Lessons from Product Apéro with Pieter Geeraerts
Regulated markets are often seen as a dead end for innovation. Strict rules, tight compliance, and high costs make it feel impossible to stand out. At Product Apéro, fintech leader Pieter Geeraerts shared strategies to thrive in these tough spaces.
Pieter, known for turning challenges into growth, introduced ways to escape the "Commodity Magnet,” which forces companies to compete on price, losing their unique edge. Here’s how you can break free and create meaningful product innovation.
What exactly do we mean by "regulation?"
Regulation impacts businesses across three key areas:
Technical interoperability
Making sure your product works on a technical level and meet strict standards like IEEE protocols and industry practices to ensure compatibility.
Commercial ecosystem
Making sure your product can participate in the ecosystem, ruled by dominant players like Visa, Mastercard, and app stores who control access and set the rules of participation.
Government regulations
Your product must be compliant with laws that safeguard consumers through rules on safety, data privacy, and financial security.
Why regulated markets feel limiting
Regulated industries, like healthcare, finance, and telecom, are difficult places to innovate.
⚙️ Strict rules and legal standards.
😵 Resources are drained by compliance, leaving little room for creativity.
🧲 With everyone following the same rules, products lose uniqueness and compete only on price: it’s the called Commodity Magnet.
This creates a cycle of sameness, making it hard for businesses to differentiate themselves.
But Pieter reminded us that constraints can spark creativity if you shift your mindset.
Turn regulations into opportunities
Pieter shared real-world examples of companies that turned compliance into a competitive advantage. For example…
Mastercard: faced with new payment rules, Mastercard innovated with tokenization technology. This improved security and enhanced user experience, setting them apart.
itsme: Belgium's banks and telecoms faced fragmented ID systems. By working with regulators, they launched itsme, a compliant and user-friendly digital ID app.
Takeaway: Work with regulators early in the process. When you involve them, you can meet the rules and still create solutions that stand out.
Three strategies to escape the commodity magnet
1. Build emotional connections (B2C)
When technical differences are similar, focus on building trust and loyalty with your customers. Invest in your brand story and customer experience. Stand out by making customers feel connected to your product.
2. Add continuous value (B2B)
In business markets, compliance is the minimum. What sets you apart is the extra value you deliver. Look for small but impactful ways to improve usability, support, or features that make life easier for your clients.
3. Find new opportunities (Blue Ocean Strategy)
Avoid crowded markets. Instead, look for gaps where you can serve unmet needs. Identify overlooked pain points in your industry and design products that address them directly.
How design thinking can drive innovation
Pieter emphasized the power of design thinking in regulated markets. Here’s how it works:
👥 Understand the user: learn what customers and regulators really need.
⚡️ Prototype quickly: test ideas with users and regulators early to get feedback and iterate.
🤝 Collaborate across functions: involve legal, technical, and creative teams from the start to ensure compliance doesn’t block innovation.
Key lessons for innovators
Here’s what we learned from Pieter’s talk:
Shift your mindset and look beyond
Where will the regulation lead the industry? Embrace the regulation and use compliance as a differentiator.
Regulatory pain as opportunity
What pain points does regulation introduce? Use design thinkings to see problems as opportunities.
Transform: Blue Ocean/Red Ocean
Explore new markets. Look for untapped needs where you can stand out. What can you strip from your product that doesn’t add value? What do customers value but is not offered by competitors?
Ready to Innovate?
Regulated industries don’t have to limit your growth. With the right approach, you can turn constraints into competitive advantages.
The keynote was followed by an inspiring discussion between Pieter and Timoté Geimer, CEO @ dualoop, and ended with a networking & pizza moment. A nice way to meet like minded product folks!
Register to our next Product Apéro
You can already pre-register to our next Product Apéro on February 12th - we can't tell you much more yet, but you should know it's definitely not an event you'll want to miss!
