Most products don’t fail because someone missed a big idea. They fail quietly, over time, because people didn’t notice or act on what was right in front of them.
That’s the honest, sometimes uncomfortable truth about product success. It’s rarely about brilliance. It’s about timing, alignment, and the ability to keep moving in the right direction when the pressure’s on.
This article brings together real stories from Jijo Dominic, VP of Product at Esko. One product scaled beyond expectations, one failed slowly despite good intentions, one is still in motion, riding the AI wave. Each offers a set of lessons that apply across industries, team sizes, and product maturity levels.
1. Scale is engineered, not accidental
Jijo didn’t start with a rocketship, he inherited the smallest product portfolio in the company: low revenue, low visibility, not much of a bet.
It was a classic red ocean, where competing on price or features wouldn’t cut it so the team changed the rules.
They made a blue ocean move
Instead of fighting for attention in a crowded market (a red ocean), Jijo and his team looked for a new market space, somewhere they could solve a real problem that others were ignoring. This is what’s known as a blue ocean strategy.
This strategic reframing created breathing room, allowing them to avoid being compared to every other product. They were seen as the first serious solution in a space no one else was focused on.
They innovated predictably
Regularly, the product saw a breakthrough, large enough to reset customer expectations and re-earn attention.
They also shifted from on-prem to SaaS well ahead of the curve, bringing them pricing flexibility, operational scalability, and long-term resilience.
2. Misaligned products die quietly
Not every bet pays off, and in product, the slow failures are often the most costly.
Jijo tells the story of an acquisition that made sense on paper: the one of a company with an active customer base, complementary skills, and a potential shortcut to market. But a few years later, there was still no traction. What happened?
The wrong partner
The initial acquisition target fell through. The fallback was never a great fit, strategically or operationally, but the deal went through anyway.
“When you start by settling, you’re already behind.”
No shared direction
The acquired company operated horizontally, chasing every opportunity, whereas the core team was focused on vertical segments. They never aligned on who they were serving or how.
Cultural mismatch
A fast-moving startup team was brought into a structured corporate environment. Friction followed, and the damage escalated over time without a clear plan to integrate.
If product, strategy and culture aren’t aligned, you risk getting stuck. When teams pull in different directions, it doesn’t matter how promising the tech is, the drag will outpace the gain.
3. AI isn’t a feature, it’s a shift
Like every product organisation right now, Esko wanted to bring AI into their roadmap. But they were honest about what they didn’t know.
They chose to act quickly without pretending they could train their way into expertise overnight.
What they did differently
- They hired AI-native talent, rather than trying to retrofit existing teams.
- They created a protected space, giving the new team autonomy to move fast.
- They set a clear timeline, aiming to launch usable products within six months.
And they did: two AI products went live. But more importantly, they built a new muscle inside the organisation that understood how to build AI-first.
“This wasn’t about shipping a chatbot. It was a different way of working, different tools, mindsets, pacing.”
You can’t do AI right if you treat it like another integration. It’s not just tech, it’s talent, process, and product thinking all rebuilt.
Modern product organisations facing similar shifts can learn from approaches to scaling product organisations in 2025, especially when balancing innovation speed with internal maturity.
4. Choosing the right problem still wins
Jijo shares a simple framework to evaluate problem spaces: plot every problem on a 2D grid:
- Y-axis: Frequency of the problem – How often does the problem occur?
- X-axis: Intensity of the problem – How painful is it for the user?
- Then overlay a third factor: Buyer’s urgency. Is someone actively looking to fix it? Is there a buyer today?
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The sweet spot is problems that are frequent, intense, and urgent. If urgency is missing, you might build something that’s interesting, but not valuable. Start where the pain is clear and someone’s willing to pay.
“Even if you solve the right problem, if no one’s looking for a solution, it won’t go anywhere.”
Understanding what makes a problem worth solving often depends on how discovery is set up. We outline what effective discovery looks like at different stages of team maturity in our continuous product discovery within agile framework.
5. Ending products is a skill
In software, old products linger: they don’t always cost much to maintain, so no one rushes to shut them down.
But they pull focus and they make it harder for your team to rally behind what matters now.
“The first product I shut down in 2024? We’d made that decision in 2012. But it was still dragging along.”
Esko now uses a structured process to evaluate when to sunset a product.
Key signals
- It no longer aligns with strategic priorities
- Growth has stagnated
- It requires disproportionate effort to support
If it meets the criteria, it goes into a staged process:
- Stop new sales
- Assess customer impact
- Design a clear exit plan
- Communicate early and often
Importantly, they also give affected product teams a new mission. Don’t just clean up old products. Make it normal, and design exits with the same care as launches. It’s how you protect focus and invest in growth.
6. Leadership is a role change, not a promotion
Moving from individual contributor to product leader is one of the hardest transitions in any career.
Jijo puts it simply: “You’re used to solving things. Now you have to help others solve.”
Early in his leadership journey, he would spot a problem and fix it himself. This felt productive, but it blocked the team from growing.
What changed?
- He learned to coach
- He stopped owning deliverables
- He started owning direction
“Leadership is about creating space. Not taking it up.”
If you keep jumping in to fix things, your team won’t develop the confidence or the skill to do it themselves. For a more structured view of the leadership shift, the 7-competency model for strong product managers offers a helpful lens to reflect on where to grow next.
Final thoughts: product success isn’t magic
It’s tempting to think great products just happen, but behind every successful product is an iterative, deliberate process.
It’s not about never failing. It’s about learning when to push, when to pause, and when to quit, and about creating an environment where teams can do that without fear.
The 6 things to remember
- Focus and patience scale better than speed.
- Misalignment doesn’t explode, it decays.
- AI won’t work unless you build for it, not just with it.
- The right problem matters more than the right idea.
- Sunsetting is part of the craft, not a sign of failure.
- Leadership is leverage, not ownership.
None of these are new, but they’re easy to forget. Remembering them isn’t the hard part, applying them is.
