A good startup product development strategy involves 1) building assumptions about the problem, the product, and the people 2) protecting critical aspects of the product and brand 3) developing the tech and the team and, 4) a launching plan for the product.

Don't let the concept of new product planning scare you. It's never too early to develop discipline around business-building and new product development. While startups won't have the organizational layers which exist in large companies for product development, a typical startup makes for the ideal environment for building products that customers want (with a little bit of planning of course).

What separates the winners from the losers? Good question, right? In the game of company-building, what separates the wheat from the chaff? I've worked with services-based and products-based companies, and the same principles of success apply. The winners always have a strategy, and the losers usually don't. While I will readily admit luck is involved in most any successful enterprise, companies with a plan seem to outperform those without one.

So what is strategy? A strategy is a forward-looking plan of action. So that means if you don't have a plan, you most likely don't have a strategy. But here's the thing- you don't need a perfect strategy to be successful, you just need to have one and adjust it when you need to.

When it comes to building a company around a product, you simply must think about your business in terms of the product you plan to sell. As a creator of new products, looking at your business through the lens of inventions and inventing is too short-sided. The invention and patent process can be fundamental, but not more important than finding the right customer and market for your product.

Last Word:

Sci-tech startups have a choice to make, do you build a business around inventions that YOU think are valuable, or do you develop new products that customers actually want 🤔? Even if your business strategy is licensing rather than manufacturing, you’ll still need to design products customers and markets wouldn’t want to live without.

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Angela Grayson, CIPP/US, CLP  is an author, speaker, and lawyer. She is the Principal and Founder of Precipice IP, PLLC.  Angela is a patent, trademark, copyright, and technology law attorney with almost 20 years of experience helping science and technology companies protect products, brands, designs, and data from idea to launch.

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