Product managers must have a thirst for firsts.
You may know that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29,1953. But did you know that there have been multiple “firsts” after that? Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler performed the first successful ascent without supplemental oxygen in 1978. Polish team, Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki performed the first winter ascent in 1980. Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest on May 16, 1975. And Mark Inglis, a New Zealander, became the first double amputee to reach the summit on May 15, 2006.
Thinking about your product in terms of firsts can help unlock growth, motivate your team and create a splash in the market. Of course, in the initial days of a product, getting your first paid customer is the ultimate thrill. But you must take that feeling of excitement and energy and seek to channel it throughout the product lifecycle.
Beyond the first customer, there are many other firsts to target.
First customer in a new country or region
Different countries and regions often have different requirements, pain points or motivations. Landing your first customer in a region demonstrates to other customers in that region that your product can work and is relevant to them. It can also force you to think about localisation, internationalisation and servicing considerations. How will you sell to these regions? How will you implement and how will you support new customers? Solving these challenges will stand you in good stead for global domination! Bringing on multiple regions in addition to your home market will impress investors and allow you to compare the characteristics of the new regions with your home market which could uncover meaningful insights.
First new use case using existing products
Some products can solve for multiple business problems. Customers can be extremely innovative and use products in a way that the vendor had never considered. Provided these use cases do not detract too much from the core product strategy — these innovations should be embraced. Perform deep discovery to understand the problem being solved and why your customer thought your product was the right solution to solve it. Once validated, research the market and see if there is a viable opportunity that could be exploited. You already have a reference client who is no doubt proud of discovering the solution and would be happy to evangelise for you.
First introduction of a new capability
Irrespective of how small it is, celebrate and shout about the first delivery of every new capability. Perhaps it is the application of artificial intelligence or the ability to translate into a new language. Don’t forget infrastructure capabilities like the first time the product can process a certain amount of transactions or the first time there has been zero downtime in a certain period. If your new capability is the first time anyone in the world has launched it — well, then you may want to increase your marketing budget! But even the first time something is available in a particular region, for a particular industry or even a first for your product line — it is worth enthusiastically communicating. Firsts help position you as an innovator, a market leader and generate excitement in the market. And they motivate your team, help build skills and increase retention.
First 1-year, 5-year, 10-year anniversaries
Keep an eye on significant anniversaries of your products, significant features and customers. Celebrate if a customer has reached an important milestone such as a 5 year or 10 year contract period. Customers who were previously reluctant to provide a reference might do so in the context of an acknowledgement of a long-term partnership. Convey that you are in it for the long haul, value long-term relationships and have a product that can keep a customer satisfied for multiple years. Demonstrate how products and features have improved over a particular period to show progress, ambition and development velocity.
First steal from a specific competitor
Stealing a customer from a competitor feels good and will provide an instant lift for your sales, marketing and delivery teams. More importantly, there is no better way to gain valuable insights about your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Conversions will cast doubt in your competitor’s other customers as to whether they are using the right product.
You are well positioned as a product manager to identify, execute and reflect on the firsts that your product and your company can achieve. The above list is just a small sub-set of all the firsts that you could target. Review your backlog, your opportunity pipeline and your roadmap and identify the work that will allow you to deliver some firsts for your company. And most importantly, when you deliver them — be sure to celebrate enthusiastically to encourage the team to want to achieve more.
