By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres argues that product teams often fixate on competitors' funding, press coverage, and launches, when they should focus on what customers actually do. She suggests competitors only deserve attention once customers start using them and traction shows up in the market. Her core point is that relentless focus on customers is a more reliable path to success than tracking rivals. The argument is short and direct, aimed at teams whose attention is pulled outward by industry noise.
01Key takeaways
- Track what customers do rather than what competitors announce.
- Pay attention to a competitor once customers start adopting it.
- Treat funding and press coverage of rivals as weak signals of product success.
- Make customer focus the default lens for prioritization decisions.
- Ask regularly how your team spends its attention on external news.
02Key sections
- The competitor obsession
- Torres observes that teams she has worked with track competitors' funding rounds, press mentions, and launches daily. She questions why this attention matters.
- Customers over competitors
- She reframes strategy around customer behavior: competitors matter only when customers are actually choosing them. Until then, rivals' activity is noise.
- Focus relentlessly on customers
- Torres concludes that a sustained customer focus is simple and sufficient for doing well. She closes by inviting readers to reflect on how they balance the two.
03From the post
“I love this post, Do You Care More About the Customers or the Competition?, by David Meerman Scott on Web Ink Now. Take a minute. Go read it. Everywhere I've worked, people on my team have been obsessed with the competition. Every day they read about who is getting”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.