#5: The conflict of a user-centered Strategy relying on B2B Business-side monetization - with Johannes Mayer from Kununu

In this episode, we spoke with Johannes Mayer, Director of Product at Kununu, the largest employer and salary review site in the DACH region.

We explored how to create a strategy in a context where you have a user-centered product that relies on monetizing companies' premium services, and discussed how to balance and navigate the conflict of interests that may arise, and even how Kununu creates synergies to use those tensions to benefit both sides.

We talked about:

• Kununu’s process to create its product strategy, starting from a broader view and advancing to details on a yearly basis.
• How the strategy combines the 5-years Vision, mission, and their JTBD (considering functional, social, and emotional needs)
• Using company level yearly objectives and JTBD as guardrails for the product strategy
• Johannes’ suggestion of avoiding the “ivory tower”: leveraging team collaboration and stakeholders, gaining feedback, and identifying synergies with other parts of the organization.
• The artifact they use for the strategy: a slide deck with ~20 slides with the Vision, Mission, JTBD, key findings, and objectives. That leads to the pillars of product strategy for the year, which in turn leads to the roadmap.
• How do they combine in their OKRs the user-centric impact with the B-side companies' impacts.
• The extra complexity of being a user-centered team, with another business unit doing the “selling” and monetization of the product.
• How Product values can help you navigate the conflicts between both sides of the product.
• The role product managers have in bringing people together and exposing the conflicts and potential impacts of initiatives to decide together what the best course of action is.

And many other things!

You can find Johannes on Linkedin or XING.

Remember that you can find more info and material on 100productstrategies.com.

If you are eager to know more about product strategy, check out Product Direction: How to build successful products at scale with Strategy, Roadmaps, and OKRs

You can also contact your host, Nacho bassino, at nachobassino.com (training, coaching, and more)