The 20th Anniversary of the Minimum Viable Product: What Happened?

The 20th Anniversary of the Minimum Viable Product: What Happened?

The Minimal Viable Product (MVP) celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021. The concept was introduced by Frank Robinson in 2001. Steve Blank expanded on it in 2005 with the Customer Development Methodology. In 2011 Eric Reis popularized the MVP concept in his book The Lean Startup. Since 2001 there have been several attempts to improve on the core MVP concept. Like all breakthrough technology concepts, people just can’t leave good enough alone. Think Agile and SAFe, What has happened to the MVP on its 20th anniversary?

Why is a $120 million ARR SaaS Company Worth $7 Billion?

Why is a $120 million ARR SaaS Company Worth $7 Billion?

SaaS valuations are at an almost all-time high. The Software Equity Group reported that the median EV/Revenue multiple for public SaaS companies in Q2 2021 was 14.3x. The top 25 SaaS companies in the SEG SaaS Index had EV/Revenue valuations that ranged from 25.3x (Sprout Social) to 90.4x (Snowflake). While Gong’s most recent valuation of $7 billion on $120 million ARR is high – 60.4x – it is not unreasonable. Gong has shown consistent high revenue growth coupled with a strong ROI for its customers.

Why Do Product Manager Value Equations Suck?

Why Do Product Manager Value Equations Suck?

Value equations describe the quantitative and qualitative benefits a customer can receive from implementing a software product. They answer the buyer’s inevitable question “What’s in it for me?” Recently I worked with a SaaS company that had what I considered to be a cool product. They struggled to crisply and credibly explain what value customers would get. They relied on generic statements like reducing customer churn and increasing productivity. When asked to back up their statements with hard numbers and credible customer success stories they drew a blank. Most product managers are in the same boat

The Ugly Truth of B2B SaaS Customer Acquisition Costs

The Ugly Truth of B2B SaaS Customer Acquisition Costs

Acquiring customers is the biggest challenge any B2B software company has. Unless you are lucky enough to have an award-winning solution that sells itself like the mythical product-led growth companies (Slack, Dropbox, and Expensify), you have to grind it out like everyone else. The ugly truth of B2B SaaS customer acquisition cost is that you need to fill the top of your sales funnel with hundreds of thousands of suspects to get a reasonable number of closed sales.

25 Product Management Memes for 2021

25 Product Management Memes for 2021

I belong to a Facebook Group called Product Management Memes. It has over 2,800 members and is simply a meme stash for product managers, marketers, and corporate life. People post amusing stuff every day. There’s no self-promotion or spam, just entertainment, Here are 25 of the most popular posts from the past few months based on likes and shares.