Product Dev as Growth Lever

Hi Folks 

Kent here again. 

If you’re like me, then you read, listen to, and watch a lot of content when it comes to DTC. 

Almost all of it is about marketing. 

Growth tactics. Media buying masterclasses. Creative optimization workshops. 

Founders and brands are spending massive amounts of time and money trying to squeeze better performance out of their marketing. 

And that’s not wrong. But…what if the biggest growth lever isn't about any of those external factors? 

What if it's sitting in your head?

In this issue:

🧠 Tactics - Your Product Is Your Growth Strategy 

✍️ What's Working - Making Product Development Work For You

🔎 Tools of the Trade - Some Cool Tools for Product Development

TACTICS

Product Is Your Growth Strategy

So we all know paid acquisition is costly these days. Every brand I know is investing heavily in digital ads, obsessing over social media strategy, and endlessly tweaking their CRO or email marketing. 

I get it. You need to raise awareness and get people back to your site to make money. Like I said, you SHOULD be doing this. I do. 

But sometimes the singular focus on “marketing as growth” means founders ignore or underinvest in product development. And I can tell you from experience that our biggest leaps forward haven’t been the latest growth hack. It’s been about strategically improving our product catalog. 

There are 4 key ways product development can drive growth, each with increasing levels of complexity and potential impact:

• New feature development - Adding something notable to your hero product

• Product iteration - Creating variants to reach new segments

• Product refinement - Making improvements to aesthetics or performance

• New category development - Creating entirely new product lines

Let's break down how each of these works.

New Feature Development 

This can usually be a relatively quick win because you're responding to direct customer feedback about a specific need. 

Here's a perfect example: when we launched RV SnapPad, we focused on the key, mechanical functionality that differentiated us - the ability to “snap” rubber shoes onto the metal “feet” on RVs. 

And RVers DID love that. We found product market fit quickly. But it didn’t mean the product was perfect. 

Feedback started pouring in through forum discussions, customer service emails, and product reviews - the tight fit between shoe and foot meant water gathered on top of the metal jack (ie; the foot). Folks wanted drainage. 

The short-term fix was surprisingly simple. We had our supplier cut drainage channels into the product with a bandsaw. We branded it "SnapPad XTRA" and launched the new version. 

(Note: we eventually had this designed and tooled up properly. The band saw thing would NOT have scaled)

Monthly sales doubled, and it replaced the original version completely (we offered both for sale at first, with the XTRA being slightly more expensive). No one bought the cheaper original version after that. 

That's the power of listening to your customers and acting on their feedback.

If you can’t get direct feedback, you can keep track of all mentions of your brand (or a competitor’s if there’s more talk about them) with this Semrush tool. It’s free to try and you might catch something interesting.

Product Iteration

By this, I mean creating new variants that expand your market reach. This isn't about entirely new products, but adaptations that make your core product relevant to more customers. Our initial jackpad size only worked with about 15% of RVs in North America. 

By systematically creating new versions based on customer requests, we expanded to cover 95% of the market over time. 

This completely changed paid acquisition for us. Previously, only a sliver of our target market could buy our solution, meaning we would quickly saturate our obtainable market on Meta. Only by spinning out new variations of our product could we reach true scale. 

Product Refinement

This is slightly different than new feature development. You can make small refinements to products that aren’t overly functional but can make a big difference in your perception or messaging. 

This could mean enhancing durability, improving aesthetics, adding new colors, or making your product more sustainable. For us, one example was adding stamped branding on the outer rubber walls of our product. It was an expensive tooling change, but it made our SnapPads instantly recognizable in RV parks out in the wild.

New Category Development

This is the big swing - creating something entirely new that goes beyond your core product.

These typically require more research, investment, and innovation, but the impact can be transformative. 

For example, after years of customer requests, we entered the RV stacker pad leveling market recently. This is a related but separate sub-category from Jack Pads, and it is highly saturated with all sorts of established incumbents.  

Nevertheless, we spent years coming up with something completely unique - a hybrid recycled plastic-rubber design that is bigger, stronger, more durable, and, frankly, cooler looking than any of the alternatives. 

It sold out immediately when we launched it last year. In fact, it quickly became a top-5 selling SKU for us, and we haven’t put a single dollar into advertising it at the top of the funnel yet.

More importantly, this new product (StakPad) effectively doubled our total addressable market and the potential LTV of our customers. It’s a game-changer for the company. 

WHAT'S WORKING

Making Product Development Work For You

The key to successful product development isn't random innovation - it's systematic listening and strategic expansion. 

Here's how to make it work:

🧠 Start With Customer Intelligence - The easiest way to know what to build? Ask your customers. 

Send out an annual survey to your customer list with specific questions about what other products they'd like to see from you. Include multiple-choice options and open-ended feedback - you'll be surprised how quickly patterns emerge when you give customers space to tell you what they want.

🏗️ Building The Supporting Cast - Not every new product needs to revolutionize your category or be a 10X improvement. 

Sometimes the best additions to your catalog are the supplementary products that solve small, related problems. These are the kind of products that might not warrant their own Facebook campaign, but work perfectly as checkout upsells or email offers to existing customers. 

Think: branded merchandise, complementary accessories, or add-ons that help buyers hit free shipping thresholds.

🎆 Creating Moments With Product Drops - Smart brands are moving away from just doing deep discounts during major shopping events. 

Instead, they're launching exclusive or limited edition products around seasonal moments or key retail dates like Black Friday. This creates excitement and urgency without devaluing your core product line. 

The key is making these releases relevant to your audience, true to your brand, and resonant with the moment. Adding urgency or scarcity doesn’t hurt. 

🏏 When To Make The Big Swing - Moving into a new product category isn't something to rush. 

When we kept hearing requests for RV leveling products, we didn't just rush to market with a me-too solution. We spent years studying the gaps in the market, testing different materials, and developing something unique. 

The hybrid plastic/rubber design we eventually launched sold out immediately and became a best seller because it was such a major departure from existing options. 

Does this seem a bit overwhelming? Don’t worry, the goal isn't to do everything at once. I’ve compressed stories from almost 10 years of being in market in this short article. 

But, to be sure we’ve learned these lessons over time - now our annual roadmap ALWAYS includes 2 to 3 new product launches. Because of that, we now have a staff member (R&D lead)  exclusively dedicated to making new, innovative stuff. Heck, we even bought a desktop 3D printer last year to help with prototyping.  

But we started out by optimizing our hero product based on customer feedback. Then we systematically expanded our catalog as we saw more clear opportunities. 

Remember: your next big growth lever might not be in your marketing budget - it might be in your product roadmap.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE 🧰

Great product development starts with listening to your customers and understanding your market. 

Here are some tools that make it easier:

• Typeform -  Our go-to for annual customer surveys. Easy to use and great reporting templates.

• Knocommerce - This post-purchase survey app integrates directly with your Shopify store. Eye-opening zero-party data! 

• SEMrush Market Explorer - Comprehensive market overview tool. Analyze market share and find whitespace opportunities in your niche. 

• Particl - For brands in major DTC categories like fashion, beauty, or CPG, Particl automates competitor analysis. 

THE TAKEAWAY

You can't really control rising ad costs. You can't predict social media algorithm changes. And you definitely can't force customers to open your emails. 

But you can control what you build.

The most successful DTC brands understand this. They're not just marketing machines - they're product development engines. They're constantly listening, iterating, and expanding their catalog based on real customer feedback and market opportunities.

Start small. Add that feature your customers keep asking for. Create the variant that opens up a new customer segment. Make those refinements that help your product stand out. Then, when you're ready, take that big swing into a new category.

So don’t just study Meta growth hacks. 

Study your market and what your customers are asking for. 

Regards,

Kent 👍

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