How did you manage cultural differences and local nuances when launching products in various countries?
The most important thing for me is connecting with the people in a genuine manner. You are entering a new place, their home, and the number one aim is to offer a product or service that serves the people in this place – so I was able to become well-versed in lots of cultural differences and nuances by spending lots of time in the market. If your product is not adding value to the community, I don’t see value in entering that market. I lived close to the typical lifestyle and made tons of organic connections – from there I got to understand the way of life and could translate that into strategies and tests. The table stakes to being a great launcher are your analytical skills, strategic thinking and business acumen, my superpower is my emotional intelligence, people skills and ability to genuinely connect and build trust. That’s where the magic happens – you can translate those authentic experiences into a way to build a better product.
What was a challenging situation you faced during an international product launch and how did you overcome it?
Aligning the operations with product capabilities is a super challenging task. As a business you can be ready to go live and have full backing, however, you may not have the product perfected from the tech perspective. What do you do? Do you wait until perfect, do you get it to launch ready and perfect after? These are principles I think you should define and own so your back doesn’t get against the wall at time of launch. Launching in Arabic was quite challenging – we had all the business needs ready to go but the tech was behind adapting the app for right-to-left language capabilities.
How did customer feedback and market research influence your product strategy for international markets?
Tons – there’s nothing more important than a soft launch and testing before you go live! I have a whole theory on this and how it makes or breaks the first 7 days.
How do you adapt your strategy to accommodate different cultural, economic, and regulatory environments in various countries?
Regulatory is the first place to start, you can’t get around it and you shouldn’t be considering a market where you can’t adapt to the regulatory requirements. From there, I’m quite principled and build out and agree upon various priorities with clients based on their launch narrative and goals. From there we adapt accordingly. There’s no one size fits all model – once you’ve launched so many places you start to understand how to prioritize for maximum impact. My agency really are experts in that.
What were the biggest risks you identified when launching products internationally, and how did you mitigate them?
As cliche as it sounds, everything can be a risk! But I’d say make sure you have experts in the local laws and taxes by your side every step of the way. Closely behind is making sure you understand the culture – you can easily, unintentionally be incredibly offensive and miss the mark without meaning to by saying or doing something that works well in your culture but translates quite horrible somewhere else. You start off with customers turned off from your product all because of a lack of understanding local norms.
How do you incorporate innovation into your strategic planning process for new markets?
There are so many unforeseen challenges that can come up, you have to stay nimble and adaptable. It isn’t about your ego or what you see working in your home – you’re adjusting to the new market so stay innovative in your approach. Be willing to change – it’s better for you and it’s best for your investment.
Based on your experience, what are the emerging trends in global product strategy that companies should be aware of?
I’m super interested in the concept of multinational personas. Is looking at markets based on geographic location the right way to approach launch in the future? I’ve got lots of thoughts here and we’re exploring lots of approaches.
What advice would you give to young professionals aspiring to lead international expansion efforts in their companies?
Immerse yourself in different cultures and people. It’s 50% business skills (but those can be taught) and 50% being a cultural connoisseur. Marrying the two for the benefit of the people living in the new market, makes for a great launcher!
You can meet AMBER CLIFFORD at Bucharest Tech Week. Check the agenda and get your ticket - https://www.techweek.ro/business-summits
