The Product Design Process
Before you dive into a business, design the product. Research your stakeholders deeply — even live their roles — surface each group’s real problems, turn them into a proposition, and unite everyone on a single common platform.
Executive Summary
Product design, in one read.
Design before you build
It’s tempting to dive straight into a business. Take the time first to design the product properly — around the people it must serve.
Research, then design
Quickly understand your customers and eco-system, identify every stakeholder, live their problems, and turn what you learn into a proposition.
One platform, a J-curve
Solve all stakeholders’ problems through a common platform, and the business follows a J-curve — profitability, valuation and investors.
Visual Knowledge Map
The whole process at a glance.
Core Concepts
The ideas behind the design.
Design before you build
Don’t rush into operations. Time spent designing the product around real needs is what makes the business work.
What, why and how
Frame the design with three questions: what is the product, why does it matter, and how do you build it for the business.
Identify every stakeholder
Before anything, list the people your business touches — suppliers, the landlord, your team, and the customers nearby.
Live their problems
Go deep — do their jobs, ask everyone, and gather the real problems each group faces, not the ones you assume.
Turn problems into a proposition
The product is the answer to those problems — framed as a clear proposition that gives each stakeholder what they want.
One platform for all
Solve every stakeholder’s need through a single common platform — that’s what scales into a J-curve.
Frameworks & Models
The three stages, and dynamic pricing.
The three stages of product design
Quickly understand your customers and eco-system, and identify your stakeholders.
- List who your business touches — suppliers, landlord, team, customers.
- Go deep: do their jobs, meet them daily, ask every department.
- Surface each group’s real problems.
Turn what each stakeholder wants into the design of your product.
- Meet suppliers, nearby businesses and customers.
- Capture what each truly values.
- Solve two things well and become number one at them.
Solve all stakeholders’ problems through one shared platform.
- Unite every group’s needs in a single place.
- Give partners clarity, revenue and tools.
- Scale into a J-curve: profit, valuation, investors.
The dynamic pricing model
Process Flow
From a thought to a J-curve.
Relationship Diagram
Each stakeholder’s problem becomes the product.
Dependencies & Interactions
What each step leans on.
| Step | Depends on | Reinforced by | Failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Useful research | Identifying every stakeholder | Living their roles, asking all | Building without knowing who you serve |
| A real problem list | Honest stakeholder conversations | Front-line and owner insight alike | Designing for assumed problems |
| A strong proposition | Solving the problems found | Doing two things better than anyone | Features no stakeholder asked for |
| Scale | A single common platform | Clarity, revenue and tools for partners | Point fixes that never connect |
| A J-curve | All stakeholders served at once | Profitability and investor confidence | Serving one group at others’ expense |
Key Takeaways
Ten lines to keep.
Design the product before you build the business.
Ask what, why and how at the start.
Identify every stakeholder you’ll touch.
Live their roles to learn their real problems.
Ask everyone, in every department.
Turn problems into a clear proposition.
Do two things better than anyone else.
Use dynamic pricing — low anchor, capped top.
Unite all needs on one common platform.
Skip research and you fail; do it and you scale.
Revision Sheet
Glance, refresh, reflect.
- Design before you build.
- Research stakeholders deeply.
- Turn problems into a proposition.
- Unite all on one platform.
- Market research: identify & immerse.
- Product design: needs → proposition.
- Common platform: solve for all.
- Outcome: a J-curve.
- Live the roles; ask every department.
- Dynamic pricing: anchor → +50–100 → cap.
- Be number one at two things.
- No research, no business.
Quick Reference Table
Each stakeholder’s problem and what they want.
| Stakeholder | Their problem | What the proposition gives |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel owners | No bookings, no business clarity, no single view of revenue. | Steady bookings, a dashboard for clarity, and a revenue jump. |
| Hotel customers | High cost, poor cleanliness, broken wi-fi, nobody to fix issues. | A good price, clean rooms, working amenities, and support. |
| Grocery customers | Want reliable delivery and a choice of several options. | Best-in-area delivery and a wide, curated choice. |
| Grocery distributors | Want timely payment and help selling slow-moving stock. | On-time payment and shelf space for their slower items. |
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions this raises.
It’s designing the product around the people it serves — researching every stakeholder, learning their real problems, and shaping the product as the answer, before you build the business.
Everyone your business touches. For a grocery store that’s the distributors, the landlord, nearby shops and the customers in the catchment area; for a restaurant, the chefs, other restaurateurs and the diners.
Very deep. One founder spent about 90 days meeting a new owner daily, worked the front desk and back of house, and asked staff in every department — front office, housekeeping, kitchen, security.
Pricing that moves with demand: the first unit sells at a low anchor to draw customers in, each subsequent unit is priced a little higher, and the last is capped — keeping it safe and affordable.
The business tends to fail. One founder launched a first venture without knowing his stakeholders and it shut down; his next, built on real research, became a major success.
Because solving every stakeholder’s problem in one place is what scales. Unite owners, customers and partners on a single platform, and the business can follow a J-curve.
Memory Hooks
Lines that make it stick.
The product comes before the business.
Do the jobs; ask every department.
Dynamic pricing keeps it affordable.
Serve everyone in one place, and scale.
Practical Applications
A worked example, and the lesson of skipping research.
- Meet the distributor, the people working in nearby stores, and the customers who buy groceries.
- A customer values delivery and a choice of five or six options; distributors want timely payment and help moving slow stock.
- Design around both: become number one in the area for delivery and choice, pay distributors on time, and stock a couple of their slower lines — a commercially profitable opportunity.
- One founder launched a first venture without research, unaware of his product’s stakeholders — and it shut down.
- His next venture, a home-services marketplace, was built on real stakeholder understanding — and became a major success.
- Learn from the mistake: find your stakeholders first, then design.