I remember when I first started writing. It was on Facebook. My vision was never to build a career. I just wanted to share ideas. People liked my posts. Some even shared them. And naturally, I thought the next step was monetisation.
So, I did what every “smart” person on the internet seemed to be doing. I wrote a book; actually, three of them.
There’s the guy I respect because of the results he had. While reading one of his posts, he said, “Package your Facebook posts into a book and sell it!” This sounded like a solid idea, right? People already liked my content; surely, they’d pay for it too.
Did they buy? Yes. But not much. If I remember correctly, I sold fewer than 50 copies, and only after dropping the price. Looking back now, I realise I was asking the wrong question. Like many product founders, I was focused on what to build, not why or for whom.
That reflection came years later, after I began Product Management training, starting with a New Product Development and Management Fundamentals course at Tenth Code Media, Lekki. It was there that I finally understood why my idea of writing a book wasn’t what I ought to have started with.
It wasn’t about talent or effort. It was about the approach. That’s also why many startups fail.
Further training in Product Management has taught me that workflow is the real foundation of every great product. Workflow is simply the sequence of steps a user takes to get a job done, their path from problem to resolution. When you understand that path deeply, you don’t guess what to build. The product reveals itself.
Everything is a Workflow
If you’re a marketer, your workflow might begin with identifying a customer problem, then collaborating with product managers, writing copy, reviewing designs, planning a campaign, and finally publishing it. Each step represents effort, context-switching, and, if we’re honest, some pain.
Now, imagine you’re building a product for that marketer. The key is to study that flow and ask: Where is the friction? What still feels like hard work for a customer? What could be done 3× faster, cheaper, or better?
That’s where real opportunity lives. That’s where products that truly work are developed. Everything, from marketing to sales, from searching the web to writing emails, is a workflow. The products we love most remove the “inconvenience or pain” from these workflows.
Core Problems Live Inside Workflows
You can’t solve everything. Some problems are easy to solve, but they may not be painful enough to drive change. The important ones are core needs or issues. They’re sore, obvious, and happen repeatedly.
Think about the marketer again. Maybe writing a compelling campaign message takes three weeks. A decade ago, it took three months, and that was acceptable. But now, with AI, it can be done in five minutes. What used to be acceptable now feels painfully slow.
So, when you identify a workflow, look for these irritation points. Those are the areas where “fine” has quietly become “unbearable.” That’s your real problem.
Why Do People Struggle With Change?
Humans are creatures of habit. Even when a new tool promises to make life easier, changing can be difficult. We’ve learned the old system; it’s familiar. So, if your product only makes things slightly better, say, 3 months down to 2.5, people won’t bother to change. The effort to learn something new outweighs the benefit.
That’s why when developing your product, it must deliver a 3× benefit.
- Three times faster.
- Three times cheaper.
- Three times more powerful.
That’s the point where change feels worthwhile.
Discovery vs. Listening
There are two parts to understanding your customer:
Discovery
This is what you do before creating the product. You dive deep into your customer’s head, walk through their workflow, and observe where frustration lives.
Back then, I didn’t do that. I didn’t ask what readers actually needed from my posts. I assumed that because people liked and shared them, they’d automatically want to buy a book. I never stopped to think about: how they consumed my content, when, and why.
Maybe what they needed wasn’t a book at all, but consistency, connection, or conversation. That’s the danger of skipping discovery: you end up building from excitement, not insight.
Listening
This comes after you launch. You pay attention to feedback, watch how people use your product, and listen to what they say (and don’t say).
When I released my books, I thought I was listening. I was checking comments and counting likes. But I wasn’t really listening. I missed what their silence was saying: that while they loved my posts, the book didn’t fit into their daily rhythm.
True listening isn’t about collecting praise; it’s about noticing behaviour. It’s about asking, “How are people actually using what I built?”
Most people mix these up. They build too early, or they stop listening too soon. But both are vital. Discovery helps you build the right thing; listening helps you make it better.
Add Creativity
Here’s a truth: customer insight alone won’t make your product exciting. If you only listen to customers, you’ll build products that don’t cause change. Creativity is what transforms insight into a product that solves a real problem.
The best products emerge where customer insight meets your creativity. You understand the pain, but you also think differently about how to remove it.
That’s how Apple went from selling computers to reinventing how we interact with technology. It’s not enough to know the workflow. You have to reimagine it.
A Simple Rule for Building Viable Products
- Pick one workflow and one customer. Don’t say “marketers”; say “B2B marketers who run email campaigns weekly.”
- Map their workflow end-to-end. Find the moments where they experience pain.
- Quantify the pain: time lost, money wasted, or energy drained.
- Create a 3× solution for one of those pain points.
- Build a small, payable version. If people won’t pay even a small amount, the problem is not painful enough.
- Listen, Iterate, and Refine.
- Once users love it, make it easier for buyers to adopt at scale.
That’s how you build something people will actually pay for.
Bringing it back home
When I look back at my early writing journey, I realise I had the passion, but not the workflow insight. People weren’t asking for a book; they were asking for a connection — to learn, to think, to grow, in real time. My workflow (writing, posting, engaging) worked better as a conversation, not as a packaged product.
So, the next time you’re tempted to ask, “Should I build this?” or “Should I write that?” — pause. Ask instead: “Does this improve the customer’s workflow?” If it does, you’re on the right path. If it doesn’t, you might just end up like me: selling less than 50 quantities of something you thought everyone wanted. 😄
But the lesson? Priceless. Because once you understand workflows, you understand people. And when you understand people, you can build anything.
