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Factoring in your Company Profiles
Product planning is one of the areas where there can be a significant variation in your scope and approach based on where you are starting and the opportunity you are targeting. For many, though, there is a temptation to minimize the investment in developing a robust product strategy, focusing more on functionality and features ahead of concepts like tenant personas and tiering. This dynamic often undermines the company’s ability as they move forward in their journey. They may also miss the opportunity to introduce concepts into their underlying architecture that will be essential to the broader success of their product. Focusing on these elements of your strategy early will enable all parts of the company to put measures into place to support the full range of profiles and requirements that different customers may desire. It will also enable you to pivot more effectively to new strategies as needed.
ToeDipper Software: This company type tends to have a very narrow product strategy that focuses on a niche market that will be used as their first foray into SaaS. This particular company is very prone to under-invest in a more complete product strategy with the assumption that this is more of an experiment. While it may not seem normal for these companies, there is still great value to be extracted from having a solid product strategy. Additionally, answering some of the hard questions about tenant profiles, compliance, data isolation, and tiering will help you be hyper-focused on where this new niche is and which dynamics you will need to think about as you are defining the capabilities, experience, and value proposition of your new SaaS offering.
SurvivorTech: While there may be immense pressure to simply get a product out for these companies, they still need to have a clear picture of their product strategy if they want to introduce a product that will effectively compete against current and emerging offerings. The key to survival is to have a strategy that goes beyond just having a SaaS offering. The company needs to find the scope and value boundaries for their offering that will enable them to retain and gain market share. A carefully considered product strategy will enable these companies to map out a more complete survival path that is less reactive and more strategic.
UnicornExpress.com: This company type is in the best position to build a strategy that only focuses on the opportunity in front of their company. The lack of legacy baggage enables these companies to create a product strategy that examines the full spectrum of possibilities and build from scratch to effectively align the product with the target experience. However, this profile also tends to share some traits with the SurvivorTech profile in that these companies are often so driven to acquire customers and generate revenue that they might short-circuit the product strategy process. While the pressures to get something out are real, the danger here is that executing without a clear product strategy may undermine the company when the growth curve kicks in. If you have left tiering, compliance, and many of the other factors outlined in this section out of your vision, a you may find yourself struggling to address the needs of the market and fully maximize this growth.
New Horizons Software: This company type has some traits that are similar to a startup from a product strategy perspective. Given that these companies are essentially carving a new product offering, they must look at their product strategy much like they are creating a new line of business. The real difference is that these companies are not necessarily facing the financial and time pressures that many of the startup companies do. These companies may also have to form new teams that can operate separately from the rest of the company as they build and operate their new SaaS offering.