Building a software product sounded like a mythical fantasy.

I thought it was for talented programmers who could code for days in a row without food or sleep.

I was wrong!

A software product can be built by the average creator. I know because I’ve done it multiple times.

Now, I’m going to walk you through how to do it.

1. Focus on a specific problem

If you build software for everyone, you probably won’t find anyone.

Picking a problem your audience has is the best place to start.

You can face 2 possibilities.

• The problem was already solved by your competitor: In this case, try to see if you can differentiate somehow. Better user experience, better support, more affordable pricing?

• The problem is not solved yet: This is the ideal scenario. You’ve struck a motherload.

2. Build out a solution

Khan Academy solves learning. Slack solves communication. Twitter solves news.

What does your product solve?

Take your time to understand the problem. Then search for similar solutions.

Dive into them, try them out, and try to understand how they made their product. Then ask yourself!

What would you do differently? How could you make it better?

Answer these questions and you’ll start to get an idea of how to solve a problem you found.

3. Build an audience

When you have a tribe, it becomes easier to not give up.

The audience is your tribe. It’s the community you build with common interests.

An audience member will help you find bugs in your software. They‘ll ’give you the best feature requests. They will be the first to try out your product. An audience member will spread the word about your product.

If the product solves a problem, the audience will buy into your vision.

Sell them the vision of your product. Or better yet, show them the vision of your product. Show them what it can do for them even if it doesn’t exist yet.

4. Build a product

After you craft the idea, it’s time to make the product. This can be tough. The best software products are often the simplest.

I launched my product with just one feature. I knew I’d add more features later but the first feature had to be good enough to kickstart my growth and give me the confidence to keep going.

My product is called Gitinerary. It tracks the work of developers and creates real-time timeline reports.

The most difficult part of building a software product is starting.

Don’t overthink it, pick one feature, and just start.

5. Launch a product

Build quickly, launch quicker.

Timing is everything with software products. And the best time to launch a software product is right now.

I know people who have spent years working away on their products. And it makes me sick.

They want a perfect working version of their idea that they can take to customers and get feedback. They’re also scared of someone stealing their idea.

This is a big no-no for me.

If you spend years building your product and then launch it and the market says “no thanks,” then you’ve wasted your time.

6. Make the product better

Once you’ve launched and got some users, it’s time to make the product better.

Don’t focus too much on getting more users. Focus on getting feedback, making the product better, and improving the user experience.

When you make the product better you get more attention, more users, and more sales.

7. Figure out pricing

The last part is to decide how much the product will cost. A good start for this is to look at your competitors and see how much they’re charging.

I found from experience with ConvertKit and School of Code that pricing too low makes people assume the product is low quality. Pricing too high makes people think you’re greedy.

Try to find a sweet spot. Test out your price with a small group of users first. Make sure they’re willing to pay what you’re asking. If they do, increase the price and see if they’re willing to pay more.

Repeat this until you get into the sweet spot.

Final Words

Software products can help you escape a corporate job, build a second income and invest in yourself which leads to huge opportunities.

The best part, it’s not rocket science. Make sure you’re focused on the problem you solve for others.

That’s what makes a great software product.

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