Creating products by asking the right questions | Weekly meetup - Built in Notts | Frances Brown

Frances from Nightingale Design Research explores how successful products are built by asking the right questions early. Drawing on real-world experience working with startups, scaleups, large organisations, and government departments, this session breaks down why many products fail before they ever reach the market. Using clear examples including Lego’s near-bankruptcy and recovery through design research, Frances explains how evidence-based decision making, user research, and iteration reduce risk and save time, money, and effort. This talk is especially valuable for founders, product managers, designers, and anyone building new products or services who wants to avoid costly assumptions and focus on what really works.

What you’ll learn

What makes a product idea strong enough to succeed in the market?

Why do so many startups fail because of weak product ideas?

What questions should founders ask before building a product?

How do you identify a real customer need rather than an assumption?

How do you know if people will actually pay to solve a problem?

How can market research help you understand competition and saturation?

What does space in the market really mean for new products?

How do technical complexity and feasibility affect product success?

How do you assess whether a product is too complex for its value?

What makes a business model viable at an early stage?

How can user research prevent wasted time and development costs?

What types of research methods work best at different stages of product development?

When should you use interviews, surveys, focus groups, or prototype testing?

Why are hypothetical questions unreliable in user research?

How do you ask better research questions that reflect real user behaviour?

How do you decide what research is worth doing before moving forward?

Why is rejecting ideas an essential part of the design process?

What are the warning signs that a product idea should pivot or be abandoned?

Why is simplicity often the key to building successful products?

How does iteration help teams refine ideas and reduce risk over time?

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