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Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
James Brausch
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Article Title: Marketing Research Tips: Gathering Requirements
Author: James Brausch
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I never gather requirements for a new product, but I always
gather requirements by asking for feedback for an existing
product that I am about to update.
I create new products without requirements as a baseline. Why?
Because giving requirements is free. The scope simply increases
exponentially with new products. It also loses it�s focus to be
useful for my own business, hobby, passion or whatever market
I'm also participating in. So� I create the new product for my
own business (hobby, passion, whatever) and then sell it to
others who share that passion. I know it will be useful for
those who follow my passion, because it�s useful to me.
When it�s time to upgrade it though, I always ask my customers
for feedback to get a better requirements list. They are then
familiar with the baseline and the requirements list is a lot
more �real�� based on their experience with the product.
However, you still have to recognize that the requested
features for the new version are all based on �if it were
free�. Those requirements must still be filtered against what
can actually be obtained for a price that is reasonable. For
instance, I switched to video based on experience. That is both
for instructions for software programs and information products
themselves. Ebooks and text information have been proven to be
major negative in my business model. I know from experience
that people aren�t really willing to pay for PDF manuals. The
request comes in a lot, but it�s already been tested and ruled
out.
When I did text instructions, that took up 95% of the time that
it took to create a new product. Are people willing to pay 20
times as much to get a product that includes text? Of course
not. In addition� it�s a lie. They will request the information
in that format because �it�s easier for me to learn from
reading�, etc. Is that true?
No; the refund rate for textual material is much higher. The
support tickets I received asking questions that are already
covered in the textual manual are perhaps 20 times more in
volume as compared to the video version. The action rate for
text material is only around 0.5% to 1% as compared to 4%-7%
with video material. That action rate directly affects the
purchase rate of other products.
Another request that I see a bunch is for Mac support. Mac
users are very religious about their support for the Mac. There
is a cost associated with that though. After testing, I have
found that market isn�t large enough to support. So� it�s free
for Mac users to request support here� but that request has to
be weighed against what they will actually pay to receive. It�s
a known that they won�t pay for their support, so I ignore that
market just like most other developers do.
If you have worked in a corporate environment, you know that
the requirements creep can be much worse than you even see here
on the blog. It is still important to ask for the feedback and
get a requirements list whenever a product is updated�
customers often come up with really great ideas based on their
own experience with the software� but it is just as important
to do a careful requirements analysis and eliminate
requirements that really won�t fly when it�s time to pay for
them. Or worse� will actually harm your business if met.
It may sound subjective about how you would do such a
requirements analysis. It really isn�t. There are only two
logical ways to eliminate items from the requirements list when
doing your requirements analysis:
1. The old �following a proven plan�. You�ve just heard about
two items that I eliminate from all requirements lists. You can
add those to your own list.
2. The only other way is through experience. However, it still
shouldn�t be subjective if you want to make good business
decisions. It should be measured and compared. How do you do
that? http://www.FreedomBusinessSystem.com Each procedure (and
you can bet that gathering requirements and analyzing
requirements are both codified procedures in my business)
should have a measurement.
This is covered in the above course. That measurement should
relate somehow to the bottom line (ie: profit). Since support
tickets and refund rate both directly affect expenses (and can
be measured), you can actually put a cost on them. You can then
compare text based information to video based information by
cost and profit.
It really comes down to two dollar figures. One is $20,540. The
other is $1,500. You go with the one that is most profitable
regardless of what your customers claim. The fact is that your
customer�s claims when money is involved are not the same as
the claims they make when no money is involved. To run a
successful business, you need to follow the dollar vote, not
the freebie vote.
Those are really the only two ways to learn anything in life.
It starts when you are a toddler (or perhaps even before). You
can either watch and see that your mother and father never
touch the stove� or you can touch it and get burned and learn
from experience. When you are a teenager, you can learn from
your parents that doing drugs is bad and can ruin your life, or
you can experience it yourself. Those are the only two ways to
learn anything. You can learn it from someone who has been
there and done that� or you can go there and do that and
experience it yourself.
About The Author: The Freedom Business System shows how to earn
your freedom by automating EVERYTHING in your business. Here is
the site: http://www.FreedomBusinessSystem.com
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