Why Your Product Is Stuck (And How to Fix It Now)
Identifying and Overcoming the Four Common Roadblocks to Accelerate Your Product’s Success
What’s Slowing Down Your Product Development?
What if I told you that every day you wait, your product’s potential is slipping away? Time, more than anything else, dictates the success of your product—and it’s running out faster than you think.
As I reflect on my son growing up so fast, I’m constantly reminded of how fleeting time is. Watching old videos of him as a baby brings it all into focus: time moves on, and we can’t get it back. In product development, this reality is even more pressing. You don’t have unlimited time to achieve product-market fit (PMF) or scale to the next phase of growth. If your team is stuck, your product is at risk of falling behind.
From pre-PMF to post-PMF stages, there are deadlines you can’t ignore. Research from First Round Capital’s *Product-Market Fit Method* reveals that to secure long-term investor confidence, companies need to show a credible path to $100M ARR within eight years. The sprint doesn’t stop once you reach your first customer or initial PMF—it continues, and stagnation is your biggest enemy.
Here are the four types of stagnation that most commonly block product teams—and how you can tackle each one:
1. Strategy Stagnation: Define It, Own It, Act on It
In early-stage startups, strategy may feel like a luxury. The focus is on building that MVP. But without a transparent business model and a clearly defined value proposition, teams drift. If your strategy isn’t clear, your team won’t know which levers to pull, and opportunities will slip away.
To avoid this, early-stage teams need to rally around a solid foundation built on customer research. For more mature organizations, it's about defining actionable, short-term strategies with complete buy-in. That’s where the “Strategy Sprint” comes in—a workshop series designed to help leadership teams align, identify growth levers, and create an actionable plan.
Whether you're building post-MVP or scaling, the absence of a well-articulated strategy will stall your progress.
2. Complexity Stagnation: Overcome the Fog
After achieving MVP, many teams get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of customer feedback, sales requests, and urgent fixes. The daily grind takes over, and suddenly, those bold, differentiating ideas get lost in the noise. You’re left focusing on small-to-medium features that maintain the status quo, while your competition edges ahead.
The solution? A “Design Sprint”. In just one week, you can take a big, bold idea, build a prototype, and validate it with real customers. This fast, focused process helps teams break free from the constant churn and make meaningful progress on more ambitious, high-impact initiatives.
3. Collaboration Stagnation: Meetings Aren’t the Answer
Building a collaborative culture is crucial, but conflicts of interest are inevitable as teams grow. Often, teams try to solve these issues with more meetings. But let’s be honest—most meetings aren’t productive, and soon enough, people check out. The result? Stagnation, fueled by unresolved tensions.
What you need is a “fair process” where everyone can voice concerns, dig deeper into root causes, and collectively brainstorm solutions. A neutral, experienced facilitator can help guide your team through this process in less than two hours, leading to real alignment and a clear action plan.
4. Resource Stagnation: When to Bring in the Experts
We all face resource constraints, but for startups, it can feel especially tight. Teams reach a ceiling where what they know is no longer enough. That’s when you need outside help.
I remember a time when my team was developing a Shopify app, and although we had a senior engineer with experience, progress stalled. The constant research, trial and error were too much for one person to handle. Things only improved when we brought in a fractional Shopify expert.
Similarly, your team may lack leadership in areas like product operations or customer research. Even if your PMs know customer research is critical, it’s often the first thing to get cut when time runs short. For B2B teams, recruiting customers for interviews can feel like an impossible task. This is where outside research providers come in—experts who can handle the heavy lifting of recruitment and execution.
Whether it’s a fractional coach, a subject matter expert, or an external research partner, tapping into the right resources can unblock your team and get them moving again.
Don’t Let Stagnation Kill Your Momentum
Many leaders aren’t aware of how serious stagnation is—or how close they are to it. A study by MIT Sloan found that only 29% of managers in 124 companies could name three strategic initiatives. Even worse, most C-suite executives were unaware of how little their teams knew about the company's strategy.
The bigger the team, the harder it becomes to spot these blocks. But whether you're a lean startup or a larger organization, fighting stagnation requires consistent visibility and decisive action.
The best way to address this? Implement a shorter, time-bound strategy with no more than three clear initiatives that everyone is sprinting to achieve. Regular retrospectives will help identify what’s moving you forward and what’s holding you back. Couple that with empowering your directors and individual contributors with anti-stagnation budgets.
Take Action Now
Is your team facing one of these stagnation challenges? Don’t let time work against you. Reach out for a free discovery call, and let’s discuss how we can eliminate roadblocks and get your product moving faster than ever.
The Weekly Sharing:
Here are a couple of resources that go hand-in-hand with my post:
The MIT-Sloan Study I mentioned - quite fascinating! TLDR: buy-in is key to strategy implementation: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/no-one-knows-your-strategy-not-even-your-top-leaders/
First Round’s PMF Method: a great approach to systematize assessment and troubleshooting of PMF: https://pmf.firstround.com/
Music for Focus:
I love this album but sometimes it’s too engaging and I forget about the work... Let me know how you like it!
Breathwork Practice:
If you are not yet practicing alternate nostril breathing start now! This was the first breathing technic I learned that made me realize how impactful breathwork was. It only takes a couple of minutes and brings you balance, clarity, and focus.