Just Product Management Things: Issue #5
Web3 for Product Managers, Becoming product-led, Pillars of International Growth and more...
Becoming product-led: What does it mean?
At its core, being product-led means focusing on providing true value through your product. In contrast to more marketing- or sales-led models, product-led companies focus on acquiring and retaining customers through their product experience and unique value proposition.
It does means being product-first and not replacing marketing/sales
How to become product-led:
Find out what customers value the most in their product.
What are the biggest customer problems the product solves?
Which features and functionality could your customers not live without and drive true long-term engagement?
Web3 for Product Managers
What is Web3: A new iteration of the World Wide Web based on blockchains, which incorporates concepts including decentralization and token-based economics.
All users need some form of blockchain token: an NFT or a cryptocurrency. There are varying degrees of decentralization in Web3: From OpenSea which hosts NFTs on blockchain, but metadata on central datastores to Uniswap (a crypto exchange) where all code is hosted on blockchains.
Key differences between web2 and web3
Addressable Market: Since users require a token at the bare-minimum, the TAM is order of magnitude smaller. For eg: only ~16% Americans have a cryptocurrency (vs 93% Americans who have access to internet). Further, most of this crypto isn’t actually usable with web3 applications, due to complex constructs such as custody-services, wallets, gas fees, etc. Needless to say, the TAM size is going to be even smaller in non-developed nations
Demographics: Most of crypto is concentrated with non-white males in the 25-44 age-group
Data transparency: While web2 is heavily driving value from data-ownership; web3 removes that value by actually storing all data on publicly accessible ledgers.
Asset ownership and profitability: Users maintain custody of their assets and can freely move them between applications. As product managers, this means we can no longer use custody of assets to increase switching costs and lock users in
Mistakes of newbie product leaders and how to avoid them?
New leaders tend to over index on firefighting and as a result end up spending too much time on low ROI activities. Key reasons for doing this:
They feel it is what “leading from the front” means
Leaders confuse accountability with responsibility
Firefighting skills is what got them promoted into a people management role
It is a great way to remove the insecurities of being in a leadership role
What leaders ‘shouldn’t do’ is not well documented
The pillars of international growth
Product/Culture Fit:
Don’t get fooled by an early adopters in a new market
Look out for emergent use-cases
Differentiate your company from local competitors
The best ways to measure progress toward product/culture fit are to measure customer retention and look for accelerating organic growth.
Customer Accessibility: A company must make its product accessible to customers by adapting its performance, pricing, and payment methods to meet local needs.
Product performance: Optimize website / mobile performance. It should also work equally well in localized language and features
Pricing: Willingness to pay and pricing the localized pricing based on the local purchasing power and socio-economic condition
Payment methods: Make local payment methods available and finetune them for highest performance
Universal Currencies: A company needs one or more universal currencies such as cash, content, or connectors to fuel its core growth loops across international borders.
Other Interesting Reads
Apologies!
I am sorry that I couldn’t post an issue last week. I had a rather hectic week at work (FY23 planning) and a few personal commitments. As a result, I could not read much and I could therefore not spend enough time to put an issue together. Will try to be more regular going forward.
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