Product Manager

There’s something quietly tragic about watching a global brand pack up, not because it failed everywhere, but because it couldn’t belong here. Dunkin Donuts didn’t lose to competition. It lost context. Because building a company isn’t just about selling a product. It’s about becoming a habit. In the US, Dunkin’ is a morning ritual. Coffee in one hand, donut in the other. In India, mornings already belong to chai, to home, to routine. So Dunkin’ tried to adapt. They added Indian flavours. They dropped “Donuts” from the name to become just Dunkin'. They leaned into coffee culture. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: founders don’t like admitting: You can tweak the product. You can’t force the behavior. Meanwhile, McDonald's didn’t just localize, it repositioned. The McAloo Tikki wasn’t an adaptation. It was a translation. And that’s the difference. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. FoodWorks understood scale through pizza. But donuts? They stayed a craving, not a culture. And startups miss this all the time. We obsess over: features pricing marketing But markets don’t reward effort. They reward fit. Dunkin Donuts didn’t fail because it was bad. It failed because it was misaligned. And maybe that’s the hardest lesson in building anything: Not every great idea deserves every market. If you're building, scaling, or just trying to understand why some ideas stick, and others don’t Join the Founders Office Fellowship. Learn how real founders think, fail, and pivot. Apply Now: https://lnkd.in/gxKqc47v What do you think, was this a product problem or a market problem? #startups #founders #marketing #dunkin #india #businessstrategy #branding #consumerbehavior #entrepreneurship