The most significant impact I’ve ever had came from identifying what I call "product opportunities," opportunities that transform user experiences and drive business growth with far less effort than traditional net new feature development.
As Conway's Law reminds us, our products often mirror our communication structures, creating natural gaps at the seams between teams. These gaps represent untapped opportunities. Here’s my approach to finding them:
1. Milestone First Journey Mapping
Map entire user journeys across product boundaries, focusing on transitions between major milestones where friction accumulates.
This revealed a critical friction point back when I was at Apollo GraphQL. Developers abandoned the process when asked to create accounts before trying our Explorer tool. Despite positive feedback about the tool itself, this single barrier masked its value and killed adoption.
Last year at Slack, journey mapping revealed that Salesforce developers strongly preferred Trailhead for learning and adopting new technologies. They value the hands-on approach and integrated environment. By understanding this journey preference, I identified a key opportunity for Slack to break into the Salesforce developer audience.
2. Key Touchpoint Identification
Identify the critical touchpoints that directly affect milestone conversion from step 1, which will become your focus for improvement.
The Explorer was Apollo's critical touchpoint at the "first interaction to account creation" milestone. This was where developers got their first real experience with our tools, making it the perfect leverage point for improving conversion.
At Slack, we identified Trailhead hands-on modules as the touchpoint with the most opportunity for conversion. These modules represented the exact moment when developers transitioned from passive learning to active building, and this touchpoint was central to our first app creation milestone.
3. First Principles Problem Solving
Once you’ve identified key touchpoints, strip away accumulated complexity to examine the fundamental truths about what makes them valuable.
The Apollo Explorer's core value was helping developers visualize and test GraphQL queries. This value did not depend on authentication. The sign-up requirement was an artificial barrier we had created, not a fundamental necessity.
For the Slack opportunity, first principles revealed that we already had the needed environment. Our enterprise-grid sandboxes were providing tremendous value to Slack developers. Instead of building something new, we just needed to integrate this existing capability into Trailhead. The core value was already proven; it just needed to be extended to a new audience.
4. Quantitative Impact Validation
Look for data that confirms your hypotheses about where you can drive the most impact.
Apollo's metrics told the story. We saw high weekly active usage for developers who completed the sign-up process, alongside a significant drop-off during the sign-up process. The data clearly showed where friction was hiding value.
Strong engagement after a barrier signals a high-value opportunity. Look for tension between post-adoption engagement and pre-adoption friction.
At Slack, we analyzed sandbox usage data alongside Trailhead completion rates. The data showed significantly higher completion rates for hands-on modules versus quiz-based modules. Salesforce developers clearly preferred practice over theory. This validated our hypothesis that bringing sandboxes into Trailhead would drive higher adoption rates for our target audience.
5. Strategic Coalition Building
Frame opportunities in terms that resonate with different stakeholders' priorities.
At Apollo, I emphasized various aspects for different teams. Marketing was interested in something compelling to base a campaign on, while Product focused on increasing MAU. By approaching with their own goals and concerns in mind, I was able to build a strong coalition before attempting to convince leadership of the change.
For the Trailhead integration, we shared our findings with Slack leadership and the Trailhead learning experience team to build alignment. By presenting the data on module completion rates and developer adoption of enterprise-grid sandboxes, we created a compelling case that benefited both sides. This approach secured buy-in from key stakeholders across teams that might otherwise have focused on their priorities.
6. Cross Ecosystem Alignment
Connect complementary systems across artificial boundaries to create multiplicative value.
At Apollo, we eventually connected the web Explorer with our open source client, making the same capabilities and path to conversion available whether developers were working online or developing locally.
With the Trailhead integration, I refused to let product or company boundaries prevent me from pursuing this opportunity. What mattered was the developer experience, not organizational charts. By focusing on the value for developers rather than internal structures, we created a solution that benefited both ecosystems while delivering a more seamless experience for our users.
Applying This Approach
This approach works across contexts and scales. Look beyond traditional product boundaries to find opportunities in the spaces between existing systems:
Map user journeys across product boundaries, not just within them
Identify the critical touchpoints that affect milestone conversion
Apply first principles thinking to those touchpoints to reveal their fundamental value
Use data to validate impact and guide implementation
Build coalitions that frame opportunities through multiple stakeholder lenses
Connect systems across boundaries to create multiplicative value
I have consistently found that the highest impact opportunities exist where traditional product discovery ends, at the boundaries between products, teams, and organizations.
I hope you enjoyed this first newsletter. If you found it useful, share it with one person whom you think would benefit from reading it! 🤗
- Kurt