# 20 things I believe about building new products
*Published: 2013-11-19*
*Tags: product-work*
*Source: https://chrislema.com/building-new-products*
---## Building new products

Ask a group of architects to design a new home and you'll get as many different designs as you have architects. The same is true when you ask New Product Development (NPD) practitioners what they believe about the process of building and launching new products into the market.

But since we're all different, I thought I would take a moment today to highlight the 20 things I believe about building new products. This isn't a manifesto, and I haven't written details around each item on the list. Maybe that will come later. But for me, even reading other people's lists are fun. So hopefully this is helpful in some way.

## My top twenty beliefs

Without further ado, here are my 20 beliefs about **building new products**.

1. People pay for the **delta** between their old life and the life you now offer.
2. Features are a **proxy** for that change, but they're not what people are paying for.
3. Painting the picture of the delta **harder** than engineering.
4. The easiest way to elaborate on that delta is thru **stories**.
5. Selling to early adopters is predominantly an effort of **syncing** stories.
6. That's why it's critical to build an **opinion** directly into your products.
7. When solving problems, don't focus on **problem #27**.
8. People will **agree** it's a problem, but they won't pay for its solution.
9. The best way to test if people really want it solved is by **paying**.
10. No new product will solve every problem, so focus on the **big ones**.
11. When you solve **important** problems, you get the chance to solve more.
12. Solving more problems leads to a **larger portion** of someone's wallet.
13. The larger share of a wallet you own, the longer your **relationship**.
14. Shifting from vendor/customer to **partners** helps you build better products.
15. Few people buy infrastructure. Most people buy **results**.
16. So selling new products by pitching technology **doesn't** always work.
17. Early adopters want to be **heard**. Not necessarily obeyed.
18. What's critical, throughout the process, is **expectation** management.
19. Small, incremental, iterative **experiments** work best.
20. The skill of new product development is a **competitive advantage**.

## The start of a dialogue...

You may be working on a new product even as you read this. And your list may differ than mine. If that's the case, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Go ahead and comment below. Which items do you agree with? Which ones do you disagree with?

**This is just the start of a dialogue.**