Relax and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea while reading these product blog snippets! 

The short articles below will cover topics such as OKRs, North Star Framework, product strategy, team organization,  ideas about discovery & analysis!

Great topics for passionate product managers!

Some entries are categorized per industry,  see them here:

• Food Delivery Industry

• Accommodation & Vacation Rental Industry

• Web3 & Fintech

Other entries are categorized per strategic frameworks, see them here:

• The Porter's 5 Forces

• The Blue Ocean Strategy

I hope these will boost your creativity and will inspire you towards practical action and new ideas!

In a world quite ride to be eaten by AI, with daily news on how AI will replace jobs (26 million jobs in the next years, 75% of companies willing to explore this path), it is top of mind to think about the future career opportunities since to be a prompt manager rather than a product manager might not be so attractive.

The sweet spot for long term development is in my opinion to focus strategically on those points which makes you really human. 

This is not valid for product management only, but for a lot of other jobs that will be replaced fast by AI (e.g. record keeping, administrative and many more).

A corner which was always an interesting part of the Product Manager (PM) job was stakeholder management. Will stay important, might not be so easy replaced by AI.

Another corner in Product Management is the product strategy, especially those parts which bridge alignment and collaboration needs with other departments. 

Some PMs were not satisfied with the degree / level of strategic work during a workday, since the tactical part often popped up as being more urgent and had to be reprioritized accordingly in order to meet expectations/deadlines.

I think in Product Management there is still room for the human to be creative in areas as applying various strategies like Blue Ocean, that might not be so easily and quickly fed into the AI, like the brilliant integration of Pioniex for trading for example, in the case of trading strategies, such as „give me a momentum strategy on bitcoin“.

The speed at which Chat GPT/AI will be trained in various areas such as product strategy, will heavily depend on Large Language Models (LLM), the various suppliers of these and the cost dynamics. The costs/possible revenues of these (for suppliers) will be modeled, estimated and optimized in a similar manner like CAC in the years to come, with the PM focused on monitoring and improving this metric.

This is the first part in a series of entries on Product Management, strategy and ultimately, what makes the Product Manager (PM) - really human.

Let us analyze the industry's landscape through the lens of the Porter's 5 Forces Framework, depicted on the left hand side.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The power level: LOW.

The brand reputation relies on suppliers and these have a lot of choice to register on various platforms in order to diversify their acquisition channels and to optimize their income streams. Suppliers do have though low switching cost from one platform to the other, unless some of the platforms provides them distinct earning advantages which make them stick longer there.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

The power level: MEDIUM.

The sheer number of travelers in the world, which are hundreds of millions, are many in comparison with the tens of companies that offer lodging services, acting as marketplaces aggregating the supply and balancing it with the demand. Also the number of vacation rental properties is limited, which means that the bargaining power of buyers is limited by these constraints.

The likelihood of buyers to go to alternative services such as hotels and hostels are also limited for the niches where the unique value proposition offered by peer-to-peer lodging services matters, which would make them to stick to the peer-to-peer lodging providers and pay the price demanded.

Industry Rivalry

The power level: HIGH.

The competition is fierce and this is caused of the rate of growth in the industry, averaged at 150% YoY in the USA in terms of growth of the sharing economy which gets more popular worldwide. This perspective for solving a problem of short term vacation rentals with pervasiveness in the market has the potential to attract more and more players into the game.

The diverse positioning in the market via focusing on an older audience (HomeAway) or on families with kids (VRBO) or on group bookings (FlipKey) or on total check-in/check-out freedom (TurnKey) makes the industry quite welcoming for creative ways to compete on various niches with tailored offerings.

The brand reputation and awareness is another factor which is a key influencer in the rivalry fight across brands and usually this is an equity each brand would get in time, after years of successful presence in the market.

The switching cost to another peer-to-peer lodging provider in a certain region, with a clear competitive advantage is low for the buyer.

Due to the aggressive competition, the overall landscape of the peer-to-peer industry looks like a red ocean, the differentiation being low if focus, divergence and a compelling tag line is not setup as a clear blue ocean strategy, meant to innovate and reset the market boundaries.

Threat of New Entrants

The power level: LOW.

Time of entry is very important and to have the first mover advantage in this industry is paramount. The funding, the word of mouth and the brand awareness are very important to gain market share, which happens usually during a few years and it involves significant capital and a clear strategy for international expansion. Once established, such incumbents would be hard, but not impossible to disrupt, especially in specific, targeted regions and possibly for certain niches.

The amount of investment needed for such a business, which can reach billions of dollars is something that signifies a very high entry barrier for any potential disruptor since once a player dominates the market, it will be very difficult to convince investors to give the requested amounts to any new player.

The legal and regulatory barriers for entering this space are also high since in some countries and cities property owners would need to perform a registration process or have some license or permit needed in order to be able to list their property for short term rental. Without a famous brand and influence, for a new entrant it will ne very difficult to have a word to say with regulatory authorities so that they overcome such hurdles.

However, due to the attractive sharing economy growth perspectives as such, indirect competition could be likely and quite dangerous, especially if their brand is established in some way. As an example here would be Uber which tapped into the sharing economy with Uber Eats.

Threat of Substitutes

The power level: MEDIUM.

There is no direct substitution for peer-to-peer lodging services due to the fact that hotels and hostels are not able to offer the location, amenities such as a kitchen or a garden where children can play. Therefore it is difficult for customers who appreciate such advantages to switch to some other provider of lodging services. Still hotels offer more security while hostels offer more in terms of socializing which means that if such aspects become important for the target market segment, then the threat of substitution could increase.

This entry will analyze AirBnB main bold moves, aiming to collect them into a strategic framework: the Blue Ocean Strategy, focusing on the Create-Raise-Reduce-Eliminate Grid  applied on the main competing factors in the industry. The grid will outline possibilities of enhancements as well and would not reflect only what is known to be available at the moment of writing.

DoorDash managed to become market leader in the food delivery industry, claiming 45% market share in the US and taking over giant competitors, such as Uber Eats and GrubHub. 

The company certainly has a strong strategy, projecting strong growth for 2022 as well, with an order volume of $48b-$50b, meant to be achieved through vertical expansion of services offered and through regional expansion.

This entry will analyze DoorDash main bold moves, aiming to collect them into a strategic framework: the Blue Ocean Strategy, focusing on the Create-Raise-Reduce-Eliminate Grid  applied on the main competing factors in the industry.

One of the industries which took off in full force since the pandemic is the food delivery industry, and delivery in general, such as groceries, flowers, etc., trend marked by super apps especially in Asia, such as Grab. 

The space saw dynamics during the last years with Uber entering  aggressively the space as an extension to its ground transportation / ride hailing offering and as a means for risk mitigation against the headwinds brought by the pandemic. 

However, as usually this being the case with all sorts of crisis, there are also potential advantageous merger & acquisitions possible in such times, which brings a consolidation of the industry in the mid of a fragmented space that is overly competitive. 2021 brought such consolidation of big players, such as and JustEat Takeaway.com + Grubhub and Uber + Postmates.  

M&As are for sure an accelerated path to profitability, worthwhile to consider for companies who have the necessary leeway to invest in such initiatives.

Let us analyze the industry's landscape through the lens of the Porter's 5 Forces Framework, depicted on the left hand side.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The power level: LOW.

Suppliers are two categories here:

• the tech platform, mostly developed in house, possibly with some outsourcing

• the riders themselves, which, depending on country specific regulations, are either employees or suppliers as such. 

Their lack of specialization and overall availability makes their bargaining power low as their services are treated as a commodity.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

The power level for B2C: HIGH.

The power level for B2B: LOW.

Buyers are two categories here:

• B2C - the customers themselves who order food for delivery, who are demanding a great quality at a lower price and do not have to deal with any switching cost from one food delivery company to another. The reason for the low price is the overall lack of differentiation for the service in the industry.

• B2B - restaurants and bars, buying the food delivery service from food delivery companies so that there products are delivered to the final customers, using them as distribution channels. Their bargaining power is low due to the fact that in general they are not loyal to any of delivery companies, but would work with all of them so that they maximize their coverage and maintain a continuous customer acquisition stream. There is though a clear advantage here in terms of the quality of service to the end consumer in terms of their value perception in case the food delivery company, situated in the "new developers" category, takes the responsibility to pick up the food and deliver it faster and offering monitoring tech as where the rider is on the map towards the destination, at any given moment. The food delivery companies which choose not to provide this service are called "aggregators" and they would rely on a 3rd party to deliver it. The downside of the "new developer" category is the higher price for the delivery, which, in most cases, is not considered by the end customer. Here it pays off to segment the audience properly and in a detailed manner, choosing the right delivery service for the right niche, therefore some companies go rather for a hybrid delivery model.

A problem for food delivery companies  is retention linked to loyalty and the profitability game in general, due to the lack of differentiation in the market which would push the gross profit margin lower since a mechanism for retention is to offer discounts continuously or very often.

Industry Rivalry

Major competitors in this space, with different regional strengths, are: DoorDash, Delivery Hero SE, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, GrubHub OLO, Inc, Snapfinger, Inc., Tillster, Inc, etc.

Merger & Acquisitions are certainly a quick way to expand and to accelerate the path towards profitability, if one has the necessary financial means to do it, other new entrants being either bought or forced to leave the market, unless they are capable to disrupt the market in a major way.

Threat of New Entrants

It is lower now, especially due to consolidation, but still dominated by big players due to the fact that profit margins are low and a new entrant, although with a relatively low barrier to entry in this market, would need to be able to wait until profits are registered. The fact that the initial capital required to start a new business in this industry is not high, it does not help either due to the low profit margin expected.

Threat of Substitutes

It is low in general since the alternative is for the restaurants to deliver the food by themselves. Some restaurants do it, but the trend is on the decline, as most of the time, restaurants lack expertise to organize the delivery service at a larger scale.

Product-led growth can happen at many different levels in the product lifecycle,  and in any area of the Acquisition-Activation-Retention-Referral (AARR) framework. Especially after the pandemic, for the majority of brands facing head winds,  the new mantra was "Retention is the NEW Growth". 

Therefore, this aspect became much more relevant than before, marking the cornerstone of a smart, cost effective recovery/growth strategy.

This entry will outline a possible framework on how to think this aspect in the context of various product offerings, with the focus of a reusable process that can be replicated in various markets and for various products.

The root of all this is the scientific method which starts with the following elements:

• a customer segment to start with

• a falsifiable and testable hypothesis

• an experiment designed to test the aforementioned hypothesis

• an exit criteria to decide when to continue and when to pivot

• all these steps applied for the following dimensions: market, problem and solution.

All attempts in our quest to improve retention will follow this approach, again and again, until the exit criteria will clearly tell us what is the end of it. This is critical in order to be able to avoid  any analysis-paralysis and a possibly infinite loop.

A company can offer a suite of products, tailored to different customer segments, solving various categories of problems, at different moments in time and covering various use cases, either entirely or partially.

In terms of tackling retention, it is important to start with a classification of the product offerings based on frequency of usage. There are mainly two extremes:

• frequent usage (e.g. multiple times per month)

• infrequent usage (e.g. once in a couple of years)

For frequent usage products, retention during various phases of the product lifecycle can be achieved by classical methods of increasing retention. A retention measure would be for example # weekly returning users. 

In this case, the scientific method outlined above will deliver us results quickly in a rapidly running feedback loop which can signal fast if we are on the right track or not.  On a weekly basis, any organically designed growth loop built on the product level, like for example a recommendation on adjacent use cases which are leveraged by the composite means of a journey (e.g. airport transfer followed by an on demand ride immediately after arriving at the hotel for a conference) would give us quick certitude on the progress towards the aimed weekly retention rate target.

However, in case of infrequent product offerings, at least infrequent for a certain customer segment, the retention problem would need to be tackled in a different way. 

First and foremost,  an appropriate measurable KPI has to be put into place for such products. Weekly or monthly user retention do not work since the feedback loop is too long in order to be actionable and adaptable. An appropriate way to measure would be market penetration for the particular customer segment.

Second, the degree of usage frequency for a certain customer segment has to be measured and understood, so that this can inform a rhythm in outlining concrete measures in  at least two of the following three areas that have to be considered, in order to maximize market penetration:

• engagement to be designed and measured into the product itself

• user experience to be controlled to a high degree, preferably at least 80% digitally

• a strong UVP that can distinguish a brand and position it strongly into the market

If all these are combined with intrinsically designed growth loops inside the product (similar to the ones applicable to the frequent usage product offerings), then a cost-effective approach of growing the product organically can be built and applied in a sustainable manner.

For more contents on product, read more below:

Each time, at the end of the year, we tend to look back and evaluate what we did during the last 12 months, what did we learn and how did we grow during this time.  For me at the job it was all about hiring, team building and on-boarding both in Product & Engineering. It was an interesting time and I collected beautiful experiences, getting to know people better, with their goals, passions and challenges.

2021 was a year during which a lot of people were inspired to change in many ways, having courage to tackle new things and to move from one place to the other. A year when the newness knocked at the door of transformation, a year which in many ways acted as a catalyst for reinvention in people's lives. It is interesting to contemplate what is in a general manner the root cause of all these changes.  From what I see so far, the root cause of all changes is another change (sounds like a paradox, isn't it?).  The change I mean is the change in values, triggered by all changes happening worldwide from 2020. In a way it is a generational shift of values happening globally, pushing all of us with full force into the future.

I am grateful for all experiences I had in 2021 and look forward to new ones!

For each product manager in his career, sooner or later, it happens, that they are assigned with an on-going effort, call it project, product development or initiative.  

This is,  in most of the cases, the continuation of the work of a previous product manager assigned to the effort.

The first step to ensure in such scenarios for the new product manager is, to be able to reverse engineer the problem and come up with a clear product strategy in case this is not present and if already present, the process outlined below is still worthwhile, since it will check the primary aspects for which the new product manager would need to get an understanding:

• Discover the customer segment by asking the following question: "Who do you think would buy this product?"

• Uncover the unique value proposition by asking the question: "Why do you think they would buy from us?"

• Investigate possible problems meant to be solved with the solution you, the PM, have been assigned: "What problem do you think this product would solve for them?"

• Check on the existence of alternatives by asking: "What are they doing to solve the problem today? Are there any competing solutions currently in use?"

All these questions above make up for a handy, concise interview script for you to address to stakeholders so that, based on the answers received,  you can paint a solid baseline of your product strategy corresponding to the solution you have been assigned to. 

Which stakeholders to consider primarily? Look to the ones in Marketing, Sales, Customer Care and Finance and then Engineering, which is to be handled slightly different.

From Engineering, depending on the development effort stage, you would need to gather an understanding of the product design and architecture and any concerns associated with the tech stack in use.

Once all these are clear, you can proceed with adaptations, corrections and can evolve any development effort with confidence.

When navigating away from innovators and early adopters or earlyvangelists, it is important to consider a careful approach towards navigating to adjacent customer segments in the right order.  Although referral could be a very intuitive bridge towards navigating the market, it is though, no guarantee for success, but rather a compass that helps further orientation.  This is though the first step.

The second step is to dig deeper and ensure that we test the market properly with a lean iterative approach meant to discover the next best customer segment and then dive into the business model insights since most of the time, both the unique value proposition and the channel strategy would need to be changed. 

Customer Insight and Business Model change insights are critical things to explore and get right.

We depict below an outline of the exploration journey:

In order to test on all dimensions (the market, the problem and the solution), the best approach is to start with the market, more specifically with a clear customer segment that is well sized.  

This is especially valid in markets which are fragmented, crowded with competition and entrenched. Some famous companies succeeded like this, for example Uber with the high end black transfer for well situated customers in San Francisco or PayPal focusing on Ebay sellers with their initial payment forms.

Then adjacent segments could be considered progressively as outlined inside the "Crossing the Chasm". 

In other markets where the purpose of the product would be quite universal in nature regardless of the domain of activity, the mass market approach could work quite well, as in the case of Zoom or Google Search.

Once the customer segment is established, the next phase in the Lean Test approach is to build the clear, falsifiable hypothesis that would need to define the success criteria but the exit criteria as well, even in the cases when the test proceeds in subsequent cycles so that the testing loop finishes meaningfully, regardless if it results in a pivot or in a continuation of the research effort. 

A clear quantifiable target is essential in the formulation of the hypothesis as such, for example:

We consider the Hypothesis validated if 80% of the users interviewed resonate with the Problem / Solution. It is important to apply the hypothesis to the whole space, problem & solution, in an iterative and systematic manner. 

More on this in the next entry...

The iterative approach, which is a universally accepted truth in Agile, is very valid in terms of lean startup approach, when it comes to product discovery as well .

I refer here to the iterative problem and solution testing until problem/solution fit is reached, then product/market fit is achieved and so on. 

Fact is that this approach does not go only into the evolution on the happy path in product creation, but it equally applies to any pivot as  well, be it problem pivot, solution pivot or market pivot.

The simple Inspect & Adapt cycle, applied qualitatively at the core of the interview process (equally internally to stakeholders and externally to customers) proves itself as a universal framework, guided by the targets stated inside the falsifiable hypotheses we test during our interviews,  with clearly defined success criteria.

More on this in subsequent entries...

After the successful launch of a product, it is natural to receive more complex requirements from the market, reflecting current needs.

It is recommended to plan for flexibility from the beginning, starting with a Core Team which is knowledgeable about the product from the beginning and already prepare the team members with leadership potential to be able to drive product extensions forward in their own teams.

In order to achieve this, there are several phases that, if done well, prepare an individual to grow into a team leader quickly:

• During the core phase, opportunities are created for all team members to act as subject matter experts and to lead meetings in their domains

• This way, their talents are discovered , the potential leaders already reveal  themselves, together with their area of expertise 

• They get trained in the hiring process of the company so that they can contribute to the team expansion phase

• Synergies between people are observed during these meetings and intrinsic motivation increases for both the mentor and the students of a subject matter

• It is ensured that the new lead can delegate effectively: this is key

• A new team is formed which has already a healthy baseline to its composition

While the product expands vertically (such a more functions) or horizontally (such as geographical expansion), the next leaders emerge either from the core team or from the new teams.

In my experience, when it comes to serving specific niches or when innovation in a specific area is needed, especially of a technical nature, the new leaders should be selected from the subsequent teams formed.