Tips on creating a new product line… (and the story behind how we created TRAX Clean+Inspect)
When you run a small business, you don’t necessarily have a team of 15 product and marketing folks in a back room reviewing market surveys, competitive analyses, and white boarding the newest idea (shocking, I know). So who comes up with the next best thing and how do you see it to fruition when you run lean?
In 2020, TRAX was growing rapidly and the demand for our first product (Smart Restrooms) was consistent…Realistically, during a health pandemic, everyone wanted their restrooms to be clean with the least amount of people involved in the process (enter in sensors and data!). Truthfully, we weren’t even contemplating adding to the product portfolio because what we had was in high demand. However, when you follow your gut and listen, great things happen.
While we were exhibiting at the ISSA conference, I was walking the floor downloading the world of health, hygiene, and janitorial services with our very own Patrick Trevino. Now it’s important to note that Patrick (our EVP) was fairly new to TRAX at the time and previously ran facility management services and operations at airports and stadiums. He started discussing the struggles he faced with technology- how siloed every system was he had to use, how cumbersome it was just to use daily, how difficult it was to train his staff on the tools and get a level of consistent data. He shared how at the end of his shift, he and his team would spend hours just exporting data from one tool to another and reassigning work manually that wasn’t able to be completed that day.
My brain lit on fire.
One lesson I was taught by my dad and carry it on to this day—- your customers are your best developers and its important to develop software that solves an actual problem… and here we are… walking the floor, seeing the market, and listening to an actual problem.
I left the booth (sorry team but when inspiration strikes, you run with it!) and told them to meet me at the bar for a glass of wine in an hour. I sat down and started scribbling the plan on a napkin and as much paper in that bar as I could find. We needed a software as a service tool that could be affordable and accessible for every type of business… one that flowed into our main enterprise platform…one that you could add features and sensors on to when you were ready…. One that combined cleaning WITH quality control so that you didn’t have to switch between two different systems.
The team met me and I just poured out my concept to them and then (This is important) I sat and listened. They were inspired because I was inspired and because of that, they saw the vision as well. And the best part? They had the industry experience and the intelligence to add to that vision so it became our vision. We sat and added to my little bar napkin for hours—new features, work flows, you name it. And that day our TRAX Clean+Inspect was born…. (yes, it was born at a bar… sorry! :) ).
So what are the tips and questions to ask yourself when you need to create a new product ?
1. Listen to problem statements given to you by people that use the products, work in the industry, or from your existing clients
2. Ensure that the product you are mapping out is actually solving that problem and not creating new one
3. Ask your team for opinions and feedback. You’ve hired the smart people around you, so utilize their brains
4. Ask yourself, how can you make your product different, unique, and stand out from others? What makes your product special? What feature separates you from the pack? What is it that will make a client buy it?
5. Lastly-Ask the question: if you were in their position, would you buy it? Be honest.
So get out there, create that new solution- you don’t need a team of 15 to do it for you. And having a glass or two of wine during the process doesn’t hurt either :)