The Product Compass: A Framework for Building Products That Delight

Introduction

Making a good product that delights users requires a clear map. This framework will guide you from Hypothesis (A) to Market Success (Z). We’ll cover The Why (Psychology), The How (The Journey), and The Must Dos (The Principles).

Psychology

Psychological Primacy

We assert that psychological characteristics are the primary factors for understanding and predicting consumer behavior. We prioritize psychographics because understanding why a person buys (their values, motivations, lifestyle) is more crucial than who they are (demographics).

For building products, prioritizing psychographics means:

• Understanding Motivation: Focusing on the deeper needs, wants, and aspirations that drive a purchase. For example, two people may both be 35 year old high income earners (demographics), but one values status and luxury (psychographic), while the other values sustainability and community (psychographic). They will buy vastly different products, making psychographics the better predictor.
• Tailoring the Product: Ensuring your product’s features, design, and branding are aligned with a specific psychographic profile. (e.g., minimalist design for a segment that values simplicity, or robust features for a segment that values efficiency).
• Crafting Resonance: Developing marketing messages and content that speak directly to your user’s attitudes and lifestyle, creating an emotional connection that builds brand loyalty.

In your product development process, embracing “Psychographic Primacy” means you should start with or quickly move to the psychological profile; the AIO (Activities, Interests, Opinions), Personality, and Attitudes; as the most actionable data for making product and marketing decisions.

Demographics

Demographics are like the ‘address’ to reach your users which have a psychological mindset. They will help you make informed decisions about the marketing channels to use, product pricing; they are quantifiable.

Journey

The User Journey is the realization of the Psychographic Contract. Every phase must be designed to minimize cognitive load and friction.

Phase A: Discovery (The Hook)

Where do your customers come from? You must identify appropriate marketing channels, what content to deliver, and finally the hook that compels them to check out your product.

Phase B: Consideration (The Friction Test)

Once the user decides to follow beyond the marketing channel, your product must have no barriers to its showcase. The user must be able to identify if the product suits them without any friction. Defer all tutorials, sign ups, and onboarding until the value is clear.

Phase C: The Acquisition (Zero Friction Transaction)

The purchase itself is the first moment of delight. If the transaction requires more than two taps, you risk breaking the user’s journey.

Phase D: The Activation (Invisible Installation)

Whenever a user installs or uses the product, the activation must be seamless; they must feel powerful, not helpless. If your product is technical…for example, an iOS app; this means seamless installation to overcome platform friction.

Phase E: Social Signaling (The Retention Loop)

For the product to grow, it must have strong social signaling. The user screenshots it, shows it off, and genuinely enjoys it. This organic sharing is the essential mechanism for growth.

Principles

A few principles I want to write down:

1. Tricycle MVP Theory (Quality > Scope). You must know your limits and optimize: Quality, Scope, and Time. Ultimately, this means you ship fewer features, but they must work perfectly.

   

   We adopt the philosophy that the Minimum Viable Product must be a complete, high quality, smaller product (a tricycle), not a half functional version of the end goal (a car).

2. The Broken Window Theory (The Quality Bar). The product will be as good as the worst user experience. If a user notices a typo or a visual glitch, it will bring down the whole reputation of your product, even if that typo is the only thing wrong with your product.
3. Mission First. You must aim high, even if you do not know exactly how you will get there. You can, at the very least, plan your first few steps. Now, for every feature, you must consider: Does this get me closer to the mission? If not, discard it and move on.
4. Subtraction is Improvement. You are not serious if you think adding another feature will make your product stand out. It is all about the core; if no one likes the core, who cares about the extra bells and whistles? We actively look for ways to simplify the product.
5. Data Informed Iteration. Be data informed (use data as context) but also rely on your judgment, intuition, and direct conversations with your users.

To End

This framework is your Product Compass. It provides the structure to turn an abstract idea into a high quality, focused, and sticky product. We introduced market segmentation through Psychological Primacy so you can identify, think, and plan your user’s journey. The journey itself must be frictionless in every stage, from discovery to the social signaling loop. Finally, we top it off with strong principles to keep you on track: Optimize your MVP, maintain an obsessively high quality bar, stick to the mission, embrace subtraction, and iterate with wisdom.

Go on then, BUILD. The world is what you imagine it to be.

Acknowledgements

The powerful concepts of the Tricycle MVP and The Broken Window Theory are notable principles widely shared in the product community and are codified in documents such as the Shopify Product Principles.