What you look in a product is the capability to address certain market needs by solving one or more business challenges. Assuming that we identified the need and business challenge and built the product, it will, as any other product, go through a natural lifecycle that starts with introduction, then growth, maturity, and finally decline.

1. How to develop a product strategy for your company?
In the past two articles, we answered two question:
1. Do your channel partners have a product strategy?
2. Why do we need to launch new products?
The answer of those two questions is the need to have a product strategy for your company, or
in case you are a brand owner or “vendor” as the name given to you by channel partners, you
need to encourage and help them build a product strategy for their own organizations.
Encouraging and developing your channel partners’ product strategy will give you good insight
to where you are in their own revenue growth strategy.
In this article and the ones to follow, we will take you through the steps required to build a
product strategy for your company. In developing product strategy, I lean towards “sales
benchmark” revenue growth methodology as being the most hands-on approach I experienced.
What you look in a product is the capability to address certain market needs by solving one or
more business challenges. Assuming that we identified the need and business challenge and built
the product, it will, as any other product, go through a natural lifecycle that starts with
introduction, then growth, maturity, and finally decline.
At introduction, buyers wait for acceptance of the early adopters, after which the early majority
follow and start buying the product, resulting in revenue growth for the sellers (hence the
lifecycle stage name, growth). Next, more people buy the product and demand slows down as
similar products pop up and claim the same value proposition. This stage is called maturity and
precedes the inevitable decline phase, in which the product usually is shelved and leaves its place
for newer and better products.
To sustain product revenue, you need to continue unearthing markets and buyers’ needs and
discover business challenges that require products/services to solve them. That is why you
should have a sound and dynamic product strategy to help revenue growth aspirations for your
company and keep your shareholders happy.
There are three phases required to develop a sound product strategy:
1. Product Planning (markets, accounts, and buyers)
2. Product Principles (buyer behavior, customer experience, and product design)
3. Go to Market (product roadmap, product launch, sales & marketing message, pricing and
packaging
Next week, we will start the product planning phase and address the three components:
markets, accounts, and buyers.
Ashraf Osman, July 2017