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Andres is a freelance writer and digital marketer with a background in engineering and a keen interest in the latest technology advancements. He currently helps tech companies and startups tell their stories by turning their complex ideas into easy to understand material. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn

Andres Phillips

<p>What’s next after you find product-market fit? In this <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/producttank/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ProductTank</a> Toronto talk, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayrothman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lindsay Rothman</a> &#8211; Lead Product Manager at <a href="https://www.freshbooks.com/?ref=7465" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FreshBooks</a> at the time, helps us to answer that question.</p>
<p>She provides us with a guide on what to do in this situation by:</p>
<ul>
<li>Staying innovative</li>
<li>Creating a framework for success</li>
</ul>
<p>Watch the video to see Lindsay’s talk in full (view her slides<span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/LindsayRothman" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a>.) Or read on for an overview of her key points.</p>
<h2>Staying Innovative</h2>
<p>Soon after she started at FreshBooks, Lindsay was given a task to assume that she was at a startup with a short runway and her goal was to ship a new <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/the-meaning-of-mvp-correcting-common-misconceptions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MVP</a>. Why would a company that was beyond the startup stage seek to do this? The company wanted to try new things but the technology for the app was outdated and the market was becoming very competitive with new startups on the scene. <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/innovations-that-matter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Innovation</a> requires risk. By viewing the problem as a startup would, FreshBooks was able to maintain the product that current customers loved and then iterate and innovate for a new product until it was ready.</p>
<h2>Framework for Success</h2>
<p>As a product manager, embracing the process of staying innovative can provide you with a few advantages. However, there are a few things you need to remember as on the surface it might seem like we can eliminate previous mistakes, but this isn’t always ideal.</p>
<p>Embrace patterns, even if they aren’t optimal. Creating a pattern helps to provide consistency across products. For example, you can avoid wasting design cycles and make a product easy to use by ensuring that every feature fits a certain pattern and isn’t just standalone. Develop principles that are oriented around the user. This helps to reduce complexity and can help you to avoid adding unnecessary invasive notifications. Communicate heuristics to avoid repeating mistakes and make sure you write things down.</p>
<p>The final takeaways from Lindsay’s talk are that thinking like a startup can be challenging for a growing company. However, it’s important to stay innovative if you want to beat the competition. You can, therefore, make your life as a product manager easier if you stick to patterns, develop principles, communicate heuristics and write stuff down.</p>
<h2>Read more on Product/Market Fit</h2>
<p>To learn more about product/market fit – what it means, how to get to it, and what our role as product managers is in maintaining it, check out <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/a-guide-to-product-market-fit/">A Guide to Product/Market Fit.</a></p>

core/freeform

Product/Market Fit

Fighting product-market drift by Dave Wascha

Learnings from London: How to build a billion dollar app

Progressive product development: release products that deliver by Split

Deciding what to build after achieving product/market fit by Yuhki Yamashita

Prioritised Fireside Chat: Make better product decisions with JTBD

Changing direction whilst growing into uncertainty by Sam Reader

How to find product market fit by Harpal Singh

What is product/market fit? By Janna Bastow

Managing Products at Scale by Lindsay Rothman

Nailing Product/Market Fit by Alan Chiu

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