Ever felt guilty for prioritizing system support over improving business metrics? Or sensed that the endless backlog isn’t genuinely about business value?

This article addresses those struggling to let go when time, money, and effort have already been invested. It’s for professionals involved in product development, especially for decision-makers.

The focus is on presenting an alternative to canceling projects and foreseeing necessary changes. We delve into rethinking the product definition, stripping it down to core business ideas, and explore the practicality of this approach.

The cliché about product managers as the CEOs of the product is misleading — we’ve figured this one out already. A CEO can cancel or halt a project, unlike a hired product manager/owner. Oftentimes the very title like “Mobile Product Manager” suggests responsibility for the mobile app, making questioning its necessity seem counterproductive.

We product people are trapped supporting and developing the product we were hired for, regardless of hitting metrics. What if the feeling persists that we’re on the wrong path?

Despite the spotlight on big companies and startups, most IT companies sustain themselves by humbly delivering valuable services. Often not groundbreaking innovations, but a good combination of price and quality.

And here’s a hard truth for dreamers: it’s not lofty ideals; revenue keeps companies afloat. It indicates that you’re building something people need. A nice idea is worthless unless supported by a revenue stream and a solid business model.

The top reason for startups to fail is a lack of product-market fit, or simply building a thing nobody needed and wanted to pay for. Think about Blackberry, MySpace, Yahoo, and many others.

There are ideas out there that are the real drivers; those are business ideas, not what we usually consider product ideas. Core/business ideas answer the question: “What is this business about?”, and implementation ideas are what usually belongs to the product and tech area and answer the question: “What it looks like (this time)?” I added “this time” on purpose, because here’s what: you can shapeshift without changing the core business model. You can differentiate them by listing without specifying the solution’s appearance.

You can shapeshift without changing the core business model.

Long-running businesses survived by reinventing themselves according to the demands of their time and customers. Those who didn’t — died out.

Remember Kodak? The company that defined itself as a film-photography business, instead of just photography, and eventually lost the battle to competitors who embraced a new form of existence — digital.

The methods and the courage of people throwing their ideas to the bin cause they don’t make sense are worth a closer look. I came across a beautiful example in “ Non-bullshit innovation” by David Rowan — project Foghorn from X–formerly Google X lab. This was a groundbreaking technology project about creating a carbon-neutral fuel from ocean water.

They shut the project down exactly because they couldn’t make the price per gallon reasonable enough, even though the technology behind it was ready.

I learned that the company I work for started with newspaper advertising, and when I say newspaper I mean paper. And we are a digital marketing tool, just saying.

Since then no matter what we do I jokingly ask myself: “Would it be cheaper if we do it on paper?”

And if seriously this kind of “ Would it be cheaper/ quicker/ more effective / the same if we…?” is the key approach to staying in touch with reality and saves you from pushing yourself ( and your product too) into a fragile state.

In the worst and very common cases, this meeting would result in a crash. Some concrete solution examples would be:

• Outsourcing instead of hiring in-house
• Using a third-party tool instead of building one from scratch
• Renting instead of buying
• Switching to a completely different form of delivering the same service

Analyzing the performance and potential are key features to optimise the cost of maintenance and get rid of features that are too expensive.

Succeeding in this mental exercise opens up a Pandora’s box of pivots and cost reduction approaches, which is extremely painful for everything and everyone on the status quo side — that’s the natural inertia of the system.

Be prepared for positions and tools to be in question.

This is a very challenging moment for every leader who has to take responsibility for such decisions.

The key to success is preparing thoroughly, acting quickly, and being fully transparent with your team.

One should do everything possible to mitigate the negative consequences for their team members, but don’t let the human factor stop you from making the radical move once you see the truth for two simple reasons:

1. You simply cannot unsee it anymore. And everything you do you will do knowing that this is not the optimal way of things.
2. Now this is a dramatic metaphor, but let’s face it: if there is a leak in the ship, it will go underwater sooner or later. So overlooking the costs leak might lead to your company going down. If you hesitate to offload the redundant weight and fix the leak in the end, the ship will go down with everyone on board.

Having said that, I have to admit that this is a topic for an article on its own, and I mean the strategy of cutting costs and managing the aftermath most sustainably. So more than that in my next article.

It is crucial to keep the essence of the business in mind to stay in touch with reality and not stick to the product form too much. This is the freedom you want to manage costs effectively and not make decisions driven by the burdens you have.

Understand your business case regardless of the form it has taken today, and you’ll be able to adapt and change easily.