I believe that the strength of a product is represented by the formula "Direction × Technical Skill × Resources."

Direction

Direction is often influenced by trends or user pain points. Products that perfectly align with these are the strongest. Over time, due to technological evolution and changes, even services that were initially spot-on need to continuously adjust their direction.

As services gradually deviate from their original direction, startups often launch new services that precisely meet current needs. Changing direction midway requires significant technical effort, making flexible design and foresight crucial.

The direction to focus on varies depending on the trends, user demands, or envisioned future.

The diversity of directions forms each product's unique characteristics, and when combined with pricing, it becomes a criterion for users to choose a product.

When building a product, like a castle, what kind of castle you want to build represents its direction.

Technical Skill

The second factor is technical skill. This is a collective term for the capability to create a product, encompassing infrastructure, backend, frontend, and design skills.

In castle-building, this represents the methods, tools, and materials used. It also determines the work speed per person.

Resources

Finally, resources. When two companies with almost identical directions exist, being able to quickly release good features is crucial. This requires efficient development, which depends on technical skills and their total amount (in terms of headcount).

The more people available to build the castle, the better. (Though efficient organization is also necessary to manage the team effectively.)

This applies to marketing and sales as well. Efficient systems and their total capacity (in terms of manpower and funding) are needed to spread and implement the product.

Summary

In building a product, like a castle, the combination of the following factors represents its strength:

• Direction (what kind of castle to build)
• Technical Skill (how to build it)
• Resources (how many people will build it)

In terms of roles, direction is handled by the strategic management team, technical skill by the technical design team, and resources by the team members. The combination of these factors determines how the revenue generated from the business can be used to strengthen which area, maximizing the product's potential.