- is the product responding to a REAL need?
- is the product creating a REAL need?
- is the product unique (not necessarily in functionality) in one way or another, and this uniqueness actually FELT/RECOGNIZED by the market?
- what are the reasons for which your product IS chosen, and not. are those in line with what you thought or are you perhaps discovering a new opportunity by acknowledging that reasons you though would justify selecting your product may not in fact be the ones the market you adress is receptive to.
- is there made a different use of your product than originally developed for? with what effect/result?
- what are the market alternatives?
- what are the locking factors?
- what is the cost of switching product? (both $ and effort)

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Chiara Mancardi Replied on Oct. 26, 2011

Hi Chris, I consider a locking factor any true or perceived element of the offer/ product/service such that your clients will have difficulties switching to alternatives: cost, effort, technical constraints, required developments, quality of service, timely delivery, etc...
A good example of a locking factor is found in "IT solutions", typically ERPs and the like: high investment, high training, high implementation costs (time/effort/budget/ change management) and switching to alternatives, even when the alternative offer may be better suited to the need, may be too expensive in the medium term in relation to the ROI still to be built on the original investment.
Another typical examples is in historical Telco incumbents: they have the only offer available, therefore you're constrained to accept their prices and/or poor service: you can be sure that as soon as competitor gets in the market, the clients will switch, regardless of the value of the alternative offer. Eventually some of them will get back after a while to the incumbent.
Determnining the locking factors of your offer will depend on your offer, the need it is addressing, the purchasing behaviours as well as the value chain of your clients and where in this value chain does your service plug in (the higher/ earlier in the value chain the more value you can potentially capture, provided you are after customer life time value and not one shot revenues).
Per sé locking factors are neither good nor bad, (though in some instances they can be very frustring for clients), but you have to be aware of those and make a clear decision as to what do you want to do with them in time (keep them, strenghten them, remove them)
Hope this clarifies what I meant.
Good luck with your product!

Chris Willis Replied on Oct. 26, 2011

So it's a factor that literally "locks them in" to a solution - whether applied to their existing state (pain of switching away from current systems) tying them to the new solution (creating a barrier to entry for future competitors). As our solution is an enhancement to an existing infrastructure, we would hope that we could take advantage to both aspects! Thank you for your original post and clarification. Bootstrapping a launch is not for the feint of heart!

Terrence O'Connor

Enterprise Security Architect

Posted on Oct. 21, 2011

Here are a few things I look at prior to doing the full product requirements analysis and use-cases.

What gap am I trying to fill with your product?
Can I quantify the current cost of that gap?
Do I currently have solutions that can fill this gap?
Will I be getting the largest benefit from this purchase? i.e. will this fill more than one gap for me?
What are my requirements for the product (evolving through solution research process)? I often find that my list of requirements grows dramatically as I being my research.
Does the benefit of this solution outweigh it's costs by a significant margin?
How many Vendors offer similar products?
Is this solution a commodity?

These are just a few to get you started.

Martha Guidry

Owner/President, The Rite Concept

Posted on Oct. 21, 2011

Often the typical SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, & threats) will identify what you need to find out. You research should be understanding this information for your product as well as the competitions. Secondarily, you need to figure out if there is "white space" for you product to carve out for a unique competitive advantage.