What’s the need for ICP?
Imagine that you are starting up with a new venture that is geared towards manufacturing candies. The candies that are in your mind fulfil a niche segment which no one has thought of yet. You are upbeat about what is to come. The investors have yet to be onboarded but you have some early capital that has been brought with the help of friends and family. Now, it’s the time to produce the “candies” you had in your mind for so long.
You manufacture the sample and go to every neighbourhood shop offering samples and asking for shelf space. But to your surprise, no one seems interested. The shops already have stacked shelves with existing products and the shopkeeper is not interested in cluttering their already filled candy cabinets. You think how could have this happened to you? You think that the candies are high quality, sweet and well-liked by the core group of friends and family, yet when you take them to sell, no one is interested in buying them?
While reviewing everyone said that these candies deserve to be on every store shelve. What could you have missed?
The problem that has skipped your mind is “ICP”. ICP is Ideal Customer Profile, which essentially means the ideal customer group that will buy your candy, day after day and year after year. The idea behind ICP is to have a picture of your ideal customer in your mind while creating the product. The ICP should prompt questions like:
- Who is going to buy my product?
- What does my ICP look like?
- Does my ICP have the means and desire to purchase my Candy?
- What is the problem faced by my ICP that my product is going to solve?
- How will I market my Candy to my ICP?
In the start, your idea of that group will be vague but the objective is to evolve the ICP and keep evolving it as the product grows in volume and complexity. As you will get more information, your ICP will evolve on its own. The ICP should be specific and descriptive.
How do you define “ICP”?
- ICP is descriptive
- ICP is specific
- Product should solve a critical ICP problem. If the problem that you intend to solve is irrelevant to the ICP then rethink the ICP.
- Look at the ICP from different angles. For the “Candy” example, some of the perspectives are:
- Geography
- Price Point
- Customer Age
- Customer Gender
- Decision Maker
- Buying Process
- Selling Mode (Online/Offline)
- ICP should be rooted in reality
- While starting the best idea is to talk to your customers or instead make yourself the ideal customer and think from their perspective
- Use multiple data points while defining ICP
- Update ICP as you get new information
How often should the “ICP” be updated?
The ICP is intended to make you reach a product market fit. As the product matures the ICP is bound to change. However, not every data point or information is warranted for a change in the ICP. There has to be a balance between the short-term goals (data in the form of product reviews, marketing information and customer response) and the long-term vision (How you want the brand to grow?).
Conclusion
“ICP” is important not only from the perspective of Product Management but also from various other related facets such as “Marketing”, “Sales” and “Product Quality”. Knowing and understanding your customers will go a long way in creating delightful products and services.