The most unexpected (and my favorite) byproduct of this newsletter has been the serendipitous conversations stemming from reader comments. And one recently asked me to think beyond just crafting product strategy and talk through “operationalization”. The below is our (cleaned up) email exchange, where I lay out all the ways strategy doesn’t stick in an organization.
Or even Substack - What's their strategy? Is it really that difficult for a new product to come up with web hosting+ subscription management + e-mail automation + payment processing. What is the real value they are offering to writers that's so difficult for a competitor to copy? Why is it so hard for a competitive startup to copy their features and offer it to writers at a steep discount, say a take of 5% (instead of substack's 10%).
Ibramin - Thanks. A request - a lot of newsletters focusing on strategy templates, but very few try to bring these template to life by providing real examples. Do you think you think you can do some posts explaining strategy through the example of a startup, say Asana. What is their strategy, what is it that they are doing thats so different from all the other proj mgmt SaaS companies out there? Do they have any real differentiation? How does their differentiation tie back to their value chain. Something along these lines would be really useful. Many thanks
Ibrahim - this thread offers some pretty good insight into differentiated product strategy in action https://twitter.com/ProtagorasTO/status/1335254106760470532?s=20
Or even Substack - What's their strategy? Is it really that difficult for a new product to come up with web hosting+ subscription management + e-mail automation + payment processing. What is the real value they are offering to writers that's so difficult for a competitor to copy? Why is it so hard for a competitive startup to copy their features and offer it to writers at a steep discount, say a take of 5% (instead of substack's 10%).
Ibramin - Thanks. A request - a lot of newsletters focusing on strategy templates, but very few try to bring these template to life by providing real examples. Do you think you think you can do some posts explaining strategy through the example of a startup, say Asana. What is their strategy, what is it that they are doing thats so different from all the other proj mgmt SaaS companies out there? Do they have any real differentiation? How does their differentiation tie back to their value chain. Something along these lines would be really useful. Many thanks