Jeremy Epperson @ 1000 experiments club
"CRO is better at shifting market positioning than branding"
Great episode of 1000 Experimenters Club featuring Jeremy Epperson.
On LinkedIn short quotes and reactions.
For the newsletter, deep dive.
Growth-stage startups, they don't have those advantages of having 100-year brands.
Why not focus on controlling the touch points that you can through research and testing?!
— I'm a startup, I shouldn't be focusing on branding. I should prove market-fit through retention metrics (is possible), understand what is the moat I'm building (cornered resource, counter positioning), and then expand market share! ✅
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Triangulating thoughts from Reforge Mastering Product Management and notes from 7 powers: The Foundation of Business Strategy.
First, Branding is a moat.
In his book, Helmer expands on seven different moat types.
The power progression chart suggests the right timing for focusing on moat development for the average company.
Branding starts at the Stability phase where the business size is many times higher than its inception and growth stage.
Now, let's compare how Reforge translates which objective lenses to prioritize given a company lifecycle.
Assuming start-up as pre-PMF (Product Market Fit), or Origination as per Helmer's work, a Reforgist PM will craft objectives weighting heavily on Strategy and Customer to deepen Counter Positioning for differentiation.
With that angle, both models complement each other.
Branding comes later in the Product lifecycle when objectives prioritize Vision-related initiatives (e.g. Become the #1 brand that does X).
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Does that mean prioritizing Brand early on is always a mistake?
No, it’s never either black or white.
When celebrity influencers jump on creating/endorsing a new product from the back of a massive following base, is that a Branding initiative?
Times Square advert to generate a buzz on LinkedIn?
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Early on, is the juice worth the squeeze?
I find it difficult to justify it for the average tech business plugged into VC money.
Think CRO is the best mechanism. It's a catalyst for growth. It's a mechanism that puts a team in a challenging position where they have to rethink things.
So it's about building, process, workflows, communication, and breaking down silos.
That's way more valuable from a CRO perspective than any individual winning test.
Driving CRO-related initiatives post-PMF, when business metrics become the focus, is how I translate “catalyst for growth.”
Reforge Advanced Growth Strategy dives deep on strategies for acquisition models.
Their top four sound a lot like what you’ll see in CRO 101 courses out there.