Below Water Level

There is a perception among Product teams that if the company was Product-led, we would be able to address customer problems much better and deliver higher business growth. I wish this was an opinion held only by Product Managers but the view is more widespread than that.

Product-led growth mental model is flawed. Not only does it over-value the role of the Product team but it also ignores the role of all other elements that need to come together to make growth happen.

One big reason behind this mindset is that the Product team’s definition of the product is not the product that finally delivers value to customers.

Geoffrey Moore in his book Crossing the Chasm explained nicely the concept of the Whole Product. The Whole Product concept, as devised by Theodore Levitt, a Marketing Professor at HBS, says that(from Crossing the Chasm book):

“There is a gap between the marketing promise made to the customer — the compelling value proposition — and the ability of the shipped product to fulfill that promise. For that gap to be overcome, the product must be augmented by a variety of services and ancillary products to become the whole product.”

The Whole Product ‘was Levitt’s vision of how intangible elements could be added to a physical product, transforming it into an offering that was often more valuable than the physical attributes alone’.

To give you one perspective of what the Whole Product might include, consider all the elements that need to come together in the Value Pyramid.

Clearly, not everything in that pyramid can be provided by “the” Product, as it is understood by Product teams. Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, Customer Success, Business Ops, Onboarding, etc. play just as significant a role in the provision of value.

When Product teams ignore the Whole Product, they usually arrive at the conclusion that all other teams are playing just a supporting role and that whatever is delivered in the software or the app is the real stuff. Reality, it appears, is different.