How to Develop a Product Strategy to Scale your Business

In crafting a product strategy, you're setting the stage for your business triumph. It's where you spell out your aspirations and chart your course towards them. This is the heartbeat of your product journey, illuminating the core purpose - the "why" - that fuels your roadmap. Before you delve into the nitty-gritty of developing your product roadmap and rolling out new features - the "what," "when," and "how" - it's this strategic framework that guides every step, ensuring every move is aligned with your overarching goals.

Expanding your business in a sustainable way requires balancing innovation with customer needs. The key is gaining a deep understanding of your customers and using that customer insight to guide strategic growth.

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Listen to Customers for the Best Growth Opportunities

Your existing customers are your best source of customer intelligence for how to expand successfully.

Pay close attention to what they say about your products, what’s working well, and what’s missing.

Understanding Customer Needs: A Pillar of Effective Product Strategy

Gather active and passive customer data for a complete picture of your customer needs and behaviors.

Passively analyze how people are actually using your products to identify opportunities for improvement and expansion.

Actively survey customers, and review support tickets and product reviews.

• Use SurveyMonkey to create and distribute surveys to your customers.
• Use Zendesk to manage and track support tickets and more customer service capabilities.
• Use Google Analytics to gather passive feedback on how users interact with your websites.
• Use a CRM system like Hubspot to track interactions with your product/service throughout the customer lifecycle.

Trex Case Study: Deck Design App Drives Growth

Consider Trex, a company known for its sustainable deck materials. They discovered a key customer issue: those wanting to build decks faced challenges, as they either had to design and build on their own or hire professionals for the job. This situation not only added extra time and costs due to outsourcing the design but also left many customers uncertain about the practicality and realization of their deck projects.

The solution involved a collaboration with 3Pillar Global to build a photorealistic deck design app. It allowed customers to upload images of their backyards, input dimensions, choose preferences, and receive a blueprint, estimate, and shopping list for their projects.

The outcome was highly positive, with customers impressed by the app's photorealism and the level of detail it offered for their designs. The app also included an integrated CRM software system, enhancing the sales team's ability to gather data, generate qualified leads, and provide personalized support throughout the sales process.

Effective CRM management is crucial for scaling correctly. Yet, many companies face challenges like data overload, poor system integration, or underutilization of their CRM. At Gobvio, we have been helping dozens of companies rebuild, optimize, and automate their CRMs for their specific needs. Because CRMs are built equal, but businesses are not. Our specialized team, Opside, is ready for your free discovery call to transform your CRM into a strategic powerhouse.

Enhancing Product Offerings: A Strategic Approach to Product Strategy

When expanding, focus on complementing your existing products in a cohesive way. Your customers chose you for a reason, so stick to what you do best.

Add features and products that naturally extend your core offerings. This helps maintain brand consistency and the quality your customers expect.

The products and services you offer should evolve based on actual customer demand, not speculation. Look for opportunities where there is clear interest from your customers and market.

• Use SEMrush or Ahrefs to analyze market trends, analyze competitors’ websites to find gaps in your offerings, and understand what complementary features could be in demand with keyword research.

Balancing Organic and Inorganic Growth in Your Product Strategy

There are two main paths for expansion:

• Organic growth by meeting clear customer needs. This gradual growth is based on actual demand from your customers.
• Inorganic growth through strategic moves like acquisitions. This accelerated growth allows you to quickly enter new markets or gain a competitive advantage.

Your choice depends on your business goals, but often a mix of both strategies works best.

Organic growth through customer satisfaction ensures your offerings stay relevant.

Inorganic growth, like entering new markets or acquiring competitors, can drive more significant revenue and advantages. But without customer relevance, inorganic growth is hard to sustain.

Conclusion

By taking a strategic approach focused on customer insight, you can expand your business in a way that builds on your strengths, leverages proven demand, and balances short and long-term goals.

The key is listening closely to your customers and using that understanding to guide smart innovation and growth.

As you begin scaling your business, it's crucial to proactively develop your organizational structure to facilitate and amplify this growth. Learn more in our latest post on internal structuring for business growth.

Equip yourself for upcoming growth phases with valuable knowledge from our expert insights.

Until next time, go sell, go market, gobvio!