A sensible null hypothesis for B2B products is that the customer doesn’t really need your product, will not pay for it, and will not deploy or use it.

Starting from this place 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 you to think about what needs to be true about your target customers, your chosen product features & differentiators, your pricing & messaging such that the null hypothesis can be rigorously rejected.

Too many B2B product teams start with the assumption that plenty of customers badly need their product, will pay for it, & will be glad to deploy & use it.

They think their job is to define the priority order of features, improve product usability, & build the product.

Wrong.

4 questions to avoid B2B product failure:

• What acute customer problems does your product solve?

• Why would they pick your product over the alternatives?

• Why would they change ingrained habits for your product?

• Will these answers be true for enough customers?

Last but not least, remember this about B2B products:

For your customer, the chief alternative to your product is 𝘯𝘰𝘵 your most formidable competitor's product.

The default alternative is simply inaction.

And a close second is often a spreadsheet.

Related—A B2B Product Management Story: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1263890579701657601

Related—questions for evaluating product features: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1260034404463702020

And if you think B2B product management is challenging, remember that consumer product management is a whole another challenge altogether.

A short thread on that: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1271240038399918080