♞ Why You Struggle To Explain Your Product

Why do you struggle to explain your product?

Many founders struggle with something that seems pretty basic: explaining their product. I consistently see founders who cannot explain what their product does to investors, advisors, friends, family, etc.

Today, I will explain why you struggle to describe your product and how you can overcome it.

1. Founder’s Fallacy - The founder’s fallacy is that founders understand their product too well to explain it. In short, because you understand the product so well and have been part of its development from start to finish, you can’t put yourself in the shoes of someone who hasn’t yet come across the product. Even when you try to explain it to someone with no idea of your product, you still assume their baseline knowledge is too high. What you need to avoid doing at this stage is talking about (i) how the product works behind the curtain, (ii) how it was built. What you need to do instead is focus on (i) the pain point your customer faces, (ii) how it solves that pain point. Don’t get into any more detail than that.

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2. Sunk Cost Fallacy - This is when you are so invested in specific features based on the effort and time that went into them that you prioritize them in your pitch over the core functionality. The reality for most products/services is that what you spend 20% of your time on provides 80% of the value. The problem is that when you pitch, you prioritize what you spend 80% of your time on, even though it only provides 20% of the value. While there is value in highlighting features, most people need to understand the core functionality before they can appreciate features.

3. Twists and Turns - When building a product, there are plenty of twists and turns. What you have in the market after 12 months isn’t the same as your idea when you first started. Many founders struggle to keep up with these twists and turns as they often change the core value proposition, even if the changes are minor. Those small changes help you find product/market fit, and it's your job to be able to understand and explain why one version did and the other didn’t have product/market fit, because that difference is what appealed to customers.

Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:

📱 Book a Strategy Call to get 1:1 feedback on your pitch, pitch deck and/or fundraising strategy. (If you need general startup advice, then reply to this email, and I’ll let you know if/how I can help.)

Onwards and Upwards,

Liam Gill