Repositioning: how and when to bring your product to a new audience

how and when to bring your
product to a new audience
Repositioning
Patrick T. Hoffman @arcktip /in/patrickthoffman April 2019

I’m driven to provide my customers with great experiences
while creating and capturing value for my companies.
Udacity — Head of Product, Enterprise
Patrick T. Hoffman
/in/patrickthoffman
@arcktip

Product Repositioning
is when a business changes either the
overall positioning (e.g. value proposition)
or target market for a product

Product Repositioning
may coexist with an improvement to an
product, no change to an existing product,
or major changes to an existing product to
address a new target market

You should reposition
to improve competitive position,
to improve or unlock new revenue,
to have a more clear marketing focus,
to better align to what your market needs

Product Repositioning plays a
critical role in the larger model
of your business and its growth

© 2019 Patrick T. Hoﬀman @arcktip 8
Product Market
Channel Model
Four ﬁts growth framework - Brian Balfour (2017)

Product Market
Channel Model

Focus on the problem + market,
then search for the solution.
Product Market

Channels don’t mold to products.
Build the product to ﬁt channels.
Product Channel

Crossing the Chasm by Geoﬀrey A. Moore and Regis McKenna (1991)
Crossing the Chasm
how repositioning ﬁts into crossing the chasm

Three Horizons Model by McKinsey (1999)
Three investment horizons
repositioning ﬁts into the model of three product investment horizons
*
* Note:
The three horizons are no longer bound
by time because of disruptive innovation
enabling Horizon 3 ideas – disruption – to
be delivered as fast as ideas for Horizon 1 –
existing products.
— Steve Blank (2019)
It’s not a funnel. It’s an hourglass.
— Geoﬀrey Moore, Zone to Win (2015)
Current Categories
meet commitments
Breakout Categories
planned growth opp
Future Categories
speculative growth

Reversing the Curse of Dominant Logic (2012)
Combatting Dominant Logic
product repositioning processes can be key to combating dominant logic

Reversing the Curse of Dominant Logic (2012) * Note: you must balance feedback with vision
Combatting Dominant Logic
product repositioning processes can be key to combating dominant logic
MONITOR
TAKE ACTION INTERPRET
LISTEN
Feedback

It can help to think about your
product as going on a journey

Often, you’ll start
by building for a
narrow audience
with known needs
to Nail your Niche
After nailing your
niche you’ll face
pressure to scale
impact — true at
all product levels.

Use cases
Expectations
Pricing
Channels
Regulations
Language
Currency
Inputs Resources
Regulations
Warranties

To make progress
along your path
you’ll need to
invest in items that
unlock opportunity
Once unlocked,
you’ll have new
customers with
new needs to meet
requiring change

To be successful, you need to reposition
your product in response to changing
markets, new entrants, changes made by
existing competitors, and the changing
needs & expectations of customers

Some examples from my career
Social Bicycles (now JUMP by Uber),
Superpedestrian,
Udacity for Enterprise

Social Bicycles
repositioning product to ﬁnd ﬁt
for market and channel
Note: some of the later examples will be from after I worked there

Social Bicycles (2012)
a technology innovation seeking product market ﬁt

we start the reposition by starting with our markets and buyer audience

adjusting the product to suit a new market and a new channel

introducing new product features to reach a larger market

Superpedestrian
repositioning product to ﬁnd ﬁt
channel and the market

Superpedestrian (2015)
from consumer goods to core technology provider

from consumer goods to core technology provider

doubling down on direct to consumer by addressing segments

repositioning by moving from D2C to new channels to ﬁnd ﬁt

Superpedestrian (after 2017)
refocusing to leverage technical insights to be an OEM selling B2B

Udacity for Enterprise
lessons from 2017 to today

Udacity for Enterprise (2017 to now)
from consumer to enterprise and from US to global

Repositioning case study
bringing a consumer product
to the Enterprise market

Consumer vs Enterprise
key market differences

Consumer persona
BUYER = USER
consumer

Enterprise personas
ADMIN
Manager
BUYER
Executive USER
Employee

Start with the business objective
Objective
Have a product oﬀering for Enterprise businesses in order
to create a new reliable source of revenue for the business.
KPIs
● Revenue
● Measures of customer ROI and satisfaction
● Customer retention
● Measures for scalability and repeatability

Then address the market and vision
Vision
Empowers companies to assess
and build the capabilities they
need to out-compete the market
by providing them a skills driven
workforce transformation
engine.
Market
Global 2000 companies
● being disrupted by rapid
advances in technology
● that are unhappy with
content catalogs
● that are not able to train
and hire at scale

To understand the customer journey
PURCHASE
Am I getting the best I can
from this deal?
EVALUATION
Is this the right Solution
for my Company’s pain?
ONBOARDING
Is this Solution what
I expected based on
my evaluation?
RENEWAL
Am I getting enough
value to renew the deal?
UNDENIABLE ROI
Am I getting clear ROI
from the Solution?
Buyer &
Champion
(executives)
AWARENESS
Do we have the
problem they solve?
RENEW
When I renew, should I
increase my program size?

To build out buyer personas
TEAM
moves fast, siloed,
self-serve, narrow focus,
tech expert, ROI wins
L&D
moves slow, org wide,
procurement process,
broad focus, cost wins
C-suite
moves fast, org wide,
streamlined process,
broad focus, ROI wins

To build out user personas
ADMIN
Manager
ROI
Executive USER
Employee

To decide what to message or build
Deﬁne
- solutions
- trade offs
- concepts
- success
Understand
- context
- customer
- requirements
- priorities
Develop
- validate
- consult
- design
- build
Launch
- plan
- produce
- announce
- advertise
Scale / Sunset
- monitor
- iterate
- maybe scale
- maybe sunset
54321

To decide what to message or build
New
● Message
● Value proposition
● Admin tooling
● Skill assessments
● Learning paths
● Program discovery
● Change management
● Integrations
● Data security
Keep
● Content
● Projects
Sunset or upgrade
● Classroom
● Support
● Mentors
● Engagement

When
to reposition your product

1. You lack Product Market ﬁt
2. You lack Product Channel ﬁt
3. You want to enter a new market region
4. You want to capture a new market segment
5. You want to regain traction in a market
Reposition when

How
to reposition your product

1. Understand your objectives (often tied to revenue growth)
2. Understand your customer and their needs
3. Understand what needs to change (product, message, both)
4. Follow the ﬁve phase approach to product development
5. Listen to feedback from the market and your channels
How to reposition

What to watch out for
So your repositioning is a success

Thank you
Do you have a product
you want to reposition?
Patrick T. Hoffman @arcktip /in/patrickthoffman April 2019

Repositioning: how and when to bring your product to a new audience

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