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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri is a guide for product teams to break free from the "build trap" - the cycle of churning out features without validating their value. It offers strategies for focusing on customer outcomes and building a sustainable product culture.
At Marquetly, a rapidly growing online education company, chaos erupted as teams struggled to keep up with the demands for new features. Despite shipping ten new features in one month, the company saw no improvement in customer satisfaction or revenue growth. The problem wasn’t a lack of effort or technical skills – it was a misaligned focus on outputs instead of outcomes. This situation is a common trap many companies fall into, where they focus on shipping features but fail to deliver real value.
This is the build trap. It occurs when organizations measure success by the quantity of features delivered rather than the impact those features have. Teams spend money and work tirelessly to produce and ship new features, but if those features don’t solve real customer problems, they ultimately provide little value. When a company becomes stuck in the build trap, it risks losing market share and being outpaced by competitors that focus on customer needs and long-term business goals.
One of the core reasons companies fall into this trap is a misunderstanding of what value truly is. Value isn’t the number of features shipped, but rather the benefit those features provide to users. To create real value, companies need to understand their customers’ problems, wants, and needs deeply. When teams don’t have this insight, they measure success by outputs – how many features are delivered – rather than focusing on outcomes, such as customer satisfaction or revenue growth.
Many organizations also struggle with poor strategic alignment. Different teams may have different priorities, leading to a lack of focus on the company’s overall goals. Without clear alignment on what matters most, efforts are spread too thin, and progress stalls. In addition, rigid internal processes often discourage experimentation and iteration, forcing teams to rush features out the door without adequate testing or refinement.
Escaping the build trap starts with changing how success is measured, ensuring that product teams are rewarded for delivering value rather than just shipping features. It also requires creating a product-led organization, where product development is aligned with business goals and every project contributes to the long-term success of the product.
By making these changes, companies can stop the cycle of feature overload and start delivering products that truly meet customer needs and drive business growth. But how can you actually implement these changes? In the next section, we’ll explore the critical role of product managers in leading this transformation.
Escaping the Build Trap (2018) highlights how companies often become fixated on delivering features instead of addressing real customer problems, resulting in wasted resources and missed opportunities. It advocates for a shift toward a product-led approach, where the focus is on creating value and driving meaningful business outcomes. Through the strategies and frameworks presented, organizations can better align product development with customer needs and long-term company goals, fostering sustainable growth and innovation.
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Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Get startedBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma