How to create a nature product/service that your customers love
9 techniques that served me well
Doing something good for nature is not reason enough for users/customers to start supporting your nature NGO or biodiversity business.
The bar is now much higher.
You need to truly understand your users/customers problems to create something they value.
Why it matters:
Product is your best way to increase impact and reduce costs.
The better your product/service, the more likely users will become customers and share your nature venture with others.
This increases your profit; you can invest directly into more nature protection and restoration.
Disclaimer: I am far from perfect at this; product discovery (the official term for this) is a lifelong journey. So don't take my word as the only truth. I share here what helped me, as a founder, better understand my customers' pain points and thereby create better solutions for them.
Context: 4 Risks. The destroyers of nature products.
Whenever you build something, you have 4 risks (developed by Marty Cagan).
#1 Value risk = will the customer buy/use this?
#2 Usability risk = can user figure out how to use it?
#3 Feasibility risk = can you build it?
#4 Viability risk = does the solution work for your business/NGO?
You risk falling into those four traps when you create products, services, features, etc., without speaking to your customers.
The idea of product discovery is to learn as much as possible about your customers' underlying problems before you start building anything.
Like this, you minimize the risk and avoid burning cash you could have used for nature.
9 techniques that served me well
#1 Survey
When I had the first sparks of Wildya in my head, I set up a survey to determine whether other people had the same problems as me.
It gave me the initial confidence to pursue this.
No matter how mature your nature venture is, frequent surveys are a great way to quickly check if you are on the right track before starting to waste precious resources.
#2 Lead magnets
Lead magnets = something valuable you give away for free to tease your real product/service.
They are a great way to test whether you are on the right track with your idea. You can swiftly see if there is interest, get potential first users, and gather insightful data.
Our Eco-Anxiety quiz at Wildya is a good example. We provide value to people with eco-anxiety and, at the same time, get insights into how we can better help them. Win-win.
#3 Mail reach outs
Every new app user usually receives an email from me welcoming them to Wildya. In this email, I share my email address, a link to book a call with me, an intro video, and our feedback board.
Why?
Ideally, I would like to get to know every new person who is interested in Wildya to understand how we can better serve them.
#4 Calls
Calls might be time-consuming, but I am trying to make them my top priority now. Your insights from talking face-to-face with your users/customers are priceless.
Understanding their underlying challenges is much easier to figure out in a phone call or physical meeting than over mail.
#5 Scientific Research
Scientific research will give you even more confidence in developing your product. Now, it is based not just on your observations but also on science.
Scientific research might only sometimes be available for your product/service, but if it exists, take a seat and do your homework.
#6 Own Experience
Something that is frequently overlooked. Yes, you should do your best not to get biased, but you should also look into your own experience.
Most of the time, you start this nature venture because you identify problems that you feel or experience.
So, go down memory lane and reflect on your key problems. I have done this numerous times now with Wildya, and it helped me create my first hypotheses about what could help other people with eco-anxiety.
#7 Community
I underestimated the power of an engaged community. I highly recommend starting yours right now. Since we started ours, we have a far better understanding of what people really need and have been pointed in entirely new directions.
For example, the community itself is one of the most valuable aspects users appreciate right now, or they really like the career change bits, where we promote sustainable jobs.
#8 Power user group
Power-user group = A Group of people who you believe would strongly benefit from your product and with whom you co-create your solution.
We only launched this a month ago, but it's already blowing my mind. Working hand in hand with our users helps us gain a far deeper understanding of their problems and their ideas about how to tackle them.
I will keep you up to date on how it goes.
#9 Feedback Board
Now you have all these insights. Slightly overwhelming, right? To avoid getting my head exploded, I collect all interesting insights in a feedback board.
That allows me to ensure we constantly work on the most pressing issues of our users and see much clearer what is needed.
Additionally, it allows all users to share additional problems, ideas, and comments or vote on the already-mentioned insights.
You can see our public feedback board here.
5 Actions you can take this week to improve your product discovery
#1 1-10. Rate your nature venture and how user-centric you are currently running things.
#2 What's in place. Critically reflect on whether your score is actually true by checking what techniques you have in place to ensure you are collecting user insights.
#3 Make time. I get it; your week is busy, yet talking to your customers is necessary to get you to the next level. So where can you get 3 hours from?
#4. Choose 1. You don't have to do all of the above, but what is the one technique that you could try next?
#5 Quantify. To control your biased opinions, quantify your customers' most pressing issues so you can set the right focus.
Cheat sheet for product discovery
📚 Books:
⚒️ Tools:
Canny - Feedback board tool
Typeform - Survey tool
💡 Workshops:
🎥 Video:
🎧 Podcast:
👉 Related posts that you could find interesting:
9 tips to build great nature products
Hooked on nature. How to build habit-forming products that boost nature.
As mentioned and mentioned again, focusing on your customers is the best possible time investment you can make.
Whether you are a nature NGO serving nature and your donors or a biodiversity business, spending time with your customers will pay off.
More time with them -> better understanding of their core problems -> better solutions -> reduced wasted resources -> better product -> bigger nature impact.
See you next week, have a wild one!
Best,
Oli
🌿 P.S. If this newsletter brings you value, please consider sharing it with 1 other ecopreneur. It allows me to keep working on it.
🦧 Whenever you are ready, there are 2 ways Wild Business Mates can help yougrow and double your impact:
1.1-to-1 business consulting. Detailed and personalized consulting to double the impact of your biodiversity organization in the shortest possible time. Book a free intro call.
2. Wild Business Mates in Action. Wild Business Mates help you execute in areas you are struggling with. Tech, Marketing, Sales, Communication, etc. We can realize all the steps I mentioned above.