Entrepreneurship and productsYour first product version does not need every feature
A founder’s perspective: how to choose one user need, limit scope and learn something important before expanding your product.
Start with a situation, not a catalogue of possibilities
A product idea is easy to describe through features: a dashboard, search, notifications, an assistant. It is harder to identify one situation where a particular person genuinely needs help. That situation should define the first version.
Write down who performs the task, what they want to achieve and how they manage today. If the description fits every employee in every company, narrow it. A product for someone preparing materials for a weekly meeting has a clearer starting point than a tool for “making everyone more efficient”.
Separate what you know from what you assume
A user conversation may confirm that gathering information is frustrating. It does not yet prove that they need a new app or are willing to change how they work. Record the observation separately from the proposed solution.
For each important hypothesis, define what you want to learn. Does the user understand the result? Can they use it without further explanation? Do they return for their next task? Asking “Do you like the idea?” provides less concrete evidence than observing an actual activity.
Choose a complete journey for one task
A small scope does not mean an incomplete experience. The first version should take the user from the start of a task to a useful result. You can limit formats, audiences or material types while preserving the purpose of the whole activity.
For example, an agenda tool might support one type of meeting and one template. It does not immediately need dozens of variants. It must clearly show what information is needed, allow corrections and deliver something the organiser can use. This is a design example, not a description of a particular deployment.
See what happens without your guidance
During a test, a founder often instinctively explains every step. This support can hide where the product is unclear. Ask the user to complete the task and note their questions, hesitations and returns to earlier steps.
Afterwards, ask what they would do with the result and what is still missing. Distinguish obstacles that prevent task completion from interesting future ideas. Not every suggestion needs to become a new feature immediately.
End the test with a decision about the next step
Before expanding, summarise what you learned, which assumption remains uncertain and what to test next. Sometimes that means another feature, sometimes a different audience or simplifying the existing workflow.
IMNOWAK’s product topics draw on entrepreneurship, technology and work on my own projects. This article offers a way to organise scope decisions. It is not a promise of product success or a report of customer research.
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