Adjust Your SaaS Product Strategy for Other Industries

As Humans, we have adapted living on earth with the most sophisticated discoveries and advanced technologies to grow and prosper. One important method is to adjust your SaaS product strategy for other industries. How did we do that? We found ways to use integrative thinking (ref.) concepts that provide technology transfer from one use case to another. In the history of our civilizations, we have adapted and found adjacencies to everyone’s benefit. Integrative thinking involves a four-step process: “The first step (salience) seeks to define the relevant aspects of a problem. The second step (causality) seeks to determine the relationships between related and seemingly unrelated parts of the problem. The third step (architecture) involves creating a model that outlines the relationships defined in the previous two steps. The fourth step (resolution) outlines the decision and how it was reached. The process is similar to a feedback loop in which each step links forward to the next step as well as back to the previous step.” Read more: here.

What does Product Adjacency mean? It is similar to companies expanding into adjacent markets to maximize their existing capabilities and apply them to a distinctly new market or industry. Product adjacency makes you think about your business’s current market position and leverage your product strengths and competencies to serve adjacent market needs without major rework or with minor tweaks to your product. As product managers in startups, are you thinking about those product adjacencies to maximize product offerings? Finding adjacencies is a skill once mastered, can be a substantial competitive advantage.

Let’s take the Healthcare industry example; most people agree that the industry has lagged behind other industries for several years or decades. Innovation is not translated immediately due to obvious safety regulations in patient care delivery, although there are many areas to drive efficiencies within the Healthcare space. Imagine a scenario where AI can help provide safety to healthcare workers on the front line using advanced detection techniques and help them deliver the best possible patient care to life-critical situations. Workers in that industry face the most challenge in their safety and delivering critical patient care when handling most epidemics and pandemic situations such as Covid-19. Robotics nurses or assistants can provide much-needed patient care while avoiding disease exposure for care providers. 

Or Imagine a scenario where AI can help with end-to-end connected patient experience for Healthcare systems to achieve effective treatment when fully compliant with privacy laws. The use of AI and ML technologies has reached the mainstream in most other industries, while in Healthcare, it is still rising. Thinking wild about Healthcare and finding adjacencies for the common good is critical now than ever before in the last century. Many approvals have started to stream in for AI in Healthcare over recent times from the regulators that have begun to see the potential for technology in medical imaging specifically. It mainly needs extension into the detection space for the care delivery scenarios. What are the steps towards finding product adjacencies within your offerings to maximize your startup potential? 

Identify your strengths as a product

Identify use cases that are generally unfulfilled needs in other industries

Identify product strengths that can transfer to address those needs

Start small to address those needs, and scale from there.

Here at Product10x, our strategic view for every startup founder intending to build a Healthcare SaaS platform is listed below.Focus on the problem space and build a long-term strategy and roadmap for the product. Product-led scaling and growth would be the first-class citizen. 

Invest in an AI-led product strategy; it is necessary to capitalize on market opportunities and attract early-stage investments.

Look for a Product-market fit to enable strong product growth and low cost of service.

Enable Go to market plans that leverage industry experts, advisors in the industry. 

Look for opportunities in M&A to drive inorganic growth to be ready for the uptick. 

Drive product roadmap and optimization relentlessly to prioritize and maximize the money on hand.

As a founder, if you are looking for growth partners to co-create with complementing team for their Innovation Strategy, Product Strategy, AI/ML Strategy, Pricing Analysis, and Technology Strategy, Product10x has three Product acceleration programs that might be right for you. Product10x will help you adjust your SaaS product strategy for other industries.

About the Author: Suresh Madhuvarsu is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He is the Managing Partner of Product10x Accelerator, a SaaS accelerator that helps founders build and launch successful startups. He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Salestable, a purpose-built sales readiness platform for SMBs.

Suresh has over 20 years of experience in the technology/SaaS industry. He is a 4x founder with 2 exits. He is also an active angel investor and mentor to early-stage startups. Suresh is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses. He believes that technology can be used to solve real-world problems and improve people's lives.

About Product10x: Product10x is a SaaS accelerator that helps founders build and launch successful startups. The accelerator is run by experienced operating partners who have "been there and done that." Product10x provides founders with mentorship, advisory, and access to a network of investors and partners. The accelerator focuses on Product Led Growth (PLG), Sales readiness, and Fundraise readiness, helping founders all the way from product to go-to-market.