Vitamins or Painkillers: An Overview for Product Managers
What makes a product truly indispensable to its users?
Is it the happiness and delight it brings to their lives, or the way it swoops in to solve their most pressing problems? This question lies at the heart of the Vitamin or Painkiller Framework- a concept every product manager should understand.
In this article, we’ll explore what makes a product a vitamin or a painkiller, their distinctions, the nuances in between as well as how to build a product that incorporates both qualities.
Understanding Vitamins & Painkillers
Let’s set the scene: You’re hiking in the wilderness, and suddenly, you twist your ankle. There are two things you need—a bandage, which is the essential thing to treat your injury (your painkiller) and water, which isn’t critical to solving the immediate problem but is vital to keep you hydrated and comfortable as you recover (your vitamin). While the bandage is the must-have in this scenario, having water can make a significant difference in your overall well-being.
Keeping the above example in mind, the Vitamin or Painkiller concept highlights that users typically view your product in one of two ways, depending on their use case—either as a painkiller (a must-have) or as a vitamin (a nice-to-have).
If your users see it as a Vitamin, it means they value the product for the way it improves their lives, brings joy and fulfillment, or helps them work toward their aspirations or goals. They may not feel its absence immediately if it’s gone, but over time, its ability to create habits or add delight becomes a key part of their experience. Vitamins are about improvement and enrichment, but they’re not something users rely on in critical moments.
For example, consider a meditation app like Calm. It’s a classic vitamin. it enhances mental well-being and offers benefits like reduced stress and improved focus. While users value its presence, they are unlikely to consider it an essential part of their daily survival.
On the other hand, if your users see your product as a Painkiller, you know it’s indispensable to them because it solves urgent, tangible problems. Painkillers are the go-to solutions in moments of stress, crisis, or pressing need. Users rely on them to address specific issues, and if they’re missing, the gap is felt immediately. Painkillers are practical and essential, often prioritized over other products because they deliver immediate, measurable value.
Take a financial fraud detection system for banks like SEON as an example. Such a system acts as a painkiller—it provides a critical safeguard against a clear and present danger. Without it, institutions risk losing money, reputation, and customer trust. Unlike vitamins, painkillers tend to have a sense of urgency and necessity baked into their core value.
What Makes a Product a Vitamin or a Painkiller?
Can Your Product Be Both a Painkiller and Vitamin?
The answer is Yes! Even though the distinction between vitamins and painkillers is often seen as binary, in reality, the most successful products often blend these two qualities.
They start as one—either a painkiller addressing immediate needs or a vitamin offering aspirational value—and evolve over time to incorporate the strengths of the other.
This ability to transition and balance both qualities is key because relying solely on one can limit a product's success—painkillers risk being seen as purely functional, while vitamins can struggle to gain traction if they don’t address tangible problems.
How Painkillers Can Evolve into Vitamins
A product that begins as a painkiller, solving critical or urgent problems, can expand to include features that improve the user experience. This transformation turns the product into something users not only need but enjoy using. By adding elements of personalization, gamification or aspirational value, these products build stickiness, loyalty, and differentiation in competitive markets.
Examples:
Google Maps began as a painkiller, solving navigation challenges, but evolved by adding rich visuals like Street View, 3D maps, and real-time traffic data to improve usability and engagement.
Netflix started as a painkiller by offering an online DVD rental service that solved the problem of store visits. It later became a vitamin by introducing personalized recommendations and curated content for each user.
How Vitamins Can Evolve into Painkillers
A Vitamin product that initially provides delight or aspirational value can evolve by addressing urgent, practical problems or focusing on niche user needs or industry-specific demands, becoming indispensable to users. This transition ensures broader adoption, as it shifts the product from "nice-to-have" to "must-have," increasing its overall value proposition.
Examples :
Initially a fun photo-sharing app , Instagram evolved into a painkiller for businesses and creators by introducing analytics, professional accounts, and tools like sponsored ads, making it indispensable for marketing and revenue generation.
Canva began as a simple and fun design tool for casual users but evolved into a painkiller for businesses and professionals by introducing collaboration features, brand kits, and templates tailored to corporate needs, addressing the pain point of creating cohesive, branded content quickly.
Building a Product with Painkiller and Vitamin Qualities
By blending both qualities, a product becomes indispensable, solving pressing problems while keeping users coming back for more. Striking this balance ensures your product is not only essential but also loved, creating sustained value and growth.
There are 6 Steps to achieve this;
1. Identify Core User Pain Points (Start with the Painkiller)
Conduct User Research: Use interviews, surveys and analytics to understand the most pressing challenges users face. Look for inefficiencies, frustrations, or unmet needs.
Prioritize Problems: Focus on the pain points that align with your business goals and have a clear, large market demand.
Define the Must-Have Features: Develop the core functionality that directly addresses these problems. These features should be simple, effective and offer immediate value.
Example: Airbnb began by solving the pain point of finding affordable short-term accommodations in a market dominated by expensive hotels.
2. Build the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as a Painkiller
Focus on launching a solution that solves a specific, critical problem first.
Test the MVP with early adopters to validate that the painkiller functionality works effectively.
Collect feedback on the core problem-solving capability before adding enhancements.
Example: Slack initially focused solely on improving team communication, a critical pain point. The vitamin-like integrations, emojis and reactions were added later to improve engagement.
3. Add Delightful, Differentiating Features (Incorporate Vitamins)
After addressing core needs, identify opportunities to delight users and create a unique experience.
Add features that are aspirational, fun, or engaging, ensuring they align with the product’s core value proposition.
Consider elements like personalization, gamification, or design aesthetics to turn your product into a "nice-to-have" and a "must-have."
Example: Duolingo started as a painkiller (helping users learn a new language) and added vitamin-like features such as gamified lessons, streaks, and leaderboards to make learning enjoyable.
4. Test and Iterate Continuously
Measure Success of the Painkiller: Track metrics like user retention, problem resolution rates, and adoption speed to ensure your product solves the core pain point.
Refine the Vitamins: Use feedback to improve and tailor the vitamin features for maximum engagement. Observe how users interact with aspirational features and tweak them for relevance.
5. Market both the Painkiller and Vitamin Qualities
Highlight how your product solves essential problems (painkiller) in your core messaging. For vitamins, use marketing to show how the product adds value beyond the basics, improving quality of life or providing enjoyment.
Ensure that users understand both the practical and aspirational benefits of using your product.
Example: Apple markets the iPhone as a practical solution (painkiller) for communication, productivity, and security, while simultaneously highlighting its aspirational design, creativity tools, and premium experience (vitamins).
6. Evolve the Product Based on Lifecycle Needs
In the early stages, focus more on painkiller aspects to ensure adoption and solve critical needs.
As the product matures, invest more in vitamin-like enhancements to maintain loyalty and differentiation.
Ensure the balance evolves as user needs and market conditions change.
Example: Spotify started as a painkiller for accessing music on-demand but continuously added vitamins like personalized playlists, AI Djs, Discover Weekly etc to build emotional engagement and retain users.
Vitamins and painkillers serve different roles, but the most impactful products strike a balance between the two. Painkillers address immediate, pressing needs, ensuring quick adoption and delivering tangible value from day one. Vitamins elevate the experience, cultivating loyalty and long-term engagement. The strongest products often start as painkillers, solving urgent problems, and evolve by adding vitamin-like features that users enjoy and return to repeatedly.
For product managers, the focus should be on deeply understanding your audience—what problems they need solved and what goals they aspire to achieve. Build intentionally: tackle critical challenges first, then weave in features that delight and inspire, creating a product people not only depend on but truly value ensuring sustained success.