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MenuIf I dont live in the U.S but have a great idea for a simple re-use/rebranding of a common product that will fit the U.S market. What do I do?
Its a sport textile product that is easly accessible (also for re designing) and cheap to produce. I simply want to remarket it for a slightly different purpose. But I wont be able to handle distibution from where I live. is this even possible?
Answers


It is, but you have to understand that you will need to:
-Find a partner in the US, or and
-Get a company that will do the distribution for you
-License the product to another company to produce
If I was you I would listen to this podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mixergy-interviews/id348690336?mt=2&i=333880076
from the guy that brought the UGG shoes to the U.S. Also buy his book, really good
After you (1) work out the important distribution and licensing details, circle back and we can (2) talk about naming and explaining that rebranded product. Then you're ready to (3) market it and sell.


This article is based off of a question posted on Quora:
"What's the best way for a first-time entrepreneur to determine product market fit?"
Based on the way the author framed it (using "first-time entrepreneur"), I assumed he was or is under a tight budget. If this is the case, he will have certain limitations in testing and determining PMF - namely, he cannot simply task this off to an agency (not would I suggest that be the only way he or any startup test PMF before launch). I would suggest the following regardless, but it is especially necessary under tight budgets OR if an investment team needs these questions answered before deciding to fund a project.
First, I agree (in principal) with The Lean Product Process:
1. Determine your target customer
2. Identify underserved customer needs
3. Define your value proposition
4. Specify your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) feature set
5. Create your MVP prototype
6. Test your MVP with customers
Where I can add value is by walking you through one approach I have used for steps 5 and 6 in more detail below...
Aside from what you would discover in articles online through a simple google search (I took the liberty of summarizing some good one’s below), my approach to determining PMF very early on, and very inexpensively, has been to:
1. Find/buy an affinity domain name phrase that exemplifies your value prop (i.e. "EasyInsuranceRate.com" for insurance quotes). The reason you test PMF through a vanity URL first is because you want to know if the value proposition can stand alone and sell without a bunch of PR and fluff around it. You want to target your specific market, in the easiest way possible. Find a phrase that relates to your market will bring more users to your platform than a more unrelated name. This will be your landing page in a sense. This is the attention-grabber, and it needs to be simple.
2. Build out the microsite (simple Wordpress install or a landing page builder tool will do) under this domain with the same copy/creative they plan to use on your branded site. This technique is being used by large companies like Snapchat and Spotify. The idea here is to actively engage the user in clicking onto a that microsite in order to narrow down the focus of your product.
3. Create a the hook (an offer to get involved in a beta test, be shipped a sample, sent a coupon code...). Before selling an audience, you need a way to understand if they want what you're selling. Email capture is a good start. Create a good hook that is relevant to the final product and highlight that offer on your microsite's home page.
4. Launch traffic to this funnel from a variety of target persona's/interest/demo's. Invite potential prospects in by using descriptive words that would produce interest in your product. Watch the wording of these CTAs.
5. Use ads in ^ campaigns to test out the copy and call to action you are considering. Ads are placed everywhere on virtually every website today. Use this to your advantage and make buyers feel almost obligated to click/browse your page by posting intriguing ads on your page.
This process allows you to see real numbers and costs to market your product/service to those audiences. If they will buy from a vanity URL, or even leave their information to receive early access, you can feel confident a percentage of those will sign up or buy your product at least once.
Review all results and data. If all is going well - engagement is high, CTR is over 3% on ads, you are capturing emails from over 5% of traffic... You can be confident you have PMF.
As you progress through your PMF determination phase, the questions you need to get answered to get to a product market fit answer:
1. Who are your first 20 customers and what did it cost/take to acquire them?
2. Will online audiences buy your product or sign up for your service after clicking an ad?
3. What were your unit economics for the above ad channels^
4. What changes when you add credibility to you sales funnel (influencer mentions, testimonials, client logos…)?
Related Questions
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Can my experience with building "no code" applications be translated into something that will impress hard core coders?
Your skills would be most useful if you were starting your own startup and needed to make an early prototype to show to investors or potential cofounder developers. Your experience in debugging, testing, and agile, could help you get a job as a product manager, and the fact that you have a background in some sort of 'coding' will help too. It's very unlikely that it would help you get an actual dev job though, since you wouldn't be able to translate your programs into actual code that could be taken over/continued by other devs. Even if the programs you mentioned do allow you to export as code, it's unlikely that it would be exported in a way that's very usable by other devs.
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What is the best way to evaluate a candidate for product manager?
Some of this is stage dependent and all of it is highly dependent on the team above the product manager. The simplest answer of course is to find PM's from companies who have had exemplary success where the Product Manager candidate either led prior success or was exposed to it in a meaningful way. A simple starting point is to ask them to give you examples of conflicting opinions on a feature and how they evaluated the conflicting opinions and made a decision and tracked the success or failure of that decision. AirBnb actually gives PM's homework as part of the interview process where they have to actually present a unique idea (from scratch) to the interviewing team. Happy to talk to you about best process based on your stage and existing team.
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What is the best way to distribute a new cosmetic product to distributors and hair salons?
I am the founder of a cosmetic company that bootstrapped from nothing to a 7 figure business. It sounds like you are really at the beginning stages of business and there are a lot of opportunities for you. You've got a lot of work ahead of you and you need to build some infrastructure. Your brand is going to be one of the most important things to establish and you won't be able to sell to distributors, salons, or consumers without a clear message of what your company is about. When it comes to distribution of your product, you can either work with a distributor, sell directly to resellers, or sell directly to consumers. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. You'll have the most margin with direct to consumers - but you need skills on ecommerce. When you sell through a distributor you lose tons of control, but you can expand your reach quicker. You also have the slimmest margins; but you don't need to invest as much into sales. Selling direct to salons is a time consuming process; but you have more control of how your product is displayed, and the perception the consumer has of your products. So much of cosmetics is where your product is currently sold. If it's sold in mass market retail, no salon will want to carry it. But the direct answer of your question is you simply need to sell your product to anyone who's willing to buy it. Pick up the phone, hustle, and win over those customers.
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What are the pros/ cons of outsourcing app development vs. building an internal development team? Would this affect the value of the company?
Don't Outsource. Period. While there are big drawbacks with outsourcing related to building internal expertise the real reason I would never outsource at your stage is the need for speed and flexibility. Per your description, you are an early stage start-up with a MVP that is gathering data. Congratulations as that is a big accomplishment! However, you inevitably have a ton to learn about what your prospective customers need most and what customers deserve your attention most. The means you will be tweaking your product constantly for the foreseeable future and having to submit ideas to an outsourced team, make sure they understand what you want, wait for the new feature to be scheduled, etc is just too slow and too expensive. You should have your developers literally sitting next to you and (if you have one besides yourself) your product person so you can quickly and constantly share information. Good luck! You are in for a fun ride...
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How should I start selling on farfetch.com or yoox.com?
This depends on where you are located but in many major cities (U.S., Europe and Asia) there are showrooms buyers shop. This means, for a fee, your products are guaranteed to be viewed by buyers (though there is no way to guarantee they will select to buy them). These buyers range from local shops to regional chains to department store and boutique buyers. If you are picked up by one or more and show data to these online specialty stores, that is more appealing than a cold turkey approach. Simultaneously building an online following is key as well since both retailers have e-commerce-savvy demos.