Hiten Shah - 5 Lessons Learned Growing 3 Products

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Five Lessons Learned Growing Three Products(why product/market fit and growth are critical to long-term success)

Hiten Shahhnshah@gmail.com

Three Products

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

Five Growth Lessons

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

The Five Lessons

Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail

No market need

Ran out of cash

Not the right team

Got outcompeted

Pricing/cost issues

Poor product

Need/lack business model

Poor marketing

Ignore customers

Product mis-timed

Lost focus

Disharmony on team/investors

Pivot gone bad

Lack passion

Bad location

No financing/investor interest

Legal challenges

Didn’t use network/advisors

Burn out

Failure to pivot

42%

29%

23%

19%

18%

17%

17%

14%

14%

13%

13%

13%

10%

9%

9%

8%

8%

8%

8%

7%

“No market need” is the #1 reason

Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.Marc Andreessen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz

Product/Market Fit

You need product/market fit before you can grow your

business.

• Product/Market Fit Survey• Net Promoter Score (NPS)• Retention (Cohort Analysis)• Engagement• Churn

How to Analyze Product/Market Fit

Product/Market Fit Survey

http://qs.tc/slackpmfit

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

http://delighted.com

Retention (Cohort Analysis)

http://qs.tc/bbalfourretention

Engagement

http://qs.tc/pmfitengage

Churn

http://qs.tc/modelingchurn

You know it when people constantly tell other people about

your product.

Before Product/Market Fit

It’s easier than ever to get customers.

It’s harder than ever to keep them.

Customers

HTTP://WWW.USERONBOARD.COM/FEATURES-VS-BENEFITS/

People don't buy products; they buy better versions of themselves.

TODO:

Take the time to do thorough research up front

It’s faster to research than to write code. Upfront depth prevents you from building the wrong things.

HTTP://KISS.LY/WORKBACK

We try to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.Ian McAllister, Amazon

Working Backwards

TODO:

Create tweets and a blog post before you write

code.

Working Backwards With Tweets, Blog Posts and Press Releases

Find the critical problems your target audience has

and solve them better than anyone else.

This is your job.

Go Where Customers Are!Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

HTTP://KISS.LY/MVP

http://kiss.ly/peoplewant

You Are Not Your Custome

r

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

The Five Lessons

Our hypothesis is that product managers have a problem doing effective customer research.

http://kissinsights.com

Product managers hang out on other people’s websites.

Where do your customers hang out?

How we tracked it

Using a “powered-by” strategy KISSinsights became profitable and was acquired because it got over 25,000 signups with $0 spent on advertising.

http://qualaroo.com

How can you make your product grow by itself?

• Powered By• Integrations• Work Emails• Embeds• Invites / Referrals

Five ways that products can grow themselves

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

The Five Lessons

Growth is about taking your product (the original principal value) and optimizing it to produce compound interest. Much of growth is dedicated to finding the levers you can pull for incrementing compound interest over time.Andy Johns http://qr.ae/rbj63

Growth is about producing compound interest

KISSmetrics signups over time

• How do I increase the rate of acquisition i.e. get more signups?

• What can I do to activate as many users as quickly as possible in their first 'N' days?

• What are the levers for engagement and retention and how can I pull them?

• How do I bring churned users back into the system to "resurrect" them from the dead?

Fundamental growth questions to ask

http://qr.ae/rbjP4

Growth accounting for B2C and B2B companies

http://qs.tc/growthaccounting

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

The Five Lessons

• How do I increase the rate of acquisition i.e. get more signups?

• What can I do to activate as many users as quickly as possible in their first 'N' days?

• What are the levers for engagement and retention and how can I pull them?

• How do I bring churned users back into the system to "resurrect" them from the dead?

Fundamental growth questions to ask

http://qr.ae/rbjP4

• Reduce as much friction as possible from people signing up.

• Get people who are barely ready to buy your product to start using your free product.

• Show free users how they could solve their problems using your paid product.

• If you can keep free users active, they'll stick around longer.

• Your leads don't just reset at the end of every free trial period.

Why freemium rocks!

I’m not going to write off freemium completely. I believe there are definitely situations where it can work.

Josh Pigford, Baremetrics

• What features should the free plan have?• How will the free plan cause people to pay?• How will free users help get us more free users?• How will we engage and retain these users over time?• How can we support our free plan users at a low

enough cost that the percentage who end up paying provide a positive ROI for us?

Questions to ask when thinking about freemium

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

The Five Lessons

Go Where Customers Are!Long, slow, SaaS ramp of death…

Go Where Customers Are!Long, slow, SaaS ramp of death…

Go Where Customers Are!Growth can be sped up!

Only 1 out of 5 tests win.

4 out of 5 tests cost you money.

$

KISSmetrics signups over time

KISSmetrics homepage conversion improvements

KISSmetrics conversion rate over time

Checklists, guidelines, screencasts, specifications and requirements are a few ways to create repeatable and scalable growth.

Make sure you have a growth workbook

If you’re not testing, you’re not

learning.

Always have tests running,

no matter how small.

If you don't have a process, you won't continuously

improve.

1. Can’t grow without product/market fit2. Products should grow themselves3. Measure growth the right way4. Free is a growth strategy5. Growth takes time

Five Growth Lessons

Thank Y0u =)How can I help you?

Hiten Shahhnshah@gmail.com

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