Loading...

Market Segmentation For A Product Launch

Satyajeet Salgar

Director of Product Management at Google

Loading...

Problem

"I was asked to take on Product Management for Youtube Live Streaming. I was basically given the brief that I needed to just figure it out. At the time we thought there was a 50/50 chance of the product being really successful or of the product needing to be shut down."

Actions taken

First, I undertook work to understand what was already happening in the live space. Taking time to segment the market was key. "It's really bad for a product or engineering team to have to wait for an entire year in order to launch a product that had everything you want. You don't get feedback fast enough, it demoralizes your team, and you don't learn quickly enough." I came up with a list of four different kinds of users and found that the product would need to be a little bit different for each type. I then came up with a list of features that each segment would need and we began working on each segment one at a time, based on revenue opportunities and our technical capabilities. This was a complex product because live-streaming was inherently expensive at the time, so we needed to work out a way to manage costs and develop a revenue model. Over the next two years, we had a series of launches in a very structured way. We made an event out of each launch so we would get press from the launches and could talk to creators.

Lessons learned

I learned how to maintain a team's momentum, segment customers based on their needs, and create launch momentum. "You should prioritize based on your users, revenue, constraints you have, and your goals, and I learned how to take all of these things into account and come up with a plan." If I were to be faced with this situation again, I would broadcast what I was doing more. Internally, there was a lot of clarity and the engineering team understood what we were doing. However, articulating my long-term vision more regularly would have helped to clarify the reasoning behind your decisions.


Be notified about next articles from Satyajeet Salgar

Satyajeet Salgar

Director of Product Management at Google


Communication

Connect and Learn with the Best Eng Leaders

We will send you a weekly newsletter with new mentors, circles, peer groups, content, webinars,bounties and free events.


Product

HomeCircles1-on-1 MentorshipBounties

© 2024 Plato. All rights reserved

LoginSign up