Building Better Products By Striking Strategic Partnerships - Kabir Mathur, Typeform

Product Innovation Series with Aram Melkoumov

Do you think of your product as part of a larger ecosystem or are you tunnel-visioned? Tune in to this episode to find out why your product’s ecosystem shouldn’t be an afterthought. In fact, by relying on strategic partnerships you can save money and strengthen your community.

About Kabir
Kabir Mathur is the Head of Product Partnerships at Typeform. He believes that positions focused on partnerships and ecosystems will be the norm in the next few years, especially as web 3.0’s influence on web 2.0 grows. Kabir earned his Bachelor’s degree in business at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a founding member of the Forbes Business Development Council, an Advisor at Exchange Labs and Lypho, and a Member of Partnership Leaders.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Who is Kabir Mathur?
01:05 | Using notion and slack connect to ship better products
01:40 | You can throw money at any of your product problems.
02:20 | When you should and when you shouldn’t seek customer feedback.
03:11 | Blurring lines between customers and owners with Web 3.0.
04:09 | Being bold and Kabir’s personal goal.
04:59 | How web 3.0 will influence product design in the near future. OR What trends from web 3.0 will make their way into web 2.0 soon?
06:45 | Companies that will be quickly impacted by web 3.0
07:58 | How Typeform invests in their community
11:26 | What do people misunderstand about partnerships?
19:01 | The basics of establishing strategic partnerships. OR How to begin establishing strategic partnerships OR What to consider when establishing strategic partnerships
22:58 | How to derisk big bets through partnerships
25:10 | Should product people be hunters or farmers?
28:23 | The overlaps between Chief Ecosystem Officers and Chief Product Officers OR Is this the decade of ecosystem? OR Stop making ecosystem an afterthought.

QUOTES:
“When you’re trying to build more visionary products, asking users isn’t always necessarily the best way to do it.” [03:04]
“Some customers are so invested in your product that they’re willing to organically help you. But, I think, fostering that motion early on can very easily then help you then invest in making a full-blown thing later on.” [10:57]
“At the end of the day you’re trying to delight your customer and I think if you have a really deep understanding of your ecosystem and how your product interacts with other products you have a much better chance of delighting your customer.” [15:58]
“We’re seeing a few, very few, companies invest in a Chief Ecosystem Officer and I think people like this will have a very strong overlap with Chief Product Officers. I think this will become the reality. I’ve heard people call this the decade of ecosystem.” [28:58]

Key Links:
Crossbeam (partner ecosystem platform): https://www.crossbeam.com/
Notion: https://www.notion.so/
Slack Connect: https://slack.com/connect

Follow Kabir Mathur:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathurkabir/
Typeform: https://www.typeform.com/