When teams say, “We’ll build first and figure out marketing later,” they’ve already made their launch harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s not a dunk; it’s an observation. Every time we separate “product” from “marketing,” we guarantee that one will limp behind the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was reminded of this when Rand said in a recent interview with Jacob Cook<\/a> (for his students at Harvard Business School):<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Product and marketing are not two different things.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He was talking about the development of a video game he\u2019s building \u2014 a game set in a small, 1960\u2019s Italian town in which you, an emotionally-closed-off chef, run a restaurant. His team at Snackbar Studio<\/a> isn’t just building a fun experience; they’re designing something that journalists, creators, and gamers<\/em> will want to talk about. The recipes are traditional Italian dishes. The characters draw on post-war history. The story and setting are as relevant to travel writers, cultural influencers, and history aficionados as it is to gaming streamers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n None of that happened by accident. It was built with amplifiers in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n