Pivoting equals failure?🤯
Product Management, UX, Startups, AI, and more — freshly curated by Zeda.io
Hello, all you product-loving folks! 💜
Welcome to this week's edition of Product Café, your weekly cup of coffee for everything product management, startups, and more. ☕
When we hear the term 'pivot' in the business sphere, it often evokes a sense of dread, synonymous with impending failure. However, this perception is far from the truth!
A smart, well-executed pivot could very well be the stepping stone to your business's grand renaissance. Need proof? Here’s a sneak peek at some industry giants who pivoted their way to the pinnacle.
Successful Business Pivots
Pinterest📌
What started as Tote, a mobile shopping app, hit a roadblock due to payment technology issues. A keen observation of users relishing saving and sharing product images led CEO Ben Silbermann to pivot and voila, Pinterest was born - a visual wonderland for displaying and sharing cherished collections.
Shopify🛍️
Over a decade ago, Shopify’s quest began with a simple aim to create an online snowboard store. Facing a hurdle with existing e-commerce solutions, the founders crafted their own platform. The pivot emerged from a need for better online store control, catapulting Shopify into go-to platform for numerous businesses aiming for seamless online, in-store, and on-the-go sales.
YouTube📽️
Our daily dose of video enlightenment almost had a romantic start as a video-dating service. However, the pivot to a video-sharing platform was a game-changer, making YouTube our go-to for informative and entertaining content.
Slack💬
Our teams virtually reside on Slack, wouldn’t you agree? The journey began with a gaming venture called Glitch. During its development, Stewart Butterfield utilized the platform as an internal communication tool at Tiny Speck (now Slack Technologies). Realizing Glitch’s unsure commercial future, Butterfield astutely pivoted, launching Slack as our cherished instant messaging platform.
Now, these aren’t mere tales of triumph but exemplars that a timely pivot, rooted in brilliant observations and consumer feedback, can rekindle the fortunes of a business. Yet, the pivotal question looms - how to pivot successfully?
Here’s Your Pivot Playbook:
Analyze the Challenges😷: Dive into a detailed post-mortem to unearth the missteps with your current product or strategy.
Rediscover and Realign💡: With the gathered insights, reboot your discovery process. Reconnect with existing users for feedback and explore fresh user segments.
Strategize Your Pivot♟️: Harness Eric Ries’ ten pivoting strategies as your compass in this crucial phase.
Zoom-in/Zoom-out Pivot: Either spotlight a single feature as your whole product or expand your product to encompass more features.
Customer Segment/Need Pivot: Alter your target customer base or address a different customer need if the current problem isn’t resonating well.
Platform Pivot: Transition between an application to a platform or vice versa to better suit market demands.
... (and the rest of Eric’s strategies as detailed in the original text)
Experiment and Engage🔬: Adopt an evidence-based approach, experiment with your new direction, and actively seek feedback.
Decide: Abandon or Pivot👀: Avoid pivoting merely as a delaying tactic for the inevitable. If a hard pivot seems futile, perhaps a fresh start without baggage is the prudent path.
Source: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/to-pivot-or-to-not-a-guide-to-executing-a-product-pivot/
Pivoting is not about masking failure but about embracing change and adapting with agility to market whims. If done right, it can steer your venture from the abyss of oblivion to the zenith of success. After all, as many industry giants have underscored, failure is not a terminus but a turning point. ✨
Comic of the week 💬
5 Tools That Should Be in Every Product Manager’s Belt🥋
In a recent engaging dialogue with Authority Magazine, Prashant Mahajan of Zeda.io shared some candid moments from his professional journey and shed light on essential tools that aid in effective product management.
Reflecting on the unexpected career pause during the pandemic, Prashant shared how it nudged him towards contemplating entrepreneurial avenues, eventually leading to the initiation of Zeda.io. It's a subtle reminder of how unforeseen circumstances can sometimes open doors to new beginnings.
The crux of the discussion delved into the dynamics of product management. Prashant emphasized the value of regular team interactions and the instrumental role of streamlined tools in managing feedback and aiding data analysis for improved product development.
Unveiling his list of ‘5 Tools That Should Be in Every Product Manager’s Belt’, Prashant pointed towards essentials like solid documentation, effective automation, and a reliable product management tool to tie all ends together. These insights could serve as practical takeaways for those navigating the product management realm.
What’s brewing on Zeda.io’s side?☕️
We are elated to unveil our eagerly awaited integration with Salesforce.
Now, effortlessly transfer your customer insights from Salesforce to Zeda.io at the click of a button. Elevate your business strategy to new heights! 🚀
📊 Seamlessly sync data for a unified workspace, eliminating manual tasks and errors.
🤝 Enhance Team Collaboration to understand customer needs, driving more targeted strategies.
💵 Prioritize features based on revenue potential, focusing your efforts where they count.
Explore more about this integration here👇
It’s hard to explain what a Product Manager does, we get it. But you know what’s not that hard? Sharing this newsletter with your friends and colleagues!
