Anuradha Sridharan

As part of a consulting assignment, I have been investigating US market data from public sources for a B2B product offering. I found the following 3 sources to be extremely useful. If you have a product idea targeted towards B2B customers in the US and would like to evaluate the market potential, then you might want to check out these public data sources: 1) US Census Bureau data for Business & Industry This source provides a good sense of different industries, number of firms within each industry and employment figures distributed across different ranges based on number of people employed by the firm. You can start off with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and then dive into specific industries of interest. Depending on whether you are planning to target SMEs or large corporations, you can download and check out the employment sizes distribution as part of your market sizing exercise. 2) Bureau of Labor Statistics - Industries at a glance Based on the NA...

In the last few days, I have been reading up on best practices of email marketing in relation to a B2B email campaign I'm working on. It's quite fascinating to see the amount of research done and content available in optimizing one of the most important facets of an email - the subject line. Having an appealing subject line is extremely important to get higher open rates. The email content then follows it up with a call to action for the reader. Here are the 4 ways by which you can make an impact through the subject line. I have collated this list based on multiple sources for my reference. Hope it is helpful to you as well. 1) Convey the intent of the email in a crisp manner that provokes interest. Use the language of the target audience - the words that either communicate an attractive opportunity for them or appeal to the problems they are facing. Research also says that subject line framed as questions have a higher open rate than average. Think about questions your target...

One of the best books I have read recently is " Rework " by the 37signals' founders. This book is filled with many interesting and innovative ideas on how businesses should run and adapt. One of the many phrases that left me thinking even after finishing the book is " Decommoditize your product ". The chapter in the book uses this phrase in the context of " Competition " and how you can protect your product/feature from being copied. The example of Zappos and it's obsession with excellent customer service is a good case study of creating a unique product experience. "Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too. Competitors can never copy the you in your product" I started thinking about the relevance of this phrase to web products or mobile apps. It doesn't refer to differentiating your product alone, but rather investing more effort in giving a unique product experience and taking care of all the little ...

As a follow-up to my earlier post on remote work , here are the 10 steps if you want to make "work-from-home" work for you as well as your employer. I tried to keep them as generic as possible, without focusing on any specific role or industry per se. 1) Ensure you are extremely passionate about the work you are taking up Be clear about why you are taking up a specific opportunity. Is it something you are passionate about? Is it something you want to build expertise on? How do you think this opportunity will take your career forward? Spend adequate time thinking about these questions. My definition of passion is not about " do what you love ". I believe in " love what you do ". It's also important you connect to the work you do, in some level. If you are coming back to work after a break, do invest some time to keep yourself updated. Embrace active learning. I love to be a conscious learner all my life. It keeps me grounded and I know there'...

This is a topic I'm so closely associated with and deeply passionate about. To give you some context, I worked full time for 9 years before I took my maternity break for 2 years. I decided to come back to the industry early last year but I was sure that I would only opt for an opportunity that gives me the flexibility to work-from-home. I initially reached out to a few of my trusted contacts in product MNCs. Most of them replied that they want me to come on board full time. One of my acquaintances who runs a startup reached out to me around that time. After hearing about the kind of work option I was looking for, he said he will get back to me. I haven't heard from him after the first phone call. I used to wonder - Why is remote working not a viable option in India? Why do hiring managers stop the process as soon as they get to know that the candidate is looking for a remote working model? After a month or so, I stumbled upon an interesting startup focused in the health and wel...

In an earlier post , I briefly touched upon what goes into a MWP (Minimum Wow Product). There are a few aspects which I want to detail out to provide more clarity. I believe there are 5 attributes that are a MUST for a MWP before it is launched. 1) End-to-end experience The product's promise of solving a particular problem for the user should provide a complete experience. The user shouldn't feel that there is something broken in the whole flow. Take the core feature and ensure you think through the flow step-by-step from a user point of view. For example, a content publishing product should not only support composing, editing and publishing the content but also support social sharing. 2) Unexpected surprise This is where the "WOW" factor comes in. As you talk to more potential users and gather enough insights about the problem, you will get an idea of what the users' expectations are. Brainstorm possible ways by which you can exceed the expectations. Think throu...

More of a rant but hoping it resonates with you too! So read on! Over the years, I have realized that our listening abilities have deteriorated so much. One can observe this everywhere in the professional world - meeting rooms, one-on-one discussions and even social media conversations. Though we can attribute this change to our over-reliance on tech gadgets, something inherent in our human behavior has also changed. Is it lack of empathy? care? attention? I'm still searching for the right word. Consider this scenario - a typical conference room with 4-5 people, trying to discuss a problem and take some important decision. X decides to talk, he shares his point of view and elaborates for 2 minutes. Then X turns towards a peer/senior (Y) and asks, "so what do you think?" . Y was lost in his own world, fiddling with his smartphone or looking at his laptop. He lifts his head and says, "Oh I'm sorry, I got lost. Can you repeat what you were saying?" Which one of...