Escaping the Build Trap

Chapter 4. The Product-Led Organization

Product-led companies understand that the success of their products is the primary driver of growth and value for their company. They prioritize, organize, and strategize around product success. This is what gets them out of the build trap.

But, if you’re not product-led, what are you? Many companies are, instead, led by sales, visionaries, or technology. All of these ways of organizing can land you in the build trap.

Sales-Led

Sales-led companies let their contracts define their product strategy. Remember my example of the data platform that had 30 features that no one used? That was a sales-led company. The product roadmap and direction were driven by what was promised to customers, without aligning back to the overall strategy.

Many small companies start off as sales-led, and that can be okay. As a startup, it’s necessary to close that first big client and get the revenue needed to continue operating. So they’ll go above and beyond for that client, working closely with them to define the product roadmap, taking all of their requests, and sometimes customizing things especially for them. But this way of working does not scale for long. When you have 50 to 100 customers or more, you cannot build everything uniquely to match the needs of each one, unless you want to be a bespoke agency. If that is not in the cards for you, you need to change your strategy to building features that apply to everyone, without customization.

Yet many companies ...