Underserved & Mission-Aligned

Tonight, I worked on a product sense prompt where the company was a startup, and the problem space was a societal good. We were solving in a space that wouldn’t make the founders millionaires, but there were definitely needs a product could solve.

In cases like these, think:

• Museums

• Tissue Donation

• Crisis Management

• Local Libraries

In these scenarios, as product managers, we would be driven to develop a solution because a societal good can be met by solving the problem.

Where This Matters

Within the product sense framework, this matters in the following sections:

• Clarifying Questions

• Strategic Setup

• User Segmentation

• User Prioritization

Let’s dive in a bit.

• Clarifying Question - If they say you are a startup rather than a philanthropy or government agency, you could ask: May I assume we would be funded in part or whole by donors with a mission to improve society?

• Strategic Setup - Set up a clear mission to better society. Don’t just focus on the goal, be sure to touch on the mission so that if you need to refer to it during your prioritization, you can.

• User Segmentation - Make sure you give a nod to the societal good.

• User Prioritization - You are going to be more focused on the mission and underserved segments than on the total addressable market (TAM) for your prioritization reasons.

For those who equate startup with $$$ exit, think about the prompt. Don’t always force a revenue-driven mindset on a societal good. A product mindset can solve a number of problems in this world without reaping billions of dollars. This means TAM as a prioritization approach isn’t always the go-to, most of the time it is but not always.