Part 2: GTM first Product second

part-1 — https://rlohani.medium.com/gtm-first-product-next-b1487bd850fc

As a maker, you want to build a product that customers love and NRR/ARR is one of the best metrics to assess that. If you want to move NRR/ARR you will need to figure out the channels and distribution network. This is where planning the GTM before you build becomes critical.

“Your best CSAT indicator is in your NRR and ARR”

It sounds counter-intuitive to think about GTM when the product is not ready but don't let the execution flow fool you. GTM is part of product planning and comes before building the product.

When building a product, put on the buyer persona and see how would you discover your product, and what you need, and then build the feature set. This is considered part of the user research but sometimes we stifle the research just to focus on the in-app experience versus the end-to-end buyer experience. The following diagram always helps me to ask the right questions.

As a maker, I always start with a collection of features that work well together to create one cohesive unit and that is called a capability. Collection of capabilities form a Product. You layer the product with support, billing, blogs, tutorials, and community and you get an offering. You figure out how to get your solution in front of the buyer in the most effective way, you have a GTM. A lot of makers struggle to keep up their excitement as they go up the stack as a result they struggle with the top line…