COO Perspective: Growth Strategies – Part 4

In a previous post we discussed using a simple matrix to evaluate growth strategies; you can read it here. In this post we will examine another of the four options; to do this we will use the following parameters:

• Overview discussion

• Difficulty

• Risk

• Impact to the business

To refresh, the four growth strategies to be examined are:

• Current Product, Current Market

• Current Product, New Market

• New Product, Current Market

• New Product, New Market

In this entry we will focus on the third on the list.

New Product, Current Market

Overview: New Product, Current Market is the process of really getting to know, understand and to anticipate the needs of current customers. To take this Product Management centered approach a company is wise to consider the following:

• Quality time with Customers: this goes beyond just conducting the weekly status meeting or viewing the dashboards; shadowing customers, spending time onsite with them, performing careful observations, listening carefully and collating all the findings into actionable documents are all critical undertakings

• Empathize and Anticipate: define the points of pain that customers are experiencing; quantify the costs (both realized and opportunity) that they experience because of them. Look for the issues that customer is and will encounter and record them

• Perform a complete current product review: look beyond pipelines and margin by product; look for natural extensions to the portfolio. Compare the findings of the current product analysis with the findings of the customer research to identify natural opportunities.

• Lean on the current Product Management process: chances are that a robust Product Management discipline is already in place. If so, use it to develop a new product. If not then New Product, Current Market is a perfect opportunity to tighten up the Product Management game.

Difficulty: New Product, Current Market is a growth strategy – it is one that should be a natural and recurring part of any Product Management function. If this strategy proves difficult then changes and improvements to the PM process is the key. If all aspects of business were easy then everyone would be an entrepreneur.

Risk: This is a lower risk strategy. There is the comfort of working with your existing customers, the (what should be) routine process of Product Management and new product development and delivery should be a core tenant of the business already. Yet, as with any growth strategy, there is some risk.

Impact on the Business: New Product, Current Market is a lower impact strategy – assuming that Product Management and developing new products is already a well-established part of running the business. If new product development and delivery is not too ambitious and if it is aimed at resolving a documented need the impact, like the risk, should be manageable.