Product vs Project mindset

Hi. I’ve been working in companies of different sizes and types for 10 years. Some of them are making their own IT products and are selling them, and some of them are 10000+ employees service companies — IT outsourcing. I even worked in a small startup where I did everything but coding. So, I have a pretty diverse experience. This makes me think that I can see things from different perspectives.

I think we can distinguish two types of the way we look at the project: project-mindset, and product-mindset.

Project mindset

In a project mindset, success is making a project within budget, time frame, and in the right scope and quality. In this mindset, service companies often forget about profitability, users, and technologies that would fit best.

Product mindset

In the product mindset, success is when:

• the product has the “product-market fit”;
• users like it;
• users are willing to pay for it;
• the product is ahead of the competition;
• the product is profitable;
• the right technology is used;
• the product is getting better and better through KPIs improvement;
• decisions are driven by data, not by opinions.

If we will be project-oriented only, then we lose lots of potential clients.

So, a project-focused approach is about coding within the given scope, time, and budget.

While a product-focused approach is a completely different approach.

• It begins with an analysis of the problem, the market, users and their needs, competitors, and communication with potential or current end-users;
• has a long-term product vision;
• has KPIs properly chosen and tracked;
• is driven by decisions based on data (yes, again!);
• has new features that are developed in order to improve the KPIs;
• is developed by an agile team that welcomes changes;
• has a thoughtful approach to monetization;
• is marketed professionally to the right target audience;
• can be changed as many times as necessary to match the rapid-changing market and business goals.

I think it will make sense to give potential clients a choice of what they need — either project team or product team.

Assembling a team

Many clients appreciate it when a project team could be assembled very quickly for a new project, not within a couple of weeks with interviews of candidates, additional hiring, etc. Ideally, team members are not unclaimed guys, but experienced and time-proven professionals.

By the way, a minimal ‘bench’, which many companies often aspire to, is not necessarily a good thing because a strong bench allows for starting a project quickly. Therefore, some strong and reasonable bench is actually needed and useful.