{"id":16940,"date":"2020-04-17T13:44:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=16940"},"modified":"2020-04-17T13:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:44:27","slug":"product-growth-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-growth-pitfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Growth Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a never-ending supply of stories about products and businesses that experienced phenomenal growth. It seems so easy! If you dig a little deeper though, there are cautionary tales about the potential downside to growth. Here are some things you should consider in order to avoid the inevitable pitfalls that can come with explosive growth.<\/p>\n<p><b>Why refusing to discuss failure erodes a culture of growth.<\/b> \u201cHave you ever sat in a meeting where a project was described as a success, yet all the details of failure that led to that success were left out? Alternatively, have you ever watched while data was cherry-picked to make things seem rosier than they actually are?\u201d If so, you have witnessed success theater. Alex Birkett explains that success theater can harm your growth efforts and describes how <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/refusing-to-discuss-failure-erodes-growth\">honestly confronting failure can help your growth efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iamalexbirkett\">@iamalexbirkett<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><b>Top 10 reasons startups fail after their first growth spurt.<\/b> If you\u2019re experiencing your first major growth spurt in your product or business, you\u2019re bound to make some mistakes. Though some mistakes are unavoidable, it\u2019s helpful to learn from others that have gone through similar situations to make sure you avoid the mistakes you can and learn from the others you can\u2019t escape. Verne Harnish identifies <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthinstitute.com\/scale-up-blueprint\/10-mistakes-startups-make-under-rapid-growth\">10 of the most common growth mistakes<\/a> that you can avoid.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScaleUpWithGI\">@ScaleUpWithGI<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><b>Why startups need to focus more on the product and less on services.<\/b> If you want to deliver a product, your focus should be on how to improve the product to help multiple customers solve their problems. When you\u2019re first introducing your product and you need to land those first few customers, there is a strong temptation to do anything necessary to sign those first few customers and respond to every customer request; Susmitha Burra explains at some point y<a href=\"https:\/\/productcoalition.com\/why-startups-need-to-focus-more-on-the-product-and-less-on-services-9572447cc70f\">ou have to stop agreeing to every customer request<\/a>, otherwise you\u2019re well on your way to running a service business.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@susmithaburra\">@susmithaburra<\/a><b>)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Growth isn\u2019t everything: 7 Lessons learned from 5 failed companies. <\/b>It\u2019s great to grow your product and business, but it\u2019s important to remember that \u201cgrowth alone isn\u2019t enough to support and sustain a company if the right conditions aren\u2019t met.\u201d Sujan Patel <a href=\"https:\/\/sujanpatel.com\/business\/7-lessons-from-5-failed-companies\/\">explores five failed companies and the mistakes they made while trying to grow at a rapid pace<\/a>. Sujan also describes some frameworks that will help prevent you from falling into the same traps.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sujanpatel\">@sujanpatel<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><b>Seven reasons why MVPs go wrong and how to address failure. <\/b>\u00a0Establishing an MVP to learn what your customers want is often the first step in growing a successful product. If you\u2019re not careful when developing your MVP you may set yourself up for disappointment. Anastasia Yaskevich describes <a href=\"https:\/\/productcraft.com\/best-practices\/7-reasons-why-mvps-go-wrong-and-how-to-address-failure\/\">seven reasons why your MVP could go wrong<\/a> and suggests actions you can take to make sure your MVP tells you what you need to know to grow your product.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Product_Craft\">@Product_Craft<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a never-ending supply of stories about products and businesses that experienced phenomenal growth. It seems so easy! If you dig a little deeper though, there are cautionary tales about the potential downside to growth. Here are some things you should consider in order to avoid the inevitable pitfalls that can come with explosive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Product Growth Pitfalls - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-growth-pitfalls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Product Growth Pitfalls - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a never-ending supply of stories about products and businesses that experienced phenomenal growth. 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He has product development experience in a variety of industries including financial services, health insurance, nonprofit, and automotive. Kent practices his craft with a variety of product teams and provides just in time resources for product people at KBP.media and Product Collective. 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