Every enduring platform I admire started with a sharp product wedge—an unmistakably form‑fitting solution to a painful, persistent problem. In my own work leading product teams, I’ve seen how a great wedge unlocks momentum, trust, and distribution long before you earn the right to build horizontally. In this piece, I break down what I’ve learned from studying companies like Square and Gusto, and share the practical playbooks I use to find wedges, scale them, and turn them into platforms.
SMBs require unique software solutions because their constraints are different: time is scarce, tasks are juggled by a small team, and workflows span both the front of house and the back office. What wins is software that collapses steps, automates compliance, and delivers clear ROI in hours—not quarters. If you can’t demonstrate immediate utility and reduce cognitive load, you won’t earn a second week of usage, let alone loyalty.
The level of specificity required when building for SMBs is higher than many expect. “Form‑fitting” isn’t just a metaphor—it’s the difference between adoption and abandonment. In practice, that means obsessing over the exact moments of friction: where data gets retyped, where the cash drawer doesn’t reconcile, where payroll rules create anxiety. The fastest way to a wedge is to remove a choke point so completely that your product becomes the default way of working.
Building vertical versus horizontal SaaS is a strategic fork in the road. Verticals can win by encoding industry nuance (menus, wage rules, inventory, tip pooling), which drives faster adoption but narrows TAM and increases service intensity. Horizontal suites maximize TAM but risk feeling generic until they’ve earned trust. The play is often sequential: tight wedge first, then carefully adjacent expansions that preserve the original fit while compounding value.
Inside strong product orgs, decision‑making frameworks make that sequencing explicit. I lean on outcomes vs output OKRs to clarify what must improve for customers, not just what we plan to ship. I pair that with crisp guardrails—who we are building for, what problems we solve end‑to‑end, and what we intentionally ignore—for speed and focus. When everyone knows the game we’re playing, we can move faster with fewer meetings.
How to build horizontally from a wedge product: start by mapping the “jobs” that cluster around your wedge and identify which are triggered before, during, or after your core workflow. Expand into the nearest job that either (1) eliminates a costly handoff, (2) compounds your data advantage, or (3) increases switching costs without increasing complexity. Sequence matters; stitch together two workflows perfectly before you add a third.
I use The Three Horizons Model to balance the portfolio. Horizon 1 protects and grows the wedge with relentless quality and speed. Horizon 2 extends into adjacencies that deepen customer value and LTV. Horizon 3 explores new bets with asymmetric upside. The discipline is to time‑box and stage‑gate Horizon 3, so you develop options without starving the core or confusing the narrative.
Crafting a compelling vision for products means painting a clear picture of the world customers want—and the shortest believable path to get there. The vision should connect the wedge to a future platform, but every waypoint must feel pragmatic. When assessing Horizon 3 bets, I look for early signs of inevitability (regulatory tailwinds, data scale effects, platform shifts) and a credible edge we uniquely possess.
To give product teams the freedom to try things, I design for speed with safety: small, API‑first modules, toggled rollouts, and success metrics agreed upon upfront. Creating a risk‑taking culture isn’t about celebrating risk; it’s about celebrating validated learning. Make it cheap to run thoughtful experiments and easy to kill what doesn’t work.
Developing good product sense and intuition takes deliberate practice. I treat it like athletic ability: you can’t outsource reps. The fastest builders I know run weekly customer conversations, share raw call notes, and practice “storyboarding” real workflows until they can spot friction on sight. Five signs of great product sense: you predict failure modes before launch, you simplify scope without losing the magic, you can articulate the must‑have moment, you measure what matters, and you know when to say “not yet.”
Shipping faster without increasing headcount comes from better constraints, not heroics. I favor fewer, larger bets; pre‑wired cross‑functional pods; ruthless de‑scoping to the must‑have moment; and a zero‑tolerance policy for work that doesn’t move a core metric. Shorten the distance from insight to production, and speed shows up everywhere.
Generative AI is reshaping product discovery and prototyping. Tools like Copilot are accelerating content generation, scaffolding, and testable flows, which lets teams validate value propositions earlier and with more fidelity. I use gen AI for product prototyping to pressure‑test onboarding copy, simulate edge cases, and explore variations that would have taken weeks to mock by hand.
If you’re building for SMBs today, choose a wedge you can dominate, prove undeniable value fast, and then expand deliberately—one adjacent workflow at a time. The companies we admire didn’t skip steps; they sequenced them with conviction.
References and resources worth exploring:
Alyssa Henry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-henry-0905692/
Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/
Gokul Rajaram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gokulrajaram1/
Gusto: https://gusto.com/
High Output Management: https://amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884
Marty Cagan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan/
Opendoor: https://www.opendoor.com/
Silicon Valley Product Group: https://www.svpg.com/
Square: https://squareup.com/
The Three Horizons Model: https://www.mckinsey.com/enduring-ideas-the-three-horizons-of-growth
Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/
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