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# What Makes a Good product?
- URL: https://cje.io/2010/03/29/what-makes-a-good-product/
- Published: 2010-03-29T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-08T00:29:42.000Z
- Author: Casey Ellis
- Tags: Building

For my [money](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money?ref=cje.io "Money"), a good [business](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business?ref=cje.io "Business") idea needs the following:

1. A problem (a.k.a. a need)
2. For that problem to be common enough to create a market (i.e. there’s no point creating a product if you’re the only one who’ll ever use it – I find this is very rarely the case though)
3. For their to be a “[choke point](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke%5Fpoint?ref=cje.io "Choke point")” in the market (i.e. who is the common person that people with the problem I’m trying to address would be talking to?)
4. For there to be a way to quickly communicate the benefit of your idea (I don’t mean the vehicle by which you communicate, I mean the message. Can you succinctly sum up your [value proposition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value%5Fproposition?ref=cje.io "Value proposition") and get a potential customer onboard – The [Twitter](http://twitter.com/?ref=cje.io "Twitter") Challenge is to do it in less than 140 characters and not have it blend it with everything else.)

Anything else that I might have missed?