There’s a moment from my recent project that I’d like to share. It’s about how product-oriented thinking in IT distorts the perception of a brand and blocks sales growth.
A small but very talented IT company faced a slowdown in sales. They kept developing more and more products, but sales weren’t growing. Their clients were mainly B2B.
The company decided to somehow organize their entire product line under a unified brand — which we developed, including its architecture. The initial idea was to repackage the products.
So what did I see after the analysis?
It turned out that the company’s very own product structure was holding back its growth.
When you’re proud of your products — especially in IT — you start to think that everyone understands them on a developer level. And since you know your products inside out, it seems logical that showing the full arsenal will give clients more choice.
But the simple truth is: B2B clients don’t come for tools — they come for solutions.
And the more products you offer, the less the client can actually navigate.
When a client is suddenly flooded with unfamiliar tools, they often walk away. They go looking for a simpler way to solve their task.
And this is exactly where engineering expertise could shine — by showing the company’s ability to solve a wide range of (sometimes very complex) problems with the tools/products they already have.
That’s why we decided to brand the expertise itself.
This wasn’t about repackaging the products — it was about repackaging the mindset.
Together with the client, we came to the solution through shifting the perspective to the client’s task. And once we made that shift, all the products neatly fell into place inside a brand logic — reinforcing one another and making sales easier (including cross-sales and upsells).
Now the company’s brand reflects what it actually does best: solving any task within the scope of its expertise. And the brand architecture helps clients navigate the product lines.
It’s hard to break out of product thinking. Just like it’s hard to break any habit.
But a client who wants change will look for a way.
And I truly love working with clients like that.
What helped along the way:
✅ Letting go of magical thinking like “let’s just launch a new brand and everything will work.”
✅ Defining the company’s role: not just a supplier, not just a developer, but an integrator of engineering solutions tailored to client needs.
✅ Moving toward a brand architecture where products are not lost — but united under shared meaning.
The meaning of the brand was the real breakthrough moment, when everything finally clicked into place.
This is just the beginning, but I believe in common sense and in talented people who want to do things better. So I’m sure this client will succeed.
Product thinking makes companies focus on themselves — not the client.
And that’s almost always bad for business, and definitely bad for the brand.
If you want to understand where your brand stands on the spectrum from “product-focused” to “client-centered,” ask yourself:
Are we doing what we can? Or what the client actually needs?
