The Product Tree

Readers of this newsletter by now know my affinity for mental models - here’s a new one from the CRO of Twilio:

“We didn’t know at the start of it the place that we actually filled in the market. It’s sort of informed an outlook that I have. There are companies that are selling a feature. In other words, you can’t use what they have unless you’re attaching it to something else. There are companies that sell products, that are collections of features. And there are companies that sell platforms. And I think markets tend towards platforms if there are scale requirements. So ultimately, over time, feature companies will disappear at tactical levels. Product companies will compete, ultimately ineffectively, against platforms.” - Marc Boroditsky

My summary of this framing:

1. feature - has atomic value, but not by itself, and can differentiate and delight

2. solution - solves a use case, and probably encompasses multiple features

3. platform - enables an umbrella of solutions to exist and compete in the market

Note: I avoid the word “product” because I see that as an overloaded term that can refer to a feature or solution or platform.

The breakdown above tends to come across as hierarchal, but I see it more as a symbiotic system. Here’s a an analogy that’s a bit of a reach, but if you think of a product as a tree:

• feature == leaf

• solution == branch

• platform == trunk

Bonus, over-extended metaphor:

• market == forest

• outcome == fruit

• PM == gardener || arborist

Here’s a concrete example using Amazon and it’s e-commerce offering:

1. feature - Amazon Prime shipping

2. solution - Fulfillment by Amazon

3. platform - Amazon Marketplace

A few thoughts come to mind once you’ve internalized this model:

• A product team should be aware of where it lives on the food chain, and who its natural partners and predators are

• The same company could potentially offer products on multiple dimensions over time

• You can’t compare features vs solutions vs platforms because the investment envelopes / payoff horizons vary big time

• The only way to disrupt a market is a feature, but the only way to dominate a market is a platform

This is a bit of a free-form post (something I’ll be doing more of this year), because I don’t really have an “aha!” takeaway - just something I’m thinking about...

I’d love to hear from readers about their favorite product metaphors - please chime in via comments👇. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.

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further reading / references

• the Marc Boroditsky quote is from Kleiner Perkins’s Go To Market Grit podcast

• the PM as gardener || arborist analogy has shades of a prior post on PM paths

• the terms product, platform, marketplace, and ecosystem tend to be conflated, so I recommend reading Platform vs Linear Business Modelsand Platform Types

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childish drawing / interpretation