Project Blue: The Turnaround
Saving a failing product by pivoting from 'Feature Factory' to 'Segment Focus'.
It all started when...
I was brought on with a binary mandate: **Fix it or Kill it.** Our Corporate Learning product was bleeding money, stalling in the market, and losing credibility. Leadership wanted to know if the product was salvageable or if we should cut our losses. The roadmap was a 'feature factory' of disconnected requests, and the value proposition was diluted.
My Role
The 360-Degree Audit: Before writing a single ticket, I interviewed every layer of the stack: Engineers (technical debt), Account Managers (churn reasons), Support Agents (daily friction), and Industry Experts. I discovered the problem wasn't 'features'; it was a lack of market identity.
The Strategic Decision: I recommended we Keep but Pivot. My research identified an underserved wedge: SMB Multinationals in the region. These companies needed complex localization that global tools ignored but local tools couldn't handle.
The War Room: I launched 'Project Blue' to execute this pivot. We paused the generalist roadmap and deployed a SWAT team to execute a 6-week sprint, strictly focusing on the high-leverage features and UX fixes required to win that specific SMB segment.
The GTM Execution: I didn't wait for marketing; I built the campaign myself. I created the sales collateral, defined the pitch, and engineered the launch assets to ensure the message landed exactly as intended.
The Channel Strategy: To bypass the slow direct sales cycle, I negotiated and structured partnerships with established 'Corporate Training' firms. This allowed us to piggyback on their existing trusted relationships to access the market immediately.
Results
10 Enterprise Deals Closed in 2 Months immediately following the relaunch, validating the segmentation thesis.
Doubled the Pipeline for the corporate segment by disqualifying bad leads and focusing entirely on the new Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Saved the Product Line: Transformed a candidate for 'deprecation' into a viable, growing revenue stream.