How to Master Product Strategy, Nu Mexico Analysis, and LatAm VC Investments 2023 snapshot
Hi, product leaders and fintech enthusiasts = ). Today we are going to Master Product Strategy, DeepDive into NuMexico and VC investments in 2023, and read about the key trends Fintech in Latin America
How to Master Product Strategy
“Product Management is the art of solving your customer’s problems to achieve your business objectives. If you’re not doing both of those things, your product is just a fancy piece of code for show”. - Melissa Perri
When we talk about the success of a business, the first thing that comes to mind is product strategy, an essential part for you to prosper.
Developing a strategy is a set of steps that involves being creative, thinking long-term and developing the entire basis of your business. And this is what defines a senior Product Manager.
As Lenny Rachitsky highlights in his newsletter, a well-crafted strategy can change the trajectory of a business, while a bad strategy is a huge waste of time and money.
Three reasons justify the need for a strategy:
But to Master Product Strategy you need to understand that the strategy itself is just one step in an entire process, which goes through five parts:?
In general, what Product Managers do a lot is keep the Mission and Vision unchanged throughout the process, while the Strategy, Goals and Roadmap may undergo changes as the process progresses.
Mission: the base of everything. Summarizes the reason for your company’s existence. Some examples of Missions defined by large companies:
Tesla: “Accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”
Google: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”?
Nike: “Do everything possible to expand human potential”
Vision: explains what the world will be like when you fulfill your mission.
Microsoft: “A computer on every desk and in every home”
Netflix: “Become the best global entertainment distribution service”
Tesla: “Create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles”
Strategy: how you are going to achieve your Vision. While the previous two steps were defined by short and direct sentences, here you need to maintain objectivity, but detailing the steps you intend to follow.
A good strategy has five important characteristics:
Product Strategy is not a Plan
“Plans do not account for uncertainty or change. They give us a false sense of security.” - Melissa Perri
A good Product Strategy is like a system, which takes into account challenges and changes in direction, to, through goals and the final Vision, align what is best for the business and customers.
Product Strategy comes from experimentation towards a goal. KPIs, OKRs, and other metrics you are setting for your teams are part of the Product Strategy, but cannot create a successful strategy on their own.
And one way to better organize this strategy is to follow The Minto Pyramid Principle:
Goals and Roadmap
Having built this entire path, the last two steps are “simpler”, but no less important.
Goals: Define clear objectives. Goals are simply a way to measure the progress of your strategy toward achieving your vision. Goals and strategy should go hand in hand, one can influence the other and lead to adjustments along the way.
For example in Microsoft's example, to know if it is close to its Mission of having “a computer on every desk and in every home”, they could look at the percentage of homes with a computer.
Roadmap: divide each person's individual tasks to achieve your Vision. For a great problem you need:
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Poor prioritization can destroy any strategy.
As a product manager you should be able to execute upon all of these steps, understanding which parts of them can change over time and adapting accordingly.?
Top Fintech Bites and Insights
?? Nubank launches money transfers from the US to Mexico via whatsapp through a partnership with Felix Pagos, entering a US$ 155B market. More here
?? Brazilian Payment fintech Stone received authorization from the Central Bank to act as a finance company, which allows the company to offer new products to its customers.
?? Trio, a payments infrastructure company from Brazil, received approval from the Central Bank to become a payment institution
?? Agrotoken, the Brazilian agricultural tokenization company, raised $12.5 million in a Pre-Series A investment round led by Bunge Ventures
?? Brazilian Bulla, a fintech that operates in the credit and flexible benefits segment concluded its second fundraising, issuing senior and subordinated shares worth a total of R$75 million to reinforce its Direct Credit Investment Funds (FIDC).
?? Thunes, the global B2B cross-border payment company, appoints Floris de Kort as its new CEO to expand its leadership to accelerate growth.?
??Neat, a platform to manage expenses and liquidity reaches 50k users, collaborating with banks to integrate bill payments via credit card in Chile
?? Visa is releasing a Web3 loyalty service that involves gamified giveaways and immersive treasure hunts
?? According to RappiCredit's The Tech Report 2023 , Colombia's fintech sector grew 20% in 2023.
?? Mexico's Banorte is launching a digital bank, called Banco Bineo this January after regulator's approval.
??Chilean fintech Levannta raises US$ 10.5M to strengthen its team and prepare for expansion.
?? Klavi, open finance startup, announces Rafael Sim?es as director to reinforce the areas of legal affairs and DPO.
??Revolut looks into a $60B market in Brazil with Focus on Foreign Investment Services
??US SEC approves the Bitcoin ETF, changing the landscape of the crypto market. Great analysis by Abraham Cobos here
Nu Mexico Deep Dive
In a short period of 3 years, Nu Mexico has gained its place among the incumbent banks who have traditionally reigned in the Mexican financial services industry holding over 80% of the market share. Some stats:
Source: whitepaper by Tukan
VC Investment in 2023 Summary
Brazil led VC investments, followed by Mexico (half of Brazil's total).
Fintech was the biggest destination for VC funds (40%), though the total amount decreased by 66% compared to 2022.
Source: Refresh
That was all! ???
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Un abrazo,
Edu
?? The Community Manager that you didn't know you need... ?? Here before Web3 becomes mainstream
1 年insightful ??
Business Development LATAM @Dandelion | B2B | Cross Border Payments | Banking-Financial Services | Blockchain | Latin America, USA & Europ
1 年Love the examples to describe a Mission and a Vision. Thank you.