{
  "id": 3643895,
  "title": "What if you segmented customers before you built the product?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/what-if-you-segmented-customers-before-you-built-the-product",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-27T02:30:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "e27",
    "slug": "e27",
    "url": "https://e27.co/what-if-you-segmented-customers-before-you-built-the-product-20260826/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Many companies conduct a meeting three weeks before a product launch to determine pricing. By then, the product's features, packaging, and cost are already set, regardless of what buyers are willing to pay. The common approach is to build the product, market it, segment customers, and then set the price. However, Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke argue that this order is one of the main reasons new products fail. They propose designing the product around price and using customer segmentation based on value and willingness to pay. Traditional segmentation groups customers by company size, industry, market, or job title, but this data does not provide insights into what customers are willing to pay. Different groups in the same segment may behave differently, with varying budgets, purchasing processes, and motivations. Building a product for a small-budget group that only values core functionality is more effective than trying to accommodate all groups with expensive capabilities. Early willingness-to-pay research is valuable for understanding how customers perceive problems and trade-offs. While survey prices tend to be higher than actual prices, surveys still help identify configuration options and pricing hypotheses. By creating product tiers based on customer segments and their willingness to pay, companies can cater to different budgets and needs, ultimately increasing revenue.",
  "summary": "There is a meeting that happens in most companies about three weeks before launch. The product is built, the marketing is drafted, and someone asks what the price should be. By then the answer is already decided for you. The features, the packaging is locked and the cost base is locked. Whatever the room picks […] The post What if you segmented customers before you built the product? appeared…",
  "key_points": [
    "Build product around price, not after market segmentation",
    "Traditional segmentation groups miss willingness-to-pay insights",
    "Customer tiers based on value and budget increase revenue"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Companies that reverse the typical product development process and prioritize customer segmentation based on willingness to pay are more likely to create successful products that cater to different budgets and needs.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}