Debunking Four Myths of Product Growth
TL;DR: Usability is a must-have; do not ignore GTM; measure churn early on; respect end user
Having addressed product growth challenges across social impact tech, EdTech, CRM software, and Observability I would like to call out some common misconceptions and pitfalls to avoid when managing product growth that will benefit early-career B2B SaaS Product Managers (PMs).
#Myth 1: Do not chase revenue, build ‘ innovative’ products.
Early-stage PMs over-engineer their products with great features or fill their roadmaps with a laundry list of features or emulate the competition. Thereby, they lose sight of what is essential to create a strong feedback loop with the end user.
Additionally, PMs should be mindful of go-to-market (GTM) strategies and enablement from ‘Day one’ working closely with sales, product marketing, and customer success teams to ensure that the product or feature is adopted by prospects and current users. If a PM does not prioritize this, it gets excruciatingly hard to fix it later on.
#Myth 2: B2B products do not need to prioritize usability or user adoption. Given the right incentives, the GTM teams can continue to sell and retain customers.
This is a flawed approach, as even in the enterprise customer segment, usability cannot be an afterthought. The consumerization of technology has led to the expectation of user-friendly products across all segments. Although Salesforce has amazing features, why did Zendesk or Freshdesk gain such traction? Why did Zoom take off so well when Webex and other alternatives existed? These new entrants did not win just by pricing their products low compared to leading incumbents. It is always difficult for a new entrant to cater to the enterprise customer segment because there are feature gaps, high CAC, and a long list of compliance and security requirements (ISO, SOC1,2, etc.). So it is always a smart strategy to start with usability and low price to attract the SMB segment. Once you catch up on enterprise readiness, you can raise prices and compete in all segments.
#Myth 3: Churn can be addressed later, let us get our top line to a good stage.
Ignoring a high churn rate can be detrimental to the business, as it can lead to a leaky revenue situation. It is important to take a deep dive into the root causes of churn and address them proactively, rather than waiting for customer escalations or major exits to occur. Additionally, it is important to examine whether current customers are only agreeing to flat renewals, as this can also be an indication of a churn problem. Unfortunately, most churn prevention initiatives are launched only after major customer escalations or marquee exits. Ironically, I have always felt that we could have started churn prevention sooner than we ended up doing.
#Myth 4: B2B SaaS PMs are torn between buyer and user personas.
This is a seemingly challenging dilemma that needs to be settled once and for all that ‘end user’ needs are a higher priority. While features that are geared toward admin users may seem irrelevant to end users, it is important to remember that end-user behaviors can have a significant impact on data and controls within the product. Therefore, all aspects of the product, including billing, and user management should be designed with end-user pain points in mind.
Put in simple words, PMs should build to solve end-user pain points and their trust translates to revenue and thereby more resources at our disposal to earn their trust. That is the foundation of a growth loop.
Some quick tips -
Ensure that all members of the GTM team are experts in the product.
Prioritize end-user flows and tailor the product to make every phase seamless.
Remember that usability is a right, not a privilege.
I will share each of these tips in detail in a podcast. Stay tuned and build for growth :)
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