Launch Now, Perfect Later: How to Build, Test, and Continuously Improve Your Product

The Imperfect Product Playbook for Maximum Market Impact

A warm welcome to those who have just joined our solopreneurial journey of product creation.

We’re glad you’re here!

We've been running a series on the essentials of building a successful product. You can find the entire archive here.

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Last Week’s Newsletter Was Flawed — And That’s Actually a Good Thing

There was a major problem with last week's newsletter.

Did anyone spot it?

If you think it was that PS I added, you’re probably right.

I tried to teach you everything I know about creating a methodology, cramming in so much that it felt overwhelming—even to me the next morning.

But I left it unedited to make a point: there is no perfect product.

In product language, I shipped it.

And that’s because…

You Must Break the Frame of Fear: You Need to Stop Procrastinating and Start Shipping

We often play it too safe, sticking to "marketing rules":

• Your email sequence must have at least five touchpoints.

• Your landing page must follow a specific structure.

• Your launch must include a webinar, lead magnet, and upsell.

But who made these rules?

A majority of what marketers do is stuff they learned from outdated gurus.

You don't need 19 upsells.

You don't need a 13-question quiz funnel.

You don't need a 90-minute VSL.

• You simply need to have your heart in the right place…

• The guts to try something different..

• The soul to deliver it with no filter…

• And the grit to keep moving forward when things get hard.

See, my friend, there are no bad products, only dysfunctional products waiting to innovate. More on that in a bit.

I hope this encourages you to take action with what you've learned so far.

The 3 Core Components of a Winning Product

This week, rather than go business as usual with the rest of the series, I want to pause and focus on the three key components we've covered so far — Message, Market, and Methodology.

These are the most important elements of your product, and understanding how to use them correctly is crucial.

As you may have noticed, everything I've been sharing is part of a whole.

Nothing is completely independent of the rest.

That’s how you think in systems.

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Message - Market - Methodology

Let’s quickly revisit these three core components:

• Message: Your product's key message is the heart of what you do. It’s the promise you make to your audience—the solution to a key problem they face.

• Market: This is your audience—the people who need your product. As Seth Godin puts it, "Who is this for? Not what is their name or how tall they are, but what do they believe? What are they afraid of? Who are their friends? What does this remind them of?"

• Methodology: Your unique process or framework that delivers results to your market. It’s how you turn the promise of your message into a reality for your market.

Where Message and Market intersect, you gain a deep understanding of the Problems your market experiences. This is where Meaning is created (we’ll explore this in a future newsletter).

Where Message and Methodology intersect, you have your Promise—the outcome you guarantee to your clients.

Where Market and Methodology intersect, you get Process. After defining the problems you solve, the next step is to figure out how you will solve them.

Just to mention, try not to wait for the rest of this series before working on your product — go ahead and connect the three and get going with your product.

How Message, Market, and Methodology Create Bestselling Products

To help you understand how Message, Market, and Methodology work together, let’s look at a few popular examples:

1. James Clear: Atomic Habits and The Habits Academy

• Message: Atomic Habits delivers the powerful message that small, consistent changes in behavior can lead to remarkable results over time.

• Market: The primary market includes individuals seeking to improve their lives by developing better habits—professionals, entrepreneurs, athletes, and anyone interested in self-improvement and productivity.

• Methodology: The methodology is based on habit formation principles, broken down into four laws: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. The Habits Academy (online program) expands on the principles in the book, Atomic Habits, providing actionable strategies and daily tools for habit formation.

2. Seth Godin: Purple Cow

• Message: The core message is that in a crowded marketplace, the only way to succeed is to stand out. He argues that businesses need to be remarkable to capture attention and thrive.

• Market: Purple Cow targets marketers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders looking to differentiate their products or services in competitive markets.

• Methodology: The methodology involves identifying and leveraging what makes a product or service unique. Godin’s online course, The Marketing Seminar, expands on these ideas, teaching participants how to create and market remarkable products.

3. Marie Forleo: Everything is Figureoutable

• Message: The message is one of empowerment: No matter the challenge, there is always a way to overcome it.

• Market: The book primarily targets women, creatives, entrepreneurs, and anyone facing life challenges or pursuing personal growth.

• Methodology: Forleo’s methodology is rooted in practical optimism and action-oriented thinking. The book breaks down the concept into actionable steps, encouraging readers to identify limiting beliefs, challenge assumptions, and take consistent action.

Your Product Is a System — How to Optimize It for Success

Coming back to product imperfections, you must begin to see your product as a system.

Every system goes through moments of optimization—refining, adjusting, tweaking, tinkering, and modifying to ensure it works correctly.

So even though there are imperfect products, there is always room for optimization.

A basic system is made up of three parts: Input, Process, and Output.

• Your Message is the Input.

• Your process, framework - what I call Methodology is the Process.

• Your selected Market is the Output.

Two ideas to help you optimize and improve a system, particularly your product.

• When you release a product to the market, and there are no sales, work on the Message.

• When your clients are getting no results after purchasing your product, there's a faulty Methodology.

Imperfections Are Your Best Friend: Lessons from God’s First MVP

Permit me to take you a bit deeper into product imperfections using an interesting analogy — God’s MVP (Most Valuable Product) based on the creation story in Genesis.

• Adam (Version 1): The First Prototype
  Adam was God’s first version of humanity—a prototype, if you will. He was created with potential, but not perfection. In the same way, your initial product doesn’t need to be perfect; it just needs to do what you promise to do well enough to serve as a foundation.

  
  See, don’t hesitate to launch your product, even if it’s not flawless. The goal of your initial product is to gather real-world feedback. Focus on delivering core value, and let users help you identify areas for improvement.

• Eve (Beta Test of a New Version): Iteration and Testing
  Eve represents the next iteration—a beta test to refine the concept. The introduction of Eve was a step toward understanding how the “product” (humanity) could function in a more complex environment.

  
  After launching your MVP, gather feedback and iterate. Run beta tests with a small group of users to identify what works and what doesn’t. Use this data to improve your product before a wider release.

• Perfection Leads to Stagnation: The Risk of Over-Optimization
  The story of Adam and Eve also highlights that seeking perfection can lead to unintended consequences. Once a product reaches a state of "perfection," it can lose its momentum and relevance.

  
  Avoid getting stuck in the cycle of over-optimization. Instead of striving for a perfect product, focus on continuous improvement. Regularly release updates and new features that address your users' evolving needs.

Just as humanity continued to evolve and adapt after Genesis 3, your product can continue to grow through iterations and updates.

I’m going to repeat again: There is really no bad product, only a dysfunctional product waiting to innovate.

The dysfunction of the product is what gets to be fixed over the product's lifetime.

The market will no longer need your product if it ever gets to perfection.

This is why Apple releases new iPhone models—iPhone 6, 7, and now there’s 15.

The dysfunction of a lower version is the selling point of a new update.

I made a fatal mistake with “Uptimize Your Life,” but that gave way to creating “Lasting Transformation.”

The next perfect product is a whole new product, not just an improvement of the old one.

Questions to Think About

• What is the known imperfection of your product?

• How can that become a new product?

The Takeaway

Embrace the imperfections in your product.

They're not flaws; they're opportunities for innovation.

Don’t wait for perfection.

Don’t use ‘waiting for the rest of this series’ as an excuse for procrastination.

Ship your MVP, learn from the market, and keep iterating.

Your task for this week:

• Identify one "dysfunction" in your current product idea.

• Brainstorm how this dysfunction could lead to a new product idea.

• Ask your market (or potential market) about their biggest frustrations with existing solutions.

Remember, the next level of your product lies in its current market utility.

Embrace the journey of continuous improvement, and watch your product (and business) win.

I encourage you to take what you’ve learned so far and start applying it to your own product.

• Test Your Framework: Test your methodology with a small group of beta clients to gather feedback.

• Optimize Your System: Look at your product as a system—refine, adjust, tweak, and improve as necessary.

Live courageously,

Dayo Samuel

P.S. - Did you know that you can privately reply to this newsletter? Just reply to this email like any other email. They go straight to my inbox, and I read and reply to every one of them.

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