As a generalist product manager I really couldn’t help myself and connect the dots between two seemingly unrelated topics.

A telescope and end user value 🔭 🌕

Let’s talk about Celestron, LLC. and what’s the key user value that their telescope delivers for me (and I’m sure for a lot of us).

While taking a very shaky video of the gorgeous super moon couple days back, I thought about this.

A few years ago, I bought a $120 product from that company. Why?

Not to become an expert in space exploration.

Not to take high quality photos of moon and other celestial objects. Although I tried.

Certainly not because Amazon would deliver it in 2 days.

Rather, it was to feed my curiosity of looking as closely as possible, at the moon, something we all grew up seeing. Right?

To play like we used to as kids (anyone else made telescopes from cardboard and mirror?)

And to come together with people and expand our scale of collective thinking – even if it’s just for a few moments.

These moments of mutual understanding build strong foundations for relationships and connections.

Any product – physical or virtual, is built to make end users life (not just day or work) better in some way. That’s the mission, vision, and pitch. Or at least should be.

Marketing and advertising professionals know this already. They know what sticks.

Product marketers and top sales people know this too. Apple does a brilliant job by simply posting #shotoniphone billboards.

In 2024 and beyond, it’s vital to highlight the user value in written, video, and audio formats.

This is done through digital content, sales playbook, product release notes, product description on e-commerce websites, and internal project memos and pitch decks.

This is what empowers teams to build and sell better, and the users to forge a relationship that’s rooted in mutual understanding.

To enable and nurture the buyer-seller relationships, equip the sales teams with user stories (not the jira board kind) and narratives.

Actual stories of what the product means for the user.

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Some food for thought if you’re selling anything.

What’re you actually selling? Thinking beyond the product and service.

And how does it make the user’s life better?

Answering these questions has always provided me with the clarity needed to identify optimal priority.