Offensive vs. Defensive

Just like we play a game. We must balance the offense and defense.

Not everything we work always affecting the product KPI right away.

Just like we play a game. We must balance the offense and defense.

Offensive features usually can directly drive the product KPI like acquisition, retention and monetization. For example, Spotify Group Session is an offensive feature because it increases reasons why people would pay for Spotify Premium.

Defensive features usually focus to maintain the KPIs of the product. They don’t necessarily increase it. But it’s necessary to maintain this hygiene. For example, Notion provide cross-device sync. While this feature won’t increase the KPI, people already expect this feature.

Fixing the tech debt is another defense.

Something to think about when you define the business metrics in your feature strategy.

P.S. I will write another prompt next week. If you want to contribute a prompt, reply to this email! Stay cool out there!