Collaboration Tax
Getting two or more product groups at a megacorp to collaborate on creating a seamless end user experience is the hardest problem in computer science.
(I am not joking)
If you’re a Startup trying to compete with a Megacorp—the 800-pound Gorilla in the space—you need to understand the tax inherent to being a Gorilla
And then you need to make that tax work against the Gorilla—with your product's positioning & features
A thread on Gorilla taxes👇🏾
Collaboration Tax
Getting two or more product groups at a megacorp to collaborate on creating a seamless end user experience is the hardest problem in computer science.
(I am not joking)
Calendly exists because the Gmail team & Calendar team haven’t worked together on creating a more seamless experience for that use case.
Loom might succeed because the Gmail, Video, Meet teams at Google are probably too busy with their own goals.
If you can create meaningful value by seamlessly integrating features of two or more distinct Gorilla products, you will typically have a lot of runway before the Gorilla can get its act together and eliminate its Collaboration Tax.
Denominator Tax
Once a Gorilla’s product reaches massive scale (i.e. the denominator for its metrics gets very large), the pressure of OKRs & incentives will often force the Gorilla’s product teams to prioritize breadth of usage more than depth of usage.
Google Docs, which needs to work across a tremendous breadth (basically everyone) vs. Dropbox Paper, great for engineers & product people
Coda/Notion/etc. benefit from both the Denominator Tax (more focused) & the Collaboration Tax (more integrated)
Attack the Gorilla’s product by first tackling high-value verticals or use cases that won't meaningfully move the Gorilla’s “raw numbers”. The Gorilla won’t attack back even if it is well aware of your existence (and is losing some business to you).
Novice User Tax
A Gorilla has a lot to lose if its products appear to create friction for its novice users. The friction might be pricing, a steeper learning curve, seeing advanced features, etc. That's why a Gorilla’s products are typically quite suboptimal for power users.
There’s a high demand for Superhuman because Gmail doesn’t offer an interface that’s optimized for power users of email.
(Note how Gmail itself launched & grew as an email service for power users vs. the leading email services at the time)
Consider positioning your product as a power user alternative to an existing Gorilla product.
This has two distinct benefits
1) Association: users will easily grok what your product does
2) Differentiation: your target users will readily try & promote your product
The User Retraining Tax, a corollary to the Novice User Tax:
Getting a Gorilla to significantly revamp its UI is the second hardest problem in computer science.
The massive user backlash from UI revamps ensures that the revamp happens too slowly, too late, or never.
Business Model Tax
A Gorilla will often find it hard to change or augment its business model or pricing model with an entirely new one, especially if its current model provides high margins and scale.
Twitter primarily has an advertising business model (with high margins & scale), so it will find it difficult to adopt an additional business model that helps its creators monetize natively within Twitter.
Enter Substack, Patreon, etc.
Dogma Tax
A Gorilla will convert a belief—which may have been valid at a certain point—into long-lasting dogma whose validity fades with time.
Examples:
Google Hangouts (everything in the browser) vs. Zoom
Microsoft (mobile is for serious business) vs. iPhone/Android
That’s why strategy isn’t just a big company thing
Shrewd strategy is vital for Startups competing against Gorillas
Strategy+Speed➜Success
All the best to you👍🏾
If you\u2019re a Startup trying to compete with a Megacorp\u2014the 800-pound Gorilla in the space\u2014you need to understand the tax inherent to being a Gorilla
— Shreyas Doshi (@shreyas) November 26, 2020
And then you need to make that tax work against the Gorilla\u2014with your product's positioning & features
A thread on Gorilla taxes\U0001f447\U0001f3fe pic.twitter.com/rk7H4zmIpV
While this thread is addressed to Startups, it's equally relevant for the people working at Gorillas, in 2 ways:
1) You can use the vocabulary here to name & tame your org's taxes
2) If you're competing against another Gorilla, play against its taxes just like a Startup
"A newcomer adopts a new, superior business model which the incumbent does not mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing business."
https://t.co/bJTtjnzqpD
https://t.co/smxNmSpOwx
A thread of my most popular threads:
— Shreyas Doshi (@shreyas) September 8, 2020
https://t.co/th9ciAKnik
Product Strategy\u2014in 1 tweet.
— Shreyas Doshi (@shreyas) May 17, 2020
What:
Rigorous treatment of where to play & how to win
Why:
Drastically improve odds of product success
Create org-wide clarity
Outlook:
3-5 years
Components:
Situation assessment
Target customers
Differentiation pillars
Roadmap
Brief action plan
You are left-of-𝑥, Gorilla is right-of-𝑥. The framework:
https://t.co/NhHy911Cwp
There comes a point in a company\u2019s life when it becomes its own largest customer.
— Shreyas Doshi (@shreyas) November 29, 2020
This is the crossover point in the \U0001d465-pattern below.
Left side of \U0001d465 is largely about Produce work. Right side largely Organize+Self-promote work.
Crossover is inevitable, but defer it if you can pic.twitter.com/xapPXvNDqO
More from Shreyas Doshi
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1/An interesting thing happened tonight. I was scrolling through clubhouse and found WileyCEO, Godfather of Grime (kicked off Twitter in July for antisemitic tweets) speaking. So I tweeted this (and included a screen shot, later deleted as I found out TOS don't allow it ...
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5/ b) capitalism and product know-how and technology can be harnessed for social justice c) historically oppressed minorities need to stick together and lastly, d) "Wiley, how could you say such hurtful things about Jews as a people?" That's what I had ready to say, anyway.
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"I really want to break into Product Management"
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
make products.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get a startup to notice me."
Make Products.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE PRODUCTS.
Courtesy of @edbrisson's wonderful thread on breaking into comics – https://t.co/TgNblNSCBj – here is why the same applies to Product Management, too.
"I really want to break into comics"
— Ed Brisson (@edbrisson) December 4, 2018
make comics.
"If only someone would tell me how I can get an editor to notice me."
Make Comics.
"I guess it's impossible and I'll never break into the industry."
MAKE COMICS.
There is no better way of learning the craft of product, or proving your potential to employers, than just doing it.
You do not need anybody's permission. We don't have diplomas, nor doctorates. We can barely agree on a single standard of what a Product Manager is supposed to do.
But – there is at least one blindingly obvious industry consensus – a Product Manager makes Products.
And they don't need to be kept at the exact right temperature, given endless resource, or carefully protected in order to do this.
They find their own way.
