Why Adding a 2nd Product Creates The 3 Body Problem

You’ve got a startup with a great product. Things are going pretty well. Growth is pretty good and customers are happy.

But, you know that at some point, you’re going to need to add a second product. Pretty much every successful company does. Some people call this “The Second Act”.

You’re not exactly sure when you need to add the second product — and you’re a bit worried about it, because it feels like a large undertaking which will need investment.

I’m here to tell you that not only is your worry well-placed, the situation is likely worse than you think. The challenge is not just the cost of building that second product (which might be considerable) or even the cost of distributing that product (which could also be considerable), but it’s the cost of the complexity that the second product will add.

Which brings me to my 3 body problem reference. First of all, if you haven’t read the book(s) you should. Or, it’s also a pretty good Netflix series now.

Here’s a quick summary of what the actual 3 Body Problem phenomenon is.

When you have just two bodies in space, like a planet and a star, they follow a very predictable pattern. They orbit each other in a shape that's usually an ellipse. This happens because the only forces acting are between these two bodies.

However, when you add a third body into the mix, everything gets more complicated. Each body is pulling on the other two with gravity, and all these pulls affect each other. It’s like trying to predict what will happen in a game where every player is constantly changing their actions based on what the others do.

When a startup has a single product, it’s like the 2 body problem. You have your company, and a product orbiting around it. Things are (generally) understandable and predictable.

But, when you add that 2nd product, it’s like adding a third “body” in space. Now, everything gets more complicated. Not just a little more complicated, a lot more complicated. It’s like your adding a whole new dimension of complexity. I talk about this on my episode on Lenny’s Podcast. (If you aren’t listening to that podcast yet, you should, it’s great).

The way this manifests in your company is that now everything has to be looked at through a 2 product lens:

1) How much should you spend marketing/promoting the existing product A vs. the new product B?

2) You hired an engineer. Do they work on A or B?

3) You generate charts/graphs tracking the performance of the business. Most of those will now need to be updated so you can see a breakdown by A and B.

4) When trying to do forecasting, you’ll not just need to predict how much Product A and B will sell — you have to do that in the context of your resource allocation decisions.

There’s more. Trust me. It gets a lot more complicated.

Now, I’m not at all suggesting that this should keep you from adding that second product. You will need to do that (and when you should do that is a topic for another post).

But, you should walk in with your eyes open and be prepared for that increase in complexity. And try even harder to keep things simple for the things you can control (like pricing/packaging). Keeping things simple is good advice in general, but particularly so when launching your second product otherwise you’re making a complicated situation even more complicated.

Best wishes. May the gravitational force be with you (and manageable).