Outside-in, Inside-out, and Toasters

A well functioning product function & team needs both of these but finding good representation of both and a balance between them can be elusive.

Outside-in is a mentality, discipline, and set of activities that are grounded in looking first at the market we serve, what its unique problems and opportunities are and then pivoting to line that up with the company we're a part of and how what we have (or what we could feasibly build) could address those needs.

Inside-out complements the above by focusing first on what the company has (or could feasibly build) and then considering who in the market could benefit from it and how.

To illustrate the difference between these two roles, let's set the outer boundaries by saying that a great Product Marketer would have Outside-in chops while a great Technical Product Manager would have great Inside-out abilities.

Why are both of these required in order to successfully grow?

Well first, if your team over-indexes on Outside-in, you run the risk of wasting time analyzing markets and market needs that don't readily line up with what you have or could feasibly build. Without an Inside-out colleague to ground them on what the company has or could readily build, Outside-in product people can come back from their research and excitedly proclaim "We should build toasters!" ("Really? But we're a software company right??"). Conversely, Inside-out product people can loose the forest (market) when they spend their days working knee deep in the trees (development and release process). They can become enamored with an endless backlog of "cool" features that nonetheless drift the product away from solving the most pressing problems for customers.

Second, both of these require a metric ton of daily attention to be done correctly. They are literally full-time jobs and even then, work needs to be prioritized because there will always be more for these people to do than time in a day/week/month. Third, in my experience even with the best product people its impossible to find a balanced representation of both of these in a single person. In my case I started my career as a developer and and didn't know it then but I had an Inside-out orientation. It was later in business development, product marketing, and strategic product management roles that I developed the ability to also be Outside-in.