From the archive:
Common corporate nomenclature often assigns the Business team
with the shortened “B-Team” or “B-Side”. The label might serve as a
convenient abbreviation simplifying meeting/calendar subject lines, but more
interestingly, “B-Team” can be indicative of the way a product-oriented
founder views the business. For many leaders, business actually is an
afterthought to the A-Team – Product/Engineering. Moreover, the Sales
organization is seen as a coin operated function with the single purpose of
driving revenue regardless of product-market fit or market demand.
A properly
hired and trained sales organization should do much more than sell features
dreamt up by the Product org. The Sales team is on the front line of untapped
markets while Operations (Client Services) is normally the first to learn the
needs of existing business. Taken together, insights from both teams can be
invaluable in shaping product development and prioritizing feature launches
based on market requirements.
There are countless tactics that can empower the B-Side to
help your Product team build the best products for the market, but we will
focus on a handful here.
The Daily Digest of Marc Grabowski 