Acquiring the Early Adopters Using Personal Connections: Things that Inspired My Product Growth Journey

As a product manager, I wanted to share my exciting journey of acquiring early adopters through personal connections. Picture this: a world of endless possibilities, where every step leads to uncovering the untapped potential of your product.

Why are early adopters so important, you ask? Because they serve as the catalysts for innovation, eagerly embracing new products and providing invaluable feedback. Their insights become the building blocks that shape and refine your creation.

But here’s the twist: early adopters come in all shapes and sizes, each with their own unique journey. It’s like embarking on a thrilling adventure, where you uncover the secrets of your target audience.

Understanding their needs and preferences is the secret key that unlocks the door to attracting the right early adopters.

Now, let me take you on a captivating ride. Just recently, I had a remarkable experience where someone personally approached me with an invitation to become one of their “esteemed early adopters”.

The process was nothing short of mesmerizing, as I witnessed firsthand the power of a well-crafted strategy.

The intriguing part is that the process that is fascinating to follow.

Kickstart the process by leveraging the power of LinkedIn

Do you believe that linkedin has serious power to help you finding your early adopter? Yes! LinkedIn is an invaluable resource for finding early adopters. It’s a great place to start your search as it provides access to a vast, diverse audience with whom you can engage and build relationships.

You can connect with potential customers and influencers by searching for people who have relevant interests or expertise in the area of your product or service. You can also create compelling messages by using hashtags and keywords related to the product or service.

Setelah Anda mengidentifikasi orang yang tepat untuk diajak berhubungan, mulailah percakapan dan bangunlah hubungan. Ajukan pertanyaan tentang bidang keahlian mereka dan dengarkan jawaban mereka dengan saksama. Setelah Anda menjalin hubungan yang baik, berikan penawaran eksklusif atau diskon sebagai imbalan atas umpan balik mereka terhadap produk atau layanan Anda. Hal ini akan membantu Anda mendapatkan umpan balik yang jujur dan berharga yang dapat digunakan untuk

Here’s my observation is this guy using the advance query of Linkedin to sort people based on the profile that match to his target adopters; people in the same industry about the product or people who are working as a product manager.

This is actually the things that this guy utilize the Linkedin by approaching me via linkedin connection and leaving a warm chat message and telling about what he is building right now. Such as casual conversation.

Maintain personal engagement via chat

Simply put, during the conversation about this guy, I asked each of us about our activities in product development and beyond. I discovered that when someone reached out to me first and introduced their product, it sparked my curiosity.

This made me realize the value of leveraging personal connections and referrals when approaching potential customers. Establishing relationships with people who have influence or a connection with target customers cannot be overstated.

Then, he told me that he is building an NLP product for Product Managers. In simple words, it piqued my interest. He keeps the conversation engaging and makes others curious about what he is doing.

I recall a specific interaction where he mentioned, “We have been working on something exciting for several weeks. I would love for you to be the first one to try our product.” Personally, this caught my attention and made me eager to learn more.

Release the first newsletter while continuing to engage on LinkedIn.

After waiting for four weeks, this guy finally reached out to me with their first product newsletter. But unfortunately the newsletter is on the promotions pool.

He messaged me, emphasizing the importance of ensuring it lands in the primary inbox. Then Okay! I found that.

Curiosity sparked as I discovered the enticing email newsletter. I can’t wait to dive in and learn more about what it has to offer. Nahh!! One early adopter successfully hooked!

Encourage interaction within the newsletter by asking early adopters to leave their opinions.

Another thing that piques my interest is how he informed me about the survey section in the newsletter and asked me to participate.

Why is this important?

Well, in my humble opinion, it presents a valuable opportunity to gather feedback and insights. It gives the early adopters a chance to give their opinions on how they feel about the product. This helps in understanding user needs and allows Product Managers to make informed decisions.

Thus, as a growth-focused product manager, I believe we should definitely consider including it to gather more specific information about our early adopter experience.

Personal thoughts

Remember, as an early adopter, you might fall into two possibilities. Either you find the product fits your needs and decide to wait for its official launch, or you realize it has no meaning or value to you, and you move on. Regardless, the way the person approached acquiring early adopters was interesting to me.

Using sorting and messaging features on LinkedIn profiles while maintaining interactions, I feel that the success rate of finding early adopters is increasing.

(Sorry, I cannot provide specific numbers, only assumptions that need to be proven. Lets prove it together lah!)

The ratio of early adopters may be small, but the key is effectiveness.

Reflecting on this experience, I realized that these strategies aligned well with my own product growth initiatives. Here’s a breakdown of the steps I plan to take:

1. Start by connecting with relevant individuals on LinkedIn who match the criteria of potential product users.
2. Initiate a friendly greeting and introduce our product.
3. Conduct an initial survey to gather insights and understand their needs better.
4. Create a user guide that provides a glimpse into our product’s features and benefits.
5. Develop a campaign to generate excitement and engage with potential early adopters.
6. Maintain ongoing engagement through regular updates and communication.
7. Consider conducting interviews, if necessary, to gain deeper insights and feedback.
8. Ask for feedback from early adopters to continuously improve our product.

After gathering feedback, it’s essential to prioritize and address any issues as quickly as possible. Additionally, expand our reach to potential early adopters in a wider space to further hook their interest. Finally, follow the feedback lifecycle to continue iterating and improving the product.

By sharing my experience, I hope to inspire and guide other product managers in their pursuit of acquiring early adopters.

At the end we can create innovative products that not only meet the needs of our target audience but also make a real difference. Let’s bring our ideas to life and make waves!