Building a GTM Strategy for Products Across Multiple Segments ( Small Developer Teams, Enterpise, Goverments etc)
When launching a new product, it's difficult to find a strategy that will fit perfectly from day one. Often, it starts at 50% or less, you fine-tune as you go, changing focus completely if needed. But I've learned that the most effective go-to-market strategies start with understanding real problems, not just what we think customers need.
It all begins with listening. By paying attention to where developers struggle and what they're asking for, you can build a GTM strategy that feels natural and addresses genuine pain points.
Core Principles
1. Have a Backlog of Real Problems
Before you start promoting a new product, search for the problems it solves. I would spend time on Stack Overflow, Telegram communities, Discord servers, and documentation forums to see what developers are actually struggling with. Document these pain points and evaluate whether your tool genuinely addresses them. This research becomes the foundation of your messaging and helps you speak to real needs, not hypothetical ones.
2. Capture Customer Feedback Proactively
When customers raise issues about products you don't have yet, don't dismiss them. Note it down, these requests are valuable. They represent validated demand and can help you pitch new features to the dev team. I kept a running list of these requests, and they often became the most compelling use cases when we finally launched.
3. Test in Staging Before Launch
Always try the product in a staging environment yourself. You need to understand it deeply before you can help others use it. I would spend time exploring different features, breaking things, and understanding edge cases. This hands-on experience makes your content more authentic and helps you anticipate questions before they come in.
4. Start with Simple Use Cases
Begin with the easiest use case possible. Set up content around it, share it widely, and target users who would benefit most. I would often offer free trials to existing customers who had expressed interest in similar solutions. As more people use the product and you document their experiences, you'll naturally discover more complex use cases and ideas for expansion.
5. Build Proof of Concepts That Become Lead Magnets
Sometimes the best way to showcase a product's value is to build something with it. For example, with Bitquery APIs, we had access to all the blockchain data. I came up with the idea to build a POC and deploy it on our docs subdomain so people could discover it organically.