Ice cream

My wife and I have a favorite ice cream place.

At this ice cream place, they have signature flavors that are there constantly; all-time favorites that people are guaranteed to love.

Then, they have a selection of seasonal flavors that rotate every month.

My wife’s favorite is the goat cheese. However, they rarely have it, which means when they do we almost always get a pint to take home.

A pint of their ice cream costs $13.

$13. frigging. dollars.

That is insane. At the grocery store, even a high-end ice cream pint won’t cost more than $8.

However, it is my wife’s favorite, and we gladly shell out $13 and stash it in our freezer for emergencies.

It is our emergency ice cream. When we’re sick, or just had surgery, or had something blow up in our faces royally, we have that as our emergency.

We gladly and gleefully buy a pint every time it’s available. Even though it is the most expensive ice cream we ever buy.

We anticipate it and rush to the freezer when we see it. Then, my wife also gets a bowl of it in the store.

Today we spent like $30 just on this goat cheese ice cream, because she got some, I got some, and we got a pint.

Which is proof that if you make something people can’t resist, there is no cap on what you can charge for it.

There is no other ice cream that in that one’s class, even compared to all the other ice cream in that store.

My wife talks about that ice cream for weeks after we have it, and compares every other ice cream to it.

This is how you should be thinking about product design. Make a best in class product that is so good that people won’t care what they pay for it because they love it so much.

It means being completely obsessed with the user experience, taking risks that pay off, and being vigilant that what you’re making is so unique there is no competition, while familiar enough that people will take a chance on it.

If you aren’t good enough to put together a world-class product, then you should be putting your effort into honing your skills. If you don’t have enough money to put one together, then save more.

There are so many products flooding the market place, especially on the low end, that the easiest way to stand out is to put in the extra effort to make something great, and then charge a premium for it.