to be reflections of the company’s internal politics rather than an experience created exclusively for the customer. This implies that the priority is to provide as some features and functionalities as possible to satisfy the requirements and desires of competing internal departments as opposed to a distinct value statement that is focused on what people in the real world actually want. 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 is a better strategy, then? How can we create products that are reliable, user-friendly, and most importantly, stick?

The concept of “bedrock” comes into play here. Bedrock is the main feature of your product that truly matters to customers. The foundation of value and relevance over time is built upon it.

The bedrock must be in and around the regular servicing journeys in the retail banking industry, which is where I work. People only look at their current account once every five minutes, but they also look at it 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 then relentlessly striving to make them simple, reliable, and trustworthy.

But how do you reach the foundation? By focusing on the” MVP” approach, giving simplicity the top priority, and working toward a clear value proposition. This entails removing unnecessary features and putting the emphasis on providing genuine value to your users.

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?

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 aligns with the goals of your business.
Avoid the temptation to add too many features at once by focusing on one, core feature and focusing on getting that right before moving on to something else. 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 as Bedrock is a dynamic process rather than a fixed destination. Continuously collect user feedback, make product improvements, and advance in that direction.
Stop, look, and listen: Don’t just go through with testing your product as part of the delivery process; test it repeatedly in the field. Use it for yourself. A/B tests are run. 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: 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 one step at a time. 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, test constantly because, whatever you think, Abraham Lincoln, Alan Kay, or Peter Drucker are all in the same boat! The best way to foretell the future is to create it, he said.