How can you balance desirability, feasibility, and viability in product design thinking?

1 What is desirability?

Desirability is the degree to which your product idea appeals to your target customers and solves their problems or fulfills their desires. It is about understanding your customers' needs, motivations, preferences, and behaviors, and designing a product that offers them value and satisfaction. To assess desirability, you need to conduct user research, such as interviews, surveys, observations, or personas, and test your product assumptions and prototypes with real or potential customers, using methods such as user testing, feedback sessions, or A/B testing.

2 What is feasibility?

Feasibility is the degree to which your product idea can be realized with the available resources, technologies, skills, and capabilities. It is about finding the best way to build and deliver your product, and overcoming any technical, operational, or logistical challenges. To assess feasibility, you need to conduct technical research, such as experiments, simulations, or proof of concepts, and test your product functionality and performance with your development team, using methods such as prototyping, testing, or debugging.

3 What is viability?

Viability is the degree to which your product idea can generate revenue, profit, or social impact, and sustain itself in the market. It is about finding the right business model, pricing strategy, distribution channel, and marketing plan for your product, and measuring its financial and social outcomes. To assess viability, you need to conduct market research, such as analysis, benchmarking, or forecasting, and test your product value proposition and fit with your stakeholders, using methods such as validation, evaluation, or iteration.

4 How to balance desirability, feasibility, and viability?

Balancing desirability, feasibility, and viability is not a linear or sequential process, but a dynamic and iterative one. You need to constantly explore, experiment, and evaluate your product ideas along these dimensions, and make trade-offs and adjustments as you learn from your research and testing. You also need to align your product vision and goals with your customer needs and expectations, your technical capabilities and constraints, and your market opportunities and risks. To balance desirability, feasibility, and viability, you can use tools and frameworks such as the Lean Canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas, or the Product-Market Fit Canvas, which help you map out and validate your product assumptions and hypotheses along these dimensions.

5 How to improve desirability, feasibility, and viability?

Improving desirability, feasibility, and viability is not a one-time or final task, but a continuous and ongoing one. You need to constantly monitor, measure, and improve your product performance and quality along these dimensions, and seek feedback and input from your customers, team, and stakeholders. You also need to embrace change and uncertainty, and be ready to pivot or adapt your product idea as you discover new insights, opportunities, or challenges. To improve desirability, feasibility, and viability, you can use tools and methods such as the Lean Startup, the Design Sprint, or the Agile Scrum, which help you build, test, and learn from your product iterations and experiments along these dimensions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?