PLANNING
Peanut Butter Strategy
Spreading your resources thinly
With plans spread as thin as you can,
You’ll cover too much, miss the plan.
When problems are wide,
The impact is denied,
And you'll wonder where focus began.
The "Peanut Butter Strategy" refers to spreading your resources too thin across too many segments, features, or customer needs. When you try to do everything for everyone, the quality of your product suffers. Teams are stretched, priorities become unclear, and the product lacks focus, preventing any area from achieving the depth needed for success.
Symptoms
Too many projects, none impactful. You have multiple initiatives, but none are making a significant impact. You’re doing many things at a surface level instead of excelling in a few key areas.
Constantly shifting priorities. Teams feel like they’re jumping from one project to the next without making real progress on anything. There’s no focus.
Quality issues. Spreading resources too thin leads to half-baked features and bugs. Teams can't dedicate enough time to polish or optimize key functionality.
Lack of differentiation. Your product becomes generic, trying to do everything, but not standing out in any specific area.
Burnout. Teams are overworked, stretched thin, and constantly fighting fires across too many fronts.
Consequences
Mediocre product. By attempting to cater to too many needs, your product fails to excel at anything, leaving customers dissatisfied.
Wasted resources. Valuable time, energy, and budget are used inefficiently, with the team working on low-impact projects instead of concentrating on what matters most.
Missed opportunities. Competitors will focus on key areas and outperform you. You risk losing ground in the market as customers migrate to more specialized solutions.
Decreased morale. Teams feel ineffective and exhausted from constantly juggling too many priorities, leading to dissatisfaction and turnover.
Recommendations
Prioritize effectively. Ruthlessly focus on a few critical initiatives that will have the most impact. Use a decision-making framework to determine what gets attention and what doesn’t.
Allocate resources smartly. Ensure the right people and enough time are allocated to high-priority projects. Don’t spread resources thin by trying to cover too many areas at once.
Focus on core strengths. Identify your product's core strengths or differentiation points
The Peanut Butter Strategy might seem like an attempt to cover all your bases, but it results in mediocrity.
To succeed, product teams must focus their resources on high-impact areas, ensuring quality and depth in the most critical aspects of the product.