Software Spend Management
I pretend to be a PM for apps like Talisman that help finance teams with software subscription budgeting. I talk to my friend Gabriel, currently CFO of Caju.
Watch on YouTube.
Notes
As a PM my objective is to help build products that provide value to high-frequency use-cases so they can acquire newer users at lower cost and retain existing ones at higher value.
- Use-cases: how often and how severe is the use-case, and whether there is a higher-frequency adjacent use-case.
- Acquisition: what are barriers to try and switch.
- Retention: can value be delivered sooner to avoid churn risk.
Takeaways.
- For Gabriel, software spend monitoring is a low-frequency, low-severity activity.
- A growth-stage company like Caju does not seem to need live spend monitoring the way a much smaller company might.
- At this stage, the driver is value more than pure cost.
- The “what happened next” conversation hack worked for getting detailed and reliable user feedback.
Next steps with Gabriel and others.
- Show mockups that emphasize value metrics rather than only spend summaries.
- Talk to finance buyers across company stages to refine the ideal customer profile.
Big thanks to Gabriel for his time and knowledge.