The One Principle That Product Managers Should Know

A common trap inexperienced Product Managers get caught in is the "Swiss Army Knife" mindset.

This involves constantly building features that address variegated needs, while the product "as a whole" fails to be a great fit for any customer segment.

If the product has an acute desire to be "something for everyone", you'll find a PM that is greenlighting every feature request because it seemed important/urgent at the time. Or is constantly held at ransom by sales (build X OR we lose this "huge" client).

A product needs a backbone strength. There needs to be some high-value, recurring customer problem that it solves better than others at scale.

I admire products like Calendly for this reason.

It focused on fixing scheduling woes, got insanely good at it & traction ballooned. It didn't get caught in a feature circus.

Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't broaden your product scope. You should. But with a "land & expand" approach.

First, attain product-market fit for the niche you're building for. Then, move horizontally or vertically.

Wait, what if I selected the wrong niche? Or it was too narrow? Then, pivot & find another backbone.

Ex: Mailchimp only moved into landing pages & social ads after creating indisputable leadership in the email space.