Perhaps the first challenge every scipreneur faces is defining exactly what they are going to build, their product.

I know it feels daunting, I have been there. Jumping out of the lab where you felt comfortable into the unknown world of making things other people will use and, hopefully, like.

There is always a very large temptation to outsource product development, but that's a strategic decisions that must be considered very carefully. What is important to understand, in any case, is that every good product is built around three main features: Design, Engineering, and Communication.

The three dimensions of the product need to be balanced to achieve the maximum desired output. It is extremely common to focus on features, giving the priority to engineering, engaging designers as a necessary polishing step and have marketing included as an afterthought.

For small companies, it is likely that responsibilities will be shared and people who do design are also doing engineering, and those who do engineering are busy doing customer interviews. Evermore reason to push forward the three pillars simultaneously.

It's easy to agree that engineering takes the spotlight, after all that's where the exciting things happen. The reality is that a great technique which is not usable will not be used. It is not just a matter of thinking that everything must be click and play, but of thinking about the flow the user follows, how it interacts with the hardware, the software. What are the requisites for sample preparation, illumination in the room where they work, etc.

Once we put the customer in their context, and understand what jobs they are performing, we can also understand what place our product takes, and how it should behave. Design is not just making a cute box around what engineering built, or adding a splash screen to our software. I understanding the context and delivering something that can be used.

At the same time, we need to be able to communicate our value proposition to the customers. And every time we try to do it we will learn something about what we are building. That is why communication is an integral part of product development. If we can't tell you what we sell, there's no chance you'll buy.

And part of the communication strategy relates back to how the product was designed and engineered. The role of marketing is not just to produce content, but to challenge the entire cycle. If the only possible message becomes: "we do the same as our competitors", there's little more we'll be able to achieve.

It is in this continuous iteration between engineering, design, and communication that good products are made.