As a product leader, you have the responsibility to plan strategically for your company to grow its customer base and revenue. Thanks to years of other people growing companies, there are ten standard playbooks for how to accelerate your company’s trajectory. Simply because they are standard doesn’t mean that you can’t execute them in your own special snowflake way, but it’s relatively hard to reinvent the wheel. The list below is designed for leaders who are thinking about what the next phase of their company should be so that you can make sure you’ve entertained all the options. It’s very easy to think of one path and fall in love with it without exploring alternative routes. You may have a little John Frost (author who wrote two roads diverged in a wood poem) in you, and it’s worth exploring the roads less taken, it might just make all the difference. Each of the 16 options, can be used to accomplish at least one of the three primary business objectives: Add New Logos (growing your total addressable market or serviceable one) Improve Retention (increasing lifetime value or money per logo) Decrease Costs (reducing customer acquisition cost or operating expenses) It's important to note that for each goal, there are many strategies which can assist in accomplishing it. Unfortunately, not all strategies are correct for each company. Therefore, please see the attached video powerpoint deck which outlines tips for how to make that strategy successful and the conditions when it is a favorable option. If you manage a portfolio of products, different options will be applicable to each one depending on the current situation it is facing. ---- Hi! I’m Tami, the founder of The Product Leader Coach where I work with product leaders and teams to realize their potential by focusing on their strengths. If you enjoyed this post, I am available for product leadership coaching or team training. Learn more about my services and upcoming children’s book at tamireiss.com

1. 16 STRATEGIES
FOR GROWTH

2. STRATEGY
PRE-WORK

3. PRODUCT STRATEGY:
Product Strategy is a system of goals and
related choices that work together to
accomplish the mission and vision of the
organization.
The mission and vision represent where you
are going, and the strategy is the framework
that guides decisions across the organization
which will help everyone get there together.
A strong strategy includes who you will
serve and how you plan to serve them,
and more so leverages your competitive
advantages to grow in ways others cannot.

4. CONTEMPLATE YOUR PRODUCT’S WHOLE OFFER
Complementary
Hard/Software
Maintenance,
Warranties and
Support
Training and
Onboarding
Complementary
Content
Convenient
Point of Sale /
Enrollment
Delivery &
Installation
CORE
PRODUCT

5. IDEAS CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE
Good ideas require experimentation, validation, strategic alignment, and provide value

6. A FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING ABOUT VALUE
Increasing sales to new or
existing customers. Delighting
or Disrupting to increase
market share and size.
Increase
Revenue
Protect
Revenue
Reduce or
Avoid Costs
Improvements and
incremental innovation to
sustain current market share
and revenue figures.
Current costs that can be
reduced to improve margin or
contribution. Improvements to
sustain current cost base.

7. 16 STRATEGIES
WITH EXAMPLES

8. 16 PRODUCT STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH

9. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Add features that customers love
• Differentiate to be THE BEST at something
customers need
• Watch out for competitive threats
• The company is already in the top right
quadrant of Gartner and Forrester
• The competition can’t move very nimbly
• The Product + Tech teams are strong
Innovate to be Best in Breed

10. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Create a stand-alone product that serves
additional needs of the target market
• Integrate the products for leverage
• Price them separately and together
• The core product is already best in breed
• The company has a deep understanding of
the customers and their needs
• The company sells to customers with
procurement protocols, and it is an
approved vendor
Build + Bundle Complementary Products

11. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Know customer usage patterns
• Make it easier for customers to get
maximum value out of the products
• Add features that save customers more
time/money (and show them)
• Retention is the primary concern
• The company knows which parts of the
product correlate with retention and many
customers aren’t accessing them
Improve Product Value Realization

12. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Think about what else customers want to
expand the company’s impact
• Find a company that only serves that need
• Integrate ASAP to be cost effective
• The company has cash and smaller
companies don’t
• The competitors are way ahead in a
particular area
• The smaller company has proprietary
differentiation in their niche
• The acquisition comes with new customers
Acquire Complementary Products

13. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Choose an area where Build/Buy is bad
• Partner with the best in breed first
• Target partner’s customers with specific
marketing around integration
• There are established players in the market
that fulfill specific tangential needs
• Partner has an existing integration point
• The partner also has a place to promote
the integration with the company’s product
Integrate with Partner Products

14. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Take some of the company’s special sauce
and repackage it for a different type of
customer
• Leverage consolidated operational teams
to keep additional costs minimized
• New markets have different needs that are
similar enough to current offerings
• Existing technology can be packaged
differently with minimal effort
• The company has captured a good amount
of the TAM already and going up market is
hard
Develop Tangential Product Lines

15. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Develop features necessary for the
enterprise (security, user mgmt., etc.)
• Create a new sales team and playbook for
the larger customers
• The company established itself in the
midmarket as a strong player
• Employees or teams within the enterprise
have started using the company’s tools
• The company’s tech is already enterprise
grade
Go Up Market

16. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Develop features that allow for easy
enrollment and setup
• Create separate sales incentives and
automated marketing to keep CAC low
• The company has captured most of the top
tier of the target market
• Smaller companies in the segment often
grow into larger enterprises
• The product is sticky and will evolve with a
company’s needs
Go Down Market

17. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Look for new markets where there are
existing satisfied customers
• Develop new buyer + user personas
• Add features + repackage for new target
• The current user flows can easily be reused
by other user types
• The current market is saturated
• The new market is dominated by older
players who aren’t as nimble
Attack New Markets / Verticals

18. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• The company dominates the current market
and there isn’t a local player who owns the
space
• The user flow doesn’t change by geography
• Localization isn’t very difficult
• Target a geo that is most similar to the
current one without a home team
• Dominate in the second geo and LEARN
• Expand to many more locales
Expand into New Geographies

19. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Create automation for both new registration
and churn flows
• Shift easy to please customers from
high cost staff à “product-led growth”
• Reduce CAC and OPEX
• The product is simple to explain and very
easy to get started
• After setup, the product is very sticky so
cost of retention isn’t high
• Offering a discount has high potential to
improve conversion or retention rates
Create a Self-Service Channel

20. •Inform Executive Team of effort involved
•Surface start up competitors that have functionality that
target customers need and want
•Suggest Partnerships that would drive new bookings
Product teams also support M&A activities

21. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Find partners who can sell into or service
the clients instead of you
• Dedicate a partner enablement team to
find, support, and nudge partners
• There are services companies that are
trusted advisors to the target customers
• The product works best when integrated
• Competitors have more cash on hand to
hire developers and sales teams
Establish a Partner Channel

22. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Establish APIs and developer resources
• Co-develop the first few integrations
• Have other companies build things that
aren’t part of the company’s core value
prop
• The product can be the hub for many other
business or social functions
• The company is the source of truth of a
type of data for a business or organization
• Network effects can be leveraged
Become an Open Platform

23. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Find startups trying to steal clients
• Make them an offer they can’t refuse
• Find ways to consolidate OPEX
• There is minimal overlap of customer base
• The company can streamline operations
quickly
• The combining technologies serve
additional use cases
• Looking to increase the company’s
valuation
Merge with Competitors

24. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Evaluate which products are not profitable
enough and distracting
• Sunset them gracefully with customers
• Sell the technology/team
• It’s not part of the core business value
proposition and is wasting resources
• Certain products aren’t generating cash
that warrants their investment
• Competition in the field is strong
Sunset / Sell Off a Product Line

25. Best option when current state is:
Tips to achieve success:
• Increase prices annually
• Add a much higher pricing tier for larger
companies that get more value
• The product is indispensable to the
customers and is underpriced
• Larger enterprises won’t consider the
product because the company does not
have the cash to develop the features they
need
Change Your Prices
*really improves LTV

26. 16 STRATEGIES
GROUPED BY
OBJECTIVE

27. Increase Revenue Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

28. Expand Total Available Market
Build + Bundle Complementary Products
Acquire Complementary Products
Develop Tangential Product Lines
Attack New Markets / Verticals
Expand into New Geographies
These strategies will also increase the SAM/SOM

29. Increase Revenue Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

30. Expand Serviceable Available Market
8 additional strategies focusing specifically on expanding the SAM/SOM
Innovate to Be Best In Breed
Integrate with Partner Products
Go Up Market
Go Down Market
Create Self Service Channel
Establish a Partner Channel
Become an Open Platform
Merge with Competitors

31. Protect Revenue Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

32. Improve Retention
Innovate to Be Best In Breed
Build + Bundle Complementary Products
Acquire Complementary Products
Integrate with Partner Products
Become an Open Platform
Merge with Competitors
Improve Product Value Realization

33. Protect Revenue Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

34. Improve Revenue per Customer
Innovate to Be Best In Breed
Build + Bundle Complementary Products
Acquire Complementary Products
Integrate with Partner Products
Develop Tangential Product Lines
Go Up Market
Become an Open Platform
Increase Your Prices
Looking at the same strategies through the lens of protecting revenue expands opportunities

35. Reduce Costs Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

36. Decrease Customer Acquisition Costs
Integrate with Partner
Products
Go Down Market
Create Self Service Channel
Establish a Partner Channel

37. Reduce Costs Strategies
Increase
Revenue
Expand
TAM
Expand
SAM/SOM
Protect Revenue
Improve
Retention
Improve
Revenue
per
Customer
Reduce or Avoid
Costs
Decrease
Customer
Acquisition
Costs
Reduce
Support
Costs

38. Reduce Support Costs
Build + Bundle Complementary Products
Create Self Service Channel
Establish a Partner Channel
Become an Open Platform
Merge with Competitors
Improve Product Value Realization
Sunset/Sell a Product Line