How to be sneaky when planning your new product

Photo credit: Eva101.

There are two camps. Those that believe that you should share your project idea early on, collect feedback, and mold your idea as you go along. The second, and the one I subscribe to, is to build a project with minimal, but qualified feedback, and largely work in stealth mode till you’re ready to share it.

I’m not sure exactly why I like the stealth approach, it could be because I love spy stories. But I suspect it is because I was taught by my previous bosses that having a healthy paranoia was a competitive advantage in business.

In order to work in stealth mode, you need to have a couple of things going for you.

Top secret tests for product value

First, you need to believe that what you’re working on has value without the validation of external peers. Draw upon your own experience, align with your partners or senior managers when you make that assessment, and stay firm.

Since external feedback will be minimal, you need to have a good system of testing whether an idea has value throughout the development process. If your project can be split into smaller modules, I would suggest testing out the modules independently, prove that these work with the target audience, and fix problem areas.

This can be quite intense as you try to progress, but pause to fix issues on the modules you’re testing. However, understanding points of failure early on can be extremely valuable.

Time to spy on your competitors

Photo credit: Giphy.

This time also gives you the opportunity to learn from similar projects around the world, learn from the mistakes of others, and adapt what works and what doesn’t. Use competitor products, contact their support team if you have issues, and read reviews.

It can be frustrating if someone rolls out an idea or feature before you, but learning from their mistakes can ensure you have a better product. Think of the MP3 players before the iPod. Better user experience always trumps novelty.

3,2,1 launch

With so much pent up anxiety and nerves, the launch can be very stressful to plan. At this point, there’s usually quite a lot riding on it so if you can afford it, I would suggest hiring an external agency or team to help.

Being so close to the product can cloud your judgment on what’s best for the launch. You may want to be featured on prime time news, but what you want and what can happen may be miles apart. So get a reliable voice in the discussion early on. And if you can, start planning for the launch a couple of months prior — it’s always good to have a hard milestone and something to corral the team around.

Hope these pointers help you if you’re inclined to go dark. Best of luck and do tell us about your project when the time is right. For those of you with startups already in the wild, I would love to know which approach you took.