A product is a solution that serves a customer need.

This is the most concise and to the point description of ‘product’ I can come up with. In the below article I’d like to unpack it.

Defining a product always starts with its customers. Someone out there should have a need that the product can address or serve. Otherwise the product is more like a thing that no one wants to use. This also entails that if and how well a product serves a customer need is highly subjective. It is all revealed in the actions of the customer (or lack thereof).

The word customer also means that someone is willing to exchange someting for the use of the product. This can be money but also time, effort, information (all those ‘free’ products out there) an anything else a user is willing to expend in trade for the product’s use.

Just like the various ways a customer is willing to invest in the use of the product, the solution can also take many shapes and forms. The main two forms of products are goods and services. goods can be either physical or digital these days, while services often entail taking work out of a customers hands by physical labour or performing other tasks on behalf of the customer, without the transfer of ownership of a physical or digital good involved.In later additions I will add examples and links to other sources. Find this helpful? Let me know!

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