Product management is not about making quick decisions or standing in a room trying to make an ambiguous situation less ambiguous. Nor does it revolve around re-engineering your entire product or changing all of your focus overnight. If you think that this is the way to improve your product, you might have it wrong.
Product management goes much deeper. It's about focusing on the right metrics that matter, attacking the right problems, and empowering your employees to be successful.
We put in the time to truly understand how our product works, why it was created, and what it needs to do to progress. Then, we use these learnings to put together a strategy around what makes sense for the business.
That's how improving your product boils down to something simple for us (by ‘us’, I mean founders, product owners, engineers, sales, marketing; support… In short, the entire company as one team).
Don’t count on Free Trial to win you customers. Conversion rate is a do-or-die metric for every startup. They typically measure the percentage of users who complete the desired action.
For example, free trial to paid conversion: Helps establish whether your users are willing to pay for the product/services you wish to offer. For B2B SaaS it typically ranges from 15% to 20%. In the mature stages, it can be as high as 50-60%.
Like it or hate it, your users must use it. There is a great article in HBR: How Spotify and TikTok Beat Their Copycats. It's just a matter of time before your best or worst competitor will have the features your product or app has. The ability to build is no longer the only moat. High DAU or MAU can only be retained if your users increase your product and services, thus forming an unbreakable habit – while you continue to serve their high-value needs through continuous innovations.
This metric is often measured least and is the trickiest to measure. If users find value and love your product, your company can weather the toughest storms in the ever-changing business landscape. A great proxy is to measure how many times users call, ask for features and work with your company/product teams to make your product or service better.
Your Net Promoter Score helps you answer a simple question: Are your existing customers likely to promote your product to someone else and share their success stories without you or your team being involved?
Recommended Read: Article from Forbes: What’s Your NPS And CSAT, And Why Do They Matter?
If the answer is a roaring “Yes!” then you are on the right track.
Measuring how much money you can make from your customers, in the long run, is one thing. But that is still hypothetical in today's ever-changing world of B2B SaaS.
Realized CLTV > 3X CAC.
Realizable CTLV > 100x Current revenues
In perishable commodities such as milk, the prices change in supermarkets all the time. Your product and services are no different in reality. They have a shelf life too, which expires. However, in the digital world, replenishment happens in the form of new product releases, features, and engagement. What you are making today vs the potential that the product has, is a great way to keep you focused on the “Real Business.”
Now that we know what to measure and how to measure it, It's time to bring teams together to work towards the common goal viz. Use the superpower of OKRs.
Part of the concept of superpowers comes from the idea that different people see the same problem differently, and can come together to solve it by finding different strengths. If you're leading a team, it's up to you to pull the best out of each individual. Super teams are more than the sum of their parts, and they can accomplish more than they thought they ever could on their own.
At Fitbots OKRs, we help organizations unleash their superpower by helping teams track OKRs, predict outcomes, and course correct.
Want to know more about how OKRs can help. Click here to book a demo.
Kashi is the Co-founder and CTO of Fitbots. Kashi has coached over 700+ teams on OKRs with the focus on helping founders and teams achieve more with OKRs. His niche focuses on the future of work by bringing technology to life.
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