The Startup Product Manifesto is a set of principles and values identified by Cindy F. Solomon, that serve as a guide to the community of entrepreneurs, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders in creating successful and impactful products. The manifesto outlines a set of beliefs and practices that drive innovation, creativity, and customer-centricity to define product excellence.
Here are the key tenets of the Startup Product Manifesto:
1. Customer Focus
Customer needs and desires should drive all aspects of the product development process. Understanding the customer and their needs is critical to creating a product that meets their needs and provides real value.
2. Embrace Experimentation
Innovation and breakthroughs come from experimentation, iteration, and continuous learning. Embracing a culture of experimentation allows for rapid prototyping, testing, and successive iterative improvements that can contribute to improved product results and team performance.
3. Strive for Simplicity
Simplicity is key to creating products that are easy to use, easy to understand, and that solve real problems for customers. Simplicity in design, functionality, and messaging can help increase adoption, engagement, and loyalty, as well as expanded market relevance.
4. Agile Approach
The world is constantly changing, and products need to adapt quickly to achieve product/market fit. An agile approach to product development allows teams to respond quickly to changes in the market and customer needs.
5. Deliver Value
Products should always provide real value to the customer. Value can come in many forms, including saving time, money, or effort, solving a problem, or delivering an exceptional user experience.
6. Foster Collaboration
Creating great products requires a collaborative effort across all teams and stakeholders. Collaboration allows for better decision-making, faster iteration, and more creative solutions.
7. Embody Integrity
Products should be created with honesty, transparency, and a commitment to ethical standards. Products should never compromise the safety or well-being of users, the broader community or have an adverse ecological impact at any stage of the products life, including end of life destruction.
These principles represent the core values of the Startup Product Academy approach and are designed to guide increasing the likelihood of creating impactful, successful products that deliver real value to customers.
