Highest-Revenue Product Line
Deploy the full framework (PRD template, ECV scoring, KPI dashboard, MPR) on the top-revenue product first. Prove the model works before scaling.
Matthew Cheung Man Lok — Transforming TradeBeyond from Feature Factory to Product Engine
Scalable platforms over bespoke agency work.
Success = adoption and ROI, not features shipped.
Aligning Eng, Sales, and Product through frameworks.
Deep roots in logistics and supply chain — Master's in Global Strategic Supply Chain Management, TNT Express leadership experience.
TradeBeyond has immense engineering power (180 resources) and market share (110 top retailers), but requires a shift from a reactive 'feature factory' to a proactive product engine.
I have navigated this exact transition — shifting massive logistics operations from fragmented setups into governed, high-efficiency enterprise platforms.
Understanding where TradeBeyond is today — and the transformative potential ahead.
Hundreds of enhancements delivered annually — many small, some large — mostly driven by customer requests or sales opportunities rather than strategic priorities.
Many enhancements are never fully commercialized. Built for specific customers or lost sales opportunities — providing minimal return on engineering investment.
Large installed base of capability that is under-adopted, under-monetized, and expensive to maintain. Technical debt and complexity grow faster than customer value.
TradeBeyond's product goal is not to build more products — it's to refine and enrich what we already have to become the most competitive offering in the market, and drive commercialization.
How we build — and how we ensure what we build actually drives value.
We are a SaaS product company. Every enhancement must serve the broader market, not single accounts. If only one customer needs it, they fund the full lifecycle.
A feature is incomplete until target customers are actively utilizing it. Delivery ≠ success — usage and business impact define success.
No engineering effort begins without a justified business case. Every investment must be measurable and defensible.
GTM strategy is defined before development begins — not after.
Identify GTM owner, pricing model, and packaging strategy before writing code.
Every sprint ties back to a commercial outcome. Adoption metrics defined upfront.
Sales enablement, marketing assets, and customer comms ready at launch.
Track MAU, win rate, and ROI. Feed insights back into prioritization.
No feature ships without a named GTM owner, a defined packaging strategy, and a 90-day post-launch adoption target.
A feature is not "done" when it ships — it's done when customers are using it and it's driving revenue.
Set specific 90-day adoption targets and success metrics in the product brief.
Sales enablement, in-app onboarding, and customer comms built alongside the feature.
Monitor MAU, activation rate, and time-to-value from day one. Unified dashboard across all products.
If adoption lags, investigate and fix. If it still doesn't work — sunset it and reclaim capacity.
Why this matters: The legacy approach builds features and hopes customers use them. Adoption-Driven Development builds for adoption from day one — and has the data to prove it.
Mandatory Product Briefs: Any initiative requiring >2 sprints of effort must pass a standardized funding gate.
How many of our 110 clients share this workflow friction? Quantified reach is mandatory.
Identified GTM owner, packaging strategy, and pricing approach before development starts.
Specific 90-day post-launch adoption target. How will we know it's working?
What we stop doing — and how we decide. Comparing apples to apples across all request types.
Every request — customer-specific, sales-driven, or strategic platform — is scored on the same four dimensions:
Shift from "No" to root-cause problem solving.
Discover the underlying workflow friction rather than just building the requested button. Understand the real need — there may be a platform solution that serves everyone.
Transparent roadmap with ECV ranking.
Customers see where their request ranks and why. It's not personal — it's a data-driven decision based on value to all customers.
ECV-ranked roadmap makes rejections defensible.
Sales sees that a requested $50K feature was paused to deliver a capability unlocking $2M in TAM. The math speaks for itself.
Sales is part of the process, not outside it.
Monthly Product Review includes Sales leadership. They help shape the roadmap — and understand the tradeoffs.
How we organize capacity, align teams, and establish one way of working across all 8 products.
Core roadmap items driving commercial adoption.
Maintenance, bug fixes, tech debt, and performance.
Highly vetted, urgent customer/sales requests.
Governance: Breaching the 60% strategic bucket for a massive sales opportunity requires escalation to the Executive Steering Committee (CEO, VP Product, Head of Tech). The default answer is "no" — we protect strategic capacity.
We don't change everything at once. We sequence the rollout to build momentum and prove value early.
Deploy the full framework (PRD template, ECV scoring, KPI dashboard, MPR) on the top-revenue product first. Prove the model works before scaling.
Roll out to the other products in the same core area (PLM & Sourcing, Quality & Compliance, or Order Management). Leverage learnings from Phase 1.
Full rollout across the entire portfolio. By this point, the framework is proven, documented, and has internal champions.
Fine-tune the framework based on real data. Start sunsetting under-adopted features. Cross-product comparison becomes routine.
Product sits at the center — translating between customer needs, commercial goals, and engineering capacity.
Capacity planning, tech debt, delivery
Strategy, investment decisions, MPR
ECV scoring · Funding gate · KPI framework · One way of working
Customer needs, market intel, GTM alignment
Adoption, feedback, success metrics
Cross-functional forum (Product, Tech, Sales, CEO). Review past release adoption data and pitch next quarter's roadmap based on ECV scores. Decisions are data-driven and transparent.
PMs, POs, and Tech Leads assess incoming enhancements. Route to the 15% tactical bucket, reject immediately, or escalate to MPR for strategic consideration.
Unified PRD template and release management process across all 8 products. Sequenced rollout starting with the highest-revenue product line. One way of working.
Lead the 3 PMs and 6 POs through standardized frameworks rather than top-down dictation. Build alignment through shared tools, clear processes, and demonstrable results — not hierarchy.
Competing demands are resolved by the unified PRD standard and ECV score. Data dictates priority, removing bias and politics. PMs and POs understand the framework — and trust the outcome.
Shift POs from tactical backlog administrators to strategic partners who own cycle-time efficiency. Give them the frameworks, data, and authority to make decisions — and hold them accountable for outcomes.
How we track success across all 8 products — and what happens when metrics move the wrong way.
Targets are set, measured, reviewed, and acted upon — in a continuous cycle.
Baseline + stretch goals per product. PMs co-own targets.
Unified dashboard. Real-time visibility across all 8 products.
MPR monthly. Deep dive quarterly. Leadership visibility.
Adjust course. Invest more. Or sunset and reallocate.
Bad metrics aren't failures — they're signals. The response depends on severity and pattern.
PM + PO dig into the data. Is it a measurement issue? An adoption problem? A quality issue? Root cause identified within 2 weeks of the signal.
Written remediation plan with specific actions, owners, and timelines. Presented at the next MPR. Options: UX improvements, sales enablement, pricing changes, or targeted customer outreach.
Did the action plan work? If metrics are improving, continue and monitor. If not, escalate to the next level and consider more drastic measures.
If a feature consistently underperforms despite remediation, it's time to stop investing. Reallocate engineering capacity to higher-ROI opportunities. Communicate clearly to customers and Sales.
First 90 days and 12-month vision — how we get from here to there.
What "winning" looks like at the 90-day mark — concrete, measurable outcomes.
100% of PMs and POs trained on ECV scoring and PRD template. Pilot product running on the new standard.
Unified KPI dashboard live for all 8 products. Leadership can compare performance on a like-for-like basis.
First MPR completed with cross-functional attendance. Weekly triage operational. Capacity allocation agreed and in effect.
Next quarter's roadmap built using the ECV framework and approved at MPR.
Identify and begin decommissioning 2-3 lowest-adoption features to reclaim capacity.
Sales leadership bought into the framework. Transparent roadmap shared.
Matthew Cheung Man Lok · Director, Product Strategy & Operations Candidate