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We are in one of the most disruptive environments of our time and with the looming economic downturn effects on the global market and all of us, this complexity will only increase. Organisations are taking steps to fortify their products for the forthcoming difficulties. As a strategic innovation advisor, my conversations so far in 2023 with clients have shown three key themes ensuring organisational efficiency, leveraging technological trends and adapting to consumer behaviours that have dramatically changed over the past few years.
In this blog post, I will discuss the actual preparations being made by some of our client product leaders from across different industries to ensure the viability and resilience of their products and the ongoing engagement and growth of their customer base.
Product strategists are focusing on strengthening their brand positioning to provide increased value to cash-strapped families. They are getting more creative about having people trial their products and are leveraging equivalent approaches seen by many well known household names e.g. Netflix.
Strategic platform owners are simplifying their operations, especially retiring the costly long tail of complexity and technical debt. With many product owners focusing on stripping out embedded costs to act lean, agile, and simplified by adopting new technolgies and approaches.
Senior executives are looking for real returns and investing in products that will enhance the customer lifetime value. They want to ensure investment from teams is being focused on parts of the product that will help customers be more efficient and save them time.
Heads of delivery report that any decisions related to budget cuts or restructuring will be handed down from higher-ups. Resulting in a hightened focus on the viability of their products.
It’s evident that organisations are taking a proactive approach to prepare for a economic downturn by focusing on cost-effectiveness, lean innovation, and customer value-enhancements. By strengthening their brand positioning, simplifying operations, enhancing customer value, and adapting to change, organisations can turn this threat into an opportunity and emerge stronger on the other side.
Many of these themes we dicussed are the sweat spot of what we see from the success of product-led organisations and I am a strong believer that the difference between winning and losing during this period will be whether you have elevated your product-led strategy to compliment and support your sales and marketing teams.
