Transitiining to PM -B2B SAAS
One who is entering into Product role in B2B company. What should they be focusing on initial days to get well versed with the Product and what's is the scope of PMs in India in this domain for next decade?
I love this question, primarily because I struggled when I transitioned from B2C to B2B role. I always thought, if I had proper guidance/mentorship, I would have built a better name for myself.
Two super important ideas in any B2B products are -
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Configurability - Think it of this way, same attendance system is used by a bank and by a factory. Different holidays, work hours but system is able to handle all those variations. How? By building components which can be configured at the time of on-boarding. Always start thinking about a product from configurability lens.
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Scalability - with configurability, comes the additional responsibility of scaling the product across verticals, geographies. When I say scaling, it’s not infrastructural scaling but product-solution which can scale across potential use cases.
Feel free to debate with me on these two things, maybe I can bring more insights. FYI, I scaled a 10m$ ARR product while keeping active engagement with customers(paying/using), customer success & GTM.
Thanks for your response.
Since you transitioned to B2B, would like to know difference in work , growth and pay compare to B2C?
Work - I found it’s more product driven, B2B is more closer to PLG (in general) than B2C. Across teams, I’ve seen the PLG culture in B2B companies.
Growth - Compared to B2C, might not be that fast but it will be stable. You will know in & out of your area.
Pay - You know very well, in India pay is defined by last salary. So you can’t really compare.
- Start using your product. Become a beta tester!
- Understand the internal dependencies from an implementation perspective. Reach out to critical stakeholders and meet them.
- Understand the licensing model and competitors and their models as you will have to answer queries on that
- Go through important telemetry info, adoption rates and so on
- Lastly, if you are from the same industry, unlearn whatever you have learnt and stop comparing everything with your previous company!
The scope is increasing. Typical mindset was product roles in the bay area or in the US and engineering teams here. But that is changing largely.
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