The Product Coalition

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Startup/business/side-hustle ideas can be as exciting as they are scary. So I’ve repackaged the materials I’ve used or put together over the years into a Startup Idea Exploration Workbook. No previous startup knowledge required. What if no one wants what I have to offer? What if I don’t have what it takes? 5 customer interviews.

Startups 134

Startups User Testing Research Software Differentiation 134

The Product Guy

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. He is currently the product head for a healthcare startup aiming to introduce innovative solutions to help parents with young children.

Research Software 370

Research Software User Testing Analytic Tools Product Research 370

The Product Coalition

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Strategies for staying ahead — or catching up. Continue reading on Product Coalition »

Differentiation 145

Differentiation Strategy Startups Agile 145

Mixpanel

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

All companies, from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 corporations, engage in product development. The post BI vs. product analytics: Key differentiators appeared first on Mixpanel. But earlier in a company’s lifecycle, it’s not practical to make this investment––and it isn’t truly necessary. Ready to get started?

Data Visualization 111

Data Visualization Analytic Tools Differentiation User Testing 111

The Product Guy

OCTOBER 25, 2016

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. He is currently the product head for a healthcare startup aiming to introduce innovative solutions to help parents with young children.

Analytic Tools 356

Analytic Tools Research Software CTO Coach Fractional CTO 356

The Secret PM Handbook

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016

Why my product is a better choice for you (the differentiators). For example, articulating a meaningful Dramatic Difference or “differentiator” portion of the value proposition is usually difficult. What are the four components? Who the product is for (the market). What the product is (the category). Categorization tools.

Product Management 275

Product Management Product Manager Product Research User Testing 275

Andrew Chen

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

and finally, what happens when my “X for Y” startup idea is taken? People love describing startups as “X for Y” — why? ” In fact, Marketwatch did an analysis of startup company descriptions and found that startups often compared themselves to other companies in their descriptions.

Startups 109

Startups Customer Experience Technical Review Travel 109

The Product Guy

APRIL 23, 2019

Some aspect of the above story is often seen playing out within many companies and startups alike everywhere. As the Lean Startup methodology suggests, build-measure-learn. What differentiates you from others? The several long nights by your team and you seem to be a waste, and you are left wondering why.

Product Research 352

Product Research User Testing Customer Experience Customer Feedback 352

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 19, 2020

As an engineer, UX designer, product manager, and startup advisor for more than 20 years, VP of Product at the Business Talent Group Laura Klein has seen it all , and written the books to prove it: UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products. Laura Klein on improving chemistry in product teams.

User Testing 245

User Testing Research Software Product Research Feedback Software 245

Mind the Product

MARCH 20, 2020

Communication, Melissa says, will be the make or break differential when it comes to making it into the C-Suite. Start today by asking yourself how your product relates to revenue or cost. Then challenge yourself by asking how you can build on that story. Communication.

User Testing 253

User Testing Product Research Customer Feedback Customer Experience 253

The Product Guy

OCTOBER 9, 2018

First, I did not know how to frame, develop and present product strategy in a systematic way, and second, as a startup, my company has not historically had a good track record of strategy being developed outside of senior management (read: founder). I became a product manager because I wanted to take a more strategic role at my company.

Weak Development Team 326

Weak Development Team Product Strategy Strategy Development 326

Product Innovation Educators

JUNE 21, 2021

You categorize and prioritize to develop products with maximum differentiation and value, and you align the group around the important requirements. Eric Reis’ Lean Startup. You categorize and prioritize to develop products with maximum differentiation and value, and you align the group around the important requirements.

Development 258

Development Customer Experience Differentiation Events 258

The Product Guy

JANUARY 5, 2017

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. He is currently the product head for a healthcare startup aiming to introduce innovative solutions to help parents with young children.

Analytic Tools 271

Analytic Tools Research Software CTO Coach Fractional CTO 271

The Product Coalition

MARCH 18, 2022

Recently one of the founders of a hot startup asked me, “How do we know if we should add new value props for existing customers or continue to invest in existing ones? The initial phases 2 and 3 (the time between startups raising Series A to raising Series B) play a massive role in achieving the 2T3D growth dream.

Customer Experience 203

Customer Experience Onboarding KPIs User Testing Customer Feedback 203

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

During a conversation on the Intercom on Product podcast , Des Traynor and Paul Adams discussed the competition between startups and incumbents. In the race for market share, startups try to close the gaps on incumbent companies, while incumbents try to build new, differentiator features. Whoever does it fastest will win.

Feedback Software 249

Feedback Software Product Management Product Manager User Testing 249

The Product Guy

APRIL 4, 2017

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. From head of product at an early stage startup to managing global web properties at American Express, his career has taken him to the UK, France and back to New York.

Analytic Tools 268

Analytic Tools Research Software CTO Coach Development 268

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

Keep in mind, as your business matures from startup to scale-up, your sales strategy will need to evolve too. Establish clear, differentiated roles on your sales team. Many startups, when using this model to define themselves, end up in the bottom-left quadrant because it’s the easiest one to scale in. But that threshold exists.

Outbound 177

Outbound Strategy Inbound Customer Experience 177

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 3, 2021

It may take a bit of a leap of faith to invest in a differentiation strategy that won’t immediately translate into ROI, especially in a pandemic, but you can’t sacrifice innovation and sustainability for short-term revenue. The general gist of that is you need to be both differentiated to be attractive to buy in the first place.

Strategy 228

Strategy Feedback Software Research Software Software Review 228

Andrew Chen

JUNE 4, 2018

Many of the biggest implosions in recent history – especially ecommerce – have been due to startups getting addicted to paid marketing while fooling themselves on Customer Acqusition Costs. It’s much harder to fix the underlying issues – creating real moats, product differentiation, doing deeper adtech integrations.

Startups 111

Startups Marketing Customer Experience Customer Feedback 111

Andrew Chen

JUNE 3, 2019

Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category. . The math of startups and venture capital. Of all the topics of the book, one of my favorites has to be the math of startups and venture capital, because it gives us a perspective on the life and death of startups as a whole. The J-Curve.

Startups 109

Startups Reference Books Finance 109

Andrew Chen

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It’s hard to be a product without a strong theory of distribution Here’s a common startup situation. 99% of startups are not differentiated on their underlying technology, and there is very little engineering risk involved. A team busts their ass for months building the first version of their product.

User Testing 105

User Testing Research Software Feedback Software Startups 105

Roman Pichler

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

1] As simple as this sounds, there is a catch: To create value with Scrum, you must understand who the users and customers are, why people would want to use and pay for the product, which business benefits it should generate, and, in the case of commercial products, which features differentiate it from competing offerings.

Product Research 371

Product Research Feedback Software Research Software User Testing 371

Mixpanel

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

It’s been a long-held notion in startup circles that lack of product-market fit will doom even the scrappiest of teams to fail. And beyond the anecdotal, an often-cited 2019 study CB Insights found that “no market need” was the leading reason most startups don’t succeed. ” Credit: The Lean Startup Playbook. In short, yes.

User Testing 130

User Testing Onboarding KPIs Product Research Startups 130

Alchemer Mobile

JULY 11, 2019

“The average app loses 77 percent of its DAUs (Daily Average Users) within the first three days after the install” according to research conducted in late 2018 by Andreessen Horowitz general partner Andrew Chen and mobile intelligence startup Quettra. How do you maximize your opportunity? Know Thy Customer—and Thy Enemy. Sounds simple, right?

Research Software 220

Research Software User Testing Feedback Software Customer Experience 220

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

This is Season Two of Scale , Intercom’s podcast series on moving from startup to scale-up. Turning a sales objection into a unique differentiator. Rather than shying away from the marketplace, she embraced it as Udemy for Business’ unique differentiator. Yvonne swiftly flipped this story on its head.

Feedback Software 243

Feedback Software Analytic Tools Research Software Data Visualization 243

The Product Guy

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. He is currently the product head for a healthcare startup aiming to introduce innovative solutions to help parents with young children.

Analytic Tools 240

Analytic Tools Research Software CTO Coach Fractional CTO 240

Product Innovation Educators

JANUARY 13, 2020

I love figuring out where to start on a product, who the right customers are, and what the key differentiator is. Because I’m in a startup, I’m also the chief whiteboard cleaner and food orderer. At a startup, you can’t focus on just one thing. My primary job is setting the product strategy and vision.

User Testing 230

User Testing Product Research Marketing Research Software 230

The Product Guy

MAY 15, 2017

He lives in London, currently working as Product Manager at Gumtree.com, an Ebay company, previously led product at international startups and large organisations. From head of product at an early stage startup to managing global web properties at American Express, his career has taken him to the UK, France and back to New York.

Analytic Tools 225

Analytic Tools Research Software Product Strategy CTO Coach 225

Mind the Product

AUGUST 24, 2018

The term Product/Market Fit was coined by Marc Andreesen back in 2007 and it’s been a key goal for any new product or startup ever since. Often you’ll find it’s not the other startup in the space but something as prosaic as pen and paper or Excel spreadsheets. Exploring the Problem Space. Mastering the Problem Space.

User Testing 188

User Testing Product Marketing Marketing Customer Experience 188

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 20, 2022

Not too long ago, when Intercom turned 10 , we dedicated an entire episode to speed , or why startups should always strive to keep momentum as they scale. I think both myself and you, Paul, at the very least, and I’d argue all 300 folks in R&D would all agree, speed is a huge ingredient of a successful startup.

Feedback Software 249

Feedback Software Reporting Tools Product Research Data Visualization 249

The Product Coalition

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Credit: Austin Distel Startups reading the wrong resources waste months with the wrong methods. How to write a user interview: “Lean startups” chapter 2 only (Eric Ries) The second most important thing is to understand how to ask questions. It gives you a way to identify your value propositions to differentiate. ???????????

User Testing 152

User Testing Books Product Marketing Marketing 152

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

” Unique activities : Find the differentiators that make sense for you. I think a lot of startups do this too, right? And the reason for this is that you need differentiation. So the differentiation is always only temporary, assuming it’s valuable, but it’s always only temporary. Is that it?

Product Strategy 187

Product Strategy Strategy Research Software User Testing 187

Product Innovation Educators

APRIL 1, 2024

We can make it amazing, and that’s what differentiates us in the crowded market. [5:38] First, sometimes startup founders develop a product to solve their own problem and assume others experience the problem the same as they do. We can make it amazing, and that’s what differentiates us in the crowded market. [5:38]

Customer Experience 250

Customer Experience User Friction User Testing Automotive 250

The Product Coalition

JANUARY 12, 2022

A larger ecosystem of these big players sooner or later becomes a threat for the product-led-growth startups. The brief background, in the beginning, might have given an idea for solving the differentiation strategy cases. Slack has a strong presence in the startups’ ecosystem as a single collaboration app. Let’s move the case.

Research Software 177

Research Software Technical Review Strategy Product Research 177

Innovatemap

MARCH 23, 2025

With insights from some of the smartest leaders we know in New York City, we discussed the realities of building, funding and differentiating in todays competitive market. Startups today are proving they can scale without relying on an endless fundraising cycle. Test and refine until your product becomes mission-critical.

Customer Feedback 52

Customer Feedback Feedback Software User Testing User Friction 52

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 31, 2019

And it’s not just the startups playing this game – Steve Jobs was proudly averse to the notion of subscriptions, and now Apple spends most of its earning calls boasting about the performance of its services division.

Artificial Inteligence 259

Artificial Inteligence Entertainment Customer Experience Messaging 259

Sachin Rekhi

JUNE 20, 2016

While these specific product roles rarely have differentiated titles or formal separate requirements, savvy hiring managers are certainly looking for product managers with specific skill-sets and passion areas depending on the specific product stage and challenges they are solving for. A Few Words of Advice.

User Testing 167

User Testing Customer Experience Product Research Analytic Tools 167