Jane Portman: “Product Strategy for Founders – How to Build Focused & Profitable Software Products” – FemtoConf 2017

The FemtoConf 2017 Notes and recaps can be found on the central hub page.

Website: TinyReminder.com
Twitter: @uibreakfast

• Created “Mastering App Presentation” with no product strategy in place
• Poor strategy is a recipe for disaster

Why your product should exist

• Research your audience
• find what pains they are experiencing
• Do a “sales safari”
  • scour forums, etc. where people are not actively talking about products
• Define your strategy
  • write down the strategy
• Apply your strategy
• Deal with new features
• Think large scale

Define your strategy

• four pillars of product strategy
  • Audience
  • Goals
  • Tasks
  • Objects
• Audience
  • Who is your ideal user (paying customer)?
  • Do you know them? 
  • Do you like them? 
    • You’ll have to interact with them until the end of time
  • Can they pay you? 
    • School systems have tons of problems, but very little money to go around
  • Do you know how to reach them? 
    • Brick & Mortar businesses are notoriously hard to reach as a bootstrapper
    • Do they have online forums? 
• Goals
  • What goals is the user trying to achieve with your product? 
    • Make more money? 
    • Look good in front of their customers? 
    • Example: I want to write a book because then I can…
      • build authority
• Tasks
  • What primary tasks does the suer perform daily with the help of your product?
  • Where does the main value come from? 
    • e.g. TinyReminder sends reminders to clients and urges them to fill in an online form
    • online form building is an essential feature, but NOT the main benefit
  • Classify tasks by type
    • Analytical
    • Proactive
    • Reactive
• Objects
  • What objects (entities, items) do users create and manage while performing their tasks? 
    • Gives you a good idea of how to structure your product
• Use the real language of your customers to describe product strategy

Apply your strategy

• In your sales copy
  • Address the audience
  • Appeal to their big goals
  • Describe their tasks
• In your product design
  • Facilitate the important tasks
  • Focus on one task at a time
  • Carefully manage the important objects
• What did I do wrong with my first book? 
  • Very vague name, audience, goals & tasks
• What we did right this time with Tiny Reminder
  • Precise audience (consultants)
  • Precise Goals
  • Precise Tasks

Deal with new Features

• Her mom gifted two fish to her kids
  • Implications: 20 gallons of water for the first fish, 10 gallons for each additional fish
  • Like to dig out plants
  • Bully other kinds of fish
  • Need daily maintenance
  • ==> Get rid of the fish
• New feature implications
  • Strategy becomes more vague
  • Marketing & sales become vague (which feature is important?)
  • Support & documentation
  • Usability
• Classic qualifying questions
  • Does this feature solve a real pain? 
  • What are the development and support costs? 
  • Can we build an integration instead? 
  • What part of the existing user base will benefit from this immediately? 
    • e.g. only free users? 
• Product strategy questions
  • Does it serve your ideal audience – or does it exapnd it? 
  • Does it serve the big goal – or does it add more goals? 
  • Does it facilitate the important tasks?
• More goals and tasks don’t make a happy user

Think large scale

• Nothing exists in isolation
  • Product is attached to you, your personality and your existing audience
• Simple product lineup
  • Free lead magnet (free course)
  • Entry-point purchase (book)
  • Main product (SaaS, consulting)
• Advanced product lineup
  • Free lead magnet (free course)
  • Entry-point purchase (book)
  • Medium-touch product (course, workshop, or consulting package)
  • Main product (SaaS, consulting)
  • super-expensive “dream” product (no one buys it, but anchors the price of other products)
    • e.g. a $8,000/mo design consulting offering for developer teams
• Think of your personal strengths
  • Marie Poulin
    • Digital Streatgy School (expensive course)
    • Doki (courseware)
    • Consulting business (helping clients build courses)
• Content strategy
  • Mailing list setup
  • Free course
  • Blog & newsletter
  • Book 
  • Podcast
  • Videos
• Only count on your own audience!
  • No magic from Product Hunt or Hacker News
  • No influencer friends
  • No help from the people you interview
• Focused strategy is a luxury you can afford

-Christoph