#byebye good product practices
After the recent announcements of Twitter (with Twitter Blue) and then Meta(with Facebook Verified) launching paid new paid plans, I can’t help noticing how these moves are like a bulldozer running on years of healthy “ #thinkingproduct practices.
#byebye good product practices. Those who follow me know that #pricingstrategy and creating empowered product teams are among my main areas of action.
• 𝗕𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Features in these paid plans seem to be a sort of “random mix”, addressing influencers, companies needing to get verified and common people wanting better security. A catch-all (delight none) mix. They descend from a “one guy”’s gut feeling and are promptly implemented by execution product teams.
• 𝗕𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 & 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆. From what we know, these numbers likely come out of a magic hat. The new CEO at Twitter had been there for just a few days before the announcement, and I have strong doubts that the teams were given a clear objective, empowered to discover the best options, run a solid pricing strategy, and come up with this pricing. This seems more like a CEO dropping a price. But I may be wrong 🙂 If you know more about the “behind the stage”, I’d be curious!
• 𝗕𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. Meta is jumping on the same model freshly introduced by Twitter, before having any concrete market feedback on their effectiveness. It’s a pity to observe this “CEO copies CEO” dynamic and rush onto this new and unproven model, even more considering that Meta has been working for the past few years on a product for creators called “Subscriptions” that is very well thought out and seems very promising.
• 𝗕𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝘆𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆. Far from “creating value for the users and monetizing”, these paid plans try to put a price tag on some elements that should be “table stake” or that are that in the interest of the community as a whole, such as accounts security (what Meta calls “Proactive account protection”).
• 𝗕𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝘆𝗲 “𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱” 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 “𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁+” 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀. Two different pricing points for the same feature purchased on and off the Apple/Google app stores may indicate that the price is set from the “company” perspective looking at their cost structure, rather than looking at it from the customer perspective. Bad for the users, and bad for the company.
Have you also observed other good product practices being smashed lately? #byebye
#productmanagement #pricing #pricingstrategy #productleadership #meta #twitter#byebye #thinkingproduct
Originally published on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7054422613594451968/
My name is Salva, I am a product exec and Senior Partner at Reasonable Product, a boutique Product Advisory Firm.
I write about product pricing, e-commerce/marketplaces, subscription models, and modern product organizations. I mainly engage and work in tech products, including SaaS, Marketplaces, and IoT (Hardware + Software).
My superpower is to move between ambiguity (as in creativity, innovation, opportunity, and ‘thinking out of the box’) and structure (as in ‘getting things done’ and getting real impact).
I am firmly convinced that you can help others only if you have lived the same challenges: I have been lucky enough to practice product leadership in companies of different sizes and with different product maturity. Doing product right is hard: I felt the pain myself and developed my methods to get to efficient product teams that produce meaningful work.