Unlocking Revenue Diversification Through Product Thinking

Introduction: When Product Leadership Becomes the Catalyst for Commercial Transformation

In every organisation striving to grow or adapt, there’s often a familiar crossroads: how do you take an established business model and unlock new, scalable streams of revenue without losing sight of your brand’s trust or purpose?

That’s where true product leadership comes into play. Not simply managing backlogs or feature releases, but identifying the latent value within a business and orchestrating its evolution into something commercially powerful and customer-centric.

I’ve always drawn inspiration from moments of strategic reinvention — particularly the way Rolls-Royce revolutionised its business model through the “Power by the Hour” concept. By moving from selling jet engines outright to providing engine uptime as a service, Rolls-Royce transformed a capital-intensive, one-off purchase model into a recurring revenue stream built on performance, trust, and shared success. It’s a timeless example of how shifting focus from ownership to outcomes can redefine an entire industry.

That same mindset — finding new commercial models built around customer value — has shaped much of my career in product leadership.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead product strategy across multiple industries — from B2B SaaS and media platforms to e-mobility and data-driven services. But one of the most transformative experiences came during my time working for Haymarket Media Group, publishers of What Car? and Autocar, where I served as Head of Product.

It was here that we transformed a long-standing editorial asset — Target Price — from a printed data feature into a dynamic digital proposition that reshaped automotive retailing and opened entirely new commercial channels.

This journey became a blueprint for how product as a discipline can drive revenue diversification through creativity, experimentation, and deep alignment with both users and commercial stakeholders.

“Iteration unlocks innovation. Each evolution refined the proposition without losing sight of its core integrity.”

Chris Martin, Global Lead Product Manager - bp pulse

The Starting Point: A Trusted Data Proposition

Haymarket’s automotive titles had long commanded trust and credibility. What Car?, in particular, had built an enviable reputation for impartiality and consumer advocacy. The brand’s trust and consumer sentiment were exceptionally high, and it was equally well respected by car manufacturers and retailers alike.

For decades, the Target Price appeared in the back of the magazine’s new car section — a series of tables listing every make and model currently on sale in the UK. Each Target Price was independently researched by What Car? editors, based on the work of researchers and mystery shoppers, and was proven to be a fair representation of the typical discount a new car buyer could expect to pay with little negotiation.

For example, a family hatchback might carry a £2,000–£3,000 discount from its £25,000 RRP, while a premium German sports car might exceed list price due to added options and the absence of any discounts.

The insight was simple but powerful: Target Price was about fairness, not cheapness. It balanced consumer value with retailer margin and acted as a signal of market reality — a benchmark that unified buyers, retailers, and manufacturers.

However, while it was deeply trusted, it had not yet been realised as a commercial product.

That’s where the transformation began.

Stage One: From Insight to Ecosystem

When I took leadership of the product function, the challenge was to reimagine Target Price as a commercial proposition, not just an editorial feature. The question we asked was clear:

“What if we could turn Target Price from static information into a living, transactional experience?”

We began by proving the fundamentals. My team built an end-to-end journey that connected Target Price to actionable outcomes — enabling car buyers to connect with franchised dealers who endorsed those target prices.

For dealers, this created a trusted new acquisition channel. By subscribing to publish their pricing, they could generate high-intent leads backed by the credibility of the What Car? brand. For consumers, it delivered a frictionless experience: confidence that the price was fair, verified, and ready to act upon. What Car? New Car Buying was launched.

This alignment — trust, transparency, and action — turned a decades-old piece of editorial data into a digital marketplace. What had once been a static table of numbers became the foundation for a scalable, recurring-revenue platform.

Stage Two: Pivoting to Finance and Affordability

Once the model was proven and the end-to-end journey validated, the next evolution was to recognise that price was no longer the only measure of value — affordability was.

In the UK, most new car buyers fund their vehicles through Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) finance agreements. The reality is that customers think less about total price and more about what they can afford monthly.

To stay relevant, Target Price needed to evolve again. Working with the editorial and data teams, we pivoted from discount-led pricing to finance-led affordability insights.

The proposition became Target Finance Price — a benchmark that reflected the real cost of ownership over a typical two- or three-year PCP term. By sourcing headline finance offers from manufacturers’ captive lenders, the product reframed car buying in terms of monthly cost rather than total cost.

For car buyers, this was the language of affordability they understood.

For retailers, it provided a new, compliant way to promote finance deals and capture highly qualified, finance-ready leads.

Stage Three: Proving the End-to-End Journey and Lean Outcomes

What made this journey truly powerful wasn’t vast investment or heavy infrastructure — it was the clarity and discipline of proving a lean, end-to-end outcome.

We didn’t set out to build a vast, feature-heavy platform. Instead, we started with what I often call a minimum marketable experience — the smallest possible solution that could demonstrate market fit, customer value, and commercial potential.

By applying lean product principles, we created rapid feedback loops:

• Dealers provided sentiment and lead quality data.
• The editorial team refined pricing accuracy and responsiveness.
• Consumers demonstrated growing confidence through increased conversions and engagement.

Each cycle of iteration validated that both sides of the market were deriving measurable value. It was this disciplined, lean approach that built momentum and stakeholder confidence — and ultimately enabled us to scale.

Within just 12 months of launch, the platform was recognised with the MotorTrader Magazine Industry Award for IT Product Innovation of the Year — a testament to what can be achieved when product teams focus on proving outcomes rather than building complexity.

Leadership Reflection: How Product Drives Revenue Diversification

Looking back, the most valuable lesson wasn’t about cars, finance, or media. It was about how product leadership acts as the bridge between strategy and execution.

Here’s what that journey reinforced:

• Revenue diversification starts with trust. You can’t monetise what customers or partners don’t believe in.
• Start lean, prove fast. The minimum marketable experience allowed us to validate a complex ecosystem with minimal risk.
• Commercial success comes from alignment. Product, editorial, commercial, and data teams were united under one outcome: delivering value to both the consumer and the retailer.
• Iteration unlocks innovation. Each evolution — from data to leads, from leads to finance — refined the proposition without losing sight of its core integrity.

That combination of discipline, creativity, and data-led empathy remains central to how I lead product organisations today — ensuring every iteration connects user value to measurable business outcomes.

Conclusion: Product Leadership as the Engine of Diversification

True revenue diversification doesn’t come from building more products — it comes from uncovering new value in what already exists and evolving it through technology, insight, and trust.

That’s the power of product leadership: transforming static assets into living platforms that create ongoing, compounding value for both customers and the business.

Years on, the proposition remains so well upheld in the market that Target Price itself evolved into What Car? Best Price — a live, data-led marketplace that continues to connect consumers and retailers with the same trust and fairness that defined its beginnings.