The Downside of a Lock-In Strategy

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🔸 Could a lock-in strategy ever prove to be a liability? 🔸 Could there ever be a downside to locking users in for a period? 🔸 Exactly when does one consider implementing a lock-in strategy? A thread answering those questions: #prodmgmt #lockin #strategy 1/n

Over my recent article I have shared a few valuable lessons that could be learnt about “lock-in strategy” employed by Apple so as to aid super-long-term success & make growth more sustainable. LINK here: 👉 mgmtinc.substack.com/p/lock-in-strategy 2/n

The major issue with the lock-in is how users could see it as compulsion - on the lines of...: ➡️ "to achieve (y) outcome, you first have to do (x)" which could be perceived as "B A D"! 🥴 So: ➡️ how does one approach it❓ & ➡️ when is the right time to strategize this❓ 3/n

1. Post PMF Product market fitment would mean a lot of factors have been sorted as for the product, markets, user segments & their pain points being addressed in defining impressive / innovative ways over their workflow. So, thinking of a lock-in here is "Out of Question". 4/n

2. Near PMF When the product is about to hit PMF where a section of the users are onboarded & retention is on an upward trend, to lock-in users could mean: • users getting used to a change in workflow • users could turn hostile & • adoption may begin to suffer 5/n

3. Pre PMF A stage where one may have a few early adopters & the retention just seems to begin it's upward journey (though not consistently) So, this look the ideal place to HIT! But, this could be branched into a couple of cases. 6/n

CASE 1: Post Launch Post launch & with a few early adopters onboarded, it could be a great place to think of a lock-in. 🔸get into a bout of experimentation 🔸factor the reactions in from users 🔸implement & go LIVE! But, could the strategy still be bettered? 🤔 7/n

CASE 2: Pre Launch This is indeed "THE BEST place" to think of a lock-in strategy. ➡️ users would be new to the workflow & may not carry huge expectations ➡️ easy to carve a niche ➡️ easy to shuffle the workflow as well in case something doesn't work 8/n

But that would require you to concentrate on these 5 things at first: 🎯 a product strategy rooted in innovation & backed by futuristic tech 🎯 immersive research led to deep understanding of the markets, users & their pain points helping you underpin relevant problems 9/n

🎯 your product offers a unmatchable UX & you have enough reason to believe that is has led to DELIGHT 🎯 all your tests have pointed to frictionless adoption MAJORLY 🎯 you have a well refined backlog with strategic releases lined up so as to put you ahead 10/n

That's it folks! For more write-ups about product concepts, mental models, case studies: ➡️ sign-up to my newsletter (1K+ readers) mgmtinc.substack.com Also: ➡️ RT the first tweet marked "1/n" up there - ⬆ ➡️ Follow me on @bgpinv for all things related to product