With more intelligence available to assist us, it's unlikely that the amount of information around us will decrease, and the path to building mindshare is not getting easier.

To stand out of the noise and make users experience value proposition of your product has gone through various strategies. Freemium to free-trials, every strategy has something good to offer for the users. In freemium, users get basic features at no cost and can access richer functionality for a subscription fee. While these models are liberating for users to experience value without committing, it can be really daunting to even experience them. In this noisy world, the mindshare for freemium and free-trials is also in question. There is one thing that is common between all of them. They require users to use the product. It forces users to come out of their existing world to see if it is worth their time and money.

Imagine, I give your a free bank account to experience new way to manage your expenses and investments. Maybe you will be open to trying it out, but the point is you will feel more anxious trying it out as compared to trying the same new feature in your existing bank account.

Can you offer your product as a solution insight that fits within your users' existing worldview?

Let me dare to one step further, have you ever considered, making users experience the value of your solution without offering the product ?

That may sound like an oxymoron, but there are examples of successful product companies who have offered their users the experience of their value in their existing world, and that too independent of the product.

Basecamp has written about their framework about how they ship products using “Shape Up” that is based on the fundamental product insight they have built their project management software. Shape up solution can be applied independent of Basecamp. While it will be more effortless to apply it within Basecamp project management tool.

While some may call it out as a marketing activity to showcase their authority in the space, when such an offering is authentic and based on the real solution insight, it gives users a chance to apply the view of solving the problem in their existing world. Users do not need to change anything in their world to experience the first step of value.

This approach works well for "vitamin" problems, where the value realized is a long-term solution rather than a quick fix and there are strong habits around them.

For past few months, I have been working with a founder who is solving the problem of overwhelming communication at work that detracts us from creating value at work. While the beta version of the product is ready to use, we have taken an approach how can we share the solution insight in form of guiding principles that can be applied to their existing systems such as email and Slack threads. We are seeing users of this product-free version of value come back asking for the product with a much higher intent to pay and stick around. We do not need any freemium or free trials as they get the core insight of solution, around which the product has been built.