There are countless pitfalls to watch out for when trying to build a successful product business. Some are obvious, while others most certainly are not. One of the least obvious pitfalls to watch out for is something called the capability trap. Have you ever found yourself trying a product strategy that seemed to work previously…
In the world of building product businesses, being an expert is a disadvantage. If you consider yourself an expert in your craft, think long and hard about your answer to the next question. When was the last time you were wrong? If it’s been awhile, then you may be experiencing a symptom of a larger…
Many product businesses are born from ideas NOT problems. This is one of the reasons why the vast majority (9 out of 10) of product businesses fail. Why does this matter? It’s simple – if you start with an idea, it may not solve a problem and if your product business doesn’t solve a problem then…
Polaroid was a very early success story of high-tech in America. When it came to photography, Polaroid developed a dramatically different experience from the next best option at the time, which included taking photos and storing them on reels of film only for them to be developed days or weeks later. With a Polaroid camera,…
Less than two months before the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, the Ukrainian Minister of Power proclaimed that odds of such an event happening were 1 in 10,000. Experts believed that such an event wasn’t possible. Clearly they were wrong. To build a successful product business, you must become an expert in all things industry related. …
You are in charge of developing a new type of car. The project will cost $5 million dollars to develop. After you’ve spent $4 million dollars and made 80% of the progress, news comes out that a better car has just been brought to market, rendering your car all but obsolete. What do you do at this…
Do any of these sound like your product company? Your product development team has never been busier You guys are shipping tons of features, seemingly ALL the time No one seems to be using those features In the world of building SaaS businesses, it’s actually quite easy to find yourself in one of these situations. …
Everyone at this product company is always busy, but we keep falling short of our goals… I call this the ‘hamster-wheel’ problem. Everyone on your team is busy doing lots of stuff, but you’re not getting any closer to the success you need for your product company. This problem happens when you and your team…
You’ve been building your product business for months (or years) and you can’t help but ask yourself the following questions over and over again. What else could we be doing to be more successful? How does everyone else solve this problem? I feel like I’m missing something obvious, what is it? These feelings are common…
Your product company has some traction (perhaps even some paying customers), but otherwise you feel stuck. Whenever you task someone with figuring out why, it always seems to fall down the list and you wind up in the same spot you were in before. Similar symptoms may include: Consistently missing traction goals Poor communication between…