Second Drafts

Whether it’s building the Model T, designing an e-commerce platform, or creating an AI agent, product strategy is both omnipresent and a prerequisite for success.

No matter the generation or industry, product strategy — digital or not — largely comes down to three things:

1. Making observations about the world around us (user needs and desires, competitive forces, internal company strengths, etc.)
2. Synthesizing that information into a clear vision of what is and what could be
3. Weighing tradeoffs about what product opportunities should be pursued, and which ones shouldn’t

The world has been becoming increasingly digital for several decades now, and while that overarching trend has persisted, the flavor of the decade changes. Right now, we’re leveraging AI for everything from operational efficiency to consumer personalization. Meanwhile, we’re seeing increasing demands from consumers for stronger data protection and transparency, which can be at odds with the former trend, and the same customers’ expectations put pressure on innovators to experiment and launch faster than ever.

Perhaps the most enduring trend of the last decade or two is the convergence of hardware and software design. Connected hardware like cars, vacuums, refrigerators, and even airport terminal signage used to stay in their own lane, free of the customer expectations applied to a website or an iOS app. Customers now expect any software they interact with, even if it is on a hardware-first product, to deliver the same consumer-grade experience they get on their phone. It is unlikely that vacuum brands ever previously identified an app as their killer, or that vehicle manufacturers imagined that one of their most important partners would be Apple. The point being, even some of the most physical products now require a digital product strategy.

This fits into the broader trend as well; given the rapid acceleration and integration of technology into every part of our lives, having a sharp product strategy is more important than ever. At Livefront, we’re digital product experts, and not just because we studied it and we practice it on projects — we live these conversations in our day-to-day, chatting internally about the ideas and products we see. As a way to stay sharp, we often try to reverse-engineer what makes a product great, or perhaps not-so-great.

This is the beginning of a series where we’ll identify (mostly digital) products, past or present, that either nailed the product strategy or perhaps misstepped. In the former case, we’ll share our thoughts on what they did right, and in the latter case, what we might have advised if we had the opportunity to do so. Hindsight might be 20/20, but there is great value in applying lessons from the past towards future innovation. Let’s uncover them together.

• Phillip Johnson

  VP, Business Development

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