Introduction
Many people assume making it in software product development, one has to build another Flutterwave or Netflix. But it is a misconception I'm here to debunk.
By now, we should all have a product ideation phase waiting for funding. There are a lot of processes that are crying for automated solutions that we are not looking at.
Imagine building a SaaS (Software as a Service) application and charging users a monthly 50 naira subscription fee for verification. Imagine charging 200,000 users every month.
50 * 200,000 = 10,000,000
That money is enough to maintain a 10 man staff, pay for hosting services and other utilities. Tax and also a profit after every deduction for the business.
Nobody needs to chase a big idea anymore. We all need to look into solving small scale problems and making money from automating the process.
So let's look into the recipes for building a profitable small scale software product.
1)A COMMUNITY PROBLEM
First, consider that the problem is faced by a group of people. You must classify these people and how the problem affects them. How much will it save them if they can solve that problem using your model and how much time will it take.
If the problem is affecting more than a million people, then you should consider it. But if it affects less than that number, you might build something that fits but struggle to make money since the user base is very small.
A PAIN POINT
Your solution must be dealing with a pain point. Something that is stressing the market your target audience would give it a try without you having to explain too much other than how they can use it.
Your solution shouldn't be something that they have to use because they are bored or out of curiosity, but one that solves a critical problem they face.
RECURRENCE
Now this is very important. Software solutions should focus on recurring problems. You watch movies always so you pay your Netflix subscription. You make transfers everyday, so you use your card or mobile banking app.
This is how your software product will make money for you on a consistent basis. It should be a solution that the users cannot afford to pull out. It should be so important that if they remove it, they will face the same problem and we all know how humans cannot afford to go back to a stressful process after finding a better, easy and timely solution.
USABILITY
Now here is an important part. Your product should be a three to five click solution. That means, the user does not need to go through a tedious process to get a task done.
You should simplify and iterate the process so it becomes a three to five click solution. Like your bank app, you input account number, select bank, input amount and viola! Transfer is made.
And your product should have minimal features that solves the primary problems your users are facing. Your product feature scaling should be guided by the hacks and interests of your users.
Final Note
Hope you enjoyed this post and I was able to share valuable insights on product development with you.
Which industry do you represent and what problems do you see that might require an automated solution?
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