#strategy

The best product teams I’ve worked with embrace the iterative nature of software development. Instead of committing to roadmap items, they commit to high-level, long-term goals. These goals are the focus of one or more teams for at least a year, and teams work towards these goals by tackling small chunks of work and constantly re-prioritising and re-thinking their approach.

In SaaS, your customers repurchase your product every month, quarter, or year. Your product should improve at this same pace. Renewals are so automated they feel like a passive process. But this is a false sense of security. Every time a customer pays, they should receive compelling value. This week, we explore why and how startups should operationalise their investment in software development.

While this is a word that often comes with negative connotations, I believe that great products, particularly in the B2B world, are usually very opinionated. They come with a strong view of how they should be used, and how the problem they are solving should be solved. These products differentiate themselves from the herd and disrupt incumbents by doing things differently. Many B2B SaaS products are simply automated workflows built from the opinionated views that you should solve that problem in this specific way.

I am an advocate for simple and collaborative methods for defining strategy for a team, department or company. Many strategy frameworks are too complex and while they may seem democratic (by embracing voting, for example), they usually lead to the middling harmony of sticking to the status quo. Instead, your collaborative process should encourage rigorous debate to overcome the mediocrity of concensus.