Diversification as a growth strategy

Having used 'Wise' (earlier TransferWise) extensively for remittances from US to India in the past and now using Google Pay (GPay) UPI here in India, when I read through this article, it felt pretty obvious at first for GPay to make a foray into the international consumer remittances business and attempt to transform the way payments from US to India are being enabled today.

However, now that I think deeper on it, question is 'Could it have been that simple and obvious' when the respective team set out to find growth opportunities.

As product owners, we tend to look at new geographies and new product features as possible rollout and expansion approaches. However, for a product at this scale, when the obvious options start getting exhausted, being able to figure out what other green field opportunities exist can become very elusive..

It requires us to step back, breathe and start thinking totally fresh...

We would have to:-

1. Elevate ourselves to think beyond the daily product grind, and the options that have reaped returns so far
2. Look at the broader industry (in this case, financial payments), and look at all combinations of product capability (inclusive of direct and indirect compete players) to market segment combinations
3. Perform extensive research and data analysis to understand the play across these capability - segment combinations
4. Out of this extensive exercise, try to identify the product - market fit to choose the right capability and market segment to go after on priority, which could potentially yield the best return on investment (ROI) given the current set of product capabilities, existing userbase and geographies
5. And once we have the alignment to pursue a strategy, execution would be yet another complex ballgame (building features, establishing partner collaborations and ensuring fundamentals like security, performance, compliance laws etc. are in place before rollout)

Learning about product market expansion strategies during management is one thing.. but applying diversification in practice is truly difficult.

And once we finalize a strategy to implement, no matter how extensive data analysis we have done, at the end of the day, it's still the team's gut saying that this is the right direction.. because only time can tell whether the strategy truly panned out as expected or not..

Please share your thoughts by commenting on this article.. We are keen to learn some of your experiences trying to grow products and the challenges you have faced..

Note: Please note that this post expresses my personal thoughts, does not represent my employer, and things might have been different for the team on the ground which was executing this..