Category: Product in Acquisitions
Most acquisitions do not fail at the deal. They fail in the first 90 days of product integration, when two roadmaps, two teams, and two positioning stories collide. I have operated on both sides of seven acquisitions, twice as the seller and five times integrating on the buy side, and these essays turn that experience into playbooks: roadmap convergence, positioning lock-in, and retaining the acquired team. The full framework ships as Product in Acquisitions OS. Start with Why Product Integrations Fail In An Acquisition.
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The People Opportunity in Acquisitions
Retain acquired talent Six weeks after the deal closed, the head of product from the acquired company asked for a coffee. Not a scheduled meeting. I knew before we sat down what the conversation was going to be. Use a meeting like this as your people opportunity in acquisitions. Learn how to retain acquired talent.…
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Positioning After the Acquisition
Avoiding Market Confusion Post-Acquisition Two sales reps, one from the acquiring company and one from the acquired company, walked into separate calls with the same prospect within the first 30 days post-acquisition. Neither knew the other had a relationship there. They told different stories about what the combined company did, used different language for the…
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Roadmaps Collide: How to Merge Two Product Visions
The meeting had been on the calendar for two weeks. Both product teams are in the same room for the first time, working through what the combined roadmap would look like. And within forty minutes, the acquired team had gone quiet in a way that had nothing to do with agreement. It is essential to…