Geoffrey Moore is a great thinker and communicator. In this podcast he describes a couple of frameworks from his new book “Escape Velocity” (book review in the works). One of these frameworks is designed for product and solution managers, a group he calls offer managers. The framework is to look at a product and understand
- Differentiate – What features of the product are 10x better than the competition
- Neutralize – What features of the product need to meet market parity
- Optimize – What stuff should the product team stop focusing on so they can refocus on driving 1) or 2)
This framework is so powerful because it allows a product manager, or an entrepreneur to focus on effort than can make a meaningful difference, and to recognize effort that would be wasted. It doesn’t make sense to apply resources to features that cannot become 10x better than the competition, so just make sure they are good enough. Refocus the energy you would have spent driving this feature to neutralizing other threat dimensions or driving your key differentiators further. Thanks Geoff!
and 
, both good reads.