What Stage of Product Design Are You In?

Startups and the Mystical Journey of Product Design

Let’s talk about products.

No, not the type you see on supermarket shelves—though, to be honest, if your startup idea ends up in the detergent aisle, you might still be onto something! We’re diving into product design for startups, the elusive art of turning a half-baked idea into something people will actually pay for. And yes, we’re going to touch on all the fancy startup lingo like product-market fit, MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and other terms investors throw at you while eyeing your pitch deck like a hawk.

Now, let’s get real for a second. With headlines full of heavily funded Kenyan startups going under—take the recent crash of some local darlings—it’s clear that even money can’t save you if you’ve skipped a few critical steps in the product design journey. Last year alone, 75% of startups in Kenya didn’t make it past their third year, despite raking in millions of dollars in funding. So, where did they go wrong? Well, let’s walk through this rollercoaster.

The Birth of the Product – MVP (Not Most Valuable Player)

In startup world, you don’t just dive in with your magnum opus of a product. That’s a great way to burn through your funding before you even get to product-market fit. Instead, you start small with an MVP—the Minimum Viable Product. Think of it like the ugliest prototype you can build that still solves a core problem for your target market.

It’s not pretty, but it’s functional. It’s like showing up to a first date in Crocs—not ideal, but hey, if your personality (or product) shines through, you might still have a shot. Take Safaricom's M-Pesa for instance. Their initial product wasn’t packed with all the bells and whistles; it just allowed people to send money via SMS. Fast forward to today, and M-Pesa is now integrated into practically every financial aspect of life in Kenya. That, my friends, is the beauty of starting with an MVP and iterating based on feedback.

Product-Market Fit – The “Aha!” Moment

Now, here’s where many startups hit a wall. You’ve built your MVP, but that doesn’t mean you can pop the champagne just yet. Product-market fit is when your product clicks with a market in such a way that people start loving it, paying for it, and—gasp!—telling others about it. Achieving this is like discovering that sweet spot on a see-saw where you’re perfectly balanced. Miss it, and you’re either sinking or flying off into oblivion.

The catch? You don’t get to decide when you’ve reached product-market fit; your customers do. A classic example is Twiga Foods. Before finding their niche in supply chain logistics for fresh produce, they tried a couple of business models that just didn’t stick. They kept tweaking, testing, and pivoting until they cracked the code on making their platform work for farmers and vendors alike. Without product-market fit, you’ll be that startup with a brilliant product nobody wants.

Scaling Without a Solid Foundation – The Funding Trap

Ah, scaling—every founder’s dream, right? But here’s the thing: scaling before achieving product-market fit is like slapping a turbo engine on a bike with square wheels. Sure, you might go fast, but you’ll crash even faster. Let’s look at the recent trend in Kenya, where several well-funded startups (names withheld to protect the innocent—or maybe not-so-innocent) raised $10+ million rounds, only to collapse within a year.

Money can buy you time, but it won’t buy you success if the underlying product doesn’t solve a real problem. One famous example outside Kenya is Quibi, a startup that raised $1.75 billion (yes, with a "B") and flopped within six months because—surprise!—no one wanted what they were selling. Scaling too early can mask the fundamental issues with your product, and when the funding well dries up, reality hits like a bus.

Iterating and Listening – The Hard Truth

One of the hardest pills for any startup founder to swallow is that your first idea might not be “the one.” Your MVP will likely need tweaks, your product-market fit might take time to find, and your customers might tell you things you don’t want to hear. But if you’re not listening to your users and iterating based on their feedback, well, you're just building in a vacuum.

Look at Sendy, a Kenyan logistics startup that started as a peer-to-peer delivery service but shifted focus after realizing that businesses had a much greater need for their platform. By pivoting, they not only survived but thrived. Sometimes, it’s not about stubbornly sticking to the original vision, but about evolving your product until it resonates with your market.

Burn Rate – A Startup’s Worst Frenemy

Let’s not forget about burn rate, the rate at which your startup is spending its cash reserves. Having a high burn rate might make you feel like a high-roller, but unless you have revenue to back it up, you’re living on borrowed time. Kenya has seen its share of startups that scaled too quickly without managing their burn rate, and the results weren’t pretty.

Pro tip: keep an eye on your runway (how many months of cash you have left). Even Uber had to cut back and refocus on profitability after spending billions of dollars on expansion. In Kenya, startups often think that the next funding round will save them from a high burn rate, but if you’re not profitable—or at least close to it—investors might not be so keen to throw you another lifeline.

The Not-So-Grand Finale – When the Party Ends Early

So, what happens when you skip some of these crucial stages? Well, we’ve seen enough Kenyan startups raise millions, hire teams, and get press coverage, only to shut down months later. Just because your product is built doesn’t mean it will be bought, and just because you have funding doesn’t mean you have forever.

If you’re in this game, remember: building a product isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning. Understand your market, validate your idea early, and most importantly, listen to your customers. If you focus too much on scaling and not enough on your foundation, you’ll find yourself starring in one of those “heavily funded startup fails” articles. Let’s not meet there.