Product Differentiation Strategies In A Competitive Market - Alex Zhezerov, Wrike

Product Innovation Series with Aram Melkoumov

When Wrike was a start-up, winning was easy. Its biggest competitor was Excel. Today, it competes with Asana, Monday, Trello, and more. What do you do when your market becomes more competitive? How do you make it impossible for your clients to leave you?

About Alex Zhezerov
Alex Zhezerov is the Director of Product Management at Wrike. He is also a blogger and newsletter writer who runs a B2B SaaS newsletter for founders and executives. He likes to begin his morning with a thinking routine and is currently looking to establish a stronger personal brand for himself through writing. Alex has a unique perspective when it comes to project management - he runs a product that was once in an easy-to-win market and is now in a heavily competitive one.

Links We Mentioned
The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you https://www.amazon.ca/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742
Porter's Five Forces: Understand competitive forces and stay ahead of the competition https://www.amazon.ca/Porters-Five-Forces-ahead-competition/dp/2806270626
7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy https://www.amazon.ca/7-Powers-Foundations-Business-Strategy/dp/0998116319
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business https://www.amazon.ca/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244

SHOW NOTES:
00:00 | Who is Alex Zhezerov?
00:23 | B2B SaaS thought leadership and morning thinking routines
03:53 | 3 differentiation strategies
06:28 | Vertical SaaS vs. Horizontal SaaS
08:13 | Should you build a vertical tool with a low budget?
10:06 | Differentiating Wrike from Asana, Trello, and Monday
12:03 | Product priorities after market saturation
15:01 | How to make sure people don’t leave you
19:03 | Million-dollar product management question
22:14 | What every product manager must do to win (and 3 must-read books)

Follow Alex Zhezerov
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexzhezherov/
Alex’s Newsletter: https://zalex.co/

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