🇬🇧 Why Great Products Fail And What To Do About it? | #40 Louisa Muschal - GTM Product Manager @IBM

Summary Why do great tech products fail and what to do about it? In this episode, Natalia interviews Louisa Muschal, the Worldwide Go-To-Market Product Manager of Watson X Code Assistant at IBM. Together, they explore why having a great product might not be enough if your product- and message-market fit are not yet established, how to recognize patterns avoiding costly trial and error and what are some of the most common pitfalls startups and large enterprises experience when setting up effective sales teams aligned to tech products. Takeaways Trial and error is costly! Instead, recognizing patterns is key to avoid high starting costs and scale faster. E.g. patterns in the addressed market of a startup or company (e.g. pains/needs in certain verticals/industries), customer personas patterns for tech products, etc. Before a sales unit can be productive, it is crucial to have a great Product-Market fit in place to ensure your sales team is not the one testing your product first. And no, technical experts may not always be the best salespeople for your SaaS or tech product. Analyzing the sales cycle and customer needs is important for scaling a startup. Having a separate go-to-market (GTM) role is important for refining your sales messaging, monetizing drivers of highest value and iterate the process leveraging customer feedback. Does your product solve your customer's problem? Do they know they have a problem? The Go-to-Market Team is the key element in your team to not only help you solve these questions but ensure continuous product- and message-market fit in an ever-evolving market. Additionally, the collaboration between GTM and sales teams is essential to understand changing customer preferences and structure your organization around existing sales patterns. Don't wait until your products are ready to get feedback on their expected performance! Leverage existing customer champions to explore how your current and future solution solves their current and future problems/needs. Don't let your sales team stretch to a product team. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction: Why Great Products Fail 05:23 The Role of a Go-to-Market Product Manager 09:20 Achieving Product-Market Fit 14:34 Challenges of Technical People Selling Their Own Products 25:19 Collaboration Between Go-to-Market and Sales 29:47 Recognizing Patterns and Avoiding Trial and Error 35:03 The Revenue Navigator Collective: Scaling Revenue with Expert Advice