Thriving In a Recession: 6 Focal Points to Boost SaaS Growth

Product leadership takes a pivotal role at ensuring that there's a line of sight between the goals and objectives of the business and the people you work with. Ensuring that everyone understands why we're here, why we're doing this and what are we trying to achieve.

During times of uncertainty, we must be able to adapt more effectively to changing market conditions while while keeping our eye on the ball: long-term vision, the strategy, where we want to see ourselves in 12, 24, 36 months from now.

With the current financial downturn there are special types of adaptations and themes we should be mindful of - now, more than ever. Harnessing those effectively, may not only allow us to persevere during tough times - but also to excel and win the market.

Here are 5 useful tips that can help product leaders cope and potentially - excel during a recession:

1. Increase your investment in your people. Yes: INCREASE

This one's always true, and during a recession it serves as a clear reminder: Your people are your greatest assets - and at times of uncertainly - probably also your best form of investment. It is important to focus on empowering your teams and helping them grow both personally and professionally.

CONSIDER THIS:

• Provide meaningful growth trajectories and allocate a learning budget for self development
• Continuously work to apply right attitude and work ethic.
• When hiring, make sure to always prioritise attitude over craft. Some things are just easier to learn than to unlearn.
• It's also fine to support and empower complimentarily traits. For instance - python for Product Managers or public speaking for UX designers.
• Care! (thanks Gary Vaynerchuk )

2. Listen to your customers - now more than ever

It is crucial to remain focused on meeting the needs of your customers, especially when financials are tight. You might encounter layoffs at your customers end. This is where empathy is key.

CONSIDER THIS:

• Reevaluate your product roadmap and prioritise features that will support your customer through this downturn. For example, at Instruqt we recently launched a feature aimed solely at cost efficiency.
• Be sensitive to your customers' financial challenges and look for ways to provide value and address their needs.
• Generate product insights and make sure you let the value that your product generates - shine.

3. Find opportunities to cut costs (and act on them)

While it's important to continue investing in your product, it's equally important to be mindful of costs. Look for ways to streamline processes, eliminate waste, and reduce expenses wherever possible.

CONSIDER THIS:

• Run an audit of your tool-sets and check what is utilised and what can be repurposed.
• A great team event ≠?an expensive one. Sometimes incredible team building events can take place by a small campfire and a guitar. ( Alon Kotler Gamzu thanks for the inspiration with this one)
• Re-visit travel expenses. Some travelling is crucial, some is not. Use common sense. And when joining teams from overseas, try to assess, which destination is the most cost-effective.
• Encourage employee input: Engage your employees and solicit their ideas on how to cut costs. They may have valuable insights on areas where the company can save money.
• Remember, small expenses add up.

4. Focus on retention

During a recession, it is especially important to focus on retaining your existing customers. They're the ones who value your product the most and they're your source of stability.

CONSIDER THIS:

• Have product people interact with your customers more and more and deeply understand their changing needs
• Build a community of customers. Let them support one another. Buil a customer advisory board.
• Think about proving value and ROI through data, such as analyzing customer feedback and tracking key metrics.

5. Explore untapped markets and opportunities

A recession can be a great time to look for untapped opportunities and grow your market share. Consider working closely with your commercial counterparts (Sales, CS, Marketing, Solutions Engineering) to identify potential areas for expansion and product differentiation.

CONSIDER THIS:

• All too often you'll find your best product management insights, with Customer Success
• Market intelligence tools such as Similarweb can offer invaluable insights around identifying and penetrating untapped markets.
• Think not only about new markets you can cater for, but also new budget centers!

6. Stay entrepreneurial

A recession can be a great opportunity to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions. Look for creative ways to re-invent, experiment, interact, disrupt

What are your tips for SaaS growth during a recession? What's been working and what less so?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to discuss further.