Mr. Ritesh Agarwal explains product designing into 3 parts: - **What? –** What is product designing? - **Why? –** Why is product designing important? - **How? –** How to design the product for business? Many times, you get a thought to start a business and you get into deep details of the business. You should try to take out some time before starting the business to properly design the product. ## **#1 MARKET RESEARCH** How you should do your market research? It is important to very quickly understand your customers and the eco-system. If you want to start your grocery store, then the distributors who will send you items, the person from whom who till take the store on rent, and your customers in the catchment area will be your primary stakeholders. If you want to start a restaurant, then the chefs, people who have restaurants, and those who will consume your food are your stakeholders. It is very important to identify your stakeholders before starting a business. **For example:** Mr. Ritesh Agarwal when started OYO Hotel business, he identified that his stakeholders are: - Owners of the hotel - Team of the hotel - Customers of the catchment area - He thought to learn from the stakeholders, so for 3 months/90 days he uses to daily meet a new hotel owner and learned new-new things. - From the early days of OYO, he started with a receptionist kind of work. - He also ensured to interact ask questions with all hotel team members, no matter they are of which department such as: - Front office staff - Housekeeping - Commis staff - Back of the house - Security guards - Such as he used to ask the receptionist, “Which type of customers come in this area”? She replied that “These 10 types of corporate customers come and 3 types of retail customers come.” - He used to ask the hotel owners, “What things give problems to you?” Owners use to reply, “I have the problem that we do not get work and I don’t have the clarity of business and not able to check at one place that how much is revenue is coming and how much not.” - He used to talk to customers also, and customers have the problem of high cost, lack of cleanliness, wi-fi does not work, and nobody is available to resolve the problems occurring in the room. - After seeing all the problems, Mr. Ritesh framed a proposition that included the following: - Clean rooms for customers - Rooms at a good price - OYO was started at Rs. 999 because Mr. Ritesh started his career by selling sim cards for telecom companies. He thought that the Rs. 999 plan of Airtel worked for them, so this time also it may work. - He was lucky that the customers liked the Rs 999 price point. It was important for that to provide clean rooms at a good price. They use to sell only the first room at Rs. 999 and further on rooms were sold Rs. 50 to 100 high priced which is also known as dynamic pricing. The last room was also rated Rs. 1500 to 1600, so the customer gets a safe and affordable price point. In this way, Mr. Ritesh learned so many basic things from his customers. He searched insights from partners’ conversation and provided them with revenue jump and technology for clarity. All this is done to enable them to properly manage the hotel. ## **#2 PRODUCT DESIGN** In the same way, whatever business you want to start, it may be a grocery store then do the following: - Meet the distributor in the grocery store - Meet the people working in the nearby stores - Meet the customers who purchase the grocery Suppose on meeting with a customer, he says, “I appreciate more those who deliver me the grocery and give me the choice out of 5 to 6 types.” What the grocery store owners and people working in the grocery store want? Distributors want timely payment and support in the selling of products that do not sell more and help in business growth. You can design your product by preparing these two things. You will be the number 1 grocery store in your area in terms of delivery and choice. You will enable timely payment for distributors and you will also take 1 to 2 pieces of the choices available with them. How you make a commercially profitable business with the two things? This can create an opportunity. Think about the product you want to launch and the problem you want to solve. **For example:** - Mr. Abhiraj Singh Bhal, founder, Urban Company. He started the first company Cinema Box without doing research. - He was not aware of the stakeholders of his product. Due to this, the company got shut down. - After that, he launched Urban Clap, which appeared as a super successful company. ## **#3 COMMON PLATFORM TO SOLVE STAKEHOLDERS PROBLEMS** Learn from his mistakes. Do not make the same mistake. Find out the stakeholders around you. **For example:** - Hotel owners and customers were stakeholders for OYO. - Mr. Ritesh Agarwal understood them very deeply. He worked as a receptionist and at the back of the house area. - He understood his consumers and partners. - He solved the problems and needs of all stakeholders through a common platform. - The present net worth of OYO is more than 10 billion dollars. You need to identify stakeholders of your business and solve the problems of all stakeholders through a common platform. Your business will also have a J-curve and you will also be profitable. You will also get good valuation and investors.