To continue my “starting a business” theme for this weekend, the next concept I am going to introduce is how to successfully launch a web product. Since there is about as much advice for how not to fail as there are ways to fail, I am going to argue my point by telling you what not to do.

Countdown To Launch

Don’t think you understand anything. Trust me, the best lesson you can learn about your product and how it will be used by your customer is that you simply don’t know. Unless your dealing with an idea so specific that it just can’t help but be used the way you predict, chances are your customer is going to find value in things that will surprise you. You can waste a lot of time trying to predict customer behavior, or you can actually do something. My suggestion is always the latter.

What can you do? Well, here is a brief checklist for anyone who is getting ready to show their newest web toy to the world. If you can’t answer yes to all of these questions, then you still have work to do.

• Have you shown your app to your family? Can they use it?
• Have you shown your app to your significant other? Can she/he use it?
• Have you given the app to that friend of yours who is always asking you to fix his computer? Can he use it

I think you get the picture. After the hours of sweat, blood and caffeine have gotten you as far as a product, it is time to kill the ego and go out into the field. Remember, it is really easy to get techies to use your product. That’s what Digg, Slashdot, Arrington and Conferences are for. “The Next Big Thing” meme spreads through the blogosphere like wild fire, so often times entrepreneurs mistake hype for a business model. You want to create a product that still has value once the initial crowd drifts off to pontificate on the Next Big Thing.

People Ready

I’m kidding. This next point is all about people though. If you are an entrepreneur trying to figure out what your first big goal should be, the answer is pretty simple — get people. Most institutional investors are looking for somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand users before they consider putting money into a product.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what you are building. All that matters is whether you can present it in such a way that people want to beat down your door to use it. The biggest mistake you can make is to think that your product will sell itself. You sell your product. It was Steve Jobs, not the iPhone, that set the world on fire — remember that.

How are you going to get these people? Well, I can’t tell you that. There is no magic bullet to attracting an audience, and if you think there is I have some swamp land in Florida for you. What I will say is that you are a lot better off trying to sell a narrow concept than a grand idea. Normal people don’t really understand your “vision”. Their biggest concerns are what a product can do for them. Express your unique value proposition first thing. If your users have to hunt around for it, they won’t be your users for very long.

Design Paradigm

When designing an application, use the “inverted pyramid” model. You should launch with only your most important features, your foundation. Keep your UI simple, make sure that your users have almost no way of being confused as to what you are presenting them with. Once you have them hooked on your initial idea, move on down the line filling in the details as you go.

Twitter was an app designed to answer a simple question. Facebook was an app designed to let you stalk your classmates. The light bulb was a product created to illuminate a room. All great ideas start off simple and are expanded upon as the user base becomes more used to them. Who would have understand the mighty powers of the Black Light if they hadn’t seen a light bulb in action?

This is another time that you should poll your audience. Go to everyone from the checklist and let them play around with your application without your intervention. Afterwards, ask them a few questions. If you can’t come up with them on your own, these will do in a pinch.

• What features did you notice? (Did you notice my cool, AJAX login!)
• What was most confusing to you?
• What would I have to change before you’d sign up to use this app?
• Explain the product in two sentences or less.

The last question is arguably the most important. If someone can play around with your product and still not understand how to use it, the problem probably sits with you — not them. I’m not saying that you should be beholden to every one of your users whims, but you have to recognize that they are your traffic. No matter how “silly” a question might seem to you if enough people think it then they certainly aren’t the crazy ones.

Sell, Sell, Sell

Get out there and sell! Just putting your site onto the web is a great first step, but it is only that — a first step. Other than adding features and squashing bugs, the rest of your time should be devoted to finding ways to sell your product to the masses. Blogs, Traditional Media, Social News, Social Networking, etc… are some vectors, but remember everyone else is doing it as well.

I believe that everyone would do well to try to introduce the less tech savvy to their web product. Remember, these are people who probably don’t know every Web 2.0 product to ever be posted on Digg. They are ripe for your idea and they haven’t been poisoned by the noise of the rest of the blogosphere.

I warn you, it will be slower going but the advantages of having a completely untapped market may outweigh the costs. Especially if you’re in an industry (like movies or music) that has universal appeal.

Web 2.0 Roundup

I can’t tell you how many business’ fail each year, what I can tell you is that most of the ones that don’t fail because their founders didn’t understand that private helicopters are not a legitimate business expense do so because their owners don’t understand what they’re really trying to sell.

Don’t fall into the same trap.

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