6 lessons I´ve learned managing a bad product

I believe that the dream job for any executive is being in charge of a great company with a lovable product; that one where you can apply all of your talent and strength to see it flying higher and to drive growth for company and as well as for your reputation. But, have you ever considered assuming something that you knew wouldn't work?

I truly believe that my most enlightening working experience was handling a bad product, a really hard one, something that 98% of targeted people didn´t really want to consume after the first test. You might be asking yourself, how such thing could even be available on market. Well, don´t get me wrong when I say "bad"; in this case at least, "bad" is just a point of view from a market perspective; that designated product was really successful in other markets with different culture, but around my neighborhood, it was tough. 

When I accepted the offer to join such company, I already had done my due diligence and was completely aware of the terrain. At that point I was felling challenged and confident. One year later, I left the company even more confident than when I started, but learned that not every battle is worthy. Those are the other lessons:

1- Don´t be afraid to say that something is not good enough: 

Of course, measure your words, people have feelings, but what has to be said...has to be said. Not good enough means market knowledge, sometimes the necessary adjustments on a product are details that only a local specialist can understand. Other times it just doesn't fit the local reality and you might have people waiting to hear this kind of feedback, or not.

2- Big budgets can afford everything but success: 

We had money at the time, a lot. We've tried all the different strategies we could think of to convert and bring new consumers. Some of them worked really well, we've seen exciting growth trends. Unfortunately they were all followed by a retention rate lower than 1%, what means not even close. The point is that at that moment our acquisition cost and retention cost per user inside the platform were so high that I decided to decrease the local investment, it made no sense anymore, it wasn't about money.

3- There are buyers for everything, that doesn’t mean a business is viable:  

We had users, passionate ones, they were even making money on our product. I loved to meet them and hear how great their experience was with our product on their daily routines. The problem was that, they were just like the fans of that last summer hit band, they couldn't bump a small club. We've tried to scale them, offering affiliation programs and all the advantage club services you can think of, we had a growth of 18%, that's good, but far away from making the business locally profitable.

4- Stick to the plan: 

When things are running bad and out of control we tend to seek for unplanned solutions… think twice. I'm not saying if things are failing miserably you should watch it burn, it's not that. If environment is a fast paced one, than plans should be too. The point is, if you are not 100% aware of what works, why it works and how to scale that, you don't know anything. Untracked results most of the times are just lucky and can't be repeated. Having a clear planning and tracking vision from your investments will force you to face the truth, numbers don't lie.

5- Don't lose your mind if you are in a solo crusade: 

Really, this is the most important lesson. I was coming from some successful ventures, all hard working, but with clear forecast perspectives. In a certain time I was struggling myself to understand why I couldn't make that one work. I was so involved and determined that took me some time to realize it wasn't about me. I was by myself, the overseas team couldn't understand the local environment, I had given it all and it wasn't enough...The feeling was kind of starting a war with a one man army. War it's not the word for team work, I was losing my mind and it was time to leave.

6- Don't accommodate, quit: 

You can lose money, job, even time but NEVER your values or credibility. I had a long contract, I could easily relax and keep running things till everyone realizes that this was not the place to make money. But, well I couldn't live with that. Explained my reasons, showed my point of view, said all I had to say about the product and left. The day after that the world came out of my shoulders.

I don't believe I'm the only one that faced this kind of situation. Have you ever been in such a drama? Share your story I would love to hear!