A technically impressive product can still be difficult to sell if customers cannot see why it matters to them. You may understand the work behind every feature while a buyer sees only a vague category or a complicated explanation.
In this Designli Academy discussion, Carlos uses an image from The Little Prince to explain this gap. The point is to revisit how you communicate the value of the product you already have, starting with what the customer perceives rather than what you know you built.
What you'll learn.
- The meaning a founder sees in a product can be very different from the meaning customers see.
- Technical complexity and the features you are proudest of do not automatically communicate customer value.
- Ask customers about the outcomes they care about, then explain the product in terms they can understand.
Understand why your customer sees a hat.
In the book’s opening story, a drawing that looks like a hat to adults is actually a snake that has swallowed an elephant. The shape is visible to everyone, but the meaning the artist intends is hidden from the audience.
The same gap can appear in software positioning. The founder sees the full product, including the important capabilities within it. A client or prospect sees something much simpler and misses that value. Repeating the original explanation does not establish that the customer has understood it.
The analogy asks you to compare the product you believe you are presenting with the product the customer believes they are being shown. That difference is the starting point for improving the message.
Separate technical pride from a useful customer explanation.
Founders often promote the features they are most proud of: the hardest part to build, an advanced technical capability, a vision statement or everything the product can do at once. Those choices reflect the founder’s experience of building it. They may not answer the buyer’s immediate question about its value.
Carlos describes working with a client on a complex AI solution that included knowledge graphs. The technology was impressive, but the explanation was incomprehensible to the customer. People could not understand where the value was.
That example illustrates a communication problem, not a reason to remove sophisticated technology. The technical capability needs an explanation that connects it to something the customer wants to accomplish.
Ask what outcome the customer cares about.
Instead of assuming which message will resonate, ask customers what matters to them. Carlos names several kinds of value they may be seeking: an immediate outcome, less risk, saved time, an effect on revenue or relief from a pain point.
These are starting points for a conversation, rather than benefits to claim automatically. Your product’s message needs to reflect the outcome it can actually support and the outcome that particular customer values. A long list of features cannot make that choice for you.
- What result is the customer trying to achieve?
- What risk or difficulty are they trying to reduce?
- Where would saved time or a change in revenue matter to them?
Make the value already inside your product easier to see.
The discussion sits within current product expansion: looking for more value in the solution you already offer. Clearer communication is part of that work. Before concluding that you need another capability, examine whether people understand the useful capabilities already present.
To apply the idea, compare your current product explanation with the language customers use when describing their problem. Look for the point where the explanation becomes technical, broad or difficult to connect to a result. Rework that passage around an outcome you have actually heard them ask for. This is a practical application of the customer-first approach in the discussion.
Make the intrinsic value of the product intelligible to the people you want to serve. The goal is for the customer to understand the useful thing inside the explanation, rather than walking away with a simpler but incomplete picture of what you built.
