What should Microsoft Teams' product strategy be for the next 3 years?

Here's a framework I came up with to answer this product strategy question.

Understanding of the Product

Microsoft Teams is an app which helps people chat, connect, do voice and audio calls one on one or in a group. There are some live-colloboration features where people can work and scribble together.

Clarifying Questions

1. I assume the goal is to make more users use Teams. [Interviewer]: Yes
2. Also, are we focusing on any segment, geography, demographics ? [Interviewer]: You decide
3. Also since MS vision is to make everyone more productive, I would not think on the lines of Teams becming whatsapp/TikToK which is more entertainment than productivity. [Interviewer]: Makes Sense

1. Miscrosoft Brand Name and Trust It Evokes
2. Huge Client List
3. Microsoft Windows and Azure
4. Microsoft Office
5. Tie ups with Laptop Manufacturers

1. Not much hold of mobile/tablet market
2. Lack of leadership in browser market

1. Digitization/WFH will pick up more pace in workplace
2. Education will also move towards more Hybrid approach
3. Network Speed/Bandwidth will get comoditize
4. IoT things will become more pervasive
5. AI/ML to figure out and solve challenges which were difficult before.

1. Competitors like Meet, Slack etc.

1. Become more like slack which is basically a just a communication tool with lots of apps plugged into it.
2. Go after education sector and build product which makes students and teacher use it more often
3. Focus on business enterprises and instead of just colloboration, try replicate/recreate virtual office.

1. Does the path align with mission ?
2. Is the market attractive enough ? (Current, Future Potential)
3. Is there a problem big enough to be solved ? 
4. Ability to execute & innovate to differentiate itself (On the basis of Strenghths & Weakness)

1. Clarifying Questions:

   1. Are we considering any specific geography- its geography agnostics

   2. Is there any metrics in focus i.e user growth, monetisation, engagement → we want to grow user base which in turn will give us monetisation opportunity-grow users base B2B from current 20 out of fortune 500 to 100 fortune 500 companies

2. Describe the company and the product 

   1. As a company microsoft is one of the biggest enterprise company which touches the lives of every professional in or of other manner

   2. We have outlook in almost every laptop you can think of

   3. Teams is professional video call service which competes with zoom and google meet

   4. The broader goal of microsoft would be to have as many teams user as we have for outlook 

   5. Teams as a product offers group video, 1-1 video-audio, chat feature and has the advantage of being a ms product

   6. Current team users are limited to select companies which have a complementary offer as Teams as part of deal or enterprise which are price conscious and do not want to spend money on zoom

   7. This could related to data privacy as well- MS is well established compared to zoom which  new in the game

   8. In order to increase the user adoption of MS teams , MS would have to look at some game changing 

   9. Lets briefly talk about zoom and google meet

      1. Zoom has first mover advantage 

      2. Companies which are already on zoom may have multi year so not easy to establish a new partner

      3. Migration would incur cost as well as technological bandwidth

      4. Zoom is really great in user experience , any new platform will have a learning curve for users

      5. Supports features like chat and whiteboard

   10. Gmeet

       1. Mostly used by smart ups and small companies

       2. Google perception is more of a b2c company bcoz of successful consumer products i.e maps, search etc

       3. Difficult for google to compete 

   11. Teams have an opportunity to dent zooms monopoly and get market share by proper roadmap planninng

3. Strategic choice

   1. Improved UI  –current teams UI is inferior compared to zoom. The UI looks cluttered and not very user friendly. Screen sharing , pause, background changes. The product still doesnt looks refined and looks more of MVP 

   2. AR/VR- given that remote work a  new norm, people have started spending significant amount of time on zoom. This kind of brings a gap and real meeting feeling is missing. MS can build experience where people can feel that they are seating ina meeting room. Option to pick seat , raise hand etc

   3. Zoom creates fatigue and people stay away to relax. MS can partner with wellness company which etertain users as soon as they end up meeting– music, light mediation

   4. Collaboration focus– still when it comes to collaboration , people move to other tools . inbuilt collaboration tools for whiteboarding, collaboration, polling 

   5. Note bot– its always difficult to gather notes and send minutes and key action items. An AI bot to note down the summary with key action items and option to edit and send as soon as meeting if over thereby saving time for the organizer. This should be optional

   6. Live translation - covid has breached the geography and people are working more remotely. Live audio  translation into preferred language will break the language barrier and this will be one of most preferred product among people meeting cross language and geography

4. Evaluate each strategic choices

   1. Of all the options I am leaning towards building a AR/Vr meeting experience. This is where microsoft has advantage. It has been doing experiments in this space for some time and is really capable to build this. This has high entry barrier and not easier for competitor to replicate easily.

Approach:

1. Ask follow up questions to understand the scope and area of focus

2. Brainstorm 3-5 potential strategies

3. Discuss prioritization

4. Success metrics

Follow up questions

Candidate: Can our strategy include aquistion of other companies to make advances in technology quickly?

Interviewer: up to you

Candidate: Can the strategy include the invention of new hardware device to create novel experience for microsoft users?

Interviewer: Yes

Candidate: Do we want to focus the strategy around desktop or app?

Interviewer: upto you

Brainstorm potential strategies

Strategy one: Offer live/on demand translation features to faciliate communication between people from different language background to use microsoft team to drive top of the funnel metrics; 

Strategy two: Create an omni-channel experience where users can access microsoft team from any device such as smart displays, cars, voice assistant devices such as alexa/cortana/google home; this will allow to increase the user base

Strategy three: Enrich the video-conferencing experience by reproducing the person in 3D that it should appear that users are sharing the same pyshical space; it is like simulating in-person user interaction; this will help to unlock new realm of possibilites in the field of tele-communication technology  

Prioritization

Based on the evaluation of the business strategies in terms of market opporunity, competitors and company fit, I would prioritize the goal to create a new harware technology using depth sensor and advance camera that creates an in-person communication experiences for the users. 

Because 3D video conferencing would have biggest market opportunity when millions of people work remote and live apart from the loved ones.

There are no other competitors that offer the similar product in the market, thus it would create a first-mover advantage that helps in user adoption and retention 

This strategy fits well with the mission of product which is to offer the communication tools for the user for colloboration. The logical next step to video communication is the simulation of in-person communication experience where we will reproduce the 3D live image of the people on the call.

Success metrics

Number of users that purchased the new hardware that create in-person communication experience

Number of users that communicate using the device

Average number of days in a year that the users use the device to communicate with others

Revenue from the breakthrough communication device sales