Balancing Depth vs. Breadth in Product Positioning

One Big Thing:

Founders and growth CEOs face a critical decision after achieving product-market fit: maintain focus or expand into new and tangential markets. Balancing business development and customer experience is key. Asking the right questions about capacity, qualitative data, customer pain points, and potential feature dilution can guide strategic adjustments.

Why it Matters:

Achieving product-market fit invites competition. Founders must then decide on market positioning: stay focused or diversify? While business development is crucial, considering customer experience offers a holistic view of competitors and opportunities, fostering valuable team discussions.

Wisdom from Weinbaum:

Mark Weinbaum, an early mentor of mine, advised, "Being at the front of the line is really expensive; try to be a close second." While product mavericks and pioneers might dismiss this, a closer look reveals the high costs of creating a new category; Increased competition requires strategic market and product adjustments.

QUESTIONS TO ASK: Integrating CX into this BIG Decision

When discussing market positioning, founders should consider these questions with their executive team. Seriously, don't skip this step:

• Does our product team realistically have the capacity to effectively address customer pain points across multiple verticals simultaneously? Should we stress test this before making a decision?
• Do we have a process for qualitative data gathering to enhance our understanding of broader customer needs? Are there current challenges in gathering data, and how do we plan to improve in tangential markets?
• Are we at risk of diluting our understanding of customer pain points as we standardize feedback? How confident are we in our product's ability to address problems across multiple industries simultaneously, and how do we prevent feature overload?
• Are we willing to compromise our unique features to attract new customers, and what is our threshold for this? Do we risk making our once-differentiated product more commonplace as we broaden our focus?
• Are we simply building generic products to appeal to a wider audience, and at what cost? Does our product genuinely have broad appeal? Are we deviating from addressing familiar customer pain points due to competitive pressure, and can we effectively cater to everyone?

Takeaway:

Balancing business development and customer experience is crucial in market positioning. Asking critical questions about capacity, data gathering, and potential compromises helps maintain product differentiation and address customer needs, fostering sustainable growth and competitive advantage.