It’s been a while since I wrote here.

And with the new year kicking off, it’s yet again time for a refreshed outlook on the path ahead.

If you’ve read The Rift in the past, you’ll notice something different - I’ve folded it into my personal domain at saqibtahir.com. One less thing to worry about while I manage and maintain ten others.

For the past 7-8 months, I’ve been away from here. Too much on my plate. And some business-related horrors I had to deal with, which I may disclose someday.

Last year was my first full year in business. And although we survived through it, we hit the worst thing you can possibly want for with a new business. But we made it through. And hopefully only up and beyond from here.

To catch you up on what I’m doing these days:

Biz of Dev: still building my discovery-led product studio at bizofdev.com. In all my Product career so far, ‘Discovery’ is one thing that has felt natural to me. So making a service around that theme was just meant to be; hoping to build out my portfolio in 2026 with some really great discussions underway already.

SK NEXUS: making progress on having a proper tech publication at sknexus.org. Started out as explaining complex tech to the average Bashir of Pakistan. But has kinda evolved to be tech broken down for anyone anywhere. In an information bombarded world, ‘context’ is the new king - and the world needs more of it.

The Wandering Pro: building a community around the culture of building at thewanderingpro.com. Last year was all about growing it to a size where we can call it a ‘community’. I think we have made good strides there. This year, it will be all about supporting the active people within it.

Consulting: still working as a Product consultant on Upwork, because the lights don’t pay for themselves. I do wish to make the transition to just focus on my business, but it seems it will take a bit longer to do so - all good things, come with slow pushes.

At the end of the day though, all these pieces actually fit together now.
They didn’t always.

So when you read this, I hope you understand; there’s a lot of juggling through my day to day besides being a dad of two and an allegedly loving husband.

What I’ve learned about content

Back in 2023, I wrote about “Passion and Profit” - the idea that you divide your efforts between each, keep them cohesive, and eventually your passion produces enough profit to sustain itself.

That’s still the game. What’s changed is the structure around it.

Separation creates stimulus.

I used to think consolidation was the answer when it came to content - bring everything under one roof. I was wrong.

SK NEXUS works because it has a clear promise: tech, explained for average joe. The Wandering Pro works because it’s a community, not a content channel. Biz of Dev works because it’s focused on product discovery and delivery, not everything at once.

Different containers for different things. Each one is stronger because it’s not trying to be everything.

And that left me wondering - where do I write?

The Rift Hopefully

I know that last year The Rift was supposed to be a “Product” newsletter. Breaking down my product work, sharing frameworks, that kind of thing.

But here’s the truth: on Substack, there are enough Product/Startup people. People far more experienced and proven than me to offer that kind of advice.

If you are looking for some please give follow (sub? consume?) to , , , , , , , , - to name a few legends of the Product world, already here, already creating great resources.

But at the same time - there’s no one like me (AFAIK) who has had my path.

Computer repair technician → Tech support rep → marketing → project manager → product freelancer → consultant → business owner. In a market like Pakistan, at a time when these roles were quite new/niche. Thankfully it is much better now!

So I’m still here.

Moving forward, The Rift will be more about personal takes. But since my world revolves around tech, product, and business - there will be plenty of that.

I just wanted a place to document my thoughts.
And maybe get people interested in them.

The gap I identified is still there

Back in 2023, I said 95% of career advice on LinkedIn doesn’t apply to people in Pakistan or other low-income regions.

That hasn’t changed.

People here are still less worried about getting hired at Meta, and more worried about earning a comfortable living wage. Less worried about becoming the next billionaire, and more worried about meeting the bare minimum.

What’s changed is that more people are trying to fill that gap now. That’s good. It means the work matters.

So we will keep working on -

SK NEXUS - Keep building it as a legitimate publication.

More depth, more editorial rigor, more pieces that explain why tech matters - not just what happened.

We just wrapped up the year with a detailed review of what we managed to publish. In retrospect, I think we just nailed it for lack of a better term.

Having help from and has been a major unlock - giving me more time to work on ideas and direction. Read what they think below -

SK NEXUS

Year in Review - 2025 - Our First Year on Substack

Welcome to the year 2026…

Read more

4 months ago · 19 likes · 30 comments · Saqib Tahir, Mohib Ur Rehman, and Yousaf Babur

The Wandering Pro - Focus on execution support.

TWP is my answer to what I lacked when getting into a Career. Helping youngins get off the right foot.

We just launched Wander Labs - our new mentoring based building initiative, and already have 3 products in the works. Baby steps.

The Rift - My personal space.

Here, as we roll into 2026, I want to talk more about BTS of being a freelancer/business owner/community builder/writer in current year.

Lot is changing, and changing fast. Hopefully I can document all of that.

If this is no longer for you

I totally get it.

Feel free to unsubscribe and clean up your inbox. No hard feelings.

But if you’re someone like me; figuring stuff out across a dozen line items, trying to build while life keeps happening, maybe I can be some source of inspiration along the way.

There’s a thing about “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Every next generation has advantages that the previous didn’t.

I had many advantages growing up close to tech and working close to businesses. Now I want others to take advantage of that.

Every generation deserves a few shortcuts; lessons earned the hard way, shared the easy way. If I can create some of those, it’s a win in my books.

If you saw my past yearly updates; 2022, 2023, 2024 - most of it is still true.

I have a lot of unique experiences. I still work day to day helping businesses succeed, founders land their ideas, and teams execute on greatness.

The road ahead is long. But the journey is worth sharing whenever I can.

So with 2025 in motion, The Rift will be the gap where ideas live.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

You google "GTM strategy" and drown in advice made for Series B companies with full marketing teams and $500k launch budgets.

Welcome to reality.

As someone who has lived in the trenches launching B2B products for both scrappy startups and funded scale-ups, I can tell you -

Spending your way out of early-stage uncertainty never works.

What works is brutal prioritization.
Ruthless focus on what moves the needle.
Relentless action on things that compound.

This is what I call the Poor Man’s GTM (Branding credits to Scott :D)

A field-tested roadmap to get your B2B idea in front of real customers, with minimal cash and maximum learning.

My Experience From Product Dev to GTM

In my journey, I’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of startups and companies at every stage of the product lifecycle.

I’ve walked both paths - helping teams build their first prototypes and MVPs, and later stepping in to drive the go-to-market execution when the product was ready to face the real world.

From defining epics, user flows, and tech architecture to designing value propositions, shaping landing page strategies, running customer interviews, and leading initial content plays; I’ve worn every hat from product builder to GTM executor.

That unique combination is what inspired this Poor Man’s GTM framework.

It’s built from experience, not theory.

Every recommendation here comes from real-world application with founders, product teams, and early customers.

My role has always been to reduce noise, focus on what actually drives outcomes, and get startups across that painful zero-to-one chasm.

If you’re there now, I get it. I’ve been there too. Let’s get you through it.

The Mindset Behind Poor Man’s GTM

You are exchanging money for time. Cash is scarce. Your edge comes from:

• Fast learning cycles

• Saying no to 90% of distractions

• Accepting imperfect early versions

• Maximizing conversations with users over passive metrics

Your motto:

Stay ugly, Stay fast

3 important caveats

Before we dive into the tactical parts of this GTM strategy, we need to get one thing straight: this is a prioritization mindset, not a shortcut to hypergrowth.

Everything you're about to read assumes you're working with constraint - on time, budget, or both. And that’s okay.

Here’s how to mentally prepare:

1 - ROI Expectations

This approach emphasizes time and effort over cash.

It’s high-leverage, but don’t mistake it for high-speed. You’ll get clarity, conversations, and direction; not necessarily viral growth from Day 1.

Paid media and agency-level polish can help you scale faster, yes. But without a foundation, they only help you burn faster.

The Poor Man’s GTM is not anti-money.
It’s pro-sequence. Spend later - after you’ve proven your positioning.

2 - Leveraging Personal Branding

If you have an audience - use it. Ruthlessly. A founder with a strong personal brand can bypass 70% of this list by simply showing up online consistently and talking directly to their audience.

In that case:

• Skip to the content strategy section.

• Skip paid tools and customer outreach.

• Just build in public, demo your stuff, and offer value.

For everyone else, this GTM exists so you can build your own gravity from scratch.

3 - A Starting Point, Not the End-All

This isn’t a VC-level GTM plan.

It’s your survival kit.

Something to get you from idea to traction without wondering, “Where do I start?”

Once this plan gives you signals, layer on brand, performance marketing, and sales. But don’t let the absence of perfect materials keep you from starting.

The Poor Man’s GTM is about:

• Executing with constraints

• Prioritizing ruthlessly

• Staying uncomfortable and fast

That’s where real velocity comes from.

The common thread with all these caveats?

Don’t overthink.

Don’t wait for perfect. Don’t assume traction is guaranteed. Your only job is to build real feedback loops and momentum as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Where to Actually Spend Your Time (Not Your Money)

1. Figure out Your Value Prop

Why this matters: You can’t market what you can’t explain. Your GTM depends on clearly articulating who you help, what problem you solve, and how your solution creates value.

Why it’s high ROI: It prevents wasted time building unclear messaging or wrong features. It forms the foundation for product-market fit conversations, sales pitches, and every touchpoint that follows.

How to do this:

1. Schedule a 2-hour workshop with your co-founders or product team.

2. Use free Value Proposition Canvas templates - just google em.

3. Identify your primary and secondary customer segments.

4. List their jobs-to-be-done, pains, and desired gains.

5. Match your product’s features to alleviate pains and create gains.

6. Distill everything into a single clear value proposition statement.

2. Positioning and Copy for Your Landing Page

Why this matters: Your landing page is your pitch deck. It must answer: "What is this? Is it for me? Why should I care?"

Why it’s high ROI: A great landing page is the lowest-cost, highest-converting sales asset you can build. It works 24/7, generating leads without manual outreach.

How to do this:

1. Start with your value proposition as the foundation.

2. Write a clear headline addressing your customer’s biggest pain.

3. Follow up with a subheadline explaining your unique solution.

4. List 3–5 key benefits of your product.

5. Add one strong call-to-action (e.g., sign up, request demo).

6. Use a simple landing page builder like Carrd, Framer, or Webflow.

7. Test your draft with 3–5 non-customers and ask: “Would you sign up?”

Need more info? Read this:

3. Copy Done? Now actually Design and Dev the Page

Why this matters: You learn faster by launching a bad landing page than by endlessly polishing one.

Why it’s high ROI: A basic signup page tells you if anyone cares. You avoid months of design paralysis and know what resonates with your market.

How to do this:

1. Open Figma, Miro, or even use paper to sketch your landing page structure.

2. Structure it as Hero → Value Proposition → CTA → Signup Form.

3. Focus on simplicity: no more than one clear call-to-action.

4. Create the page using Carrd, Framer, or any simple builder.

5. Connect the signup form to a simple Google Sheet or email list.

6. Launch it publicly to your network and communities.

7. Track signups and feedback to iterate messaging.

4. SWOT and Competitor Analysis

Why this matters: Understanding your market landscape avoids founder delusion. It helps you spot your wedge.

Why it’s high ROI: It saves you from building "me-too" features and shows where your strengths can outshine the competition with minimal resources.

How to do this:

1. Identify your top 3–5 direct and indirect competitors.

2. Create a simple 2x2 SWOT matrix: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

3. List your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses.

4. Identify external opportunities and threats in the market.

5. Repeat the exercise for key competitors.

6. Use the differences to define your market wedge and unique positioning.

5. Do Quick-and-Dirty Market Research

Why this matters: You don’t need expensive reports. You need actionable insights fast.

Why it’s high ROI: Talking to customers directly validates assumptions and uncovers unmet needs for free, massively reducing the risk of wasted development.

How to do this:

1. Make a list of 20-30 potential customers fitting your ideal user profile.

2. Reach out via email, LinkedIn, or mutual connections.

3. Set up 10–15 short discovery calls or video meetings.

4. Ask open-ended questions about their workflows, pain points, and current solutions.

5. Document the insights and identify recurring themes or patterns.

6. Use this data to refine your product positioning and feature priorities.

Learn everything about Market research here:

6. Create DIY Demo Videos for Each Segment

Why this matters: Customers want to see, not be told.

Why it’s high ROI: A simple demo video replaces hundreds of manual sales calls. It shortens sales cycles and acts as a scalable conversion tool.

How to do this:

1. Choose your core user segments and define the 2–3 main problems they face.

2. Create a simple slide deck or screen-share walkthrough.

3. Record your screen using Loom, Zoom, or any screen recording software.

4. Keep the demo 2–5 minutes long, focusing on problem, workflow, and outcome.

5. Add a call-to-action at the end (e.g., book a call, sign up, contact sales).

6. Upload and link the video from your website, emails, and social media channels.

7. Setup a Feedback Loop System

Why this matters: Unfiltered feedback early on prevents building the wrong product.

Why it’s high ROI: A simple feedback form or board creates continuous user-driven improvements without hiring expensive customer research teams.

How to do this:

1. Set up a simple feedback capture system (Google Form, Typeform, or Notion).

2. Embed feedback links inside your product or send via email after key customer interactions.

3. Create feedback categories: bugs, feature requests, general suggestions.

4. Set a recurring weekly or bi-weekly time to review all feedback.

5. Identify trends and prioritize issues that appear repeatedly.

6. Turn insights into actionable product improvements and communicate changes back to users.

8. Customer Interview Process

Why this matters: Nothing replaces hearing real customers explain their pains.

Why it’s high ROI: At nearly zero cost, you gain critical customer language and insights that guide everything from product development to marketing copy.

How to do this:

1. Create a list of potential customers across your target segments.

2. Reach out via email, LinkedIn, or mutual introductions to request short calls.

3. Prepare a lightweight discovery script with 8–10 open-ended questions.

4. Focus the conversation on problems, workflows, and current frustrations.

5. Listen 80% of the time; speak only to guide and clarify.

6. Record key customer quotes and themes to improve your product and messaging.

7. Conduct at least 10 interviews to see clear patterns before making decisions.

9. Build a Minimum Viable Content Strategy

Why this matters: Consistent content builds trust and positions you as an expert.

Why it’s high ROI: Free platforms like LinkedIn let you create valuable touchpoints at scale. A few thoughtful posts can create deal flow without ad spend.

How to do this:

1. Define your ICP (ideal customer profile) and focus your content on their key challenges.

2. Commit to posting 2–3 short, valuable LinkedIn posts per week.

3. Write 1 in-depth blog article or LinkedIn newsletter per month.

4. Focus each piece on helping your target audience solve a specific pain point.

5. Use simple language; prioritize clarity over style.

6. Repurpose content: turn posts into blog articles, or articles into LinkedIn carousels.

7. Engage with your audience consistently by responding to comments and messages.

10. Minimal Tracking + Analytics Setup

Why this matters: Early data gives clarity on what’s working and what’s not.

Why it’s high ROI: Free tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar deliver essential insights that guide decision-making before you invest in expensive analytics stacks.

How to do this:

1. Set up Google Analytics on your website to track basic traffic and behavior.

2. Add Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps and click tracking on your Product.

3. Use UTM parameters on all marketing links to track campaign effectiveness.

4. Regularly review traffic sources to see which channels drive signups.

5. Avoid overcomplicating: track only core KPIs.

6. Use free versions of tools until consistent traction justifies paid upgrades.

What You Should NOT Do (Yet)

Avoid looking impressive over being effective:

• Fancy brand guidelines (2 colors + 1 font = enough)

• Enterprise-level CRMs (start with Google Sheets or Notion)

• Paid ads (until you have organic traction)

• Perfect onboarding flows (iterate based on user pain)

• Complex pitch decks or sales kits

The Poor Man’s GTM = raw, functional, lean.

Why This Approach Works

Most startups fail not because they built the wrong product - but because they ran out of time and money before they proved anyone wanted it.

This playbook isn’t for impressing VCs or winning design awards. It’s for learning faster than your cash burn rate.

Every week you delay testing your value proposition is a week closer to dying.

• Build conversations.

• Build learning.

• Build actual demand.

Then scale. Not before.

Some Pro Tips -

Leverage Social Proof Early
Even a handful of testimonials or pilot user quotes build trust. Add quotes to your landing page, early case studies, or LinkedIn posts to signal momentum.

Network with Micro-Influencers
Focus on building real relationships in your niche. Ask for advice or feedback, not endorsements. When influencers believe in your product, advocacy will follow naturally.

Cost-Effective Digital Channels
Spend your time where your audience already hangs out. Engage authentically on LinkedIn, niche forums, Slack or Discord communities. Don't pitch, participate.

Referral Programs
Launch a simple “invite a friend” reward. Word-of-mouth referral loops can kickstart growth faster than paid ads.

Cold Outreach
Old-school still works. Cold calls, DMs, and personalized cold emails (done well) remain the most reliable ROI channel in early B2B sales.

Most B2B founders don’t fail from bad products.

They fail from slow feedback, burned cash, and no clear signal of what’s working.

The Poor Man’s GTM isn’t glamorous. But it’s what actually moves you forward - one email, one landing page, one user conversation at a time.

Recap: Here’s Your Zero-to-Signal Checklist

✅ Nail your value prop with customer jobs, pains, and gains
✅ Launch a fast landing page with clear positioning
✅ Test messaging with real users, not guesses
✅ Capture every feedback loop you can - manually
✅ Stack content, demos, and conversations for compounding trust
✅ Track only what you need to iterate, not what impresses

This isn’t a blueprint. It’s a bet.
And every bet you test is one step closer to traction.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Then, the Landing Page has to be the Storefront of your Business.

I’ll leave claiming “100% GUARANTEED RESULTS WITH THIS SIMPLE HACK” to the CRO experts out there. Instead I wanted to take this opportunity behind the fundamentals of a landing page that just works.

In the old days, you had to pitch investors in a boardroom. Today, your landing page is the pitch - to customers, partners, press, and yes, even investors who’ll stalk your website before replying to your email.

If you can’t explain what your product does, who it’s for, and why it matters - right there on the landing page - then you’re not ready to build, raise, or sell. Period.

Most early-stage founders treat their landing page like an afterthought. It becomes a dumping ground of buzzwords, scattered features, and “let’s just get something up for now” nonsense.

First - What Your Landing Page Needs to Do

Being a Product person, I am a big believer in optimizations based on data and feedback. But that’s hard to do if the basics are not met. Good data that can drive decisions can only be collected once we know the expected interactions are there.

“90% bounce rate” won’t help you improve your landing page any time soon. What we need to ensure is that the fundamental setup is done right. And then we can improve and iterate overtime.

As an early stage Startup, there is just too much weight on the landing page, it needs to:

• Explain what your product does in plain English

• Make it clear what problem you’re solving (and who you’re solving it for)

• Show off the features that actually matter

• Build trust with social proof or credentials

• Teach users how to get started or onboard

• Deliver your core offer with zero confusion

• Represent your brand without feeling like a Canva template

And that, that right there, is exactly the problem.

Too many businesses fail to understand the core fundamentals of a good landing page.

They try to stuff 20 headings, and 30 sections down anyone landing on the page.
Only to get them to run away as fast as possible.

Having worked on landing pages for 100+ web projects, it is quite clear what should be the primary focus areas for most pages to start with:

1 - Lay out the exact problems you are setting out to solve with your product or service.
2 - Define how your solutions are a fit for the problems listed prior.
3 - Work on defining your value proposition and what features make you stand out to your users.
4 - Have elements of authority and trust building on your page.
5 - Having the necessary design elements in the landing page structure.

AKA

• Problem - What real-world issue are you solving?

• Solution - How exactly are you solving it?

• Value Prop - Why does your approach matter?

• Trust - What makes you credible?

• Design - Is it easy to follow and use?

Now don’t think this is the end all be all guide to every landing page out there. But it is the one that performs the best for any early stage business.

Identifying Problems and Tailoring Solutions

This is where you need to be the most honest.
- No, your product doesn’t solve all problems
- No, your business doesn’t do everything under the sun
- No, your offer is not the best for everyone out there
- No, your solutions are not the most groundbreaking and innovative

But you know what can be true?
- Your product solving the right problems for the right users
- Your business doing what matters most in your niche
- Your offer providing the highest value vs competitors
- Your solutions being driven by your mission - not by fad features

Identifying a key set of problems you are setting out to solve is crucial for success of any Early Stage Startup.

The issue I feel like is you see Post-Product Market Fit Startups and think you need to be the same. You need to offer the maximum amount of features.

You need to do ‘everything all at once’.

You Don’t

Now if you read this and are thinking that this is just not true about your Product. Then perhaps either you need to do a rediscovery of your idea, or hey, I guess I don’t have the monopoly on being right.

But if you read this and understand the importance of solving the pain points for your users, here’s a good place to start.

If you’re B2B -

Focus on mapping out operational and efficiency challenges. Stick to language that is targeted around business needs based on your research. Don’t promise to solve everything. But promise to solve the exact problems your product needs to solve.

Prioritize data based insights into how many businesses are facing the said problem and how you are helping them solve the said problem.

You are likely facing a decision maker here, your language needs to address benefits that are cross departmental. Ditch the cheesy empathy and get to the point with why your solution will integrate into their workflow.

• Focus on business outcomes and operational wins

• Ditch the buzzwords - talk ROI, workflows, efficiency

• Address decision-makers and cross-functional teams

• Cite actual pain points with real-world context

If you’re B2C -

Focus on the pain points the end users face and what personal benefits they will gain from your solution. Keep your language simple, ditch complicated terms and self-invented lingo - stick to what is accessible.

Your page needs to scream ‘I know what this product does’. You are selling to a person here, most likely the end user. Address them with empathy and understanding of the problems they face.

Lastly, less is more in this case, keep your headings short, and your explanations shorter. Integrate multiple media formats to make it easy to comprehend your messaging.

• Talk directly to the end user - benefits, not specs

• Keep it simple, clean, and free of startup lingo

• Use visuals, media, and punchy copy

• Show empathy, not arrogance

And for both:

• Use a readability tool like Hemingway - aim for grade 7 or lower

• Make sure your problem and solution statements are memorable

• Keep assets fast, accessible, and scannable

• And most importantly, can you verbally recall your problem and solution statements?

If you, the founder, cannot visualize your landing page, you can’t expect your users to remember a word about what you have to solve for.

Bringing us to what makes you special.

Show the Value (Not the Feature Dump)

Having compelling problem statements and solutions is key to having people scroll. But now what?

The users are nodding their head
- Yes these are the problems I have
- Yes these solutions seem to fit my case
But…I am still not sure how am I getting value here.

And that is where your value proposition comes in. In most cases, you WILL succeed in any business by either:

Offering more value for the same commitment
Offering same value for a lower commitment

Breaking it down to those two simple facts makes figuring out your messaging a whole lot better.

Now the Value Prop section is done differently by everyone. Some people spam features, some spam benefits, some spam every irrelevant thing they can find.

In my experience, the best way to position this section is to stick to a max of 3 unique benefits that your Product or Service offers.
Why 3? Well 3 is easy to remember I suppose.

The rule is, don’t just focus on the outcomes of using your product. You must first address HOW you are helping achieve said outcome.

A picture tells a thousand words - the best way to show your value is to demonstrate how you can help users achieve an outcome.

Format for each subsection should be something along the lines of:
- Stating a key benefit - An XYZ to help you do ABC
- Explain further using subheadings or paragraphs
- Show how your feature is solving the problem (using visual aid)

Here’s an example from one of my all time favorite landing pages:

Source: https://www.rewind.ai/

And

Source: https://fathom.video/

A Landing Page Structure That Just Works

The meat of it is out of the way. You understand what problems your users have, you have tailored your solutions to address those problems, and you have shown how the features of your product provide value. Now comes laying it all out in a format that is easy to understand.

Here’s one thing I say to everyone I work with - ‘don’t reinvent the wheel’

Websites have been out for a very long time, and what a landing page structure SHOULD be like is pretty much out there. An example of such an approach is linked here.

To lay it out here is how the sections should be structured:

1. A hero section with clear CTA + Lead magnet or Offer

   • Hero section is the above the fold section of the website. Meaning the first thing you see on the landing page without having to scroll any further.

2. A social proof section showcasing authority

   • Social proof is usually represented by the companies you have worked with. It can also showcase any achievements or accreditations your business has.

3. A problem statements section

   • Usually a section with a 1 2 3 approach to listing the top problems a specific user segment has.

4. A solution statements section

   • Usually a section expanding further on what are the solutions for the said problems.

5. A how it works section (if applicable)

   • This section is optional and usually applicable only to Products that may seem really hard to integrate. Make use of a simple to understand How it Works to demonstrate ease of adoption.

6. Value proposition section

   • In this section you show 'how' you are solving the problems with your solutions. Usually a visually aided section, explaining features of your product or areas of your services.

7. Testimonials

   • Similar to social proof section but with real words, real people - building authority and trust. Integrate a third party solution to showcase authenticity.

8. Re-Offer section

   • A 'before you leave, check this' section to give the users another opportunity to commit to what your offer is.

These are the basics, at the least, you should have all of these. Depending on your product or business, there can be variations in the messaging, design, branding BUT the structure will mostly remain the same.

The best thing about this structure is that you can easily build a wireframe yourself in a tool like Miro. Speed-running your way to final design.

Lastly, this structure helps you visualize placement of everything in the best manner. Dividing up all the key areas in segments like this ensures it is easy to do the final design and development of the page as well.

Taking Care of The Basics

Once your landing page is designed and developed - you need to take care of the basics. It sounds lame but the number of times Startups miss out on this is kinda ridiculous. You don’t need to be an SEO expert or a CMO to figure out the basics.

Here they are:

1 - Make sure your page is mobile and tablet responsive. Upwards of 50% of users access websites on their smartphones these days.

2 - Click through ALL CTA buttons and make sure they are functioning as intended.

3 - Have appropriate title tags for the various sections. Your page MUST HAVE ONLY ONE H1 tag. Use a tool like this to scan for issues.

4 - Have a page meta description of appropriate length.

5 - Link your page to Google Search Console and make sure it is indexing. You can check by typing site:www.yoursitename.com in the Google search bar.

6 - Your site must force https:// and should not allow someone to allow access to just http:// version.

7 - All the images are optimized for performance. Use a tool like https://pagespeed.web.dev/ to assess common issues on your page.

8 - Integrate necessary analytics to track user behavior.

9 - If you have an email, sign up, test it, and test it again after going live. Users should receive an email in their inbox to prevent future spam marking.

10 - Make sure your header is sticky on desktop and minimized on mobile. For single pagers leverage html anchor hashtags to provide smart navigation between different sections.

Final Word - Don’t Chase Perfect, Just Ship It Right

There is a lot of weight on any landing page. You need to generate impact with your product. You have to gain trust in your business. You need to empathize with users' needs. You need the users to take action.

I don’t believe in ‘perfection’ - only iteration.

You’re not going to get it perfect the first time. That’s fine. The goal is to launch something solid, gather real data, and iterate. If you get the fundamentals right, you’ll have a foundation you can actually improve on - without starting from scratch every time.

If you’re stuck or overwhelmed, remember: your landing page isn’t about showing off.

It’s about clarity, focus, and making it dead simple for the right people to say “yes.”

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Marketplaces are cool.

Established platforms, with Apps that improve the functionality that the big guys are too slow to build natively.

Living, breathing ecosystems that generate businesses and livelihoods all around.
(Let’s be positive for this piece, I’ll cover Sherlocking some other time perhaps)

It has and will exist for any Product that goes full blast;

• Shopify has it’s App Marketplace

• WordPress has it’s Plugin Ecosystem

• Discord has it’s Integrations

• Monday.com has it’s Apps

The list goes on and on.

If you've used any platform, you know Apps are essential to meet the unique needs of a rapidly evolving user base.

There’s a reason why iOS and Android are dominant. It's not just the OS, it's the breadth of Apps users demand on their smartphones. R.I.P. Lumia and BB OS (arguably better, or is that nostalgia?).

Similarly, in the B2B space, large platforms often can’t keep up with the ever increasing demands of its users, so the only natural way to scale is to open up to ‘integrations’ and then eventually have your own ‘Marketplace’.

I’ve been working in the ‘Marketplace’ landscape for the last 8 months, and have learned a lot. And in today’s issue - I want to go over one problem that I see all Marketplace Apps have -> Copycat Apps.

Why are Copycats a Unique Problem on Marketplaces

Unlike traditional Products that are standalone and perhaps garner a much larger audience. Marketplace Apps, App's that are on some existing Product’s Marketplace - are purpose built by definition.

1. Users need a specific solution or integration

2. You build a MVP for that need

3. It takes off -> and you have yourself a successful Product

Most ‘indie’ Marketplace Apps, how would I call it, start out like this.

But here’s the core issue - Marketplace-based Products are inherently easy to copy.
You identified a gap in a platform's functionality, and solved it. Great!

But now, you've also created a blueprint for others.

So then the next person who does it. Can do it faster, cheaper, and better.

Effectively, all they need to do is, ‘copy’ your idea and sell it for half the price.

Your Product Wasn’t ‘hard to copy’ to Begin With

And now you have a new competitor on the Marketplace, offering pretty much what you do, and basically for half the price.

Side step: This happens outside of the Marketplace as well, where we get Apps like ‘Clubhouse’ making PMs go ‘Is that a Product? or just a feature?’ - and most small single feature Apps get quickly integrated by the big players if they ever become popular.

When your Product lives within a Marketplace, you will face copycats.

This creates constant pressure to evolve, to stand out.

Otherwise, you risk getting stuck in a race to the bottom on price.

Drawing from my experiences, and from countless conversations with Marketplace startups facing this issue. I hope to educate you perhaps on a game plan that could work out for us here.

See at the end of the day, with any Product, Marketplace or not, building a sustainable business is the goal.

Any advantage you have ‘today’ will vanish as soon as the gap gets closed.

So it is your duty, to take a lead, and then keep the lead.

So How Does One Respond to Copycat Competition

Now I don’t wanna go full 7 powers of Hamilton here, since I believe that should be reserved for a bit more mature Product. So my solution, for you, for now, will be below. An abridged version, let’s call it the 3.14 Powers of Hamilton I guess.

Having worked closely in the Marketplace ecosphere, I believe the following 3 things to be the top priority IF you already have a lead, with your Product.

I am also using levels here to kinda highlight the urgency of how you should think about em:

• Level 1: Immediate responses (days or weeks)

• Level 2: Medium-term differentiation (pricing and positioning)

• Level 3: Long-term strategic initiatives (changing how customers see your offering)

Fighting Marketplace competition requires a layered approach.
Combining immediate actions with long-term strategy.

The framework I am suggesting moves from quick, tactical actions to more strategic initiatives. By working through these levels, you could build a complete competitive strategy.

Level 1: Immediate Response - Support Excellence and Positive Reviews

When a new competitor offers similar features at a lower price, here’s one thing they will lack -

Customer support.

This is your quickest win. Competitors can copy features. But they can't instantly replicate your experience or customer relationships.

Make your support airtight. Business users, especially on platforms like Monday.com or Shopify, value reliable support. Their complex projects and eCommerce stores depend on it.

Excellent support is an excellent differentiator, one that can be your first step towards becoming hard to copy.

Here are some things you should be looking to implement A.S.A.P

1. Cut response times dramatically. See what kind of issues take the longest to resolve, work on common themes across them, and prioritize reducing the turnaround on them.

2. Create User feedback based roadmaps. Show how you're fixing issues. Transparency goes a long way to offer condolence. Let your users know if there are issues that will take some time to fix, and let them know you are working on them.

3. Expand your support team. Your first scalability hire besides the dev team should always be the support team. You as the founder should not be the single source of truth to all support concerns.

There’s this great case study which I can’t find the link to on how there are acquisition firms that focus on rising Products with weak support. And just by acquiring them, improving their support, allows them to flip them up sometimes up to 5x the initial value.

As a small Product, exceptional support is the moat that you can almost always rely on, especially on a Marketplace Product where user’s businesses rely on you.

Support also ensures increased loyalty to your team, and any future initiatives you will build (which you will be doing eventually if you want to keep your lead).

So you say, ‘Hey Saqib, our support team is excellent and way can’t do any better there’

Then, are you doing enough to leverage the success of your Support team?

Enter, social proof.

The second thing that will make you hard to copy in this journey.

They can copy your feature, but they can’t copy your support, or your social proof - you get the idea.

Basically, any immediate approach to fighting competition should be effort spent on things that make you harder to copy - first and foremost.

Now in the case of Marketplace Apps, I believe support and social proof are the biggest 2 factors. But in other cases, there will always be 2-3 things that have the highest ROI if you put them against the Y axis of being anti-copycat.

Level 2: Strategic Pricing and Value Differentiation

Now here’s the thing, no matter how good your Product is on a Marketplace, if there is a copycat - pricing will eventually be the discussion on the table.

And it is the trap that can make you race down to the bottom if you keep thinking of pricing in terms of x dollars for y inputs/outputs.

Fun fact, as I write this, OpenAI is having a similar problem where their pricing of tokens make no sense as other providers have figured out better/cheaper ways to do the same thing. Now OAI is in a similar rut where they need to price around ‘value’, I guess.

Similarly, in order to outcompete, it may be fine to refactor your pricing to stay ahead of the competition once, or twice, or thrice, but keep that up and you won’t be competing, you will be catching up.

Instead, take this opportunity to revisit your pricing and think of it doing differently this time.

First of all, you need to communicate your pricing better. You are a bigger player, you have more users, and you have more costs - but the customer doesn’t know that yet.

Figure out how you can offer the advantages of being a bigger player, through your pricing descriptors. Things like mention of support turnaround times, or 24/7 availability, or custom onboarding team, or better trial offerings - try to do things a new competitor can’t or will not be able to do.

Then, start experimenting with value-based pricing. Move beyond simple feature counts. Traditional pricing is "X dollars for Y features." This commoditizes your offering.

And yes, I understand that consumers hate this approach, but for business users, this is still the best way to justify a purchase. Your value is your maturity, if a business needs to rely on you, they need to be sure you will stick around, let that fact comfort you.

Lastly, avoid pricing that makes direct comparisons easy. Per unit pricing works when you are new, but now you aren’t new and do a lot of things that can’t be ‘quantified’. So if your pricing is still X things for Y dollar, you are just shooting yourself in the foot.

And here’s the thing, I don’t want the takeaway here to be ‘You should just charge more because you deserve more’ - the takeaway here should be that you should charge according to the value you provide, which can go beyond the features of your Product.

Actually, oftentimes, what works is to have a pricing tier where there is an option where you don’t make any money. Because you want the users to get to your platform, understand the value, and then go for the more pricier option.

PLG and what not, a lot of strategies come into play when playing with pricing. But on the Marketplace, your pricing needs to be diverse and catering to a lot of different types of user bases.

Offer more options than basic tiers. Create "loss leader" options to compete on price. And premium "halo" packages with high-value features at higher margins.

This diversified pricing prevents customers from dismissing you as "too expensive." It creates opportunities to upsell.

It lets you maintain healthy margins while competing on price in certain segments. This is yet another thing that makes you harder to copy.

Level 3: Long-Term Strategic Positioning and Product Evolution

Lastly, in the long run, even though you are in a Marketplace - you need to think like a standalone Product.

Competition will keep coming up, and new ideas will pop in your head on what to build next. BUT before all that, you need to start working on your ‘Product Strategy’

Start by creating feedback loops with your best customers. Dedicate 10-20 hours a month to talking to them. Validate adjacent features that complement your core functionality.

These conversations identify high-value opportunities. They deepen relationships with key customers. They provide early validation before you commit resources.

Your lead is your current customers, don’t waste that opportunity.

This customer-centric approach ensures your expansion meets real needs. You'll naturally differentiate from competitors focused only on copying your original features.

Position yourself as more than just a utility. Don't be "the App that does X." Be "the champion for cross-functional work," or some other broader theme. I plan to write on how to work on your value proposition as you grow someday - stay tuned.

Your end goal should be to be very specific and detailed on ‘who’ your App is for. Because it is much better to be ‘loved’ by a group of your customers than to be ‘liked’ by all your customers. The thing that will make you hardest to copy.

Here’s how you can think of strategy in the broader sense: https://therift.news/p/001-the-paradox-of-strategic-planning

So What’s Next For Your Marketplace App

You improved your support, worked on your social proof, figured out your pricing, and now have a solid strategy to grow your Product in the long run - what now?

Now is the time to get out of the Marketplace.

As my night gig, I help freelancers and professionals with their careers. And a common advice is that start on a platform, get successful, and then go direct to find new clients.

This is basically the Product version of it.

Your App started as a solo feature integration on a platform
It grew to meet more needs as customers grew
You added more features as time went on
And now you have a ‘suite’ you can take outside of the Marketplace

It’s time to graduate.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Here’s the thing, the goal behind this newsletter is to educate about everything related to Product Development from perspective of a Product Manager, Tech Nerd, and a Business Owner.

There’s a lot of stuff out there on the interwebs, BUT it can get really frustrating to piece everything together, when you start working on YOUR product.

For this year I envision writing about the core fundamentals about Product Development. How to research your product, how to find a dev team for your product, how to plan your execution, and as you will see in this issue - how to put it all together with product discovery.

Once I am done with the fundamentals, the direction I want to take is to provide a roadmap, the 1 2 3 of going from 0 to 1 with a product. So let’s see where this journey takes us.

Now - back to the main issue

In today’s digest I want to go over yet another fundamental for Product dev, which is Product Discovery.

Now Discovery can be took in 2 ways - foundational (for lack of a better word) and continuous (pretty understood by product companies).

Basically,

Foundational → The first time discovery you do before building your Product

Continuous → The practice of continuously discovering your existing Product to improve it

For now, let's focus on the foundations - we can discuss continuous Product Discovery another time.

Product Discovery - Setting the Foundation

'Product Discovery' - perhaps the most frequently used term in the Product world. Simply put, it involves carrying out a set of tasks to better understand the vision behind the product that requires development.

In more detail, regardless of who you are or what you're building, Product Discovery involves:

• Exploring the uncertainty behind your idea

• Identifying problems you can solve with your product

• Figuring out the right solutions for your audience

• Analyzing all aspects of the market

• Exploring visions and goals that drive your business

• Documenting everything that will lead you to execution - faster.

So then, the most common question founders have is,

Why the heck would I need a discovery session?

The basic explanation is:

Product management is all about working at the fronts of Ideation, Planning, Design, Development, and Launch of your Product or Business idea.

Diving one step further, every one of these stages has an important part that is usually led by the Product person. That one critical thing in my humble opinion is:

For Ideation its Product Discovery
For Planning its Prioritization & Documentation
For Design its UI/UX Mapping of Features
For Development its Build Process & Project Management
For Launch and beyond its working on Go To Market and Product Strategy

I plan to detail all of these out in future articles, but for today, we will take a look into conducting effective Product Discoveries.

The Breakdown of Product Discovery

Discovery efforts can be divided into two stages - exploration (of the problem) and validation (of the solution).

Depending on your product, you might need to focus more on one aspect than the other. The main outcomes you should aim for after a discovery process are:

• A deep understanding of what your users require

• Understanding how your business will integrate into your product

• Working on understanding the ecosystem around your product

• Understanding what tech to use and how to get to launch

• Getting on the same page between you and your stakeholders

How to Conduct an Effective Product Discovery Process

As a partner having worked for many companies, the validation stage only happens once we can have a complete understanding of the exploration phase.

To conduct a thorough discovery process, you should always start with a kickoff meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to ask fundamental questions to get a basic understanding of the idea you're working with.

Typical questions should cover subject areas such as:

• Can you explain the business aims, vision and goals in a summary?

  • To test how well you have your plans laid out.

• What are the key categories of users for your product?

  • To understand any existing research you might have done.

• Who are your main competitors?

  • To understand the market you are trying to launch in.

• What kind of team setup do you currently have?

  • To understand the dynamics of my role as a contractor in your organization.

• What are some of the pain points you are trying to solve?

  • It's all about problems and solutions, this is to see if you have them in writing.

After the kickoff meeting, prepare a detailed summary and outline next steps that typically include:

1. Creating a comprehensive discovery questionnaire

2. Gathering all existing documentation and information

3. Planning 2-4 discovery workshops

Execution Focused Product Discovery Workshop Structure

Once your initial prep is done, now is the time to conduct the workshops.

Phase 1: Product - Business Understanding

The purpose of this stage of the workshop is to get a better idea behind the business that will be running the product. Having a general idea of the vision and value you bring to the table with your business is effective to any product success.

In the workshop you will go over what is the high level vision for your business, what problems you are setting out to solve with your product, and what the solution might look like for the market.

Standard agenda:

1. Business Vision and Goals

   1. Writing down the long term and short term goals of the business in your words.

   2. Identifying specific aims, risks, challenges, and success metrics the business the performance of the business will be based on.

2. Product Value and Unique Selling Proposition

   1. Working on what makes your business and your product unique.

   2. Discussing market differentiating features and how to present them.

   3. Listing out the core values the business wants to stand behind.

3. Problem and Solution Statements

   1. Document problems being solved with the product

   2. Discuss how to address pain points with product features

Phase 2: Product Market Fit Foundations

Eventually, a Product Market Fit is the goal for every product out there. This stage of the workshop deals with setting the right foundation for your product in regards to the market. As your product evolves, a lot will change, features might get added or removed, design will change, priorities will change - but what must remain the same is your larger vision. Understanding the market is the key behind getting off the right foot.

With the right team, anything can be built
With the right product, anything can be sold
AND With the right market, anything is successful

Standard agenda:

1. Understanding the Competition

   1. Listing the main competitors and the key takeaways for their product.

   2. Listing the indirect or secondary competitors (if available) and the key takeaways for their offering.

   3. Doing the one thing check - One thing you definitely want to adopt, One thing you never want to adopt, One thing you want to do differently.

2. SWOT Analysis and Pitch

   1. Discussing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the market for the product.

   2. Brainstorming an elevator pitch for your product based on the framework For, Who, Our, Provides, Unlike, Product definition.

3. Market Differentiation and Product Positioning

   1. Discussing the general complexities of the market you are trying to break in.

   2. Working on messaging strategies to differentiate in the market.

   3. Noting down positioning and differentiation synergies to stand out from the competition.

Phase 3: User Segmentation and Experience Mapping

A good user experience can make or break a product. This session ensures a solid understanding of your audience, their needs and wants, and how to map solutions to meet their expectations.

Standard agenda:

1. Understanding User Groups

   1. Segmenting out the various user groups your product has.

   2. Defining the demography, habits, tech savviness and any existing feedback.

2. Understanding User Pain Points

   1. Listing out all pain points for the various user groups from a problem standpoint.

   2. Detailing out any and all frustrations with the current tech available in the space.

3. User Journey Mapping

   1. Planning possible journey flows for the various user groups from discovering your product to learning how to use it.

   2. Linking out the opportunities with the pain points previously detailed.

Phase 4: Execution Strategy

Last but not least, having gone through all the phases for the discovery - the last part is to discuss execution. All planning without action - is a failure of execution. In this session you will go over the resources, technologies, team requirements, for the next 90 days of your Product.

Standard agenda:

1. Tech Stack Overview and Ecosystem Understanding

   • Map the ecosystem for various platforms and channels

   • Identify internal and external factors for user interaction

   • Determine appropriate tech stack for moving forward

2. Resource Planning

   • Define team requirements for execution and delivery

   • Identify resources required to reach Go-To-Market

   • List primary and secondary high-level objectives

3. Feature Mapping & MVP Draft

   • Map features by priority: must have, should have, could have

   • Assess risk associated with required features

   • Conduct high-level MVP discussion

Key Deliverables from Your Product Discovery Process

The outcome of your discovery workshops should be a detailed findings document. This document synthesizes the workshop discussions and analyses, providing clear direction for next steps along with a better understanding of short-term and long-term product and business goals.

This document becomes your single source of truth for future reference.

Here's what to include in your deliverables for each phase of Product Discovery:

Business Vision and Product Space Evaluation

This section of the report will largely go over all the pertaining information when it comes to the following key areas:

• Major issues faced by the current market

• Potential solutions for challenges with existing products

• Unique selling propositions that make your product stand out

• Associated risks with a product in this problem space

• Values the business behind the product should stand for

These outcomes will help guide the larger direction of your business while building the app. Findings about USP, values, and risks will inform your marketing and sales messaging. A deeper understanding of the problem and solution space clarifies what needs to be done to meet user expectations.

According to Marty Cagan, Founder at SVPG, We have always had, and likely always will have, two essential problems in software: we need to figure out the right product, and then we have to build the product right.

Competitor Analysis and Market Understanding

As mentioned before, launching in the right market is critical when aiming to reach a PMF as fast as possible. This section of the discovery document goes over what you need to look out for in terms of your competitors. And how to position yourself for success in the market.

Quick tidbit before we get into it - did you know market differentiation and product positioning are not the same thing?

Ah yes, semantics! - but it can be important.

Basically it’s a perspective difference -

Product positioning involves shaping how potential consumers perceive a product.

Market differentiation, or product differentiation, occurs when a company employs strategies to demonstrate why its product features surpass those of competitors.

That being said, here is what to expect for these deliverables:

• Details for your direct, indirect, and/or secondary competitors

• Key takeaways on what you should adopt

• Strategic input on gaps in the market

• Market trends summary for your product

• SWOT analysis to consider for your product

• Samples pitches to draw inspiration from

These deliverables will help you gauge the current status of the market and allow you to prioritize progress based on learnings rather than guess work. Things like the SWOT analysis and the elevator pitch will unlock new ways to position yourself in the market. Whereas the competitor analysis and the identified gaps can help you look further into new opportunities as the product grows.

User Experience Documentation

Here’s a fun question - what comes first? Having Users or Having a Product?

Chicken and egg really. This is probably where you need someone with decades in the industry to help you out. The most important factor when discovering a product.

Mapping out the users for your eventual product is much like forecasting the price of Tesla stock. Will shoot up? dive down? Your guess is as good as mine.

Fail jokes aside, it’s not all guess work. We have the technology (says in Patrick’s voice) to figure out to a pretty good extent what you should be building for.

Mapping out users for your future product isn't pure guesswork - it requires tested frameworks, data, tools, and experience.

Your user experience documentation should:

• Segment all users based on needs

• Document expected user journeys

• Highlight pain points to address when solving problems

• Identify additional opportunities to consider later

• Understand what behaviors to optimize your product for

This documentation ensures you always remember WHO you're building your business and product for. As the saying goes - the customer is always right in matters of taste, so you better serve what has an appetite.

Dev Execution Roadmap

Now we get to the exciting part - putting everything in a plan for execution. A design plan, a development roadmap, a SRS, a PRD, a SOW - many names this has. But the goal is simple, you should know what to do next.

In this case, one size DOES NOT fit all. The execution plan is always tailored to the resources we have, the budget we have, how much time we have, so on - so forth.

There's no one-size-fits-all approach here. Your execution plan should be tailored to available resources, budget, and timeline. This section should include:

• List of modules that the product should have

• Features that are high priority vs high risk

• What should be the general team responsibilities - including yours

• Drafting out the structure for the MVP

• Overview of the GTM aspects for your product

With all the phases combined, you will now have unlocked an holistic approach towards developing your product in the near future.

“I already have an MVP ready to ship” - Why would I need Product Discovery?

See, the reason this article exists is to give you an inside look into the world of Product Discovery. For what you should have seen so far, the discovery is an exercise in exploration and validation.

No matter what stage you are at as a startup, the discovery can still apply to you. I have done product discoveries for products from scratch, for refreshes, for V2s, the list goes on.

Simply put - Product Discovery is the journey that will help you get to a destination.

If you are reading this as a founder, tell me you haven’t had second guesses on what you are doing. You feel someone should be validating your concerns. You feel aimless with nowhere to turn.

All these pain points are meant to be solved by having a product discovery.

Which finally gets us to:

Should You Consider a Product Discovery for Your Startup?

Your approach to discovery should be based on what you genuinely need. Only conduct the phases that are absolutely necessary and skip what's already clear or needs no improvements.

Try this quick self-assessment. If all answers are "Yes," Discovery is not for you right now
But if you’re being honest, and have doubts with any one of them - you need one. Now or later.

1. Do you clearly understand at least 3 core problems you are trying to solve?

2. Do you have detailed solutions for all of the problems listed above?

3. Do you understand who you are solving the problems for?

4. Do you understand your users' needs and what is being met by the market?

5. Do you have evidence of having worked out your unique selling proposition? Is it just unique? Or is it also useful?

6. Do you know what kind of resources are required to execute on your vision?

7. Do you understand the importance of having a clear vision and consistent values throughout your business and product offering?

8. Do you have evidence that your product will be usable?

9. Do you know how to prioritize between desired features, viable features, and feasible features?

10. Lastly, do you know how you will measure success for your product?

With that, good luck finding your fit in the market.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

Market Research and Product Discovery go hand in hand, I implore you to read this next to get a holistic approach on understanding both:

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Consultancy taught me that being the right partner to the right person can 10x anything - under a year. My way of working with partners was always directed towards filling in the gaps. See where the other person lacks, and try my best to match the gaps.

So even though I found major success being a partner to many, when it came to finding a partner for my own gig - I failed.

In this digest, I want to go over lessons I learned from being a partner for many to finding a partner for my own business.

May you learn something from one who has played both sides.

Life as a Partner, that most Founders need

My way of working was always directed more towards partnering with folks who genuinely need the help. Get them to a place beyond that point. And then move on to the next Founder to work with.

A Founder who is driven in solving a real market need with a solution
A solution, the market is ready for. - was the best place I always wanted to be.

Breaking it down, it’s three things that attracted me:

1 - Bootstrap mentality - solving problems with limited resources at hand. As an ex-engineer, working with constraints is my playground - building a startup is very much the same. Founders who work within constraints - often go beyond limits.

2 - Openness to ideas - when you are in the business of solving problems, you need to be open to finding ‘alternative’ solutions. I love discovering possible solutions to old and new problems alike. New ways to cure old diseases. Founders who are usually open to new ideas are ones who create new possibilities.

3 - High motivation (for the right reasons) - Founders looking to build something they are proud of is rare. Most Founders will run with an idea 'just because' and think it is enough to bring change. It isn’t.

But every now and then you will meet truly exceptional folks. Folks who will give years to what they believe in - that’s the sweet spot.

If your pitch to me was that ‘this will raise millions USD of funding’ OR ‘if we only capture 1% of the market.’ - I would stop you right there, tell you to go back to the drawing board.

For a long time, I was the guy who showed the way to others.
Given they had the 3 things above, I led a lot of folks to a lot of treasures.

The problems most Founders have

Commonly speaking the biggest problem most Founders will have can be summed with one phrase.

‘I am doing everything, all, at once’ - fun

Wearing too many hats is fine, for a while.
The more you do, the bigger chance you have of not succeeding with your mission.

It’s common knowledge that Founders who partner up with a technical Co-Founder have a higher chance of success.
But if they are solo, I have often seen them having problems with:

1 - Day to Day operations

Managing your daily workload between
- thinking about what the product should be, discovering the right thing to build
- managing the team working towards your goal, executing without waste
- and then researching the market to make sure you are heading in the right direction - is just too much for most.

Most solo Founders, as a result, quit their jobs, sell all their belongings, and try to maximize the ROI on effort. Thing is, you can only go so long managing operations and growing a product at the same time. You will run into a wall where your attention is divided into a dozen dimensions.

Part of managing operations is also making sure the budget is spent wisely. Most Founders fall for marketing and positioning traps all the time. They go investing money into things they absolutely don’t need cough Slack subscription cough - yet.

And its not their fault. One can argue, pieces exist all over the internet, convincing Founders to make their money worth with products and services they might need, might not need.

2 - Managing teams, lots of teams

One big factor in attaining the gold standard status of product market fit is having the right team. Pretty obvious for anyone. The issue however is getting that right team to work with you.

Most Founders usually transition from a job themselves - and have no idea on how to build a team. Recruiting and sourcing people takes up more than half the time in the early days of the company. And what is left is taken over by onboarding the new team members and making sure they are following the vision set by you.

Not to mention the pains of offboarding employees. Making sure retention is good. And that the hiring budget is being wisely spent.

Remote work has been a cost saving blessing for thousands of startups. But it does have its own challenges.

Communication, time zone alignment, culture fit, and overall cohesion in the company to name a few. You need someone who can guide you to spend money where it matters and save where it doesn't matter much.

3 - Sticking to the Vision

I see Founders often make a critical mistake of latching on to a "revolutionary feature".

A feature that is going to make their product stand out from the market. A feature that will definitely not be copied by anyone else. Clubhouse anyone? Snap stories? list goes on

As a Founder you should stick to a grander vision of solving problems with holistic solutions, not just mere features.

I get it - market differentiation is a challenging problem. You want to have something unique about your startup.

So here's my advice - differentiate based on the ethos - not based on what feature your product has.

Example, if I am helping someone build an employee focused CRM that will enable better engagement and performance from the people using the CRM.

Instead of focusing on saying our CRM has XYZ feature, I would advise the Founder to say:

The CRMs in the market solve the symptoms, we want to solve the disease.

This kind of broader vision towards your mission can help you pivot anytime - not be tied down to one fad feature…AI anyone?

As a Founder, you need to be focused on the long term. Getting distracted away from what matters most is a really good way to dig a grave. Just having an idea is not enough, you need someone to help you validate, research, and offer comparisons.

The word 'Roadmap' is thrown around the product world all the time, funnily enough - many Founders don't have one. All they have is an idea, a pitch, and drive - which can be a recipe for disaster.

So you say - Ok Saqib, I am a Founder, and I think these problems define my situation. Then what? Well then maybe you should consider the following.

Why should you find a Partner as a Founder?

As a startup Founder your key responsibilities should include:
- Creating the vision and mission for your idea
- Researching the market for differentiation opportunities
- Developing a base business model
- Working closely on the product roadmap
- And if you are going the fundraising round, working on pitches and connecting with parties is basically your new day job.

Hiring a partner should ensure that you stick to the path that is the most optimal for you as a Founder.

And ideally speaking, you should be offloading:
- Day to day administration of the team and the business ops
- Making sure the dev and design plan is being executed
- How to find solutions to technical challenges with a build
- Making sure the budgets are being burnt appropriately

Just having a sturdy shoulder to rely on can open up a lot of time, and not to mention, a lot of mental capacity for you to focus on what matters as your duty being a Founder.

Last not least, having the right partner means having a shortcut to the right resources.

Be it team, tools, or hacks - if you get someone who has experience dealing with building from scratch to help you - your work just gets 10x easier.

Here’s a common analogy I make to Founders

Just because you love cars, and drive a car daily, and know what goes in a car - DOES NOT MEAN you can go and build one.

When it comes to building software (arguably easier than building a car) - the same logic still applies. A lot of Founder have the right heart and want to build the right thing - but their approach is usually wrong.

I’ve seen Founders
Waste money on expensive outsource teams,
Waste money on tools they never need,
Waste money on consultants to work on things that don’t matter - yet.

Present as a Founder, looking for the right Partner

And using my own analogy for myself. For years I partnered with others, but that DID NOT mean I knew how to find the right partners for my own needs.

I was the Yin to many Yangs, and I did it for so long, I forgot what to look for in a Yin for my own self (ok that sounded better in my head, pardon).

So after 5+ burnt partnerships, these are the 5 lessons I learnt when looking for a partner for my own gig.

Matching the missing frequency

My whole thing has always been execution first, talk later. As someone who is a strong believer in the fact that ‘ideas are cheap’ - the only thing that makes one stand out is execution and proof of it.

As someone who has never gone out of my home base for work (Pakistan) - I thought folks who have made it outside, maybe had something I was missing. So when I was looking for partners, I found a lot of interest, especially from folks stuck in jobs trying to get into business.

And the deal was simple - I will help them execute, they will help me get out there - on paper - it sounded perfect.

But in reality, it never happened. Time and time again, folks who talked big, never walked an inch.

So if I am the guy who lives on execution, I need to find someone who matches my pace.

How am I fixing this now?
I only partner with someone if they are willing to work based on execution, not just talk. They get an assigned workload, and they are expected to deliver it within a certain expectation.

I ask for proof of work, not promises of it.

You need to check 2 of 3 boxes

If you’re a self actualized and experienced person, you know what you are good at - and more than that you SHOULD know what you are bad at.

So when looking for a partner always try to aim 2 of 3 checkboxes:
- Lack of a particular skillset
- Lack of time to manage a department
- Lack of funds to scale an operation

If your newfound partner is not checking 2 of 3 boxes at least, it will end up as a failed partnership. Time, Money, and Skill is what runs a freshly started startup.

In most cases, you will be expected to front it the first 6 months, but after than you should be looking to fill the gaps, or at least compliment them.

My biggest mistake was that I thought the ‘skill’ I lacked was ‘networking’.

Always working online and in remote options, I never got to know any good network or be part of online guru groups. So if I found someone with a strong network, I can leverage their ‘skill’ to push forward my execution.

I was wrong

Network is not a skill, network is an investment.

To have a good network is not having followers on LinkedIn, or Subscribers on YouTube - it is to know the people who exchange favors. And if you need folks to owe you favors, you gotta start by owing to them.

Having that mindset shift on how to thing about network, helped me understand, that it doesn’t matter if the partner I find is famous para-socially, because when the need came to use their network - they were as good as me with basically no follower count.

How am I fixing this now?
On the Networking Side
I judge network based on impact, not vanity metrics. I ask about the initiatives behind their networking activities, and dive deeper into who they actually know.

Generally Speaking
I still lack the skill to be good with personal branding and marketing, I lack the time to build additional sales/marketing channels, and I lack the money to invest into anything other than the team I have. So if I partner with someone next, they better check 2 of 3 boxes.

Ruthless prioritization on long term pain

No matter what someone says, at the end of the day,
your strategy, your need to outcompete is what makes you successful - in the long run.

And sometimes, on the path, you have to make sacrifices.

‘Sunk Cost’ is the biggest concern of anyone launching a startup.

Especially when you partner with someone. Don’t let the downward spiral go beyond 3 months. Don’t partner on a ‘side thing’ that you will do for the long run, one of you won’t.

Ruthless prioritization is not just a concept you should apply to your dev, but also to how you work. If something isn’t working, cut it off as soon as possible.

My biggest mistake was giving too many chances and letting things go on for too long where they become way more painful to deal with or to cut out.

How am I fixing this now?
If someone approaches me for a partner role, they get a time limit.
No way around it. I need to see patterns of a successful future before I can commit to one.

You ‘need?’ a Technical CoFounder if you are Non-Tech (and vice versa)

Y-Combinator Cofounding platform is a nice start for many looking for their first match made in silicon valley heaven. But it pushes the idea of 50/50 too much.

You better find a exact opposite half or you are doomed as a startup.

But that is a big extra large sized lie.

You, as a good Founder, MUST have knowledge to some extent on all matters - tech or non tech. Just because you should find a Tech CoFounder does NOT mean you should have 0 technical understanding. Actually you should strive even better to have more technical understanding on the User front.

See, I’ve been a Product Manager at heart, and I still, to this day, don’t know how to code. But having worked with over a 100 developers, I do understand how to work on Apps and Products, and so on.

Do I still benefit from a Tech CoFounder? Yes
But will I be left to die without one - No.

And that is the important bit. If you are the Founder, you need to be prepared to be left alone at any stage. The help you get from a partner is extremely beneficial but don’t sink your trust in ‘too early’.

And same goes for if you are on the Tech Side. You need to understand how Business, Ops, Sales, and Marketing works - to a level. You can’t just have someone come in wave a wand and fix it all for you. That’s not how this happens.

Because at the end, when looking for the right Partner, You -

Don’t Find the Right Partner, You Build Em Up

Over the past 2 years looking for my folks to hire and partner up with, the best success I had was when I nurtured the relationship up even before the ask.

By far, the best folks I got to hire or partner with were from my community and networking efforts.

My months of investing into sharing knowledge like this very piece, helping others grow, and sharing my ideas with the world.

I found people who worked with me in my community, and knew how I work.
And those very people then grew to become the shoulders my ideas stand on.

Even though to this day, I am open to new random partners given the lessons I learned are applied to them.

I think the best way to find the right people is to lead the right people into working with you.

Show them how you work, inspire them, and great people love working on great things.

Simple as that.

Do ‘You’ need a partner?

See, when 2024 ended I made this post -

““

Fun fact, I've been gaming under the tag 'SoloKarry' for the past 15 years.
And I am fairly certain, I took that mentality literally when it comes to my life, work, and relationships.

I've done everything in loneliness (for the most part) - especially in career. I had people helping me, I had mentors, and I had good friends - but at the end of the day, I had my computer and a screen to work on.

That reached its limit - this year.

Solo won't work anymore if what I want to achieve is scale.
Scale requires people, and people require a tribe.

If I have to put my 2 biggest lessons of the year on paper - they will be as below ⬇️

Looking forward to not be Karrying everything Solo next year - I have people around me now.

““

So while it is true that not everyone needs a Partner or should have one. You do need to understand your limits, and to go beyond, you need the right 10x’ers by your side.

With that, I leave you on your search to find the right person who can fill that role in for you.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Let’s go over why you should care about Market Research as an Early Stage Startup founder.

Having worked with a lot of startups, one thing gets clear pretty fast. Most of them are being built on whim and pure intuition. There’s a reason 90+% startups fail to get off the ground – makes you wonder why 🚀 is the universal symbol for a startup.

Most startup founders will get that ‘one idea’ which they believe is the be all and end all. And then most will continue to build upon it without any research or understanding of the market.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have seen the other side as well. Where every decision and every direction is being over validated – which has its own problems. There is a reason intuition is as important as data and research when it comes to landing success with a lot of products.

I am sure you have heard of the phrase ‘you only have to be right once’
But here’s my take, with the right research and efforts.
You can avoid being wrong a lot of times.

In my experience the best place to be is the middle of it all. Lead with your intuition then plan smart efforts into validating key areas around your idea. Enters my spin on conducting Market Research for early stage startups.

Having been on the frontlines for over a decade now, I have a pretty good handle on what is important and what is not – for most. You can google ‘Market Research’ and find a hundred ways of executing one – the issue is that most don’t deal with what you need as a startup at an early stage.

The goal behind my targeted market research methodology is to help you tackle 3 things:
1 – Understanding your competition
2 – Understanding your market position
3 – Understanding the trends in market

Breakdown of my Market Research Methodology

When looking for outside help with market research, your priority should be getting someone who has experience with what matters for your startup. Consultancy and advisory businesses have a bad rep with transparency. Most service providers will hide foundational information before the first check clears out. I try my best to go over the breakdown of every step in the Product Dev process - so here’s all you need to know.

As an early stage startup you only need to focus on a few select areas for your market research needs.

Overcomplicating the process can take you two steps back with one not going forward.

Here is what you should aim to lock in as early as possible when building your Product:

• Competitor Analysis for your direct, secondary, and indirect competitors

• SWOT Analysis for your business position in the market

• Elevator Pitches to get help with the messaging of your product

• Market Trends and Learnings research to help you make decisions

The end result is to give you a full picture view of where you currently stand in the market.

Market is by far the biggest reason behind failing early vs growing 10x.

You can use the outcome of this engagement with every decision you plan to make for your startup till its a scaleup.

Having said that, let’s go over crucial components behind an effective market research engagement.

Market Research of Competition

Can’t say how many times I have heard this

“We have no competition”

And though you might be right, in most cases you will be wrong.
And actually be surprised to find out how wrong you can be sometimes.

See when it comes to software development, democratization of how to build and distribute tech means anyone with the right skillset can go out and build an app.

Synchronicity is at an all time high when it comes to providing digital services (or digital anything for that matter). Most of what exists in the market has usually been done before or is just a transformation of an existing concept.

So even though your idea might be unique, the execution of it doesn’t necessarily have to be. They say ‘don’t reinvent the wheel’ for a reason.

Researching the competition for your product can be done in multiple ways. If there is no exact match, we can go for secondary, or indirect, or tertiary – the semantics go on.

But wait, what is the difference between all these? Glad you asked.

Direct Competitors

In simple speak, direct competitors are the entities who offer the same product and services, in a similar market, at a similar price point.

Secondary Competitors

The scope of secondary competitors is quite similar to direct – only difference being the market. Secondary competitors usually have the same product BUT either target a different market or a different price point.

Indirect Competitors

Lastly, indirect competitors – flip it around. They have the same market to yours BUT have a different product and/or a different price point. To put it simply, they have certain aspects that you should aspire to have in your own product or service as you are committing to the research.

Once the list of competitors is ready we take a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches towards ranking them. How this is done can vary product to product, but generally speaking the process is as follows:

Key Takeaways and Parameters of Analysis

We begin by writing down some notes:
2-3 positives about the competitors generally speaking
2-3 negatives about the competitors generally speaking
1-2 points on general user experience and findings about the various competitors

This will help you drill down further when you are doing an Analysis based on parameters.
What’s so hard about that?

You need someone with experience writing down what matters. Someone who has written down these takeaways for over a 100 companies. I tend to do a pretty good job at that – hence you’re reading this perhaps. So make sure you work with someone who HAS the necessary experience and exposure.

So then, what are the parameters of analysis?

Fancy speak for different aspects you want to rank.

Below is an example diagram that gives you a list of parameters you can work with, this isn’t conclusive and the parameters could be versatile depending on your product.

Link to source: https://www.antler.co/academy/startup-competitor-analysis

My rule of thumb is to stick to a maximum of 5 parameters.

Typically speaking – If I am doing a competitor analysis for a product based business then my go to are User Experience, Design Sense/UI, Unique Selling Props, Content and Messaging, and Pricing points.

If I am doing a competitor analysis for a service based business then my go to are Customer Reviews, Service Areas, Client Onboarding process, Content and Messaging, and How they work/Contract policies.

You have your competitors, and now you have some numbers – fun, let’s move on.

Differentiating yourself with Market Research

As an early stage startup, your initial focus should be playing on your strengths and generating the most interest in your product.

Finding your voice in the sea of ‘innovation’ and ‘bleeding edge of technology’ can often be hard.
Differentiating yourself in the ever growing landscape of products is a challenge. I for one aim to help you here.

But before we get into it – did you know market differentiation and product positioning are not the same thing?
Ah yes, semantics! – but it can be important.

Basically it’s a perspective difference –

Product positioning involves shaping how potential consumers perceive a product.
Market differentiation, or product differentiation, occurs when a company employs strategies to demonstrate why its product features surpass those of competitors.

Here’s my general advice for any new startup. Especially ones based around a product.

Focus on one problem to start out with.

That doesn’t mean you need to cut on features
That doesn’t mean you can’t be versatile
That doesn’t mean you can’t cater to a lot of needs

What it means is having the right focus. You can only have one right focus in the early stages. Having identified your key problem will guide you as your north star when making any decisions for your business.

SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis)

A term every ‘business’ person knows. Thing is, what makes a good SWOT is the groundwork we have put in so far in this engagement. That is what separates me doing the SWOT for you VS if you were doing it by yourself.

The out of the box perspective we have built doing all that competitor research and parameter analysis will help us write a SWOT unlike others.

As the theme goes, SWOT is yet another tool in your arsenal to help you align your decisions as they come up.

Play to your strengths
Prepare against your weaknesses
Leverage new opportunities in the market
And Stay clear of the threats

Pretty straight forward when you put it like that. But knowing is half the battle, implementation comes later.

Elevator Pitch

Lastly, the elevator pitch – who can say no to a good Shark tank proposal?
Well a lot of people.
But still, this exercise will help you clean up your position when pitching your product to the market.
We will be using a framework (I know I know, sometimes frameworks are good).

The Elevator Pitch framework helps us answer the following questions about your business:
FOR (target customer), WHO HAS (customer need), (business name) IS A (market category) THAT (one benefit). UNLIKE (competition), Business (unique differentiator).

• For – who is the target customer for our business. We need to have a specific category to offer a good fit for our services and working style.

• Who – we need to identify a need that Company X promises to fill out

• The – what is the name of the business

• Is A – specific category of services we are offering or the product features we will be offering

• That – what is the benefit we are providing to other companies (not same as features)

• Unlike – Who are our competing businesses

• Our business – What sets us apart from competition

Example: Salesforce (CRM solution)

FOR small businesses without a CRM solution, WHO need to control their costs, Salesforce Is A CRM solution THAT is financially flexible with low initial cost.
Unlike Siebel or managing customer relationships manually, Salesforce is quick to setup and easy to use.

This example is a bit dated, but it does a good job of explaining elevator pitches that disrupt the market.
Once we have a pitch ready, it’s time to get to the last stage of Market Research engagement.

Market Research of Trends and Decision Making

ChatGPT, AI, Crypto, NFT, 5G, IOT, Cloud – what do these all have in common?

They all were the subject matter for every CES in the past years.

Jokes aside though, trends and fads come and go. The biggest mistake I see founders make is falling for the ‘shiny new object syndrome’.

Although leveraging new technology is an excellent opportunity – but is it really for your product? Does your restaurant app really need to mint NFTs with every order of a burger? – pretty sure someone tried that.

Some technologies are good, some are bad – experimentation is important BUT making your product all about the hot new feature – is a mistake.

So what do you do? If not have headlining features?
Have headlining problems.

Fix the disease, not the symptoms.

Use any and all features that will get you to solving your initially defined problem.

Otherwise what will happen is, that hot new feature you have promised, will be cold come next cycle, and then you will be lost in a sea of apps with nothing important to stand on top of.

With everything we did so far, we have all the necessary data – qualitative and quantitative – to have a complete understanding of the market for your product or business.

If you’ve listened to enough decoder episodes a lot of executives are dumbfounded when asked how they make their day to day decisions. Having a good understanding of the problem space and your market will help you answer that question flawlessly – if Nilay ever invites you over.

Understanding the trends in the market are important, but understanding why you are building the product is always the answer.

With knowledge of your competitors, understanding of your strengths, clarity about your messaging, and a strong foundation on how to position yourself – you are now armed to have the best odds at winning the market.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Further Learning:

1. https://therift.news/p/006-product-development-roadmap

2. https://therift.news/p/002-is-your-product-different

3. https://therift.news/p/003-elevator-pitch-framework

Because for the first time ever, I am sharing a bit of BTS behind something I am working on. A business, I can call my own.

It’s long ways from launch, but I wanted to work on the vision I stand on.
So I did it the best way I know, by writing a letter. To someone who might be interested.

Someone looking for good software development.
Someone looking for their issues solved, and voice heard.

As and if you read this, I would love to see your feedback, or your appreciation - as this is close to my heart, and something I have been working on for many years. I am on a mission - to say the least.

So without further ado,

Hey friend (ok maybe not yet),

Let’s get rid of the fancy design, complex animations, and a loaded landing page - let’s have a heart to heart - allow me to have 5 minutes of yours.

My name is Saqib, I am someone who has delivered over a hundred projects in the software development industry.

I have delivered software :-
to small solo founders, to large enterprises
with 2 man teams, with teams of 20 people
under small dev shops, under large boutique agencies
in every main industry, on every popular tech stack

And sometimes 50,000 USD was enough to get results
And at times a million USD spend won’t move the needle

So I set out to maximize impact, cut out the BS.

See, the thing is, software delivery has become too popular, and with popularity comes bad practices. The industry is full of it. And I wanted to do delivery in a way thats better.

Over my experience, and experience of those working with me - I have identified the key issues that require attention.

Issues that if you’ve worked with outsourced dev, you must have faced. In order to nudge this industry back into the right direction, we need to talk about them.

Here’s what the industry currently does -

They claim they do everything, but in reality, they don’t. Only hiring the required skill set when your money is already through the door. Most agencies (especially big ones) these days, work with extended white label agencies.

They rush to lock in the scope to get the project kickoff payment, only to send obtuse change requests your way when the slightest creep happens. Change requests run their bottom line.

They are in a rush to close your project, because the expensive support contract is what generates ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) for them. A support contract that only supports your dev, not your business.

They build your app on weak foundations, selling the promise of an MVP in 30 days, when you will be stuck fixing it for 365+ days. No code/low code is not the way of scalable tech, it only validates your idea - not your business.

They lock you into their proprietary frameworks, and tech, and hosting. Using smoke and mirrors to not actually let you own anything. When the day comes, you decide to move away, you are left without any options.

They waste your time, with processes that don’t make sense, meetings that are too long, documentation that is too hard to understand, and approvals that are forced down on you - adding to the ‘quality of the experience’ in their opinion.

They take on more than they can chew, you are the hot new client today and yesterday’s news tomorrow. Because what was assigned to you, is now assigned to someone else. Leaving you in a place of disarray.

And lastly

They just care about building the tech, not running your business. Most dev shops won’t have the necessary experience to help you build ‘and launch’. They lack any and all services to support you as a business partner, they are just your outsourced dev.

So what am I gonna do about all this?

Well I want to fix all this, and it will take time, but work with me.

I’ve run discovery sessions all my career, so I know how much scope is necessary to lock in vs keep open - I want to get you started as soon as possible ‘with room for adjustment’ later on. I don’t want to claim to do every tech stack in the world, I only want to focus on the ones that build the solution - fastest for you, scalable for future. I don’t want to rush closure on your project, I want to guide you as to why we need to be where we need to be.

Because at the end of the day, I don’t just want to offer dev to you, I want to offer a business partnership to you - built on trust, and transparency.

Heck we are even figuring out a way to show everyone how many clients we take on - because we don’t want you to be just another number on a board.

So am I claiming all agencies are bad? Heck no!
Bad clients have their fair share in each of the issues I have lined above.

But what I am claiming is transparency. I want to guide you to a better future of outsourced software development. Built on strong foundations.

Take a chance on us - because we want to set standards, and stand for them.

P.S My inbox is open to all, reach out to me here.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

Saqib Tahir

And in today’s digest, I hope to make that a bit easier for you. My goal is to give you a holistic overview of how you should think about executing - when it comes to product development.

If you’re living under a rock as a founder, maybe you didn’t know that – Product Development is half the battle before you see any success.

The other half is fulfilling your founder duties – which I will tackle in another article.

For right now, let’s talk on what you need to execute on your vision of your product. Chances are, if you’re a founder, you handle Product Development in 1 of 3 common ways.

1 – Hire an agency to handle the software development part of the process.
2- Hire resources directly from a resource augmentation service or freelance platforms.
3 – Be tech savvy enough to build the whole damn thing yourself (usually with a technical co-founder).

Now if you are number 3 – perhaps this won’t be of much help to you. But if you are 1 and 2, tell me if you’ve experienced this before:

Pain Points of Hiring A Product Development Agency

– They tend to dive head first into development without discovery or a plan. Everything happens on a ‘as needed’ basis.
– They make it very challenging for you to change directions. They will agree to a very basic build plan with no drilling down of the deliverables.
– They will always delay on deliverables in the long term (since usually there isn’t a plan to follow).
– Their documentation tends to be quite poor from the get go because most agencies won’t invest in process building.
– They aren’t transparent on who is working on your project. You will never get to see the whole team.
– Every disturbance in the air as ‘additional cost’ associated with it. Change requests are fair, but charging every request is not.

Pain Points of Hiring freelance talent directly

– Finding and sourcing talent in the digital age is just a mess. You will spend more time looking for the ‘right’ talent than getting to work.
– Here’s what you needed, a team to manage on top of the gazillion things you were responsible for – good luck!
– Freelancers are humans (I know I know, hot take) and they will have issues working full time. You will be left hanging mid way when something happens.
– Paying people around the globe isn’t as easy as you thought and now you have to become a mini accountant as well.
– Communication could be better – everyone ‘speaks’ English, seldom understanding the meaning behind the intent of words.
– Getting your whole team on the same page will be a challenge as you need to ensure consistency of work being done between various people with various technical (and cultural) backgrounds.

Now of course, this isn’t the story with ‘every’ Agency and Freelancer run Product Development. But these issues are commonly faced by many startup founders.

I myself have worked as a freelancer and proudly rep’d my 100% Job success score, Top Rated Plus badge and long term clients success stories.

But there’s a reason only the top 7% get that honor.

If you’re like – Hey Saqib, I have an excellent experience with “Insert XYZ Agency”/I have great experience working with “Insert XYZ Freelancer”.

Then more power to you.

But if you’re nodding your head in regret as you read the points above, here is the missing piece.

You need a Product Development plan before you dive head first into execution.

See, much like how

Product Management and Product Discovery is all about ‘what’ to build.
Market Research is all about ‘who’ to build a product for.
A solid Product Development plan is the ‘how’ behind executing on your Product vision.

Whether you are highly confident in the team you are working with or lost on how to execute on your idea, a solid plan can help you focus your efforts on being a founder, not a project manager.

Having done software development documentation for over 100 projects, I know what matters most when it comes to having a Product Development plan for most startups.

As always with my knowledge sharing efforts, the philosophy is simple, it’s all that ‘you need’ and nothing ‘that’s extra’.

Breakdown of a Product Development plan for Early Stage Startups

So what makes my plan different from what you just googled?

First of all, it has been developed over 100+ projects of testing.
Not just some SEO optimized spammy article.
But what is most important for you as a founder is the fact that I go over what not many articles do – how to build a team around the plan you just worked so hard to make.

Lastly, with this plan, you can go to any agency or team – and get your product built.

(Fun tangent, if you’re an Agency owner or a freelancer reading this, then click here to learn how you can get better at Documentation)

Here is what is typically involved in building out a development plan for your startup:

• Epics Definition – defining your product in building blocks

• User Flows – laying out the most used flows for your users

• Information Architecture – a map of everything, linked together

• Feature Prioritization – avoiding being a feature factory and actually launching

• Team Requirements – what kind of team you should have at the minimum

Now this isn’t a line in concrete, but these aspects cover everything you didn’t have before, and now you will. Note that all of these aspects are developed in parallel as they are interlinked.

Defining Epics/Modules in the Product Development Plan

Here’s what an Epic means

“An agile epic is a body of work that can be broken down into specific tasks (called user stories) based on the needs/requests of customers or end-users. Epics are an important practice for agile and DevOps teams. When adopting agile and DevOps, an epic serves to manage tasks.”
– Source

And that is all the Agile project management you need. We take what’s good about Agile, and ignore the rest.

Epics are an excellent way to break down your product into executable little chunks.

This will give you the high level vision of the ‘module’ that needs to be built out for your first version of the Product. Some call it MVP, some call it never ending phase 1, and some call it the Alpha. What you need to know is the breakdown of everything all the way from authentication to settings on your product.

Typically we will start out defining epics for platforms.

Usually every App or Web App will have 2 platforms. A User facing version, and then an Admin facing version.

If you have multiple types of users, or multiple levels of Admins – we will divide it up further.

The rules for defining an Epic are varying across the board. But typically speaking the best way to define them in my opinion are to limit the functionality to one flow.

Epics are the building blocks of your Product Development roadmap. Hence they need to cover everything that we have set out to execute. You need someone really experienced to come in and help you set up the modules for your product. End result will be something that looks along the lines of:

– Source

Now as you can see in the image above, once the Epics are ready, you need to break them down further into stories and tasks. And that is a bit too much at this stage for your needs. Hence we’re gonna skip over that to revisit once our team is onboarded.

Knowing what is necessary VS what is excessive is the secret behind efficient execution.

Documenting User Flows for your Product Development Roadmap

So here’s why I suggested skipping over defining stories and tasks at this stage. In my experience, instead having document user experience flows are a much better way to approach execution at the early stages.

Something like:

I like to document 3 things for User Flows:

1 – What will be the intention behind the whole flow. Placing an order, scheduling a call, sending a message, etc
2 – What will be the actions required to be taken for the flow. Tapping on a contact, adding items to cart, picking a time slot, etc
3 – Expected outcome of the user flow. A order is placed, a meeting was scheduled, an item was purchased, etc

When you view each flow in the breakdown of intent, action, and outcome – it makes it really easy to setup the associated Epics to build for in relation to the various Product features.

For more complex products, we can always map the user flows further with a technique known as User Story Mapping

Which is: User story mapping is a visual exercise that helps product managers and development teams define the work that will create the most delightful user experience. It is used to improve your understanding of your customers and to prioritize work. Software leader Jeff Patton is often credited with having developed and shared extensive knowledge around user story mapping.

– Source

Again, we need to be really careful with the facts of life.
Remember, only have what is necessary, not excessory.

Information Architecture for your Product

We have the Epics, and we have the flows – time to link them together.

The information architecture (a fancy sitemap) is the visual representation of how everything is tied together.

This helps identify and fill any gaps in the Product and also give you an overview of what needs to be built out – in a visual manner. Add some colors, and you can really get a good view of what your team will be working on in order of priority.

The key aspect behind a good Information Architecture is having a navigation flow that just makes sense.

You don’t want 20 clicks between an intent and an outcome.
You don’t want 6 screens before relevant information is seen by a user.
And you definitely don’t want modules just chilling in the air like they don’t care – everything MUST be linked with purpose.

Lastly, menus. Yes, menus.

Menus are the go to place where most of the interaction happens for a lot of products. Designing a menu that is focused around user experience is harder than one may think.

The IA needs to tie effective navigation with a hub(menu) that is intuitive for the user. As long as you keep the idea of intent, action, and outcome in mind – you will have a resulting IA that just works.

Feature Prioritization – Ranking what matters

The biggest mistake a lot of startups make is becoming a feature factory at a very early stage. It can work ‘some’times but will lead to failure mostly.
Features are what make your product usable, but they should never be built ‘just because’.

I cover more on this over here, as to why following trends can lead to having no market fit in the long run.

Putting it simply, the features you prioritize should

Fix the disease, not the symptoms

In the Product world, frameworks exist a dime a dozen for feature prioritization. And all work depending on what the expected outcome is.

But as someone who likes to keep things simple and straightforward – I prefer the following 2:

Kano Model Method of Feature Prioritization

The Kano model methodology operates on the premise that customer needs can be segmented into three distinct categories: basic, performance, and delight.

• Basic needs are fundamental for the product’s basic functionality.

• Performance-oriented needs enhance the product’s functionality and efficiency.

• Delightful needs enhance user experience by adding enjoyment to product usage.

MoSCoW Framework

The MoSCoW Framework is a structured approach that comprises four prioritization levels: MUST, SHOULD, COULD, and WON’T.

• MUST features are of high importance and require immediate implementation.

• SHOULD features are significant but can be deferred for later implementation.

• COULD features are of lesser importance but can be considered if resources allow.

• WON’T features are deemed unimportant and should not be pursued for implementation.

When we combine these two, we get a simple yet effective way of prioritizing what matters the most to you. We are an early stage startup here, and we can’t afford to waste effort. Ruthless prioritization can be painful, but sometimes necessary to align the product vision with the execution.

The Team Required for Development Execution

This is where we will get a bit of help from our friend Agile again. So a typical dev scrum team would consist of the following:

• Product Owner

• Scrum Master

• Devs

• QA

• Business Analyst

• Solutions Architect

What we need for our startup will have a similar setup with few differences.

For starters, we need designers. UI and UX designers are actually two different things, if you can find one skilled at both, kudos – if not, then we need two.

The other thing that will be different is the role of PO/Scrum Master/Project Manager. As an Early Stage startup you don’t need multiple people carrying out this workload. A lot of it can be shared between the QA and Tech Lead of the team. While a general purpose Project Manager can handle the role of Product Owner along other needs.

In my experience, this is a must have setup for your initial team focused around execution:

• Project Manager/Product Owner

  • Will be responsible for working on execution of design and development with the relevant teams. Everything related to the ‘How to build’ behind the product. This is a rotating role and can be reassigned to the QA person later in the project.

• QA/Project Manager

  • To start out with the QA person will be responsible for manual functional testing of everything being built out. Later on the QA person can take on PO responsibilities as testing needs lessen over time.

• Full Stack Dev

  • All purpose Devs that will be working on the frontend and backend of the application. These will be a mix of talent but the basic requirements will be that they must have 3+ years of experience + portfolio in the tech stack we are using.

• Senior Dev with DevOps experience

  • A tech lead position for managing all technical aspects of the development through and through. The person will also need intermediate understanding of DevOps and Solution Architecture setup. The person will be responsible for doing code reviews, making sure dev is happening in an efficient manner, and helping Devs with problem solving.

• UX Designer

  • Since we are building a complex Web App, we need a dedicated UX person to come in time to time and advise on the best UX practices for the project. We will try to maintain the visual identity of the project as much as possible but will have to fine tune certain components as per tech limitations.

• UI Designer

  • This person will be responsible for all visual assets and visual design for the main parts of the project. We can also utilize the UI designer for various work related to business design tasks.

• Tools and Tech

  • This will be all the resources the team requires to function effectively, including but not limited to

    • A project management tool (such as Notion or Basecamp)

    • A communication tool (such as Slack or Discord)

    • Hosting and Domain Solutions

    • Security solutions such as Cloudflare

    • API access for integrations with third party services such as OAI, Performance, Analytics, etc

Again, the thing to keep in mind is that we need people who go wide, not deep – at this stage. And as we grow, we hire specialists in their respective domains.

I have seen founders getting distracted and going out hiring Dev Ops specialists and Cyber Sec Analysts when there isn’t even a product ready yet.

If you do feel the need for experts at any stage, leverage them on a fractional or on as needed basis. Otherwise stick to the breakdown above and budget accordingly.

And on the topic of budgeting, here is how you can do a very simple one:

If you’re building a mobile App, switch out the Full Stack Devs for dedicated Frontend and Backend Devs depending on the tech stack.

So why listen to me?

I specialize in providing services to founders to fill in the gaps. The gaps they face in their Product till they reach PMF.

I am a strong believer that most startups do not need dedicated Product Managers in the early stages BUT they do need Product help.

What I have laid out here is an excellent example of where you can get such help as a startup founder.

With knowledge of all your modules required to be built, clarity on feature prioritization, visualization of the information architecture, documentation of the user flows, and needs laid out in terms of resources – you are now ready to execute with a solid plan.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Heading into 2025, I want to consolidate all my writing into this newsletter as my ‘creative’ outlet for anything tech, business, or product.

That being said - here we go:

Agency Owners, a question for you:

What sets an Agency charging 30 USD/hr apart from one charging 100 USD/hr?

Here’s a roadmap for how most Agencies go about:
1 - You start providing services
2 - You figure out how to win clients
3 - You figure out how to scale a team
4 - You keep getting engagements - you sell more than you can handle
5 - You burn out and stop

I come from the Freelancing world. And this is the perspective anyone will have who is trying to go from being a Freelancer to an Agency. But at the same time, I have worked extensively in Corporate as well, and the Agencies you see in the corporate world - don’t follow this road.

Why? Because they have figured out the following:
1 - They DON’T take on whatever comes through the door
2 - They prioritize quality over quantity
3 - They know their niche, they don’t sell to ‘Everyone’

There’s a reason why the lifespan of an average Freelancer turned Agency company is around 4-6 years. A lot of Agency owners will see a massive increase in their revenue, try to maximize the profits, and fail to understand the long term effects of the mishaps that keep happening.

Now if you’re reading this and nodding your head. Then here’s how I can help you out. My experience in developing processes for several agencies has allowed me to have a blueprint which you can use, starting today.

I will focus on helping you with the core fundamentals that will make you stand out in the Red Ocean out there. High competition means it's high time you pick a lane and stick to it. But you can only do that once you have the basics covered.

The fundamentals any Software Dev Agency Needs to Have

Here’s the answer to the question at the beginning of this article:

What sets an Agency charging 30 USD/hr apart from one charging 100 USD/hr? – Process;
And what sets apart an Agency charging 100 USD/hr from one winning quarter million contracts? – Branding

Source: Process Prognosis for Software Dev Agencies

And before you go focusing on your branding, you need to nail down the basics. Having the basics covered allow you to not worry about dying out. And then you can worry about how to brand yourself to reach the next scale.

This article is designed to help you establish the following fundamentals in your Software Development Agency:

1 - Standardize procedures for processes that happen on repeat
You need consistency where possible, automation where necessary. Standard procedures will help you maintain constant value on repeat.

2 - Manage your day to day and your team effectively
Services business is all about the team you have. Your team's performance is your performance. Knowing what to care about and what not, is crucial to your success.

3 - Onboard clients better than ever before
Your clients will appreciate you discovering their problems before jumping to payment and execution.

With integrating these 3 into your operations - you will quickly see the increase in value you’re providing to clients in need.
And the equation then becomes simple

Higher Value = Higher Value Clients

Taking on 50 projects every year, failing to deliver 20, and burning out before you hit 10 years - should not be the way your Agency goes out.

Lemme get some assumptions out of the way first. Since this is an article and not tailored advice, below is what you need to consider while reading the remainder:

Everything I talk about below is for ‘Software Development Agencies’ working on delivering Websites, WebApps, Mobile Apps, and similar projects. Although a lot of it can be applied to other Services focused businesses, that is not the goal here.

This Article is meant for small scale Agencies who are early in their existence averaging around 10-30K USD/month revenue. If you’re larger than that, you may not find this applicable to you, and if you’re smaller - then you need to up your sales first. And if you’re an outlier, then you gotta tell me your story, hit me up on LinkedIn.

Lastly, this Article isn’t be all and end all - what it is, is a compilation of the top process categories most Agencies struggle with or lack behind in. If you’re one who doesn’t you can still take inspiration or unlock a new perspective from the read.

Standard Operating Procedures for your Agency

As an Agency Owner you are constantly split between 3 main categories of duties in my experience.
- Getting new customers and managing the sales cycle
- Managing the resources on the team ensuring project success
- Keeping track of all the projects and looking out for delivery

Sounds easy in three lines, is way more complicated when you dive deep. It is not humanly possible to balance quality and quantity when you are taking on so many duties. Hence the first step for any Agency is to figure out where the fat is, and trim it. Or more specifically lay out an easy to understand set of rules by which your team can operate by.

Let’s take a standard small Agency Setup.

We have the Owner, we have 1-2 Project Managers, we have 3 designers, we have 3 developers, we have 1 QA tester, and we have people helping with Sales and Marketing.

When it comes to developing SOPs for the whole team, the expected outcomes of your should be as follows:

1 - Have a clear understanding of how the team should communicate with each other
2 - Have consistency between how your clients are being managed across projects
3 - Any blockers should be red flagged and visible to the whole team
4 - All projects getting worked done on should have easy to visualize progress tracking

Given that base layer of understanding, here are the key focus areas for developing SOPs from the get go.

Communication SOPs for an Agency

Communication makes or breaks the efficiency you bring to the table. And from what I have seen, a lot of agencies make it too complicated. The number one reason why comms fail is inconsistency.

One day the Owner will email their team for something and the next day they will slack them, and the third day they will call them only to find out the team member responded them on email 2 days ago.

Keep it simple, keep it structured. Have dedicated channels of communications based on priority, and then have dedicated cadence of communications based on requirements. Here’s what you need to set up:

1. Have the necessary channels for all your team members to report anything in order of importance:

2. Highly Urgent: Direct comms like Slack or Teams, etc.

3. Documentation Only: Project Management Tool, Basecamp, Asana, Monday, etc.

4. Client Communication: Email or Client Management Tool.

5. Check Ins and Daily Comms: Slack or Teams, etc.

6. Have a way for everyone to be notified whenever a task is assigned to them.

7. Make sure everyone is checking their pending notifications and communicating efficiently where needed. Use tools that support the ‘Assign’ function for tasks on your projects.

8. Have a way for team members to submit company feedback - Always!. And 'DM me' for issues is not the right way.

9. Schedule a daily standup (if small team) or twice a week check in (if large team). The purpose should be to clear out blockers on the work being done, that’s it.

10. Make sure the respective teams have their own check-ins happening to discuss issues in larger detail.

11. Lastly, for every project that is being handled, the communication space needs to be dedicated for that specific project - don’t mix and match!

Project & Task Management SOPs

You’re delivering projects, and you need Project Management. As cliche as it is, a PM tool is a must have to run an Agency. I don’t care what tool you use, as long as the basics are met.

What are the basics you say?
- You have the requirements laid out
- You have all the tasks drilled down
- You have all the team assigned
- You have a way to post updates and manage tasks
- You have a way to flag issues and blockers
- You have a way see what’s happening from a bird eye view

Without going full Agile - never go full Agile, everything you put in your PM tool should be straightforward.

Any task needs to have a definition, criteria, and end goal. It needs to have a due date and it needs to be attainable. If a task is not able to be completed, there needs to be a reason why.

And then the most important thing, anything related to a specific task, MUST be documented on the task. Not in email, not over slack, not on a call. Document first on the ticket/task, then mention it elsewhere, otherwise you’ll lose track faster than you can count to 3.

Lastly, there should always be a place that is a ‘look at me, I am in trouble’ for your Project. These items should always be the priority of your daily/weekly check-ins.

Project Management is tricky, and a lot of folks adopt massive frameworks for 5 pager websites. My advice to you would be to start small, then scale big.

If you’re working on very complex software, invest upfront in documenting everything that needs to be built out before committing to the work. You can find help with that here.

Client Management SOPs

Managing clients is the bread and butter of any Agency. After comms and projects have been flushed out, now you need to decide ‘how much’ the client should know about.

Here’s the number one mishap most fresh Agencies commit - communicating ‘too much’.

Too much?

Isn’t that a good thing?

No it isn't - here’s why. If you are sending your client 10 messages a day during the project with little or no beneficial information. What will happen is
1 - They will get into an habit of expected an update every 2 hours
2 - They will get desensitized to the importance of the update

Think of notification fatigue, similar concept here.

What you send to the client should be meaningful, impactful, and a good use of your and their time. Sending meaningless updates might be good in the short term, but what will happen in the long term is you burning out figuring what to send next.

Managing a lot of clients can be done efficiently. Below are the top areas of improvement if you want to manage your clients better:

How many check-ins to have with your client?

Have at least 1 (no more than 2) check-ins a week. This MUST be over a call and the client MUST show up. This will ensure accountability from both sides while giving the team enough time to come up with valuable progress updates.

The Agenda of the check-ins should always be this:
- Here is what we have done so far
- Here is what is up next
- Here is what we need from you to progress on XYZ
- Any other discussion items the client might have (keep em short)

Once the check in happens, ALWAYS send a documented message with the recording of the call to your client.

Ensure the right team members face your client

Always ensure that the client is meeting only the team members who are able to manage clients. Don’t put your developer or designer directly in front of the client without anyone to protect them. The dev and designers job is not to talk to your client, their job is to work on the requirements.
You need a PM (or someone with similar responsibilities) to shield and filter what gets passed on as a requirement. Too many agencies put people on the frontlines who have no business being there - good luck retaining good talent that way.

Now this isn’t to say ‘never’ put devs or designers on the call, this is just to say to always have someone on the call who will ‘manage’ the client.

Documentation is the key to your client's heart

Document every word - sort of. Clients love changing their words. And it's usually never intentional. They are just excited about their next big project, they are excited to see updates, they are excited to see what you deliver - and that excitement can sometimes incite miscommunication. Anything that needs to be on the record, needs to be recorded.

If you’re using a PM tool like Basecamp, it's super easy, if not, then documenting them in a doc is the next best thing. Have a record of every requirement the client has made and give them visibility on what was discussed.

This document can be updated every week during your check ins as well.

Progress Tracking for your clients

Learn how to show progress when there is nothing to show. During the design process, everything happens fast, designers tend to work fast, and the results being visual makes the client think the same speed will be there during development.

It won’t be.

Given the designs get approved fast, development then actually becomes the more extensive part in most projects. Because there is no such thing as code once and run once. You will run into countless issues when doing development and that may stir up concern in your client.

You and your PM team need to learn how to space out updates to give enough time for all team members to perform their best. You also need to pace out feedback appropriately so that the client is not overwhelmed and gives you the approval - only to reject it later.

If you have 10 designs ready, share 2

If you 3 modules have been developed, share 1

And repeat every 2-3 times a week to keep the feedback steady. This number again, is for small agencies, working with small clients/teams.

Team Management - The Day to Day for You

After you have put in some time developing the SOPs for what happens with your comms, your projects, and your clients - here’s what's next - how does your team work day to day?

Let’s go back to the standard setup - It’s you, the PM team, the design team, the development and QA team. These teams need to work together in order to generate maximum ROI for the business.

The number one pain of these teams will be this - context switching.

Most agencies will take on multiple projects, and will have team members working on multiple things - at the same time.

Take out process and organization from this, and what you get is constant chaos of deadlines being missed due to unknown reasons leading to confirmed client dissatisfaction.

If you got this far reading, chances are you are tired as well, of taking on too many projects and managing a lot of hassle. Here’s how to optimize for success - with some basics.

Below are the list of activities that you need to take on as an Owner. These activities will serve as proof if your SOPs are performing or not. And where you need to adjust and iterate.

First of all, it should be clear to never take on more than you can chew. If that’s done then here are the things you should consider integrating in your day to day.

Have a bird eye view for all your projects

Depending on the tool you use for PM, this can be done in several ways. The key thing that should be visible in your bird eye view should be the following:

1 - List of all active members on the project
2 - When did the last client check in happen, is it documented? Where?
3 - What is the current workload on the project
4 - What is the expected delivery of the current phase (design, dev, etc)
5 - Is anything pending feedback or approvals?
6 - Is anything on fire and needs immediate attention

These points can be achieved in various format, but you should get an idea on what to focus on for each of your projects when you start your day.

Say Hi to the team

It’s simple, it’s effective, it’s helpful. Now if you’re doing daily standups, the Hi can happen there, but if you’re not, then you must take some time to write a Hi and ask for any issues or blockers from the team. I have mentioned before also, everything should first be documented on the task/ticket then shared on Slack or Calls - this Hi can help you gauge if that is happening or not.

Prioritize 2 Projects

As an Owner, you will already have your sales calls, and your internal calls setup. So with the only time you have left, take the chance to give some love to 2 projects that matter the most. 2 a day, 10 a week. Easy to manage for any one person. The goal of this time should be for you to do a deep dive and make sure everything is running smoothly within the Project. If you find issues, DO NOT micromanage and start a message war - instead gather your findings, and save them for your weekly check in. This way you allow some time for correction, and avoid unnecessary headaches.

Check Recent History

Any tools you use for dev, design, and PM should have an Activity or Updates history tracker. I am against micromanagement, but a keen eye on tools being used is always optimal. What you need to look out for is ‘lack’ of any activity rather than less or more activity. Again, if you see massive gaps anywhere, document, compile, and discuss with the team after an appropriate amount of time has passed.

Gather Feedback

The best way to improve working with your team is to ask them what needs to be improved. As an Agency owner your ears must always be open for feedback that can help your team. You are already working in a small team, so don’t worry, they won’t ask you to buy a 10,000 USD CRM, most blockers the teams usually have are related to transparency or documentation.

As an Agency Owner, you need to keep an eye on a lot, with time you can hire people to keep an eye on you. But till then you need to know where the gaps are so you can fill them. The day to day time commitment you make to your Agency should be productive in nature. If you find yourself diving deep into every line of text written by a team member, it means a failure of process or a failure of competence - simple as that.

You need to install checks and balance on all developed SOPs, at first it will be manual effort by you, and then it should be outsourced effort by either your team or the tools you use.

Standing Out as an Agency

Now, you’re an Agency, and I work with Founders. Here’s the number one complaint I have heard from founders burnt by agencies:

They went straight to development without any discovery. And then they failed to deliver on what was promised. I felt like I was lied to.

And how can you blame them?

A lot of Agencies out there claim ‘we do everything under the sun’. And unfortunately a client would often fall for that kind of claim. This painful cycle of over-committing and under-delivering is frankly the biggest reason why Agencies get a lot of hate.

If you dive deep you quickly find out that the Agency they worked with had no process, no visibility, no communication and just had a fancy website which convinced them into paying up hundreds of thousands.

As an Agency Owner you might be dumb founded if these clients even exist, and yes, they do, and what they just experienced is working with an Agency on the verge of an exit.

You can only have so many dissatisfied clients after which your road is blocked. You close up shop, and perhaps decide to sell courses on how to run agencies.

But if you don’t want to have dissatisfied clients, here is my proven process.

You gotta start off on the right foot, which means, you gotta understand your clients as much as possible. Which also means, you gotta stop working with clients that won’t be a good fit for you.

How do you do that?

Questionnaires and Intro Calls

You can easily prompt AI or google how to build onboarding questionnaires, and how you handle calls can be covered in another article some day. But the main goal should be to get an understanding on:

- What is the background of the client
- What is the client’s past experience working with Software Development
- Are there ample resources available for Project success
- Is the project in an industry you can deliver on
- How many stakeholders are on the project
- Will the client commit to providing feedbacks and approvals on time

See, when starting out, Freelancers and Agencies take on anything they get. But if you have to level up, you have to niche down.

The number one strategy that works for any business, any product, and yes, any agency is to figure out what they are good at, figure out who needs that, and then sell a whole lot of it.

And saying you are good ‘at everything’ means you aren’t exceptional ‘at anything’.

Onboarding the right clients matters a lot as you grow since you get to decide, who to choose, and will it align with your long term goals.

My advice to you as an Agency Owner is to figure out your core capabilities and build your services around it. Target clients based on your core and once you get them - THEN - upsell them extra services if needed.

But in your branding, your process, your messaging, your everything - you should have a consistent goal of delivering a solid solution to a defined problem.

If this guide was helpful in figuring out how to evolve your Agency, great!
If not, then I am always here to help - shoot me a message.
And as always -

With or without my help – I wish you the best.

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Further Learning:

1. https://sknexus.com/agency-starter-kit-software-development/

2. https://sknexus.com/software-development-processes/

3. https://sknexus.com/twp002/

In today’s digest I want to go over MVPs, the word I keep hearing over and over again. I guess that’s what you get working with startups all year round.

It doesn’t help that every next person I see using the term, is kinda using it wrong.
And that is what I hope to clear out today.

Let’s start with a googler - 

What is an MVP?

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development. 

Source: - good ol Wiki

But here is exactly where the issues start, what is ‘just enough’?
Enough for the budget at hand? Enough for the time constraint at hand? Define enough to a founder. Good luck.

Here’s the deal, this definition was fine when building on Software itself was an arduous process.
People would eventually get to a point of polish where they felt comfortable going ahead with the launch of a Product.

But these days? With AI, no-code tools, easy access to outsourced devs - ‘enough’ isn’t enough to define an MVP anymore.

Here’s my take - love it or hate it -

But I think MVP is a mindset more than an actual formula to develop products.
The mindset of solving a core problem, in increasingly evolved ways as your product grows.

You identify a problem, you work on a solution for it, and whatever solves the problem becomes your MVP - in most cases.

But how do you define a good Problem for a MVP

And this is now the new thing to solve for.
What makes a problem, a good problem?

Well, in Product sense, a good problem to solve is any problem that -
Is impacting a real market/hella people?
Is feasible in your current state to foreseeably solve?
Is focused enough - Targeting certain pain points. Niches be Riches.

And lastly, most importantly, for founders, yes maybe you - do you really care about solving this problem?
Or do you just see *insert dollar symbol zing emoji in eyes patrick*

Got a good problem to solve? Then let’s see

How to Approach Building an MVP as a Founder in 2024?

“For many founders, MVPs have morphed into a box-checking exercise, often leading to half-baked products that fail to resonate with users. 

Instead of fostering innovation and genuine user engagement, the focus has shifted to merely meeting the minimum requirements for launch. 

This approach can lead to frustration and disillusionment among teams when their MVPs do not achieve the desired impact or market traction.”

Ok thanks gpt I will take over from here.

As mentioned earlier, the resources are plentiful these days, but with that there is a high chance to be stuck in analysis paralysis when picking your path to building a MVP.

Here are my top 2 recommendations on how you should think of building MVPs:

1 - Start a Community

If you really care to solve a problem, then chances are there is a community for it.
If not? Then go ahead and create one. 

Talk about the problem, raise awareness about it, get people to back you up. Even before you think of writing your first line of code, get your first 100 supporters.

That is, by far, the most effective way to bootstrap in MVP these days.

Start a blog, newsletter, go to social media - endless options to build communities.

Heck, if you pain point is valid enough open a paid community on Skool for all I care.

Building a community, and then building within that community is the best way to develop a MVP these days - no question around it.

2 - Service to Product Route

Know how to solve the problem yourself? Then become the product yourself.

Starting a services business can be a good middle point between going full Product. Especially if it is your first time around.

Most pain points today can be solved with a behind the scenes service these days. Especially if you can get into developing small solutions for small setups.

If you go look at a lot of established Product companies, like 10up, 37signals, Automattic - they all started as software agencies. They provided services to others until they saw a trend and built their own products.

I know services business doesn’t sound s*** these days, but trust me, better to build a Product with experience of building than not.

Got a pain point figured out, an approach figured out - then

Build your MVP - Like a Skateboard

Ever seen this image?

I love it. I mean I don’t think there are any skateboard companies that sell cars.
But that’s not the point.

The point is the mindset.

The mindset of solving a problem consistently - Just in increasingly complex (for you) and increasingly convenient (for your users) ways.

A lot of folks think MVP is an 'incomplete' version - which isn't the right view.
An MVP is the most feasible version of you getting to solving the pain point for your users.

MVP is built to gage interest of your ideal users.
Validate your idea to take it to the next stage.
Test the waters so to say.

Stop thinking of MVP as the ‘Product’ - it’s not. I mean it says in the name, it's barely viable.

A ‘Product’ is a business, where money comes in, or atleast a very solid chance that it will come in if certain conditions are met (like having 10k users on trial).

This differentiation is especially important these days.

Make MVPs Great Again

To truly make MVPs great again, we must shift our focus from mere deliverables to embracing them as a mindset.

If you can build a community? Learn from the feedback, do things that don’t scale, get on calls - work with people who will make this work for you in the long run.

If you are running a services business, keep an eye out for patterns. Instead of offering the 20th service, focus up, niche down - target key pain points and turn your services revenue into Product dev fund.

Here’s my favorite quote from the skateboard article:

“A good product manager (you, the Founder in this case) does not dictate solutions to their team. They define the problem sufficiently and completely enough to enable their team to design and build a solution to the problem described.”

In the end, all this is to give you a new perspective. 

If you still disagree and think MVP should be stuffed with features, then you do you.

But my intent here is to leave you educated better on how to approach Product dev. And it can only get better, if you leave some feedback for me.

Do you think MVP is a mindset? Or a methodology?

Post a reply to the email or comment below!

Further Learning:

https://medium.com/@byrnereese/the-skateboard-mindset-in-product-development-ddf3409d5e98

https://blackboxofpm.com/mvpm-minimum-viable-product-manager-e1aeb8dd421

https://paulgraham.com/ds.html

P.S. - I had reasons to pause this newsletter. Now I have better reasons to make it return leading into 2025. Your support and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Let’s make Product Dev simple (and perhaps easier).

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

And by now, everyone knows, a good elevator pitch is short, to the point, and delivers impact.

So why is it then every time I ask founders to give me an elevator pitch for their business - they just stumble. 

Funny story actually, a while back, I had a founder who was supposedly running 5 startups side by side. And I go with my usual opener -
Hey, explain to me your business in an elevator pitch format?
And you know what happened?

He couldn’t even remember the names of all the ‘startups’ he had started up.

This is what happens, when you move with trends rather than a vision.

If you’re a founder, and you are unable to explain your business in under 2 minutes - you still have a lot of finding to do.

See, a good elevator pitch isn’t just about you knowing how to sell yourself
- It shows you care about the problem you solve
- It shows you are aware of the market and competition
- It shows you have a vision beyond the current trends
- And it shows, you have done your preparation

Subscribe now

Solving Problems Better

Here’s a story from a CRM client consultancy of mine.
The market is full of CRMs, and my client wanted to launch a CRM which was more focused towards the people who actually use it.

Till date, most CRMs are optimized for data, and insights, and workflows, and stuff which is important - to the leaders, but for the employees?
Learning modern CRM itself requires a masterclass.

Anyone who has worked in sales and support in a corpo environment knows this. A CRM can very well kill all your will to get any actual work done.
So what did I suggest to my client?

Simple - Aim to cure the disease, not the symptoms.

Everyone wants to be the next Salesforce, but no one wants to be the next Basecamp - (a non VC company worth millions).

If you really care about solving the problem of employee happiness, then say so, and stick to it. 

Instead of standing on features, stand on your vision, stand on the long term goals, stand on the problems you want to solve.

Instead of saying we are a CRM which will use the power of AI, and feature X, and feature Y.

Say we are a CRM which works for the people who actually use it at the end of the day.

And people will care. 

Most startups fail right out of the gate because they commit to standing on features rather than a vision.
And a day comes, that feature is not the hot new fad, and then they very well die out.

Knowing the Value ‘You’ Provide

If you’re not sure of what value you are providing.
Then why would anyone buying be confident in you.

Value is a topic that will come up in almost all of my articles, because at the end of the day - if you want to run a successful business, providing value is what makes you - well, valuable.

So here’s a very bare bones process on how you can figure out your Value proposition:

1 - Who are you selling to? And who is eating the cost?

Yes, these can be different sometimes. Especially in B2B, you want to sell to users, but the cost is being paid by the business.
So your messaging needs to consider both sides.

Additionally if you know the industry, type, persona, etc - that is always better.

Don’t overcomplicate it, stick to a core few groups, up to a max of 3. The lesser and more detailed - the better.

2 - Define the problem - don’t just state it.

You have a problem to solve? Why is it a problem? Do you have data to back it up? Do you have feedback to back it up? What makes it a problem?

Ask as many questions as you can to refine the problem you are setting out to solve.

See, it’s easy to point out faults, easy to figure out problems - but hard to figure out problems ‘worth solving’.

Your problem needs to have a demand, needs to have definition, it cannot be something you thought in a silo.

Most founders I have seen would have had a career in a specific industry, and had a list of problems they faced, and then they set out to solve them. 

Which can be an excellent starting point……but I have still seen too many fail. Simply because they confuse their experiences with everyone’s nodding heads.

We will visit problem definition in a future article for a deeper dive, but for today - the takeaway is -

Solve problems ‘worth solving’

3 - Sell the outcomes, not the features

So you have your Problem 1, 2, 3 - and your wannabe product has
The Feature 1, 2, 3 - then what?

You spam your features and call it a day? Noupe
See, most folks, don’t care about the specifics.

A person getting a car repaired doesn’t care about how the engine works
A person getting food at a restaurant doesn’t care how the kitchen works
A person charging their phone, doesn’t care how many amps the battery holds

They care about outcomes

Their car getting repaired quickly and within budget ✔️
Their food being served timely and being of quality ✔️
Their phone lasting them once the charge is done ✔️

So why is it that when you make a startup, you don’t commit to outcomes?
Because you don’t put yourselves in the shoes of the customer.

For a moment, forget you are the founder, forget all the hard work you will need to do to build this thing out, and embrace that most folks don’t care how it works
- they only care ‘if’ it works.

It’s painful, but true.

At the end of the day, it’s your job to cure the disease, not the symptoms.

Bringing it under one roof with an Elevator Pitch

I love the cover image for this issue, it perfectly shows how most founders carry a suitcase where a page is needed. You get the point.

So you have your problems, you understand your value, you know who to sell to - now let’s make you a shark tank success.

With the use of ‘Elevator Pitch Framework’

I rarely, use frameworks, and trust me when I say that.
As a PM who reads the top 20 frameworks you must know every day - I seldom pick one, and even seldom-errr-er is for me to suggest one.

But the Elevator Pitch Framework is the ‘explain it to me like I am five’ you need for your startup. 

It’s easy to understand
It’s structured for success
And the best of it, you can keep iterating it

Here’s the deal:

The Elevator Pitch framework helps us answer the following questions about your business:

FOR (target customer), WHO HAS (customer need), (business name) IS A (market category) THAT (one benefit). UNLIKE (competition), Business (unique differentiator).

• For – who is the target customer for our business. We need to have a specific category to offer a good fit for our services and working style.

• Who – we need to identify a need that Company X promises to fill out

• The – what is the name of the business

• Is A – specific category of services we are offering or the product features we will be offering

• That – what is the benefit we are providing to other companies (this is the value part)

• Unlike – Who are our competing businesses

• Our business – What sets us apart from competition

Example: Salesforce (CRM solution) - A bit dated example

FOR small businesses without a CRM solution, WHO need to control their costs, Salesforce Is A CRM solution THAT is financially flexible with low initial cost.

Unlike Siebel which requires large infrastructural setup or managing customer relationships manually, Salesforce is quick to set up and easy to use.

Wasn’t that easy?

And the best part is, you can keep on improving all the statements over time. And just replace them when the time is right.

And the next time, you won’t have overhead baggage.

Why does this all matter?

Figuring out your elevator pitch is probably the highest ROI exercise you will do in your early stages as a Business.

It will serve as your guiding light towards your mission and vision
It will be your guard against doubts and imposter syndrome
It will be your shield to help you work on your uniqueness
And most importantly - it will help you establish your ideas into reality

Without it, you will be lost for true purpose of your business
Without it, you will doubt the value you want to bring to the table
Without it, you will think to add AI…no AGI…no 6G every other quarter
Without it, your idea will be a dream

Happy pitching!

To close out, I would request you to reflect on these questions, post a reply to the email:

1 - Before today, did you ever think of the impact a good elevator pitch had?
2 - Is the elevator pitch framework a good exercise for your next business idea?
3 - Do you think elevator pitch serves as large of a purpose as I have stated?

I read all your replies, and your feedback helps me improve upcoming content.

See you next time!

Further Learning:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anthonypierri_fletch-value-proposition-canvas-activity-7174432256931889152-bKjB/
https://saqibtahir.com/market-research-for-your-product/
https://saqibtahir.com/product-discovery-as-a-service/

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

Why should I even bother making a product? There are already so many options in the market.

And over time, my go to response to the go to question is:

Ever been to the supermarket? How many brands of mineral water do you see? How many egg brands? Why are 10 different companies selling me tissue paper?

Corpo consolidation aside, if you have a decent product idea, chances are there is plenty of room in the market for it.

See, comparison is the thief of joy, and most folks think of Apple, Google, Netflix and forget the garages they started from.

‘MOST’ businesses are below 10M USD ARR, heck even more are under 1M, and they are ‘fine’. 

If you have a good product, understand that there is a huge gap in the market and you only need to grasp this fundamental truth.

In order to compete, you need to -
Provide more value for the same cost
Provide same value for a lesser cost

And it is as simple as that. Fundamentally speaking.

Value is not a Feature - The Basics

If your startup is based around a single feature, you are bound to fail. There is a reason we use the term ‘value’ proposition when we talk about your messaging.

Your value should be aligned with a core problem you are setting out to solve.
The feature, or the tool, or the skill you use to solve that problem - is ever evolving.

In the short run it might be fine to stand out based on a feature, but in the long run, you need to solve problems and sell outcomes.

Customers don’t care if your product has an XYZ feature, they care if your product solves their XYZ pain point.

Features don’t connect well with your customers, if you stand on features, you stand at risk of just being another brand on the shelf.

Value communicates emotion to your customers, standing on problems you solve helps you stand out from the bunch.

Features can change over time, industry shifts all the time, your AI feature now will be a fad feature tomorrow.

Value stays over time, people's problems tend to stick around on the long run, and finding new ways to solve the same problems is the name of the game.

Lastly, in the Product world - there is a huge debate on ‘Outcome’ vs ‘Output’ - think of Value vs Features in a similar sense. You want to sell the promise of your product, not the spec sheet.

That being said however, features are an important part - just that, they aren’t the ‘only’ important part - enter

Product Positioning and Market Differentiation

So you understand your value, now how do you arm it properly -

Well enter fancy terms Product Positioning and Market Differentiation - terms that are often confused and misused.

Often thought of as the same thing - 

Basically it’s a perspective difference -

Product positioning involves shaping how potential consumers perceive a product.
Market differentiation, or product differentiation, occurs when a company employs strategies to demonstrate why its product features surpass those of competitors.

(a snippet from https://saqibtahir.com/product-discovery-as-a-service/)

Here’s my general advice for any new startup. Especially ones based around a product.

Focus on one problem to start out with.

That doesn’t mean you need to cut on features
That doesn’t mean you can’t be versatile
That doesn’t mean you can’t cater to a lot of needs

What it means is having the right focus.
You can only have one right focus in the early stages. 
Having identified your key problem will guide you as your north star when making any decisions for your business.

Product Positioning focuses on creating a distinct space in the customer's mind 
Market Differentiation involves making the product unique by focusing your benefits

Product Positioning is more catered to your audience
Market Differentiation is more about the product itself

Product Positioning can be short-term and flexible
Market Differentiation often involves ongoing development

Product Positioning is more about image and identity
Market Differentiation is more about features and benefits

In the end, you need to clearly understand 3 things:

1 - What value am I bringing to my customer base
2 - How am I positioned in the market as an attractive option
3 - Is my product offering features and benefits to differentiate upon

The Road Ahead for ‘your’ product

Hopefully this piece has done a decent job of conveying the importance of value, positioning, and differentiation to you.

But the goal is not to stop executing on ideas, it's to help you get direction on how to improve your ideas.

The market is vast, and there is always room for a new product that offers more value or solves a specific problem.

In the end, whenever you think about Apple and others - just understand

They didn’t get where they are by doing extraordinary things
They got there by doing ordinary things - for extraordinary lengths of time

Keep executing on your ideas, with improved direction.

To close out, I would request you to reflect on these questions, post a reply if you want:

1 - Do you understand the difference between positioning and differentiation?
2 - Do you agree that focusing on Value is better than Features/Benefits of a product?
3 - What is the biggest pain point for you when it comes to thinking of standing out from the competition? 

Further Learning:

https://saqibtahir.com/market-research-for-your-product/
https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-differentiation/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anthonypierri_productmarketing-saas-startups-activity-7199427945923293189-9J8h/
https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-is-product-positioning

As always, thanks for reading this edition of The Rift. If you have any feedback.
A comment below would be appreciated.

And if you’re tired of statements like this thrown around in your circle - today’s issue is for you.

Welcome to the first issue of The Rift - in this one, I want to cover something that left bruises in my mind working at corporate.

The Paradox of Strategic Planning

Strategy and Planning -

Why do folks keep using these 2 unrelated things in the same sentence?

One can say that at the end of the day, it’s all semantics, but when it comes to being successful with your business, these semantics matter. And the paradox of Strategic Planning is definitely a real thing.

Strategy is not Planning. Period.

And having done good Planning doesn’t mean you have a good Strategy.

If you’re in a team where the term ‘Strategic Planning’ is thrown around, understand one of two things -

- Either the people using this don’t care much about specificity 
- Or they are substituting a term for their lack of competence, aka want to sound fancy

If you’re in the early stages of your business, this is really important for you to understand. 

Strategy is everything you will be doing to win with your business.
Planning is everything you will be doing to execute in your business.

Strategy vs Planning

The terms "Strategy" and "Planning" are often used interchangeably, but they are fundamentally different. 

Strategy is the vision for your business, outlining how you will win in the market.

It's a high-level, subjective, and thematic approach that sets the direction for your organization. 

On the other hand, Planning is the detailed, calculated, and outlined execution of that strategy. It's the set of steps you need to take to achieve your goals.

To put it simply - 

Strategy is more visionary
Planning is more calculated

Strategy helps you set a direction
Planning helps you get to a destination

Strategy is based around limitations of environment - out of your control
Planning is based around constraints like time, resources, and budget - in your control

Strategy is harder to track with metrics
Planning is easier to track with metrics

A good strategy needs context
A good plan needs detail

Planning and Strategy both have their place in Business, but understand that
- strategy should be set to outcompete 
- planning should be set to make progress

Adding Customer Value to the mix

So what should you do in order to win?

At the foundation, when it comes to providing value, you need to understand that you can either: 

1 - Provide more value to your customers at the same cost
2 - Provide same value to your customers at a lower cost

And if you can figure out how to provide more value at a lower cost - that means you’ve made it.

In the short - 

When you are figuring out your strategy, figure out how you are maximizing customer value by adopting 1 or 2.

And then in the long - 

In order to out compete as a business, your strategy needs to eventually result in you commanding ‘Powers’. 

These powers are Scale economics, Network economics, counter-positioning, switching costs, branding, cornered resource, process power. 

And we will eventually explore them in the series when the time is right. For now you can learn more on 7 Powers here:

Abi Tyas Tunggal

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer

Read more

5 years ago · 52 likes · 2 comments · Abi Tyas Tunggal

In Conclusion

The key behind having a successful strategy - first and foremost - is understanding what strategy is and what it is not.

The gist of it is that just mere planning is a comforting place to be. It feels nice to create to-do lists, and kanban boards, and notion docs - but at the end of it all - if there is nothing to show for it, have you really made any progress?

I hope in today’s issue you have gotten clarity on what a strategy is. Soon in this series I plan to cover numerous topics that will help you build your own strategy. And align it with other parts of your business.

To close out, I would request you to reflect on these questions:

1 - Do you fully understand the difference between Planning and Strategy?

2 - Have there been cases in your life where you felt stuck in Motion without Action? List them out

3 - What do you believe you are doing better than your competitors? Does your advantage align with the listed 7 powers?

Feel free to send a reply to this email with your responses.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading!

Further Learning:

Abi Tyas Tunggal

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer

Read more

5 years ago · 52 likes · 2 comments · Abi Tyas Tunggal

• https://gibsonbiddle.medium.com/3-the-strategy-metric-tactic-lock-up-b7539ec69a7e

• https://rogermartin.medium.com/strategy-vs-planning-complements-not-substitutes-ea08e56809d6

Product Leadership IO

Your company strategy is sh*t

👋 Hey, this is Sergio with a new edition of Product Leadership IO. In every issue, I cover challenges for product leaders in the real world, the 99% not working at FAANG companies or Big Tech. I publish every two weeks, and you can subscribe for free here…

Read more

2 years ago · 16 likes · 4 comments · Sergio Schuler

The idea was simple, I had diverse experiences and a passionate drive to share my journey with others.

When I started writing about Product, Business, and Career, I never knew a day would come where I would be starting out my journey as a Newsletter writer - but here we are.

So today, I am moving to the next stage - ‘The Rift’

What is The Rift?

Primarily, it’s a consolidation effort.
To date I have written a lot, across a lot of different platforms - I want to bring it all under one roof.

But at the moment - just like any early stage business needs time to find its product market fit - The Rift will be an exploratory exercise till it finds the right fit.

The Rift is for

Exploring Early Stage Pains at the Intersection of Product, Tech, and Business.

Some Background Context

Over the past few years I have published over 100K words in various formats, covering three primary aspects:

1 - Product

I wrote content for early-stage Startup Founders to help them with their Product Gaps. I feel like Product Management needs to be subsidized in scope to make sense for those who are just starting out. My content served as my way of focusing on the most important aspects of Product Management when it came to launching a startup.

2- Business and Career

If you know my career history, you know I jumped a lot of hoops - and had success with it. TWP was my attempt at sharing all that I have learned with others who find themselves in similar struggles. Based in Pakistan, opportunities are sparse - and standing out is even harder. Learning how to transition from a 9to5 to a freelancer to a business owner - was a journey I found worth sharing.

3 - Tech

Last - but certainly not least - tech is still at my heart with everything I do. Born in an environment where passion dies the moment you turn 18 - I have kept the embers lit within me. SKN was my outlet to talk about what I want and write about what I think needs to be said when it comes to tech. I feel like there is a massive gap in content when we consider the Pakistani perspective and I wanted to fill that need with SKN.

And now, I want to bring it all together, here’s the What, Who, Why of it -

What Do I Want to Write About?

I’ve written long form, short form, fact based, opinion based, and just about every kind of content.

For this newsletter, I want to keep things pretty straight-forward.

Each issue will cover a topic within the domains of Product, Tech, and/or Business - that will be targeted at unlocking a new perspective or equipping you with new knowledge.

Over time, with feedback I will figure out the definitive direction, but for the next 30 or so issues - this will be pretty open in terms of format.

Who Will This Be For?

Everyone!!! - JK, no content or product or business will be for ‘everyone’ ever.

But, having been in the business world, I do have a pretty good idea of a starting point.

Founders & Business Owners

I still work primarily as a Product Management Service Provider who works closely with Business Owners and Founders. That positions me perfectly to share experiences that can help you in a similar position.

Career Professionals

If you’re in a career related to tech, being in the know-how of how things work when it comes to Product and Startups can be an excellent way to upskill. This newsletter will help you uncover new perspectives as you read along.

Tech-Heads

Even if you don’t care about business or career - tech is still everywhere. Understanding how it integrates with entities you interact with is still knowledge worth knowing.

Lastly, Why Do I Want to Write This?

There is a thing about ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ - Every next generation has advantages that the previous didn’t.

I had many advantages growing up close to tech and working close to businesses - Now, I want other people to take advantage of that.

And, I sincerely believe I can provide value to others whilst others can make this a sustainable effort for me in the long run.

Moving forward, all my efforts will be focused on developing content for this very newsletter - the best way to keep the show running is by showing up.

Thanks for tagging along.