Which comes first, the Community or the Product?

I find myself having this same conversation with people week after week, and there is definitely a tendency toward one side over the other that I don’t agree with. I even had a short tiff with myself over it while brainstorming on my Idea Crush.

Can you join a community if your product doesn’t exist? Or better yet, can you build one? And at what point can you start to feel comfortable talking about your product?

Two Schools of Thought

I think that there are two schools of thought on this question, which is good because the question only really has two alternatives built into it… In my mind its ridiculous to think that you have to have a product before you can start to gather people around the cause, but I will hit major resistance in nine conversations out of ten on the subject.

product first Most people I talk to believe that this is the way it should be. Apparently to them, you can’t talk about requirements, with potential users, for something that does not currently exist. You can’t build relationships with your target market, before you have a product to sell them, either. In order for these people to feel comfortable about their offering, it needs to A. exist and B. be as polished as possible.

Because that’s when people will recognize it’s greatness and break down doors to buy it.

community first I’ve been saying for some time now that community should come first. If I am interested in getting involved with developing a product that reaches a specific demographic, I don’t think that its ever too early to become a part of that demographic. Especially as a product manager. I think that mapping out the influencers from the population at large, and building relationships with those influencers before I have anything to sell is the way to go.

Because having a community at product launch is way better than starting from scratch.

Three Steps to Understanding

You’re still not convinced, and that’s ok. A lot of the push back I’ve received has to do with not knowing what to talk about, if the product does not exist yet. Here are three things you can do to help you build up a community in parallel with (not in sequence with) building out a product:

be interested Presumably you have an idea for a product that will meet the needs of your target market. You’ve done the research to estimate how large this group of people is, so the next step is to find some of them to get to know. I’m not talking about paid focus groups here, I’m talking about bloggers, tweeters, and message boarders who are into what your product will offer. I find this approach to be valuable on two different levels. First, by getting to know my target audience I get insights into what will make my product work for them. Second, by building up a community early in the process, I can count on having some social capital built up when I attempt to activate my community.

get over yourself Its ok to not know all the answers. If the product is new enough, nobody knows any of the answers. But it can be fun to put some answers together with people and meet some cool people along the way. I had a conversation with a friend in this boat today. He has an inkling of a community around an idea that needs more funding, but he is reluctant to further build out the community until he can get his products up to his standards… I think that he is going about things the wrong way, and am hoping that he comes to his senses before he realizes that by the time he has a full fledged product to offer, the community may be somewhere else.

have fun with it Now that I’ve met, and hung out with Tim Hayden, I would argue that people go places on-line for the experience, just like they do in real life. Experiences are shared. So if you’re not having fun within a community of like minded people, then ask yourself what’s the point? Have enough confidence in yourself and your idea to be a human being to other human beings.

And With That

I leave the comments to you. What do you think comes first… Community or Product?