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What are the most important inputs to take into consideration when thinking through product differentiation?

Kara Gillis

Cortex VP of Product | Formerly Splunk, Deloitte • 4y

There are several inputs I think about when considering product differentiation: 1. Specific target customer - There are many types of customers in a market. Who are you...

3,013 Views

Building real differentiation can take time. How do you get your exec team onboard with investing in more strategic product investments?

Lizzy Masotta

Shopify Senior Product Lead | Formerly Salesforce, Google, Nest, Cisco Systems • 4y

A common mistake exec teams make is focusing on output and forgetting about outcomes. Product teams present roadmaps to execs and once they’ve shipped a thing, they tell ...

1,295 Views

What are areas of product differentiation that most product managers overlook, but are really important?

Preethy Vaidyanathan

Matterport VP of Product • 3y

One important ingredient is tying how product differentiation helps drive business value like brand recognition, product usage or increased sales. This connection between...

472 Views

What do product managers get wrong about product differentiation?

Preethy Vaidyanathan

Matterport VP of Product • 3y

Differentiation is not just a product team responsibility. However, as a product manager, you can help connect the dots from product differentiation to customer adoption ...

465 Views

We have a competitor that copies our features, and often says they can do the same thing as us, even if they cannot. How do you approach this?

Kara Gillis

Cortex VP of Product | Formerly Splunk, Deloitte • 4y

This is a tale as old as time. There are many ways to approach this. I have seen vendors heavily bid on the AdWords of their competitor names and promote alternative sol...

1,581 Views

How do you think about your roadmap and overcoming a competitor’s differentiation when they are just so much further ahead?

Kara Gillis

Cortex VP of Product | Formerly Splunk, Deloitte • 4y

While it is important to care about your competitors to understand your own market position, DO NOT MAKE THEM THE FOCUS. What should be your focus? Your customers. Their...

459 Views

What framework(s) do you use to evaluate how to differentiate your product?

Kara Gillis

Cortex VP of Product | Formerly Splunk, Deloitte • 4y

While I don't use an existing framework specifically for product differentiation, I do use a variety of inputs to determine what lever to pull or what decision to make. T...

810 Views

Our product does something completely different than another product in the market, but we often get grouped together? Is this a product problem? Marketing problem?

Preethy Vaidyanathan

Matterport VP of Product • 3y

It's a company problem and will likely need a cross-functional team effort to troubleshoot and solve the issue. In the diagnosis phase, I can't stress this enough - it's...

446 Views

What's your ideal working model between product management and product marketing?

Kara Gillis

Cortex VP of Product | Formerly Splunk, Deloitte • 4y

I used to be a product marketer. My ideal working relationship is to view product marketing as my key partner in product development, launch, and iteration. We are both s...

1,808 Views

As we expand our product portfolio, when does it make sense to start building functionality that products that we partner with offer?

Lizzy Masotta

Shopify Senior Product Lead | Formerly Salesforce, Google, Nest, Cisco Systems • 4y

I love this question. Through my work at both Salesforce and Shopify this is something that comes up regularly because of our platform and healthy partner ecosystem. Do...

1,519 Views

Product Strategy · Product Differentiation