More on applying real life solutions to your product cases. In this article, I talk about GTM strategies. 

Many people answering Go To Market (GTM) questions during interviews get hung up on designing the perfect plan or remembering the best framework they can always use. In reality, much of GTM strategy involves trial and error. 

If you talk to Growth PM, they will talk to you about Growth loops and a long list of possible strategies and things they have tested on different products that didn’t always work. All the amazing PM folks who came before you also experimented. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it failed. 

When you are talking GTM plans, they are just that, plans. In some occasions, it might be completely viable to suggest not the perfectly scaled launch, but a more experimental or focused plan. 

What do I mean? 

Maybe your plan would include finding the influencers and getting them on board first. The history of some of Tech’s most successful companies and players in the industry include talks about how they personally went out and helped people setup their homes or take pictures (think Airbnb). Or sent the first requests to reporters to come try their product, etc. 

If you are being asked for a GTM plan for a large company and extension of an existing product, your plan will play more on the benefits of scale. But, if you have worked through a case for a niche product for a startup, don’t be afraid of proposing some scrappy ideas. In fact, Lenny Rachitsky has some ideas to get you started. 

7  Ways to Find your First 1,000 Users:

1. Reach out to friends and colleagues

2. Reach out to targeted strangers

3. Go where your target audience hangs out (online or offline)

4. Enlist influencers (paid or organically)

5. Get press

6. Create viral content

7. Get physical placement (e.g. flyers, stickers, signs)
   

How does Lenny’s List inspire you for your next GTM plan?