Layering AI into your B2B Product and GTM
A while back, I had laid out a formula for a successful B2B business: it’s a series of loops (credit to this Kevin Kwok essay for the concept). The gist of the idea:
individual -> team productivity
consumer -> creator mixshift
enterprise -> ecosystem reach
Simply put, your initial product wedge is to boost individual user productivity to a degree that their broader cross-functional team sees the benefit. You then need to get a critical mass of users exhibiting that power user behavior, usually by improving their literacy or simplifying the workflow to the point where consumers become creators. And finally, you extend your reach into the broader ecosystem by introducing a platform play.
So you have a bunch of B2B SaaS products in the market today following this playbook to various degrees (sometimes knowingly, sometimes not). And now, with the recent advancements in generative AI, you’re being asked to layer AI into your B2B product and GTM more prominently…so what do you do?
The short answer is you revisit those company building loops and ask:
How can AI shorten the path to a major increase in user productivity?
How can AI accelerate shifting casual consumers into active creators?
How can AI expand the effects of my network across the ecosystem?
There is absolutely friction on each of these dimensions that previously was either a fixed cost that had to be paid (e.g. a complex setup process) or a heavy tax that was hard to get around (e.g. learning curve for new users) - the value of AI is to fundamentally revisit and rethink these costs and taxes - do they even need to be paid and could they be managed much more cheaply in terms of user / buyer time and effort?
If this is a topic you’d like to dive deeper into, I’m co-hosting a live, free tech talk tomorrow - you can learn more and sign up via the link below!
UPDATE: the event is over, but you can find a recap / recording here
As always, I’d love to hear from readers who are exploring layering AI into their B2B products - please chime in via comments👇 or join the chat via the Substack app.
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further reading / references
if you’re up for a #longread, check out Consumerizing Enterprise == Loop Sequencing
listen to Platform Plays to learn the 3 ility’s (scalability, extensibility, composability)
childish drawing / interpretation
