On March 29, 2022, a new streaming network, CNN+, went live. On April 30, 2022—just a month after it was released to the public—the network was canceled, becoming, in the words of the New York Times, “one of the most spectacular failures in years.”
While many factors contributed to the rapid demise of this new streaming network, ultimately, CNN+ was a victim of customer failure. As it turned out, only 10,000 viewers (who paid $6 a month for the privilege) were tuning into the network at any given time—this outcome despite a splashy New York City launch party, a massive advertising campaign, and the promise of big-name hosts.
If you want to avoid a similar fate for your new product introductions, here are six questions you should always ask yourself to avoid customer failure:
Is this a real problem?
While you may think that your new product is amazing—it dramatically advances the state of technology or does things no other product can do—if it does not solve a real problem for your customers, then at best they’ll be indifferent. Google Glass, which put the guts of a computer into a pair of eyeglasses, famously failed because it didn’t solve a real problem for its intended customers. Every successful product addresses a real problem for the customers who buy it, and yours should too.
Is the problem significant enough for customers to seek a solution or just a minor inconvenience they can live with?
You may find that customers do indeed have a problem, but that the pain they feel is not enough for them to buy your solution. In other words, it’s just a vitamin that they can easily live without taking, and not a painkiller that they absolutely need to have to avoid a big headache in their businesses. Be sure that your product doesn’t just address a real problem, but that customers are also feeling enough pain to demand it.
Are there enough customers with this problem?
A big part of launching a successful product is creating a profitable business model around it. For most products, this means having enough customers who want to buy it at a price that turns a profit. Ultimately, this was one of the key problems with CNN+. Not enough customers signed up to create a profitable business model that would be sustainable over the long run.
Is this a repeatable problem?
It’s a rare product that can succeed by solving a problem just once. Ideally, your product should address a repeatable problem—requiring customers to pay for it again and again over a long period of time. Companies buy new desktop computers as microprocessors get faster, and they buy annual subscriptions to SaaS CRM platforms such as Salesforce or software packages like the Microsoft Office Suite. People flock to the latest iPhone release every year. You have a greater probability of success when your product addresses a repeatable problem.
What customer segments exist that have this problem?
Entrepreneurs often begin their pitch to me by saying something along the lines of, “According to [their favorite market research firm], this is a $100 billion market and every business in the world is a potential customer.” While that may indeed be the case, and you shouldn’t lose sight of this larger market, it’s unrealistic to assume that you’ll be able to address it all at once. It’s much better to identify specific customer segments that have the problem—starting with a much smaller target surface as you focus and hone your idea. Once you find success in one customer segment, you can scale your product offering to other segments.
What other options exist to solve the problem?
When you’re building a new product, you have to keep an eye on the competition and on other alternatives for solving the problem you want to address. If a competitor offers a better solution at a price that’s lower than the product you plan to offer, then it’s going to be difficult for you to get traction. Instead of paying an extra $6 for a subscription to CNN+, consumers decided that the existing option of plain, old CNN—for no upcharge—was good enough for them.
If the answers to all the above questions are in your favor, then you may have identified an opportunity worth pursuing. I encourage you to dig deeper still, always thinking in terms of: What is your offer? Is this the product offer that hits the bull’s-eye and perfectly solves the customer’s problem? If it doesn’t, then try again.
Remember that most successful products don’t get to the top of the mountain overnight. It takes research, hard work, and iteration—sometimes for years—before the companies that built them reach success.
