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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/">
    <title>Srinivas</title>
    <link href="https://srinivas.io/feed.xml" rel="self" />
    <link href="https://srinivas.io" />
    <updated>2024-09-29T15:36:57+05:30</updated>
    <author>
        <name>Srinivas</name>
    </author>
    <id>https://srinivas.io</id>

    <entry>
        <title>Animals of Product Management - How to manage them ?</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/animals-of-product-management-how-to-manage-them-2/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/animals-of-product-management-how-to-manage-them-2/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/animals.png" medium="image" />
            <category term="Product Management"/>

        <updated>2024-09-29T15:36:57+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/animals.png" alt="" />
                    Imagine a scenario where a product manager is presenting a proposal for a new feature or a product strategy&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/animals.png" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Imagine a scenario where a product manager is presenting a proposal for a new feature or a product strategy to a senior executive team in their company. The product manager has conducted thorough market research, analysed customer feedback, and collected data supporting the potential value and viability of the proposed feature. </span><br><br><span style="color: #ffffff;">During the meeting, the product manager confidently presents their findings, highlighting customer pain points and demonstrating how the new feature can address those needs. They provide concrete examples of competitor products that have successfully implemented similar features, showcasing the potential market demand. The product manager emphasizes that the proposed feature aligns with the company's long-term <strong>strategy and could significantly contribute to revenue growth.</strong></span><br><br><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>While it's possible for agreement and productive discussion, there might be few attendees of a meeting who can be categorised in 4 categories: </strong></span><br><br></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/AnimalsOfPM.png" alt="" width="2245" height="1587" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/AnimalsOfPM-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>HiPPO: This individual holds significant influence and has the potential to steer the product roadmap astray.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>ZEbRA: This individual strongly believes in their intuition rather than substantiated evidence.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>WoLF: This person exhibits a tendency to swiftly shift focus from one problem to another, constantly seeking new projects to engage with.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>RHiNO: This team member makes minimal contributions and appears to be solely motivated by the paycheck. </strong></span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Strategies to manage challenging situations: </strong></span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>1. Understand stakeholder management</strong></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/stakehodler-management.png" alt="" width="1280" height="720" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/stakehodler-management-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>2. Conduct a strong and continuous product-discovery process to finalise evidence based backlog - One of my favourite books about this topic is "Inspired by Marty Cagan":</strong></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/Marty-Cagan.jpg" alt="" width="318" height="480" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-xs.jpg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-sm.jpg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-md.jpg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-xl.jpg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-xxl.jpg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Marty-Cagan-xxxl.jpg 2560w"></figure></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>3. Ensure you have a proper prioritisation framework</strong></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM.png" alt="" width="382" height="326" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/15/responsive/Screenshot-2023-07-17-at-2.16.40-PM-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Calculate your ROI. If some features(example :Idea C &amp; D) have same ROI, prioritise smaller scope idea higher because it takes lesser time to implement. And after delivering it to the customer, you will get valuable feedback much faster.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>4. MVP's through out lifecycle of a product </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Don't stop experimenting, do A/B tests, multivariate tests with smaller audience and smaller features to test out ideas. Gather results using product analytics tools or similar and ensure to show these results to stakeholders to so you are always backed by data. </span></p>
<h4><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>No. Product Management is not an art, it is science - backed by data and not intuitions. </strong></span></h4>
<p> </p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>Being product driven vs customer driven</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/being-product-driven-vs-customer-driven/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/being-product-driven-vs-customer-driven/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13/undraw_product_iteration_kjok.png" medium="image" />
            <category term="Product Management"/>

        <updated>2024-02-07T14:39:11+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13/undraw_product_iteration_kjok.png" alt="" />
                    In today's competitive business landscape, businesses face a crucial decision: whether to adopt a product-driven or customer-driven approach. Both&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13/undraw_product_iteration_kjok.png" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p><span style="color: #ecf0f1;">In today's competitive business landscape, businesses face a crucial decision: whether to adopt a product-driven or customer-driven approach. Both strategies offer unique benefits and challenges, but finding the right balance is key to achieving sustainable success. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Let's explore the differences between these two approaches and delve into why a customer-driven mindset is increasingly essential in meeting customer expectations and staying ahead of the competition.</span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//customervsproductdriven.png" alt="" width="886" height="772" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/customervsproductdriven-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure>
<h5><span style="color: #ffffff;">Product-Driven approach: </span></h5>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">The product-driven approach revolves around a company's internal capabilities, expertise, and vision. Organizations adopting this approach prioritize the development and innovation of products based on their own beliefs about market needs. Their focus lies in building a superior product and then convincing customers to buy it. Research and development (R&amp;D) and technological advancements take center stage as they strive to create a unique selling proposition.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">One of the advantages of a product-driven approach is the ability to introduce groundbreaking products and set new industry standards. By focusing on their internal expertise, companies can leverage their core competencies to deliver innovative solutions. However, this approach carries risks, such as developing products that may not align with customer demands or overlooking evolving market trends.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Examples: </strong></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;">       <img  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//apple-emblem.jpg" alt="" width="179" height="147" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-xs.jpg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-sm.jpg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-md.jpg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-xl.jpg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-xxl.jpg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/apple-emblem-xxxl.jpg 2560w"></figure>                                              <figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//Tesla_logo.png" alt="" width="168" height="168" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Tesla_logo-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;">     <img  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//631_dyson_logo.jpg" alt="" width="214" height="161" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-xs.jpg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-sm.jpg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-md.jpg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-xl.jpg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-xxl.jpg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/631_dyson_logo-xxxl.jpg 2560w"></figure>                                       <figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//Sony-Logo-Font.jpg.webp" alt="" width="206" height="149" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-xs.webp 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-sm.webp 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-md.webp 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-xl.webp 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-xxl.webp 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Sony-Logo-Font.jpg-xxxl.webp 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<h5><span style="color: #ffffff;">Customer-Driven approach: </span></h5>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">In contrast, the customer-driven approach places the customer at the heart of decision-making processes. This strategy involves actively seeking and analyzing customer feedback, preferences, and market trends to develop products and services that effectively meet customer needs. By understanding their target audience, companies can tailor their offerings, provide personalized experiences, and establish long-term relationships.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Adopting a customer-driven mindset offers several advantages. Firstly, it enables businesses to identify and address specific pain points, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Secondly, it helps companies stay attuned to market shifts, ensuring they adapt and evolve alongside changing customer preferences. Finally, a customer-driven approach fosters a deeper understanding of customer behavior, facilitating effective marketing strategies and enhancing overall competitiveness.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Examples</strong></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;">    <img  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//amazon-logo.png" alt="" width="236" height="115" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/amazon-logo-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure>                 <figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//airbnb.png" alt="" width="298" height="111" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/airbnb-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;">    <img  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//netflix-logo.png" alt="" width="238" height="135" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/netflix-logo-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure>                 <figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//Salesforce.com_logo.svg.png" alt="" width="244" height="171" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/13//responsive/Salesforce.com_logo.svg-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<h5><span style="color: #ffffff;">Finding the Balance</span></h5>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">While the merits of both approaches are evident, striking the right balance is crucial. Overemphasizing a product-driven approach risks developing products that fail to meet customer expectations(many startups fail due to this), resulting in missed opportunities and declining sales. On the other hand, an extreme customer-driven approach may lead to constant customization requests that strain resources and erode profitability.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">To find the ideal balance, businesses can adopt an iterative approach that combines customer insights with internal expertise. Market research and customer feedback should drive product development, ensuring that the final offering aligns with market needs. Simultaneously, organizations should leverage their core competencies and innovative capabilities to create products that surpass customer expectations.</span></p>
<h5><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Product managers (for product driven and customer driven products):</strong></span></h5>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Customer Driven</strong></span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Product Driven</strong></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Understand customer needs, pain points, and desires</span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Rely on internal assumptions, stakeholders, biases </span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Prioritizes customer feedback </span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Prioritize technical considerations &amp; internal objectives.</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Iterative product development</span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Linear development process, sticking to predetermined product plans and specifications</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Customer success metrics</span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Budget, timelines, goals</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Collaborate with cross functional teams</span></td>
<td style="width: 49.9288%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Focus on building own team  </span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong> </strong></span></p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>New market opportunity: Payment orchestration</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/new-market-opportunity-payment-orchestration/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/new-market-opportunity-payment-orchestration/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/jaconda-45-xxxl.png" medium="image" />
            <category term="Tech"/>

        <updated>2024-02-07T13:41:11+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/jaconda-45-xxxl.png" alt="" />
                    Payment orchestration for global e-commerce is expected to grow 20% YoY from 2021 to 2026. For any online business&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/jaconda-45-xxxl.png" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment orchestration for global e-commerce is expected to grow 20% YoY from 2021 to 2026. For any online business that needs to offer multiple payment options for customers worldwide, payment orchestration is a valuable service. If you’re new to this payment topic, keep reading to learn what payment orchestration is, the benefits of using this service, and how it works for businesses.  </span></p>
<h3>Terminology</h3>
<p>For easier understanding, it's better to get some terms right.  </p>
<figure class="post__image align-center"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM.png" alt="" width="328" height="547" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/Screenshot-2023-05-24-at-12.09.21-PM-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment Service Provider(PSP): A payment service provider is a financial institution that enables an online transaction. It links merchants with card networks and payment processors for payment processing. A PSP provides a merchant account and payment gateway for the collection and management of payments.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment Gateway: Payment gateway is a software behind credit card transactions between a merchant and their customers. Upon entering the payment information on the merchant’s website, the payment gateway connects to the payment service provider to process the transaction.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment Method: This is how you choose to pay. Most popular methods are Credit cards, Debit Cards, Internet Banking, Paypal, e-Wallets etc </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment Channel: This is the specific provider after you choose payment method. You'd probably choose Visa or Mastercard for card method, JP Morgan or HSBC for internet banking, AliPay or GrabPay for e-Wallets etc.</span></p>
<pre><span style="color: #ffffff;">Merchants generally choose payment gateway for their PCI-DSS compliance to process/store customers' credit and debit cards. PCI-DSS offers certification in different levels called Level 1,2,3 etc - where Level 1 is most stringent.   </span></pre>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Abstraction </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Different types of merchants use these PSPs, gateways, methods and channels in different combinations. For instance,  </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Hyperlocal merchants: They know exactly what methods are most popular in their country or city. They do direct integrations with some channels like Internet Banking and e-Wallets, thereby avoid payment gateway charges. Many merchants also don't want the engineering &amp; regulatory complexity of payments and choose to go with gateways/PSPs for all payment methods and channels.  </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">SaaS merchants: SaaS companies focus more on product, marketing and sometimes sell globally. Most SaaS merchants go for payment gateway who can support local payment methods, currency conversions, PCI-DSS compliance, subscription payments, invoicing etc </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Cross country merchants(Airlines etc):  Transaction volumes are pretty high with airlines and airlines generally offer local payment methods by partnering with local gateways or PSPs</span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Problem &amp; Opportunity</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Formal problem statement: Merchants rely on <strong>ONE</strong> PSP or gateway and spend internal engineering time/money/effort to maintain payments. In turn gateways charge merchants hefty price (generally x% per transaction). </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Real problem statement: Payment transaction costs are day light robbery. Payment transaction costs go to payment gateway, issuing bank, acquiring bank. On top of this currency conversions, subscription payment charges, invoicing prices, fraud protection tools etc. If a merchant's margin is $15 for $100 transaction, there's a chance she might be paying $7.5 just to payment gateway.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Opportunity: Merchants have a real opportunity to:</span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Integrate payment methods directly and increase bottom line. They can avoid paying payment gateways altogether. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Offer more local payment methods and increase top line.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">For card payments, switch gateways based on pricing. Example: High number of transaction days(Sale, Christmas, Black Friday etc) </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Challenge for merchants to do this by themselves is effort in engineering, time spent and they might loose focus on the actual product/service. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Enter Payment Orchestration Providers </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">But what is need for "orchestration"? </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Like I mentioned, merchants often rely on one payment provider and this provider dictate transaction costs and it takes a lot of time and effort for merchants to move to a different gateway. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Payment orchestration platforms have chance here to: </span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Integrate multiple payment gateways so merchants can pit payment gateways against each other for better pricing</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Enable revenue teams to control payment flows without writing code</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Route payment flows based on type of transaction (method, currency, amount, fraud detection etc)  </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Offer direct integrations</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Offer standardised checkout page </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Just imagine to control something like this using UI within browser rather than writing hundreds of lines of code:</span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/PoP.001-2-xl-3.jpeg" alt="" width="1600" height="900" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-xs.jpeg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-sm.jpeg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-md.jpeg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-xl.jpeg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-xxl.jpeg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/PoP.001-2-xl-3-xxxl.jpeg 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Some Players</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Many startups have been experimenting, trying to match market-product fit etc. Some of them are: </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">1. <a href="https://primer.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Primer</a>: Recently raised $50 million dollars in Series B. Primer, which was founded in 2020 by former Braintree colleagues Anthony and Gabriel Le Roux, allows merchants to plug in third-party payment solutions with one-click connections and integrations.</span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/1663672073-primer-io-2x.jpeg" alt="" width="1000" height="523" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-xs.jpeg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-sm.jpeg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-md.jpeg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-xl.jpeg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-xxl.jpeg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/1663672073-primer-io-2x-xxxl.jpeg 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">2. <a href="https://gr4vy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Gr4vy</a> : Recently raised about $11million Series A and $15 Series extension funding and it claims to have doubled its valuation to $115million. "<em>Gr4vy</em> is the only payment orchestration platform built natively in the Cloud giving you scale and control of your payment stack from anywhere." </span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/download.jpeg" alt="" width="311" height="162" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-xs.jpeg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-sm.jpeg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-md.jpeg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-xl.jpeg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-xxl.jpeg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/download-xxxl.jpeg 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">3. <a href="https://www.spreedly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Spreedly</a>: Probably one of the first payment orchestration firms. Spreedly has hundreds of customers and looks very promising. </span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/spreedly.png" alt="" width="600" height="315" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/spreedly-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">4. <a href="https://wowpay.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Wowpay</a>: New &amp; promising player focussed more on Asia Pacific integrations and payments and focus on airlines. </span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1.png" alt="" width="4725" height="1168" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/12/responsive/wowpay-logo-colour-3-1-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Conclusion:</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">I believe there's opportunity and market for many PoPs to bring real value to online merchants. And provide more features like payment analytics, intelligent routing using machine learning, fraud prevention, one-click payments etc.  </span></p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>Easiest &amp; free way to create static CMS sites/Blogs</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/easiest-and-free-way-to-create-static-cms-sitesblogs/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/easiest-and-free-way-to-create-static-cms-sitesblogs/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/Upgrade-xxxl.png" medium="image" />
            <category term="Tech"/>

        <updated>2024-02-07T14:15:40+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/Upgrade-xxxl.png" alt="" />
                    Question: Why are some bloggers so successful? Answer: Quality content. They care about content, quality of writing, images, videos&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/Upgrade-xxxl.png" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Question</strong>: Why are some bloggers so successful? </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Answer</strong>: Quality content. They care about content, quality of writing, images, videos etc. They don't care about perfect design or a static website solution. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Having said that, if you're looking for a simple and free way to host a static website, here are some ways (with some code &amp; no-code) ways.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">But before going there, lets establish some principles: </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Principles:</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Ease</strong>: make and edit content easily without writing tons of code</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Performance</strong>: Gone are the days when you have to maintain a server, configure it for high performance. End of the day, a blog is nothing but text &amp; media with few plugins for comments, forms, analytics etc. So a "serverless" or a "headless" CMS might be a preferred way in 2022. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Cost</strong>: Well, ideally we want it to be completely free of cost. But may be you might need to shell out a few bucks. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Maintenance</strong>: If you're anything like me, you hate maintenance. Patching, tuning, configuration, these are some of the most boring things you want to do and we'd like to focus on content more. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Security</strong>: Static sites don’t have any entry points for a malicious party to exploit. The underlying managed service is ultimately responsible for securing the infrastructure. Having said that we want to choose https so the browsers don't tell your user your website is insecure. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Portability</strong>:  Most static sites provide the ultimate cloud-agnostic, portable solution. But changing CMS itself might not be a great experience. </span></li>
</ol>
<p class="msg msg--highlight"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Pro Tip: Checkout <a href="https://www.expireddomains.net/" style="color: #ffffff;">https://www.expireddomains.net</a> for picking deleted or expired domains. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">1. Publii </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">I made this website using <a href="https://getpublii.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Publii</a>. I've tried and tested many, many ways of hosting a static website and Publii is a strong competitor to Wordpress.  </span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//publii-cms-xxxl-2.png" alt="" width="1398" height="761" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11//responsive/publii-cms-xxxl-2-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Publii allows users of any skill level, even absolute beginners with no knowledge of web-development, to create a stylish yet fast-loading site that’s secure enough to not require constant maintenance and monitoring. Also, to maintain a flexible and expandable open-source core that allows more experienced developers to take full control of their site functionality, creating their own components and themes that fit their requirements exactly.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Checkout Publii step by step documentation and choose free servers including: </span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Google Cloud</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">AWS</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Netlify</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Cloudflare </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">...and many more </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">I've tried Netlify for hosting but it was unreliable with few themes so I'm now trying out Cloudflare</span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">2. Lektor</span></h3>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl.png" alt="" width="2006" height="1240" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.50.04-AM-xxxl-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://www.getlektor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Lektor</a> is another great tool for static websites. It's open source, secure, well maintained, well documented with tons of themes and plugins. In their own words: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Lektor learned from the huge range of static file generators like Jekyll, Pelican, Hugo, Middleman and many more about the value of generating a completely static website. This means that unlike WordPress or similar solutions it does not run on a server, but your local computer (or a build server), and generates static HTML that can be uploaded to any web server or content distribution platform like S3 with CloudFront.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Lektor provides a browser based admin interface, it's configurable, and you can also collaborate &amp; synchronise. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">3. Jekyll &amp; Github pages</span></h3>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl.png" alt="" width="2560" height="1373" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/11/responsive/Screenshot-2022-04-24-at-11.53.29-AM-xxxl-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></span></figure>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">For not-so-beginners or someone who's willing to spend couple of hours, <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/docs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Jekyll</a> + <a href="https://pages.github.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Github pages</a> is a fantastic way to host static websites. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">You get best security, CMS, custom URLs, Guides and everything you need for a good blog. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">4. Others</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">I've also heard great things about <a href="https://ghost.org/" style="color: #ffffff;">Ghost</a>, <a href="https://gohugo.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Hugo</a> &amp; others. If you'd like to research more(well, remember to not spend much time on this and content is the real king), do checkout this <a href="https://jamstack.org/generators/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Jamstack link</a>. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Good luck! </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">PS:  </span></p>
<p class="msg msg--highlight"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://www.namecheap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Namecheap</a> offers best pricing for your domain. You can also checkout my premium, short &amp; .com domains up for sale <a href="https://dan.com/domain-seller/domain-seller-c3ac9b25-5971-4239-bb66-e407411fafc3?&amp;results=50&amp;order_by=relevance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">here</a>. </span></p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>Best product management books</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/best-product-management-books/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/best-product-management-books/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/10/kimberly-farmer-lUaaKCUANVI-unsplash.jpg" medium="image" />
            <category term="Product Management"/>

        <updated>2024-02-07T14:27:40+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/10/kimberly-farmer-lUaaKCUANVI-unsplash.jpg" alt="" />
                    I play video games, a lot. Well, at least I used to. When I did, my biggest confusion was&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/10/kimberly-farmer-lUaaKCUANVI-unsplash.jpg" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p><span style="color: #ffffff;">I play video games, a lot. Well, at least I used to. When I did, my biggest confusion was how do I choose and buy the best game. After all, each Nintendo Switch game costs about $60 and it ain't cheap when you compare it with PS4/5 or Xbox. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">In my research I found my best source of choosing a game was <a href="https://kotaku.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Kotaku</a>'s "The Bests". Kotaku started this on 3rd May 2017 and continously update the list. At the bottom of the article, they mention when a game was added and removed, thereby creating an entire list in one article. So if I missed out one of the best games from 2019, I can still access it from a one article.  </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Why are we talking about video games? I just wanted to start something similar to Kotaku but for Product Management books. May be a little less exciting than video games. But I'll try and update this list, may be at least once a quarter and post the updates at the bottom. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Here are some of my favorites:</span></p>
<ol>
<li>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3MHAhs5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Inspired by Marty Cagan</a> - Marty explains why product discovery, product mindset and leadership are important. This book also provides most practical approach about product discovery(which is the most important part of product management)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3LrRwgJ" style="color: #ffffff;">The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen</a> - Dan made an easy to remember pyramid which covers users, needs, value proposition, features &amp; UX by proposing the best way to assess product-market fit. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3KjJl4N" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">Lean Startup by Eric Ries - </a>The Lean Startup movement begun by Eric Ries has helped popularize the idea of product-market fit and the importance of achieving it. One reason Lean Startup has such wide appeal is because people know how difficult it is to build successful products.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://www.amazon.in/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/142219602X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3U260MFMLBCOT&amp;keywords=Innovators+dilemma&amp;qid=1651161868&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=innovators+dilemma%2Cstripbooks%2C332&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;">The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M Christensen</a> - It's a different take "listen to your users". It describes how large incumbent companies lose market share by listening to their customers and providing what appears to be the highest-value products, but new companies that serve low-value customers with poorly developed technology can improve that technology incrementally until it is good enough to quickly and take market share from established business.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a href="https://amzn.to/3MA1wVg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;"></a><a href="https://amzn.to/3MA1wVg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #ffffff;"></a><a href="https://amzn.to/3MA1wVg" style="color: #ffffff;">Cracking the PM interview by Gayle Laakmann</a> - Are you an experienced PM ? Or a new one? Or aspiring to be one? This book is for everyone. If you're an experienced PM and going to interview candidates or if you're the candidate yourself, this is the book. If you're a new PM or aspiring to be one, learn what is product management. </span></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Update 1(28 April 2022): The first edition of product management books. </span></p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>Should it be Market-Product fit?</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/should-it-be-market-product-fit/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/should-it-be-market-product-fit/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/istockphoto-183794221-612x612.jpg" medium="image" />
            <category term="Product Management"/>

        <updated>2023-05-24T12:07:12+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/istockphoto-183794221-612x612.jpg" alt="" />
                    Product/market fit has been identified as a first step to building a successful product in which the company meets&hellip;
                ]]>
            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/istockphoto-183794221-612x612.jpg" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p>Product/market fit has been identified as a first step to building a successful product in which the company meets early adopters, gathers feedback and gauges interest in its product(s).</p>
<p>Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital coined the term Product/Market fit. Andy Rachleff, the  co-founder of Benchmark capital was the person <em>credited</em> with coining the term product-market fit. </p>
<p>When new(or old) product manager look at product-market fit, they always look at product first but in reality it always helps to look at market first. </p>
<h2>Why do products fail ? </h2>
<p> </p>
<p>According to Startup Genome, failure rate of startups is a staggering 70% by end of 10th year. </p>
<figure class="post__image"><figure class="is-loaded"><img  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001.jpeg" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xs.jpeg 300w, https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-sm.jpeg 480w, https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-md.jpeg 768w, https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xl.jpeg 1200w, https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxl.jpeg 1600w, https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxxl.jpeg 2560w" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xs.jpeg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-sm.jpeg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-md.jpeg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xl.jpeg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxl.jpeg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxxl.jpeg 2560w"></figure></figure>
<p>Why is this ? Well, </p>
<figure class="post__image"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001.png" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/2.-ProductCustomer-Driven.001-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></figure>
<p>One of the top reasons for product/startup failure is Product-Market fit. Is it because we're product first and not market first? </p>
<h2>Looking at product vs market first: </h2>
<p>When you're making an MVP, you're essentially making effort to validate your assumption that your product is going to be worthy to the user or solve a problem. And When you imagine a product first, you first think of: </p>
<ol>
<li>Features</li>
<li>UX</li>
<li>UI, Design, Typography</li>
<li>Programming langues, cloud providers </li>
<li>CI/CD </li>
</ol>
<p>.....and the list goes on. </p>
<p>We don't know if any of these adds any value to the user . Remember: an MVP is neither a technology nor a cheaper product, its about smart learning</p>
<p>But when you start looking at market first, you think of: </p>
<ol>
<li>User</li>
<li>User segmentation </li>
<li>Personas</li>
<li>User pain points</li>
<li>Current user journey &amp; friction points</li>
<li>Value add (time, effort or money saving) </li>
<li>How is the user currently solving the problem you're addressing?</li>
</ol>
<h2>Value hypothesis &amp; Growth Hypothesis</h2>
<p>Too often, founders, product managers, stake holders start with conclusions, not assumptions. The former is a set of beliefs, while the latter are fundamental questions to be answered. On the surface, that sounds like a nuanced difference, but in practice, it is a huge change in mindset and action. </p>
<figure class="post__image"><figure class="post__image"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/value-and-growth-xxxl.png" alt="" width="645" height="451" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-xs.png 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-sm.png 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-md.png 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-xl.png 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-xxl.png 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/9/responsive/value-and-growth-xxxl-xxxl.png 2560w"></figure></figure>
<p>The <strong>value hypothesis</strong> tests whether your product or service provides customers with enough value and most importantly, whether they are prepared to pay for this value.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>Lets say you're developing a payment analytics product</p>
<ul>
<li>This product helps e-commerce firms to aggregate payment sources(payment gateways + PSPs + Paypal etc)</li>
<li>Provides actionable KPIs to increase top and bottom lines</li>
</ul>
<p>It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking first about:</p>
<ol>
<li>SDKs &amp; APIs</li>
<li>Dashboard</li>
<li>Metrics &amp; Features</li>
<li>Notifications etc </li>
</ol>
<p>But lets look at market first: </p>
<ol>
<li>Segment e-commerce market by firmographics (Location, size of the firm, revenue, performance) </li>
<li>Target users within the firm (may be payments team or a revenue team reporting to a CRO) </li>
<li>What are their needs related to payment analytics? Do they feel they have enough insights about payments? (Example: authorisation/decline rates by each payment method and channel) </li>
<li>What more actionable insights can they use to increase their top line and bottom line? </li>
</ol>
<p>With these questions you consider making an MVP with least effort and handful of features and test with your target users whether it adds value and if they are willing to pay for such a product. </p>
<p>The <strong>growth hypothesis</strong> tests how your customers will find your product or service and shows how your potential product could grow over the years.</p>
<p>You assume next 5 customers who signup to your payment analytics products are because of your first client. After you speak to your next customers you may find out it can be due to a particular process, metric, or pricing strategy. Its not necessarily bad you're proven wrong, but it helps to record this growth hypothesis and use it for next 5-8 customers. </p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Looking at market first can make big difference at all stages of the product for continued success with your MVP, growth, pivot and more.  </p>
            ]]>
        </content>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <title>Muda and it&#x27;s relation to Product Management</title>
        <author>
            <name>Srinivas</name>
        </author>
        <link href="https://srinivas.io/muda-and-its-relation-to-product-management/"/>
        <id>https://srinivas.io/muda-and-its-relation-to-product-management/</id>
        <media:content url="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/daria-nepriakhina-zoCDWPuiRuA-unsplash.jpg" medium="image" />
            <category term="Product Management"/>

        <updated>2024-02-01T14:58:30+05:30</updated>
            <summary>
                <![CDATA[
                        <img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/daria-nepriakhina-zoCDWPuiRuA-unsplash.jpg" alt="" />
                    Heart of lean thinking are two words: Value &amp; Waste. The term 'Lean' has its origins in manufacturing of&hellip;
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            </summary>
        <content type="html">
            <![CDATA[
                    <p><img src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/daria-nepriakhina-zoCDWPuiRuA-unsplash.jpg" class="type:primaryImage" alt="" /></p>
                <p class="dropcap"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Heart of lean thinking are two words: Value &amp; Waste. The term 'Lean' has its origins in manufacturing of Toyota production system where the goal was to continuously add value while eliminating waste. Project managers with agile thinking make better connection with terms like 'Muda' (waste), 'Muri' (Overburden) and 'Mura'(Unevenness). As product managers, lean thinking and understanding Muda is required to set goals, ruthlessly prioritise and continuously add value to your users. Ultimately, to ensure you're spending least time, effort &amp; money to deliver what matters the most.  </span></p>
<figure class="post__image"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><img loading="lazy"  src="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/blog.001.jpeg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" srcset="https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-xs.jpeg 300w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-sm.jpeg 480w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-md.jpeg 768w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-xl.jpeg 1200w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-xxl.jpeg 1600w ,https://srinivas.io/media/posts/7/responsive/blog.001-xxxl.jpeg 2560w"></figure></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">First, lets look at different types of Muda: </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Muda Type 1:</span> Doesn't add value, but essential for users. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Muda Type 2:</span> Doesn't add value and non-essential for users. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Muda Type 1: </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Let's say you are a PM, designing a car for emerging markets. You start listing down benefits (or value proposition) : </span></p>
<ol class="ordered-list">
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Mileage of at least 20km per litre of petrol and 25km per litre of diesel</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Safety features for all 5 seats </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">In-built navigation support </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Intelligent Surround sound system  </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Save time in parking </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Maximising space</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">3 sec acceleration to 100km/h </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Using lean process, one way of prioritising benefits is by differentiating benefits into 3 bigger buckets: Cost of entry, value proposition and delight factors  </span></p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="align-center" style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Cost of Entry </span></td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Mileage </span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 50%;"> </td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Maximising space </span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 50%;"> </td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Safety features </span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="align-center" style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Value proposition </span></td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Navigation support</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 50%;"> </td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Surround system</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="align-center" style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Delight</span></td>
<td style="width: 50%;"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Parking time </span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">"Cost of Entry" is Muda Type 1 - a necessary evil, meaning - most of your competitors are already providing these features. Unless you provide the "cost of entry" benefits to your target users, it might not be called a car. Think of it more like a cover charge for a pub you are going to for New years' party. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Benefits which DOES NOT add value but essential to your users. </span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Muda Type 2:</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Let's look at benefit 6 &amp; 7.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- 3 sec acceleration to 100km/h to the target market - emerging markets. Do users really care about precision acceleration in emerging markets ? </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- If Parking time benefit is mapped to self-parking feature, would driver really care about it or argue against the practicality of this feature?</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">These are classic example of Muda type 2, doesn't add value and non-essential for users.</span></p>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">Product Managers' time &amp; Muda </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Time management can make or break a product manager in her job. A product manager is never "done", and end-up spending time, effort, money to deliver. If you are a PM, you must have heard the line "Strategy means saying no". In Steve Jobs words: </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p class="quoteText"><span style="color: #ffffff;">People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- Steve Jobs.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">So what can we do to apply lean thinking and "eliminate muda" in our jobs  ? </span></p>
<h6><span style="color: #ffffff;">1. Time management</span></h6>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- Razor sharp focus in meetings (Remember: Agile tells you "individuals and interactions over processes and tools"), balancing interactions and time in meetings. </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- Pomodoro technique - 25min for a single task, break for 5min - repeat </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- Strategy planning and roadmapping to ensure minimal waste in answering the what and why questions </span></p>
<h6><span style="color: #ffffff;">2. Effort </span></h6>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- It's best to do one thing really well. Prioritise benefits and features ruthlessly, use value vs effort matrix in lean process to prioritise </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- SMART Goals setting. Use established frameworks like OGSM and OKRs to set goals</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">- Engineering effort, documentation:</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Do you really need certain tools, documentation and resources ? Ask yourself from wastage standpoint: </span></p>
<ol class="ordered-list">
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Do you really want to spend time, money and effort in managing a Hive or would BigQuery/Redshift do the job? </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Do you really need comprehensive documentation in describing functional and non-functional requirements or would "INVEST" user story with appropriate acceptance criteria save everyones time ? </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">Do you really need to do sprint retrospectives every sprint or once in two sprints is good enough ? </span></li>
</ol>
<h3><span style="color: #ffffff;">In conclusion: </span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Simply put Muda is waste, however it's background is much deeper. Take a moment to understand what it really means and you will be wiser for it - it can be time, effort, money, environment, sustainability etc. It's easier to save a minute but impossible to make one.  </span></p>
<p> </p>
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    </entry>
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