In the previous blogs, I discussed a framework that helps
build product hypotheses and offers an approach to testing the hypotheses in
the market to make key product decisions with a goal to create new purchase
criteria to gain adoption. In the process, as product evolves, product leaders need
to make strategic Go-To-Market (GTM) choices, and assess its implications. This
is critical for the success of the product. Product leaders must not look at
the future by naïve extension of the past; it’s essential that due rigor is
applied in thinking thru GTM plans. In addition, product leaders must tinker
the GTM plans as they execute on the strategic bets they make to fine tune it.
It’s very easy to slip into rear view driving mode vs applying needed rigor to
create a successful GTM plans. Product leaders must take a holistic look at the
GTM plans vs cherry-picking the confirmatory examples often motivated by the
idea that ‘the competition is also doing it’.
Here are some pitfalls and opportunities that are worth
considering:
Avoid GTM planning
based on rear view driving
There is a temptation to decide on GTM plans based on what
others are doing in the market. Confirmed biases led by a rear view driving
mentality limits one’s ability to see the changing landscape. It’s often easy to copy GTM approach of
another player in the market particularly when you lose the sight of the new
(and, hopefully, different) purchase criteria you are creating. Absence of
diligence in understanding the value of new purchase criteria that you are
creating will lead to Halo Effect driven by a narrative of what we see others
are doing in the market. This leads to a temptation to alter our strategy
without thinking thru if that’s the right thing to do or not. As a result
unknowingly we shift to a new strategic bet without a plan to win. Product positioning
and the overall GTM plan gets out of synch with what product is originally
designed to do. So, how do we avoid this – Ask yourself if you still remember
what purchase criteria you are trying to enable? How does the GTM plan support
that goal? It’s easy to substitute these questions with easier ones, so avoid
that temptation!J
Identify the customer
You always start with the purchase criteria you are creating
for a set of target customers. Having
said that as GTM plans evolve, there is a very high probability to drift from
the core product strategy. In my opinion, this is a result of not applying due
diligence to GTM plans.
See more on this topic in one of my earlier blogs http://20-milesmarch.blogspot.com/2014/01/leverage-lean-framework-and-blue-ocean.html.
Understanding which buyer group would benefit from the new
purchase criteria is super critical. Here
is a list of leading questions that must be answered as a part of GTM planning
– What is the context in which your product or service is used? What happens
before, during and after? Can you identify the pain points? How does your
product eliminate these pain points?
Absence of this could lead to a confused GTM plan and
mismanaged product investment which attempts to address partial needs for every
possible customer segment, enterprise, consumer, federal and the rest. GTM plan needs to be in alignment with the
product strategy which is about enabling new purchase criteria.
Explore platform vs
feature
Products evolve as we test purchase criteria in the market. In
the process, product leaders must assess whether their product is enabling a
set of complementary products or it is addressing a specific problem. GTM plans
for a platform requires product leaders to think more in terms of an ecosystem
that they need to enable to deliver value around their platform. Finding a
right balance between enhancing platform to enable an ecosystem vs building
complementary product that may leverage the platform is crucial. Doing both is
difficult and it may result into conflicting strategies with the ecosystem
which can, otherwise, help scale your business if your offering is a platform.
Use
Wide-angle lens to develop GTM plan
Product leaders must see the whole playing field. Here is
a quick check-list of obvious items that product leaders must process as the
product hypotheses are tested in the market:
- Business Model. How does the product generate revenue? Is Freemium a potential business model?
- Ecosystem. How to enable your value chain and partners to make your offering distinctive?
- Service. How do you service customers?
- Channel. How do you deliver your offering to customers?
- Customer experience. How do you create an integrated experience?
- Brand. How do you express your value to customers?
Process
feedback from GTM plans
Feedback from GTM plans, based on a set of metrics (Blog:
http://20-milesmarch.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html) is helpful
in steering product strategy and to make persevere and pivot decisions. It’s important that as a product leader one balances
the temptation to either pivot now or do not pivot at all based on early
feedback. There are several examples which support either of the extreme
positions that product leaders took in the past. Having said that in addition to a ‘gut feel’
one should carefully go back and assess the purchase criteria by looking at
‘why’ it makes sense, ‘how’ your product delivers value and ‘what’ it does to
deliver the stated value.
It’s important to improve the hit rate of the strategic GTM
choices that product leaders make, and the best way to do that would be to
record answers to these questions, and then compare against real inputs to make
persevere or pivot decisions. Simple art
of going back and reassessing as to why a particular bet was made in the first
place is fading away in the spirit of moving at the lightning speed. Speed indeed is life when it’s guided by a logical
rudder :-).
Successful product leaders apply this rigor to 'what works'
and 'what does not to make strategic choices and assess the GTM bets
they make.
