Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
Nice to meet you. I was an IT contractor for 10 years.So I was talking to a friend of mine (in IT product management) and I asked him.. man why are you in still in the company, you could at least work as a contractor and earn way more.
And he said to me: I am learning how to build products and that is primary not earning money in the short term. And he does have his side product he is building at the same time, experimenting with his project knowledge.
Now I am an IT contractor but really focused on facilitation of projects. But it got me thinking, the ability to build products appropriate for the market, how to test the market and verify that the market wants it ect is... the skill to have.
So my question to you fastlaners, is how do you learn to build products? Do you like my friend do an apprenticeship in a company, build products yourself or are there other ways?
What type of product are you talking about? Personally I like digital products that are simple and fast to make: courses, landing pages, etc.
For those type of products we try to get interest as soon as we can, then figure it out as we go along.
Our “product development” philosophy is to engage the market in hand-to-hand combat and find out what they like, don’t like, where they’re stuck, why they’re stuck, etc.
I jump on paid and unpaid calls all the time and help people out the best I can. I get learnings to improve our products.
Don't overcomplicate it. It’s not an academic exercise, and your IT brain will likely make you move slower than you could if you just engaged the market with a desire to help them instead of “creating a product”.
Does that help?