Your daily dose of Product Management Goodness

What does a Product Manager do?

It’s a question we’ve answered many times before, but this was presented to me a while ago and I thought it was a great way of simply describing our job. We sit at the interface of customers, technology and our company, and we try to deliver solutions that meet a real customer need whilst addressing both the goals of the business and tech capability. Put simply, we solve market needs while achieving business goals.

It’s a question we’ve answered many times before, but this was presented to me a while ago and I thought it was a great way of simply describing our job. We sit at the interface of customers, technology and our company, and we try to deliver solutions that meet a real customer need whilst addressing both the goals of the business and tech capability. Put simply, we solve market needs while achieving business goals.

Team Skills

We often talk about what the ideal product manager has in terms of skills. But on a more practical level, we need to make the most of the team we have - optimise their skills to meet the needs of our business. To help, we use our team planning tool and follow four steps:

1. Work out the priorities for your team – what do the team need to deliver over the next 12 months?

2. Define the skills needed to help deliver on the priorities – it will only be a subset of the full Product Management skillset

3. Build the skills curves. Work out how capable each team member is vs the skill. Bu...

We often talk about what the ideal product manager has in terms of skills. But on a more practical level, we need to make the most of the team we have - optimise their skills to meet the needs of our business. To help, we use our team planning tool and follow four steps:

1. Work out the priorities for your team – what do the team need to deliver over the next 12 months?

2. Define the skills needed to help deliver on the priorities – it will only be a subset of the full Product Management skillset

3. Build the skills curves. Work out how capable each team member is vs the skill. Build the PM and the team skills curve

4. Close any skills gaps with training, coaching or support.

It helps focus your training and coaching on what really matters

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Make the first ten words count!

Getting your message across

I’m working with a team on messaging this week. I’m struck by how complicated many product managers make their message – I often have to spend an hour trawling through brochures and slides to get any sense of their product and I’m told ‘it’s complicated’ . Think of this from a customer perspective – if your product doesn’t grab their attention immediately then they’ll move on – they’re busy people with a thousand other things to do. To fix this, think of a newspaper article – great content is wasted if there isn’t a compelling headline...

Getting your message across

I’m working with a team on messaging this week. I’m struck by how complicated many product managers make their message – I often have to spend an hour trawling through brochures and slides to get any sense of their product and I’m told ‘it’s complicated’ . Think of this from a customer perspective – if your product doesn’t grab their attention immediately then they’ll move on – they’re busy people with a thousand other things to do. To fix this, think of a newspaper article – great content is wasted if there isn’t a compelling headline to draw you in or an image that captures your attention. When messaging to customers make those first ten words count!

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Launch your solution

When do you start to launch your solution?

You are delivering a solution not just a product. A lot of companies make the mistake that they are purely building products and as soon as they are ready, then they can release. But the solution is larger than this, it is scaling your delivery and support teams are ready. This includes:

- Consultants prepared
- Marketing campaigns understood. Advocates ready to help with communication, organise your PR
- Sales enablement complete and sales teams trained
- Support Desk trained and the SLA’s (Service Level agreements) and OLA’s (Operationa...

When do you start to launch your solution?

You are delivering a solution not just a product. A lot of companies make the mistake that they are purely building products and as soon as they are ready, then they can release. But the solution is larger than this, it is scaling your delivery and support teams are ready. This includes:

- Consultants prepared
- Marketing campaigns understood. Advocates ready to help with communication, organise your PR
- Sales enablement complete and sales teams trained
- Support Desk trained and the SLA’s (Service Level agreements) and OLA’s (Operational Level Agreements) are in place
- Product ready. Are you going to trial/pilot?
- Solution feedback mechanisms are in place
- All teams are trained and ready to answer customer queries about the solution, using the right value proposition

As soon as you have had the approval for the project to go ahead, and you have secured the budget for development, the next step is bringing together your stakeholder group from around the company. Build a checklist of all the activities and add owners from the stakeholder group. Have the stakeholders keep you updated with progress, you are not to deliver on their behalf!! The success of the solution will depend on the support of the business.

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solving small customer problems

How much of your customers day is consumed with activities that involve your product or service?

Imagine you build a successful product that help shopkeepers manage inventory. A typical train of thought for the Product Manager looking for growth is “Who else has an inventory problem that I can sell to”. This is completely valid, but you could also look for growth by answering a different question “What else keeps shopkeepers busy?”. The downside of this is pretty obvious – you’ll need new products to meet the new needs you identify. But before you discount it, think about the co...

How much of your customers day is consumed with activities that involve your product or service?

Imagine you build a successful product that help shopkeepers manage inventory. A typical train of thought for the Product Manager looking for growth is “Who else has an inventory problem that I can sell to”. This is completely valid, but you could also look for growth by answering a different question “What else keeps shopkeepers busy?”. The downside of this is pretty obvious – you’ll need new products to meet the new needs you identify. But before you discount it, think about the cost of taking your ‘off -the-shelf’ product to a new market – there’s likely to be development costs, plus building channels and reputation is an expensive business. It’s always tempting to look at customer wins as flags on a map when in reality what we’ve won is a small share of their spend by solving a small problem in their world – we’ve not planted a flag, we’ve secured a small piece of the pie.

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Staying ahead of our competitors

How can we as Product Managers use marginal gain to ensure we always stay ahead of our competitors ?

First gaining prominence with Sir Dave Brailsford, Performance Director for Team Sky, the UK’s professional cycling team, he pushed the team to search for the 1% in hundreds of tiny areas that were overlooked by their competitors: they looked at more obscure areas such as taking their favourite pillows on tour to get the best night’s sleep and teaching riders how to wash their hands to avoid illness and time off training. They were relentless in their pursuit of marginal gains and it pai...

How can we as Product Managers use marginal gain to ensure we always stay ahead of our competitors ?

First gaining prominence with Sir Dave Brailsford, Performance Director for Team Sky, the UK’s professional cycling team, he pushed the team to search for the 1% in hundreds of tiny areas that were overlooked by their competitors: they looked at more obscure areas such as taking their favourite pillows on tour to get the best night’s sleep and teaching riders how to wash their hands to avoid illness and time off training. They were relentless in their pursuit of marginal gains and it paid off.

What can we learn from this? Lots of small gains that in isolation mean nothing can add up to remarkable aggregate improvements over time. Think of apple and blackberry handsets – a product that is marginally better across the piece translates into a hugely dominant market performance.

Marginal gains in your product can mean the difference between success and failure, because when product deals are won, it can be on the smallest of margins.

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NO quickly and cleanly

Getting to ‘no’

Sales teams often talk about ‘getting to yes’, but for Product Managers I’d argue that getting to ‘no’ is just as important when managing new ideas. In fact, getting to ‘no’ quickly and cleanly is a really useful skill. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen products blown off course by deals being won that created more distraction than dollars – dev teams burning huge resource to try and fit what’s been sold into what’s already been built.

The key to rejection is to act quickly (wait too long and expectation builds) and logically (sa...

Getting to ‘no’

Sales teams often talk about ‘getting to yes’, but for Product Managers I’d argue that getting to ‘no’ is just as important when managing new ideas. In fact, getting to ‘no’ quickly and cleanly is a really useful skill. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen products blown off course by deals being won that created more distraction than dollars – dev teams burning huge resource to try and fit what’s been sold into what’s already been built.

The key to rejection is to act quickly (wait too long and expectation builds) and logically (saying ‘no’ without rationale just won’t work).

My advice? ASAP spend 20 minutes with an innovation canvas and establish if that new idea really makes sense before support for it builds – a fast ‘no’ is so much more positive than a slow and reluctant ‘perhaps’.

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Product Management potential

Question: How can you spot Product Management potential? You know the type of scenario – that person who’s doing a great job in support/presales/etc is looking for a move, has no Product Management background, but do they have potential? Here are the six attributes to look for:

Curiosity - Has a natural curiosity for the product and eager to dive into the details (technology, markets, regulation, customers, competitors, etc).

An influencer - Is an Influencing and inspiring individual who is through their charismatic attitude able to drive and lead progress whilst creating a positive ...

Question: How can you spot Product Management potential? You know the type of scenario – that person who’s doing a great job in support/presales/etc is looking for a move, has no Product Management background, but do they have potential? Here are the six attributes to look for:

Curiosity - Has a natural curiosity for the product and eager to dive into the details (technology, markets, regulation, customers, competitors, etc).

An influencer - Is an Influencing and inspiring individual who is through their charismatic attitude able to drive and lead progress whilst creating a positive working environment.

Dynamic – They are a proactive problem solver, with a can-do attitude and can take the team with them.

Organised - Is disciplined and organised. They have a structured approach and utilise process effectively to get the job done. They are structured in their way of managing information.

A thought leader - Is able to distil complex information down into an insightful and compelling narrative..

A skilled communicator - Needs to be clear, concise and credible in their communication, being able to deliver a message in a few words with complete clarity.

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Presentation OVERLOAD

Don’t overload you presentation

I recently sat through a presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely unengaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, the...

Don’t overload you presentation

I recently sat through a presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely unengaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, they do not tell the full story and probably make little sense without the presenter. So use them as an aid – three or four big statements per slide that gives your presentation structure and direction.

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The right language

Talking the right language

Ever feel your message isn’t getting through to your customer? It could be that the message is wrong, but often it’s not the message, but the delivery – language that doesn’t resonate with your target market. Here’s a simple example; you want to encourage your children to exercise more. Which statement is more likely to work: ‘ Shall we go for a long ride on our bikes to improve our cardiovascular fitness’ or

‘Let’s see who can get muddiest on the canal path!

’’Simple rule of product management – when you talk to your customers, speak...

Talking the right language

Ever feel your message isn’t getting through to your customer? It could be that the message is wrong, but often it’s not the message, but the delivery – language that doesn’t resonate with your target market. Here’s a simple example; you want to encourage your children to exercise more. Which statement is more likely to work: ‘ Shall we go for a long ride on our bikes to improve our cardiovascular fitness’ or

‘Let’s see who can get muddiest on the canal path!

’’Simple rule of product management – when you talk to your customers, speak in a way that makes sense to them not in language that impresses your boss!

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‘It’s not about the bike

Lance Armstrong once wrote a book entitled ‘it’s not about the bike’. Turned out there was more truth in that title than we’d imagined, but ‘It’s not about the product’ would be a good product management book title.

Working with a new team recently on a go to market plan and they were surprised how much of product management is not about the product. It’s so true. Think about a launch plan - it shines a light on this and shows that to launch well you must have a product, but you also need legals, messaging, sales plans, support, pricing, etc. Great products need lots of roun...

Lance Armstrong once wrote a book entitled ‘it’s not about the bike’. Turned out there was more truth in that title than we’d imagined, but ‘It’s not about the product’ would be a good product management book title.

Working with a new team recently on a go to market plan and they were surprised how much of product management is not about the product. It’s so true. Think about a launch plan - it shines a light on this and shows that to launch well you must have a product, but you also need legals, messaging, sales plans, support, pricing, etc. Great products need lots of rounding out to be world class propositions.

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Footsteps

We’re a few weeks into the new year – just long enough for those ambitious plans we had for our product in the new year to start unravelling as the daily grind takes hold. How can Product Managers remain on track when we’re overwhelmed with work? The trick is to divide and conquer – complex, difficult, or overwhelming tasks are made up of many simple and easy steps. So don’t dwell on that huge product launch today to the point it overwhelms, tackle some simple steps that move you a little closer. Concentrate on the next footstep, not the mountain.

We’re a few weeks into the new year – just long enough for those ambitious plans we had for our product in the new year to start unravelling as the daily grind takes hold. How can Product Managers remain on track when we’re overwhelmed with work? The trick is to divide and conquer – complex, difficult, or overwhelming tasks are made up of many simple and easy steps. So don’t dwell on that huge product launch today to the point it overwhelms, tackle some simple steps that move you a little closer. Concentrate on the next footstep, not the mountain.

Importance of Product Partners

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop software in keeping pace with changes in the sector. To be successful, you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.

Product Partners are different to straightforward channel re sellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have created software of their own which adds value to your existing solution. They can help yo...

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop software in keeping pace with changes in the sector. To be successful, you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.

Product Partners are different to straightforward channel re sellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have created software of their own which adds value to your existing solution. They can help you to offer a functionally-rich solution, create better revenue opportunities, position your company as the strongest supplier, and create new active and passive income streams.

There are four main different types of software Product Partner, all of which need to be carefully managed to make the business successful:

Whichever Product Partner strategy you go for (and it can easily be a combination of all four) it’s important to keep the main goal of any partnership in mind; both sides must get value from the relationship.

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6 of 6

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 6:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Finally, we identify the needs behind each goal. Our Uber business user might want autogenerated receipts to make expense submission easier.

So ...

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 6:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Finally, we identify the needs behind each goal. Our Uber business user might want autogenerated receipts to make expense submission easier.

So over this series of blogs we’ve shown a nice and simple method to go from vision to feature!

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5 of 6

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 5:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

For each factor we think through the goals – What our customer is trying to achieve with that aspect of our service. For example, a business user...

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 5:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

For each factor we think through the goals – What our customer is trying to achieve with that aspect of our service. For example, a business user of Uber might have a goal of an E receipt being auto generated for each trip.

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4 of 6

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 4:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Next we define factors that drive their behaviour. For each stakeholder group there will be reasons that make them more or less likely to use your ...

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 4:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Next we define factors that drive their behaviour. For each stakeholder group there will be reasons that make them more or less likely to use your service – and typically more than one reason. For example, if we think of Uber riders, price might be important, but it won’t be the only reason they use the service. Think of things like safety, response time, ease of use, etc. So we build a prioritised factors graph that describes the most significant factors that our customers value and compares our ability to execute each factor versus our direct rivals.

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2,3 of 6

his week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 2 & 3:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Once we’ve define our Elevator epic using the Value proposition framework, we think about who is involved – the stakeholders. This is more t...

his week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. We’re now on step 2 & 3:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

Once we’ve define our Elevator epic using the Value proposition framework, we think about who is involved – the stakeholders. This is more than just users, it’s everyone across the value chain. From our Uber example we know that those involved include riders, drivers and regulators. There are also internal stakeholders. Additionally, stakeholder groups tend to be of more than one type. For example, riders might be business users, leisure travellers, etc. Once identified, we prioritise the customer-side personas so we know which needs to focus on.

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1 of 6

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. There are six steps to cover:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

The first step is pretty simple for a Product Management team. We define our Elevator epic using the Value proposition framework. It should ...

This week I’m going to step through how you can build a feature driven roadmap from a high level vision. I’ll do this through the example of Uber. There are six steps to cover:

1. Define your Elevator Epic.

2. Identify the stakeholders involved in your epic.

3. Prioritise your stakeholders

4. Define the factors that drive their behaviours

5. Define the goals that support each factor.

6. Describe the need that results from the goal

The first step is pretty simple for a Product Management team. We define our Elevator epic using the Value proposition framework. It should capture core value that you deliver. The framework we use is:

For

Who < Statement of the need or opportunity …>

The < Product or service name >

Is a < Product or service category>

That < Positioning the value >

Unlike < Primary competitive advantage >

Our solution < Statement of primary differentiator >

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Market Shift

Does your Market Disappear or Shift?

The ‘decline of the high-street’ has been regular news for the what seems like forever. Few weeks go by without another casualty hitting the headlines. Talking with a group who are dealing with this got me thinking - is it market decline or market shift?

Take Blockbuster for example, they filed for bankruptcy, blaming a declining market. In reality, their market was larger than ever, it had just shifted towards the online & digital space.

So, what can we learn from this? Sure, some markets disappear, but most shift. And these shifts cause dis...

Does your Market Disappear or Shift?

The ‘decline of the high-street’ has been regular news for the what seems like forever. Few weeks go by without another casualty hitting the headlines. Talking with a group who are dealing with this got me thinking - is it market decline or market shift?

Take Blockbuster for example, they filed for bankruptcy, blaming a declining market. In reality, their market was larger than ever, it had just shifted towards the online & digital space.

So, what can we learn from this? Sure, some markets disappear, but most shift. And these shifts cause disruption that product managers can either embrace and take advantage of or ignore and find their products and services irrelevant.

Don’t get left behind by your market because of stubbornness or short-sighted, tactical thinking.

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Product Timeline

Building out a vision is tough. Working out how to deliver is even tougher! We’ve built a one page canvas that helps:-

1. Define your three year goals for your product

2. Think of annual initiatives or themes for years 1, 2 and 3 that drive to that goal

3. Break the annual initiative down into quarterly points of value

It breaks a big problem down into smaller, bite sized steps.

How are you currently dealing with planning your product's future?

Building out a vision is tough. Working out how to deliver is even tougher! We’ve built a one page canvas that helps:-

1. Define your three year goals for your product

2. Think of annual initiatives or themes for years 1, 2 and 3 that drive to that goal

3. Break the annual initiative down into quarterly points of value

It breaks a big problem down into smaller, bite sized steps.

How are you currently dealing with planning your product's future?

Product, Problem, Solution?

Product, Problem or Solution managers?

I was in conversation with some sales people recently and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on th...

Product, Problem or Solution managers?

I was in conversation with some sales people recently and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on the issues that are front of mind for your customers rather than a dry list of features. Develop a problem and solution focus.

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How often is too often?

How often is too often to release a product?

Recently working with a team, we got to a common agile conundrum; core to the agile process is the concept of frequent, iterative product releases. This is often seen as nothing but positive by many teams “You can release product updates every 7 days!”, but there are many markets where this makes no sense at all. For instance, your customer is a bank and your product has security implications – the iterative agile model simply can’t operate in that world. So is agile the wrong process for these types of products? Not necessarily. The agil...

How often is too often to release a product?

Recently working with a team, we got to a common agile conundrum; core to the agile process is the concept of frequent, iterative product releases. This is often seen as nothing but positive by many teams “You can release product updates every 7 days!”, but there are many markets where this makes no sense at all. For instance, your customer is a bank and your product has security implications – the iterative agile model simply can’t operate in that world. So is agile the wrong process for these types of products? Not necessarily. The agile process delivers regular product updates, but the product management team can choose what to do with those updates release to customer or hold back and bundle into a bigger product release that works for the customers business.

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characteristics

What are the characteristics of a good product manager?

It’s a question we face when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. If you’re recruiting experienced Product Managers then you might look for skills – launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc. But what about that person sat in support who is looking for a new challenge? They might not have the skills just yet, but do the have the core capability? Here’s our quick checklist for working out if they have pm potential

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eager to l...

What are the characteristics of a good product manager?

It’s a question we face when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. If you’re recruiting experienced Product Managers then you might look for skills – launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc. But what about that person sat in support who is looking for a new challenge? They might not have the skills just yet, but do the have the core capability? Here’s our quick checklist for working out if they have pm potential

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eager to learn?

Drive – Do they show ambition?

Discipline – Are the organised?

People skills – Can they get people to listen to them. Can they take people with them? Are they charismatic?

Communication – Can they get their point across clearly and quickly?

Thought leadership – Do they have vision? Are they a creative problem solver?

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Prod Mgnt in tech organisations?

Where does Product Management belong in Tech organisations?

As Tech companies grow and the nature of technology evolves into the world of SaaS and apps, there’s often confusion around where Product Management should sit in the organisation.

Traditional consumer organisations have a tendency to consider Product Management in the same arena as Marketing or Development. The problem here is that the Product Managers can get tied up in functionality or market communications. This means no-one is engaging with customers to understand their problems or looking ahead and strategising as to wha...

Where does Product Management belong in Tech organisations?

As Tech companies grow and the nature of technology evolves into the world of SaaS and apps, there’s often confusion around where Product Management should sit in the organisation.

Traditional consumer organisations have a tendency to consider Product Management in the same arena as Marketing or Development. The problem here is that the Product Managers can get tied up in functionality or market communications. This means no-one is engaging with customers to understand their problems or looking ahead and strategising as to what the business needs to do in the future to continue to be successful.

To drive the maximum success from a Product Management team, you need to understand exactly what their role is. It’s broadly comprised of three main focuses:

Product strategy
Product marketing
Technical product management

Within the Tech market, or any market for that matter, the truth is: if you want better products in the future, and for the product management team to be held accountable at organisational level, then it must be represented at Board level in its own right.

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How do you track product success

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Product Managers need to be able describe if the product they launched was successful, typically in metric form. Simple idea, but difficult to do. Whether you’re an OKR or KPI or SMART fan, it’s important to think in terms of lag and lead. Some metrics lag – think revenue. It’s critical, but if that’s all you quantity then there’s very little action you can take at the point that the metric becomes measurable. Other metrics lead – think pilot customer or launch date. These give an indication that you’re on the right path. Product Managers should think of a funnel of metr...

???

Product Managers need to be able describe if the product they launched was successful, typically in metric form. Simple idea, but difficult to do. Whether you’re an OKR or KPI or SMART fan, it’s important to think in terms of lag and lead. Some metrics lag – think revenue. It’s critical, but if that’s all you quantity then there’s very little action you can take at the point that the metric becomes measurable. Other metrics lead – think pilot customer or launch date. These give an indication that you’re on the right path. Product Managers should think of a funnel of metrics that describe not just what success looks like, but that journey to success.

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Existing customers

So many organisations look at their existing customers as ‘A deal that is already done’.

Why is it that they so rarely ask how are these happy customers going to help them sell to the next group of customers?

When launching a new product, having a group of strong advocates will kick start those sales far quicker than sending out flyers or other marketing materials.

Think about what you need to do with getting the innovators on board and talking about your solution.

Don’t take your customers for granted. They could be your greatest advocate or your biggest critic. And they can...

So many organisations look at their existing customers as ‘A deal that is already done’.

Why is it that they so rarely ask how are these happy customers going to help them sell to the next group of customers?

When launching a new product, having a group of strong advocates will kick start those sales far quicker than sending out flyers or other marketing materials.

Think about what you need to do with getting the innovators on board and talking about your solution.

Don’t take your customers for granted. They could be your greatest advocate or your biggest critic. And they can either damage or improve your solution growth, depending on how you treat them.

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Who is responsible?

Who is responsible for successfully launching a product?

Ever tried to build a RACI model that describes roles and responsibilities through a product delivery cycle? It often ends up as an overcomplex spreadsheet that feels more academic than real-world as we try and map out the complex world we live in. What the exercise misses is this; taking a product to market is a team sport - a group of people with expertise across the product delivery process are engaged in bringing a product to market from inception, to launch, to in-life management. They bring their expertise to the table and might...

Who is responsible for successfully launching a product?

Ever tried to build a RACI model that describes roles and responsibilities through a product delivery cycle? It often ends up as an overcomplex spreadsheet that feels more academic than real-world as we try and map out the complex world we live in. What the exercise misses is this; taking a product to market is a team sport - a group of people with expertise across the product delivery process are engaged in bringing a product to market from inception, to launch, to in-life management. They bring their expertise to the table and might take the lead on certain topics. But they work as a team to get the best product delivered. My tip; whenever you’re trying to deliver a product to market, agree some team objectives and key results, and never lose sight that you’re on the same team!

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Product Planning 2020

Three step product planning for 2020

For many of us it’s the first day back in the office and a time crystallise our plans for 2020. It can feel a little daunting, so here is our three-point checklist of things to do to get 2020 moving! Click on the links to download the templates for each step

1. Know your product goals for 2020.
Link the strategy of the business to a set of concrete objectives for your product using the market map tool. Read about it here

https://lnkd.in/ePhQ8jR

2. Make sure you have the people and skills.
Think about the skills you’ll need in your team to...

Three step product planning for 2020

For many of us it’s the first day back in the office and a time crystallise our plans for 2020. It can feel a little daunting, so here is our three-point checklist of things to do to get 2020 moving! Click on the links to download the templates for each step

1. Know your product goals for 2020.
Link the strategy of the business to a set of concrete objectives for your product using the market map tool. Read about it here

https://lnkd.in/ePhQ8jR

2. Make sure you have the people and skills.
Think about the skills you’ll need in your team to execute on the objectives you’ve set out in step 1. We’ve built a tool called “mind the gap” that you can download here

https://lnkd.in/enX_KZa

3. Articulate your plan and show the delivery of value
Being able to share your 2020 plan in a simple and coherent way is critical for buy-in. Take a look at our one-page vision template here.

https://lnkd.in/eGX55F4

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WORKOUT 5

WORKOUT 5 – Never skip leg day!!! Marginal gains and in-life management.

It seems to always be the thing that gets overlooked by product managers and those that teach product management. We find it more common that PM processes tend to leave out the detail of how we should manage our products once we’ve launched. More concerned about bringing new ideas to the table and getting them to launch.

We say, never skip leg day. Always be aware of how you can improve products in-life and manage the bit between launch and retirement as best as possible.

One of the most effective methods is ...

WORKOUT 5 – Never skip leg day!!! Marginal gains and in-life management.

It seems to always be the thing that gets overlooked by product managers and those that teach product management. We find it more common that PM processes tend to leave out the detail of how we should manage our products once we’ve launched. More concerned about bringing new ideas to the table and getting them to launch.

We say, never skip leg day. Always be aware of how you can improve products in-life and manage the bit between launch and retirement as best as possible.

One of the most effective methods is product improvements via marginal gains. Many 1% enhancements that, when added together, accumulate to a greater overall improvement of the product.

On Product Management Central we can step through marginal gains in great detail with a fantastic animated video that breaks down how to best identify marginal gain improvements for your product. Sign up now by clicking here, get 7 days free, and it costs less than half of the average gym membership per month! Only £19.99 per month!

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WORKOUT 4

WORKOUT 4 – HIIT – Portfolio fit.

High intensity Interval Training is always varied with lots of different available exercises, but they all share and help in working towards the same goal! So, when looking at products that are under-performing or being developed with a view to launch… Ask yourself, do these products make sense and ultimately help towards the shared goal of the business?

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?

We use a dashboard so that Product Man...

WORKOUT 4 – HIIT – Portfolio fit.

High intensity Interval Training is always varied with lots of different available exercises, but they all share and help in working towards the same goal! So, when looking at products that are under-performing or being developed with a view to launch… Ask yourself, do these products make sense and ultimately help towards the shared goal of the business?

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?

We use a dashboard so that Product Managers can make sure; the tactical balance is correct; the Lifecycle mix is right and the fit to longer term strategy is correct This gives a balanced view of portfolio.

Try to avoid a product portfolio where everything sits in the same area of the product lifecycle, market share and growth, business strength and market attractiveness.

At Product Management Central with have a huge variety of content and lessons that all help work towards the shared goal of upskilling your product management capabilities. Sign up now and get 7 days free! Each month after that cost less than a gym membership, work out your PM skills and further your career today!

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WORKOUT 3

WORKOUT 3 – Chest and Tri’s – its opportunity size!

This is the area we see and always think it could be better right? Well, if you train chest effectively you attack from a lot of different angles to get the best results. With new opportunities, it’s the same concept!

Ideation management is important and being able to understand what that idea means in terms of a potential business case, means being able to accurately describe the opportunity size.

On Product Management Central we have multiple lesson that deal with the earliest stages of a product/opportunity. Take a look at...

WORKOUT 3 – Chest and Tri’s – its opportunity size!

This is the area we see and always think it could be better right? Well, if you train chest effectively you attack from a lot of different angles to get the best results. With new opportunities, it’s the same concept!

Ideation management is important and being able to understand what that idea means in terms of a potential business case, means being able to accurately describe the opportunity size.

On Product Management Central we have multiple lesson that deal with the earliest stages of a product/opportunity. Take a look at:

- Concept assessment

- Forecasting from 1st principles

- Market sizing and demand forecasting

These lessons are useful in isolation but combine them all together and all of a sudden everything begins to make sense and fall into place. Join PMC and gain access to all of this training + refined templates and tool to help you complete the work.

Below are the steps we take when we scope a new opportunity, part of our forecasting from 1st principles lessons. Sign up to PMC now and download this tool to help in opportunity sizing!

So, here are questions on how to assess a new concept in order to determine opportunity size:

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WORKOUT 2

WORKOUT 2 – Biceps and back – Creating a roadmap.

It’s time to pump those arms and flex that back! Roadmaps take many different forms and are used for a vast number of different applications. There are a few types of roadmaps that are crucial to any products lifecycle and management, here is an overview!

The Visionary Roadmap – A high-level view of where your products need to go over the next 5/10 years based on market mega trends. It sets the direction of travel.

The Product Roadmap – It takes the vision and breaks it down into tangible customer deliveries. It defines how v...

WORKOUT 2 – Biceps and back – Creating a roadmap.

It’s time to pump those arms and flex that back! Roadmaps take many different forms and are used for a vast number of different applications. There are a few types of roadmaps that are crucial to any products lifecycle and management, here is an overview!

The Visionary Roadmap – A high-level view of where your products need to go over the next 5/10 years based on market mega trends. It sets the direction of travel.

The Product Roadmap – It takes the vision and breaks it down into tangible customer deliveries. It defines how value will be delivered and identifies the major landmarks on our journey to our vision.

The Technical Roadmap – It adds detail. It describes how we get to each major landmark identified in the Product Roadmap, the people involved, etc. It tells us how we’ll make our journey to vision.

Go to Product Management Central at any time to check up on our road-mapping content and learn how to complete this effectively. Whenever you need to revise your megatrend roadmaps or need access to a useful tool or template to complete these tasks, PMC is your go to destination!

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WORKOUT 1

WORKOUT 1 – Boulder shoulders, We’re Creating Personas!

So, its Shoulder day at the PM Gym and Product Management Central is going to step you through a shoulder workout like no other. We are going to look at the importance of creating personas and the steps we take to make this as effective as possible.

We build out personas in order to better prioritize how and what we build into our product requirements. Personas are fictional representations of actual users, they’ll only work if you fully understand who your users are – or will be. The more information you have, the better. G...

WORKOUT 1 – Boulder shoulders, We’re Creating Personas!

So, its Shoulder day at the PM Gym and Product Management Central is going to step you through a shoulder workout like no other. We are going to look at the importance of creating personas and the steps we take to make this as effective as possible.

We build out personas in order to better prioritize how and what we build into our product requirements. Personas are fictional representations of actual users, they’ll only work if you fully understand who your users are – or will be. The more information you have, the better. Generally, 4-7 Personas (whittled down from several user groups) are sufficient to capture and document a majority of user requirements.

It’s a simple model:

1. Start with their wants and needs

2. Then describe how they think and feel based on those wants and needs

3. Next, what do they do about the situation

4. Finally, knowing more about their situation we can create a problem statement around their pain points

You can use your knowledge and make assumptions to create proto-personas that you then go and validate. We have some great tools for creating personas available on PMC. Learn more here: https://www.productmanagementcentral.com/

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The PM gym

At Tarigo we would like to invite you to join the PM Gym and exercise your product management capabilities. Be better prepared and more proficient everyday as a Product Manager by maintaining constant access to learning and training materials that mirror the content and quality of our face-to-face training.

Product Management Central is your new gym, open 24 hours, allowing you to workout each skill and task that Product Managers have to perform day in, day out. At less than half the price of the average gym membership in the UK - you’ll barely notice the cost, but you will see huge benef...

At Tarigo we would like to invite you to join the PM Gym and exercise your product management capabilities. Be better prepared and more proficient everyday as a Product Manager by maintaining constant access to learning and training materials that mirror the content and quality of our face-to-face training.

Product Management Central is your new gym, open 24 hours, allowing you to workout each skill and task that Product Managers have to perform day in, day out. At less than half the price of the average gym membership in the UK - you’ll barely notice the cost, but you will see huge benefits with access to:

- Lesson topics on all thing’s product management.

- Access to archived webinars, deep dive papers and daily blogs.

- A vast Product Management toolbox with tools, templates and interactive features.

Use all of this and more to assess, manage and improve your own Product Management capabilities without the cost and out of office time of traditional training!

Follow us this week to see each ‘Workout of the Day’ to challenge your PM skills and give you a taste of the content that can help you on Product Management Central.

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Get the message across

I’m a fan of simple, clear and engaging messaging. This one from the London tube worked for me. Got any favourites?

I’m a fan of simple, clear and engaging messaging. This one from the London tube worked for me. Got any favourites?

Product Vision

Building out a product vision can be challenging, so I thought I’d share this approach with you. We’re working with a customer who wants to build product management excellence into their team over the next three years. But what does that mean? The approach we’ve taken is to describe the future by a series of quotes – what would people say about the team in 2022. I found this to be really helpful in that it gave us some goals to drive to. I can see how we can refine it to cover a range of voices (e.g. what would customers say, what would dev say, what would competitors say, etc). Intere...

Building out a product vision can be challenging, so I thought I’d share this approach with you. We’re working with a customer who wants to build product management excellence into their team over the next three years. But what does that mean? The approach we’ve taken is to describe the future by a series of quotes – what would people say about the team in 2022. I found this to be really helpful in that it gave us some goals to drive to. I can see how we can refine it to cover a range of voices (e.g. what would customers say, what would dev say, what would competitors say, etc). Interested in your thoughts.

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Turning strategy into action

How does a product leader work out what skills they need in their PM team next year? We help teams take business strategy and translate it prioritized PM activities using our strategy canvas, market map, and mid the gap tools:

• Strategy Canvas – Take strategy goals and identify areas of focus that align for your product

• Market Map – Take those areas of focus and define product initiatives in five different risk categories

• Mind the Gap – Take those product initiatives and define the skills you’ll need in your PM team to effectively deliver

This gives product leade...

How does a product leader work out what skills they need in their PM team next year? We help teams take business strategy and translate it prioritized PM activities using our strategy canvas, market map, and mid the gap tools:

• Strategy Canvas – Take strategy goals and identify areas of focus that align for your product

• Market Map – Take those areas of focus and define product initiatives in five different risk categories

• Mind the Gap – Take those product initiatives and define the skills you’ll need in your PM team to effectively deliver

This gives product leader clarity about what they need from their team. Want to take a look at any of those tools? Drop us a note at info@tarigo.co.uk

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Have the foundations set

Marginal gain improvements to your product can be very beneficial, all of those borderline losses soon turn to wins with a better more rounded out solution.

But you have to be sure that when you lose out to a competitor that you know why.

Was it a marginal loss? Or, has your product actually missed the audience in a much bigger way?

Before you turn to the tactical marginal gain strategy, be sure that you have the foundations set.

Ask yourself:
Do you understand your audience?
And, Do you understand what your objective is?

Be sure that the answers to these question are well com...

Marginal gain improvements to your product can be very beneficial, all of those borderline losses soon turn to wins with a better more rounded out solution.

But you have to be sure that when you lose out to a competitor that you know why.

Was it a marginal loss? Or, has your product actually missed the audience in a much bigger way?

Before you turn to the tactical marginal gain strategy, be sure that you have the foundations set.

Ask yourself:
Do you understand your audience?
And, Do you understand what your objective is?

Be sure that the answers to these question are well communicated across you company and customer base. Get this right straight away!

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Finding time to be strategic

How do you find time to be strategic?

Most product managers know they need to dedicate some of their week to thinking towards the future, but many are overwhelmed by their daily workload - constant tactical interrupts. Here are three tips to help free up some diary time

Manage your meetings - ensure all meetings have a defined purpose. And why do meeting need to be an hour? Try 15 minute stand-up meetings.

Don’t be an email grazer- Those notifications that pop up in the corner of your screen distract. You can end up email grazing - reading them, worrying about them, taking no immed...

How do you find time to be strategic?

Most product managers know they need to dedicate some of their week to thinking towards the future, but many are overwhelmed by their daily workload - constant tactical interrupts. Here are three tips to help free up some diary time

Manage your meetings - ensure all meetings have a defined purpose. And why do meeting need to be an hour? Try 15 minute stand-up meetings.

Don’t be an email grazer- Those notifications that pop up in the corner of your screen distract. You can end up email grazing - reading them, worrying about them, taking no immediate action. Be proactive in your email usage - set aside two 30 minute sessions a day where you read, deal and delete. And don’t check outside these windows

Train your teams to self serve - if you’re at the centre of every customer presentation, or the sales team need you to answer every question it means you’ve not trained the sales team. Take your best product presentation, annotate it, record you delivering it, make it accessible to sales. And and FAQ can help deal with those repeat questions that eat into your time.

You’ll be surprised how much time you get back with a little bit of structure

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Prioritise Communication

We’ve just completed a survey with one of our large international customers. One question we asked leadership was ‘If you could improve just one skill area across product management, what would you choose’. Communication was the clear winner. This was described in a number of ways ‘clarity of communication’, ‘communicating bad news’, ‘making it simple’, ‘telling me what’s going on’, ‘keeping me in the loop’, ‘speaking in my language’, ‘they make it too complex’, ‘they drop to detail and miss the big picture’ ....

This resonates. Too often I meet produ...

We’ve just completed a survey with one of our large international customers. One question we asked leadership was ‘If you could improve just one skill area across product management, what would you choose’. Communication was the clear winner. This was described in a number of ways ‘clarity of communication’, ‘communicating bad news’, ‘making it simple’, ‘telling me what’s going on’, ‘keeping me in the loop’, ‘speaking in my language’, ‘they make it too complex’, ‘they drop to detail and miss the big picture’ ....

This resonates. Too often I meet product teams who fail to be clear, concise, consistent, and relevant in their communication to leadership teams. Remember, Product Managers need those soft skills just as much as those technical skills. It’s no good having a great product idea if you can’t present it well.

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Friction out of the Product

Take the friction out of your product

I’m choosing a new car at the moment and I’m struck by how close it is between three options. The point is this; I’d be happy with any of the three and the decision is likely come down to friction –a salesperson being slightly more responsive, a slightly easier ordering process, something that just makes the deal a little easier to do. The same is often true for the products we manage. The difference between us and our competitors is often tiny and a little bit of friction can be the difference between a win and a loss. Think about it like this�...

Take the friction out of your product

I’m choosing a new car at the moment and I’m struck by how close it is between three options. The point is this; I’d be happy with any of the three and the decision is likely come down to friction –a salesperson being slightly more responsive, a slightly easier ordering process, something that just makes the deal a little easier to do. The same is often true for the products we manage. The difference between us and our competitors is often tiny and a little bit of friction can be the difference between a win and a loss. Think about it like this– Have you made your customer journey as frictionless as possible?

If you want an example of friction free think , think Amazon One Click – no entering credit card details, or addresses, or worrying who now has your information. I can’t be the only one who buys more through Amazon because of the frictionless purchase that One Click offers, even when it might not be the cheapest.

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Persona map

The goal of a persona is to represent the observed mindsets and behaviours of a target customer group to help us understand them better. We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them. Proto-personas can help product managers build a sketch- view of a customer type. We use an empathy map to understand our customer and build out a proto-persona:

1. WANTS/NEEDS – What are they trying to achieve? What targets do they have?
...

The goal of a persona is to represent the observed mindsets and behaviours of a target customer group to help us understand them better. We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them. Proto-personas can help product managers build a sketch- view of a customer type. We use an empathy map to understand our customer and build out a proto-persona:

1. WANTS/NEEDS – What are they trying to achieve? What targets do they have?

2. THINK – What do they think about this? For example, do they think their targets are reasonable?

3. FEEL - And how does this make them feel? Content? Overwhelmed? Happy? Angry?

4. DO - What does are the doing about the situation? How do they manage it today?

5. PAIN POINTS – What are the problem statements we can derive from points 1-4

Now that we understand needs and pain points, we can design an effective solution and craft sales messages to show how our product meets their needs.

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Market research point

A small market research point today; with all research techniques we should remember that what customers do and say and think is not always consistent.

I may LIKE the yellow car. It might be my FAVOURITE colour, but I might BUY the blue car – it stays looking clean, it’s easier to sell on. It’s less risky!

So, what does this mean to us as product managers? Its means we should try and ask the same questions from many angles and look for consistency in the responses we collect.

A small market research point today; with all research techniques we should remember that what customers do and say and think is not always consistent.

I may LIKE the yellow car. It might be my FAVOURITE colour, but I might BUY the blue car – it stays looking clean, it’s easier to sell on. It’s less risky!

So, what does this mean to us as product managers? Its means we should try and ask the same questions from many angles and look for consistency in the responses we collect.

Skills Building

How do you build the perfect product management team?

Here’s our five step model for skills building:

1. Know your skills – There are a huge number of activities involved in delivering great product. You need to know what those skills are before you can work out if your team has them. Tarigo has a skills matrix. Ask for one at info@tarigo.co.uk

2. Know what skills you need to focus on – What do your product managers need to excel at? It’s of limited value if you have an innovation expert trying maximise revenue from a mature product. Pick and prioritise the skills focus on.

...

How do you build the perfect product management team?

Here’s our five step model for skills building:

1. Know your skills – There are a huge number of activities involved in delivering great product. You need to know what those skills are before you can work out if your team has them. Tarigo has a skills matrix. Ask for one at info@tarigo.co.uk

2. Know what skills you need to focus on – What do your product managers need to excel at? It’s of limited value if you have an innovation expert trying maximise revenue from a mature product. Pick and prioritise the skills focus on.

3. Test team capability – Work out if the team has capability in the areas you need it. We use skills cards and online tests to work out how much capability an individual has per skill.

4. Find the gaps – Identify the distance between the skills the business needs and capability the product manager has.

5. Close the gap & measure – Build an intervention program. We offer bootcamps, bespoke training, webinars, masterclasses and online training to help teams close the gaps.

If you want to book a 30 minute consultancy on how we can help drive better product management performance in your organisation, email us at info@tarigo.co.uk

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Team Charter

Delivering complex product to market means working with multiple teams across multiple regions. It requires clear communication to keep the team on track. We use a Team Charter to fix this – a simple document that gives direction and purpose. We’d recommend spending a little bit of time upfront getting the team charter in place to reduce team tension and confusion. Turn it into a poster, put it on the wall, think of it as rules of engagement:

• The mission - What this team is going to accomplish and why.

• Scope - What is IN SCOPE and what is OUT OF SCOPE.

• Team Roles - Who...

Delivering complex product to market means working with multiple teams across multiple regions. It requires clear communication to keep the team on track. We use a Team Charter to fix this – a simple document that gives direction and purpose. We’d recommend spending a little bit of time upfront getting the team charter in place to reduce team tension and confusion. Turn it into a poster, put it on the wall, think of it as rules of engagement:

• The mission - What this team is going to accomplish and why.

• Scope - What is IN SCOPE and what is OUT OF SCOPE.

• Team Roles - Who’s on the team and what are their roles.

• High Level Milestones - What does progress look like.

• Finances - Are there funding requirements.

• Dependencies - List key inter-dependencies which need to be taken into account

• Risks - List key risks (e.g. Regulatory, Legal, Brand, Financial, etc.)

Drop us a note on info@tarigo.co.uk and we’ll send you our team charter template

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Vision, Product, Delivery

Have you been asked to build out your road-map? First thing to remember, there really isn’t really one road-map, there’s three:

VISION – Your destination
It describes where we want your product to be. Think about:
• Market trends
• Technology developments
• Competitor strategy
• Business goals
• A 3 – 5 year planning horizon

PRODUCT – Your stopover points on the way
It describes the value you’ll deliver on the journey to reaching your vision. Think about:
• Target customer per road-map element
• Value propositions per road-map element
• Delivery date...

Have you been asked to build out your road-map? First thing to remember, there really isn’t really one road-map, there’s three:

VISION – Your destination
It describes where we want your product to be. Think about:
• Market trends
• Technology developments
• Competitor strategy
• Business goals
• A 3 – 5 year planning horizon

PRODUCT – Your stopover points on the way
It describes the value you’ll deliver on the journey to reaching your vision. Think about:
• Target customer per road-map element
• Value propositions per road-map element
• Delivery date windows

DELIVERY – Your map
It describes your plan to deliver the product road-map. Think about
• The complete set of deliverables (not just the product)
• Inter dependencies
• Precise delivery dates

You should lead with vision and the go into product and delivery – imagine planning a journey without a sense of where you want to go!

Oh, and the best tool for road-mapping by a significant margin is aha!

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The MVP

The minimum viable product (MVP) concept has been with us for decades. On the surface it makes sense; get to market quickly with a skinny version of your product that you can build on. But in reality it often fails – the MVP turns into a cheap and cheerless offer that doesn’t gain traction and doesn’t get updated. The problem is often simple – we’re trying to satisfy too many customer types with our MVP. Here’s a model we use to help with MVP thinking.

1. START WITH PERSONAS
Find a primary market and focus exclusively on that

2. PRIORITISE USER STORIES FOR THE PRIMARY MARKE...

The minimum viable product (MVP) concept has been with us for decades. On the surface it makes sense; get to market quickly with a skinny version of your product that you can build on. But in reality it often fails – the MVP turns into a cheap and cheerless offer that doesn’t gain traction and doesn’t get updated. The problem is often simple – we’re trying to satisfy too many customer types with our MVP. Here’s a model we use to help with MVP thinking.

1. START WITH PERSONAS
Find a primary market and focus exclusively on that

2. PRIORITISE USER STORIES FOR THE PRIMARY MARKET
If you try and meet the needs of many markets with your MVP, you’ll end up satisfying none

3. CROSS THE CHASM WITH REFERENCE
Use your primary market as a reference base for you next market

4. OPEN A SECONDARY MARKET
Build out for your offer for your secondary market, using your primary market reference base

5. RINSE AND REPEAT
Continue for additional markets

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Agile

Does agile development require agile marketing?

Over the past few years, agile processes have become the dominant process-type in the development and delivery of technology. Promising a level of responsiveness and customer focus. Variants of this core agile method are now commonly used for developing product across the board.

But whilst product teams have embraced the brave new world of agile, their colleagues in marketing, support, finance and other functions have not seen the relevance to them. The net result? A fragmented response.

Technology is delivered through regular sprint ite...

Does agile development require agile marketing?

Over the past few years, agile processes have become the dominant process-type in the development and delivery of technology. Promising a level of responsiveness and customer focus. Variants of this core agile method are now commonly used for developing product across the board.

But whilst product teams have embraced the brave new world of agile, their colleagues in marketing, support, finance and other functions have not seen the relevance to them. The net result? A fragmented response.

Technology is delivered through regular sprint iterations whilst messaging, marketing, support and other deliverables follow a much more static or traditional delivery path. Failing to match the agility of development processes that are in place.

What do you think? Does marketing need to be as dynamic and responsive as development when dev teams use agile methods?

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Business case maintenance

How many of us build out a business case to get our product funded and then simply forget it?

It is worth remembering that the business case changes as conditions change; customers, markets, competition, risks, numbers, etc all can change. To build the business case once and then forget it is to neglect this fundamental of change. And if we build the business case and forget it, we’re building a product for historical market conditions – what our markets used to look like.

Simple product management tip – make a habit of reviewing your business case and updating it – 15 minutes p...

How many of us build out a business case to get our product funded and then simply forget it?

It is worth remembering that the business case changes as conditions change; customers, markets, competition, risks, numbers, etc all can change. To build the business case once and then forget it is to neglect this fundamental of change. And if we build the business case and forget it, we’re building a product for historical market conditions – what our markets used to look like.

Simple product management tip – make a habit of reviewing your business case and updating it – 15 minutes per week where you record any new information that you’ve uncovered over the last 7 days so you always have an up-to-date record.

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Retirement canvas

Is it even important to have a strategy when you’re pulling the product, why worry? Two reasons:

? Customers - Do it badly and customers aren’t going to be knocking at your door for your next product. You lost their trust.

? Competition - Get it wrong and you leave the door wide open for competitors to enter and build their position.

Think of retirement as the mirror of market entry - do your research, build your plan, and communicate your position clearly and frequently.

We have a tool to help you decide whether retirement is the best option for your product. Step through the ...

Is it even important to have a strategy when you’re pulling the product, why worry? Two reasons:

? Customers - Do it badly and customers aren’t going to be knocking at your door for your next product. You lost their trust.

? Competition - Get it wrong and you leave the door wide open for competitors to enter and build their position.

Think of retirement as the mirror of market entry - do your research, build your plan, and communicate your position clearly and frequently.

We have a tool to help you decide whether retirement is the best option for your product. Step through the Retirement Canvas, question by question, and determine the next steps for your product.

The result? You gain a clear picture of your market, how retirement may affect the market and whether you should plan to replace the product you are looking to retire!

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The perfect Product Manager.

What do you look for in a product manager?

We often get asked to assess a potential PM candidate. Outside of their PM knowledge, these are the attributes that I look for...

What do you look for in the perfect product manager?

What do you look for in a product manager?

We often get asked to assess a potential PM candidate. Outside of their PM knowledge, these are the attributes that I look for...

What do you look for in the perfect product manager?

Market Problem

Where do you find that next, great breakthrough product? One way is to turn your mindset from product innovation to problem validation. Think about it – we are all motivated to fix problems that stress us. Your customers are no different. The bigger the stress, the more motivated we are to find the fix. So step into your customers shoes and think about what keeps them awake at night. 3am problems generate successful products.

Where do you find that next, great breakthrough product? One way is to turn your mindset from product innovation to problem validation. Think about it – we are all motivated to fix problems that stress us. Your customers are no different. The bigger the stress, the more motivated we are to find the fix. So step into your customers shoes and think about what keeps them awake at night. 3am problems generate successful products.

Opportunities

When is a good opportunity NOT a good opportunity?

When it doesn’t match capability. It’s easy for Product Managers to get carried away with an idea and forget to look into their business. That knock-out opportunity you’ve identified might simply not match your organisation. Think of it as a capability review. Does your business have the funds, technical skills, market access, reputation, reach, scale and strategy intent to address the opportunity. If not, that great new product idea has the potential to sink your business.

When is a good opportunity NOT a good opportunity?

When it doesn’t match capability. It’s easy for Product Managers to get carried away with an idea and forget to look into their business. That knock-out opportunity you’ve identified might simply not match your organisation. Think of it as a capability review. Does your business have the funds, technical skills, market access, reputation, reach, scale and strategy intent to address the opportunity. If not, that great new product idea has the potential to sink your business.

Product Communication in my team

Leaders of Product Management often ask how to get their team to be better product communicators - to be able to get their message across well. My response is to ask one simple question “When did you last ask the team about value propositions?”. Here are some simple tips to drive better product communications:

1. Be value proposition obsessed

Test the team regularly by getting them to present the following:

• Elevator pitch
• Five minute overview
• Product vision
• Value proposition
• Objection handling

2. Measure communications effectiveness

• E.g. does the ...

Leaders of Product Management often ask how to get their team to be better product communicators - to be able to get their message across well. My response is to ask one simple question “When did you last ask the team about value propositions?”. Here are some simple tips to drive better product communications:

1. Be value proposition obsessed

Test the team regularly by getting them to present the following:

• Elevator pitch
• Five minute overview
• Product vision
• Value proposition
• Objection handling

2. Measure communications effectiveness

• E.g. does the sales team know the message

3. Coach on multi-channel delivery

• Face to face
• Audio
• Video
• Written

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Balancing customer needs.

We run a product clinic with one of our customers every week. Question of the week was this “How do I balance the needs of the loudest customers against the many?”. It’s a common issue, and here are my top tips

1. Have a compelling road-map and you’ll get fewer ad-hoc requests.

Customers will want to join you on your exciting journey rather than make up their own.

2. Translate needs into problem statements so you understand what really needs attention.

Always understand the problem they’re trying to solve and the scale of the problem in your market.

3. Be quick and cle...

We run a product clinic with one of our customers every week. Question of the week was this “How do I balance the needs of the loudest customers against the many?”. It’s a common issue, and here are my top tips

1. Have a compelling road-map and you’ll get fewer ad-hoc requests.

Customers will want to join you on your exciting journey rather than make up their own.

2. Translate needs into problem statements so you understand what really needs attention.

Always understand the problem they’re trying to solve and the scale of the problem in your market.

3. Be quick and clear with feedback so that no-one’s left hanging

Feedback in days on all customer requests and be clear on your rationale

4. Its OK to say no because you can’t meet the needs of one at the expense of the many.

Saying ‘no’ is always better done quickly, and with clear reasoning.

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Don’t overload you presentation

I’ve just sat through presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely un-engaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, they do not tell the full story and prob...

I’ve just sat through presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely un-engaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, they do not tell the full story and probably make little sense without the presenter. So use them as an aid – three or four big statements per slide that gives your presentation structure and direction

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Focus

Product, Problem or Solution managers?

I was in conversation with some sales people yesterday and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on t...

Product, Problem or Solution managers?

I was in conversation with some sales people yesterday and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on the issues that are front of mind for your customers rather than a dry list of features. Develop a problem and solution focus.

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Being Prepared

Luck has no place in successful product management, right?

Taking a product to market is about skills – research skills, analytical skills, communication skills, development skills, financial skills, etc, etc. There’s nothing lucky about it…… except….. sure, it takes skills to get to market, but a good product manager must make sure his team are ready to ride a lucky wave. Think of it like this - the CEO of your biggest target customer is about to pick up the phone and call one of your sales team to find out more about your new product. It’s your lucky day! But only if your tea...

Luck has no place in successful product management, right?

Taking a product to market is about skills – research skills, analytical skills, communication skills, development skills, financial skills, etc, etc. There’s nothing lucky about it…… except….. sure, it takes skills to get to market, but a good product manager must make sure his team are ready to ride a lucky wave. Think of it like this - the CEO of your biggest target customer is about to pick up the phone and call one of your sales team to find out more about your new product. It’s your lucky day! But only if your team are prepared. Every business gets lucky breaks, successful businesses are prepared for it.

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9 steps

Want to generate more new product ideas across your business? It’s about building a culture where innovation thrives.

Here’s our 9 steps:

1. Identify your creativity clusters – focus your energies on the right groups in your organisation.

2. Change the thinking from product to problem – get them thinking “what problems do our customers have that we can try and address?”

3. Guide the thinking – Share market and customer trends to inspire them

4. Make it friction-less – Make it super easy to get ideas to you. A chat forum or web app perhaps. Remove all barriers

...

Want to generate more new product ideas across your business? It’s about building a culture where innovation thrives.

Here’s our 9 steps:

1. Identify your creativity clusters – focus your energies on the right groups in your organisation.

2. Change the thinking from product to problem – get them thinking “what problems do our customers have that we can try and address?”

3. Guide the thinking – Share market and customer trends to inspire them

4. Make it friction-less – Make it super easy to get ideas to you. A chat forum or web app perhaps. Remove all barriers

5. Make it a habit – How about a weekly innovation blog so it stays front of mind

6. Be positive – All ideas are great

7. Be urgent – give feedback on ideas asap

8. Be structured – have visible review process

9. Reward the right behavior – CEO awards, recognition

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Driving a Product

We have arrived at market with momentum and successfully launched our new product, but what’s next?

Managing a product post launch is big task, we have to consider a few things:

• Which phase of the life-cycle our product sits in?

• How our product is performing in market?

• With a fully launched product, what new markets and target customers can we start to target?

There are a few things that we can do in order to drive our product.

Use marginal gains thinking to make incremental product improvements – We make lots of small improvements to our offering, be that pro...

We have arrived at market with momentum and successfully launched our new product, but what’s next?

Managing a product post launch is big task, we have to consider a few things:

• Which phase of the life-cycle our product sits in?

• How our product is performing in market?

• With a fully launched product, what new markets and target customers can we start to target?

There are a few things that we can do in order to drive our product.

Use marginal gains thinking to make incremental product improvements – We make lots of small improvements to our offering, be that product features, support or the overall product offering. Over time these small improvements add together to give our product serious gain in value to our target customers.

To gain useful research information to guide our product decisions, we look at win/loss reporting to analyse why we are winning or losing with customers over our competition. Doing this with many potential and real customers helps us build up a repository of information that we can use to guide our product improvements.

Combining win/loss reporting with marginal gain product improvements is a great way to move toward building out a world class product offering, driving growth for as long as possible.

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Sales Battlecard

Having our product communicated to the customer correctly is vital in generating real interest and potential revenue. It’s up to the sales team to sell the product, but if they haven’t been armed with the correct tools to communicate our product successfully we aren’t going to get the best possible results when we take our product to market.

One of the most effective tools of delivering a clear and consistent message to all our potential customers is the sales battle-card. A clear one-pager that provides the sales team with the headline information, positioned to sell and present the ...

Having our product communicated to the customer correctly is vital in generating real interest and potential revenue. It’s up to the sales team to sell the product, but if they haven’t been armed with the correct tools to communicate our product successfully we aren’t going to get the best possible results when we take our product to market.

One of the most effective tools of delivering a clear and consistent message to all our potential customers is the sales battle-card. A clear one-pager that provides the sales team with the headline information, positioned to sell and present the value of the product.

The Tarigo Sales battle-card looks something like this and has 9 sections to assist the sales persons provide all of the most up-to-date and accurate information available.

These sections include:

• Solution overview
• Key features
• FAQ’s
• Audience
• Value curve comparison
• Additional resources
• Pain points
• Value proposition statement
• On boarding

If you’re interested in giving the sales battle-card a try or want more information on this tool, email us at – info@tarigo.co.uk

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Market Readiness

How do you get ready for market? Too many product managers treat it as an afterthought – they focus on building the product and think about everything else later. And remember, we can define and build a world beating product, but it’s for nothing if the product is not “market ready”; which means taking care of naming, pricing, training, regulation, and support, etc. To fix this, we recommend using a market readiness tool and following a simple process:

1. Build the product delivery team. Invite stakeholders from across the business who have a role in the launch such as, customer del...

How do you get ready for market? Too many product managers treat it as an afterthought – they focus on building the product and think about everything else later. And remember, we can define and build a world beating product, but it’s for nothing if the product is not “market ready”; which means taking care of naming, pricing, training, regulation, and support, etc. To fix this, we recommend using a market readiness tool and following a simple process:

1. Build the product delivery team. Invite stakeholders from across the business who have a role in the launch such as, customer delivery, legal, regional product and marketing. This ensures the right teams and people are on-board to support the build and launch of the product. It’s best to do this months in advance.

2. Review the Market Readiness tool. Step through the document and work out what needs to be in place for a successful launch.

3. Assign responsibility. Work out who in the team owns each task.

4. The Track your progress. Get the team together every thirty days to review progress versus plan.

Combining this process with our Market Readiness tool gives you the best opportunity to achieve product success.

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Product Plan

Managing a product is complex. We need to understand our customers, markets, competition, regulation, and more. That’s a lot to remember! To fix this, product managers keep a product plan – a document that overviews our products & markets. What does it contain?

Product - what it is and what it offers the market

Vision - how the product will develop over the next 1 to 3 years

Customers - their needs, likes & dislikes, the problems & opportunities they have

Competition – how can we differentiate our product

Financials - Scale of the market , P&L model & pricing

Risks - wi...

Managing a product is complex. We need to understand our customers, markets, competition, regulation, and more. That’s a lot to remember! To fix this, product managers keep a product plan – a document that overviews our products & markets. What does it contain?

Product - what it is and what it offers the market

Vision - how the product will develop over the next 1 to 3 years

Customers - their needs, likes & dislikes, the problems & opportunities they have

Competition – how can we differentiate our product

Financials - Scale of the market , P&L model & pricing

Risks - with mitigation

Execution plan

It’s up to the product manager, guided by their leadership team to build an appropriate level of depth & detail into the document. So a product plan is written by product management before a product is built, but what about once the product is launched? We know market conditions will change, so we keep the product plan updated. The best practice is to make small but regular updates to the plan. Put aside 15 minutes per week, and ask yourself “What have I learnt about my products and markets over the last 7 days ”. Using this technique, the product plan is always up to date, and the amount of time & effort required to keep it updated is small.

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Who do you compete against?

When asked, most Product Managers name other companies that are similar to them. But that’s not really the full picture. When reviewing competitive threats think about it on three levels:

1. DIRECT
These are the competitors that look a lot like your company, with similar products. Think BMW vs Mercedes vs VW/Audi – all occupy a similar space in the market with similar brand profiles, therefore, directly compete with each other in the car market.

2. INDIRECT
Sometimes the competition is less obvious. It’s more about other ways that our customers can solve their problems. These are...

When asked, most Product Managers name other companies that are similar to them. But that’s not really the full picture. When reviewing competitive threats think about it on three levels:

1. DIRECT
These are the competitors that look a lot like your company, with similar products. Think BMW vs Mercedes vs VW/Audi – all occupy a similar space in the market with similar brand profiles, therefore, directly compete with each other in the car market.

2. INDIRECT
Sometimes the competition is less obvious. It’s more about other ways that our customers can solve their problems. These are indirect competitive threats . For example, Sage might DIRECTLY compete with Quickbooks, but INDIRECTLY compete with MS Excel in the micro sector

3. NO COMPETITION
Occasionally we see products with no competition, but is this as great as it sounds? It might mean you’re first to market, but it might equally be that there is no market. Even being first to market is no guarantee of success. Remember Palm Pilots or Betamax or Atari? All three were first to market. All three failed to capitalise on first mover advantage.

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Mega Trend Road mapping

When did you last think about the long term direction of your product? Many of us get so caught up in the day-to-day that we forget to look up. The risk is our product might become irrelevant as trends change market needs. So spend a few minutes thinking:

• What trends are heading towards my market that may impact what we deliver?

• How would our current product suite cope?

• What small technology, communications and regulatory steps should I take to keep my product relevant.

Remember, taking many small steps forward is easier and less risky than one giant leap. But it often ...

When did you last think about the long term direction of your product? Many of us get so caught up in the day-to-day that we forget to look up. The risk is our product might become irrelevant as trends change market needs. So spend a few minutes thinking:

• What trends are heading towards my market that may impact what we deliver?

• How would our current product suite cope?

• What small technology, communications and regulatory steps should I take to keep my product relevant.

Remember, taking many small steps forward is easier and less risky than one giant leap. But it often gets you to the same place.

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Skill Set

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

Skill Set

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

Skill Set

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

I often describe product management as a multi-disciplinary role. To make the point here is our list of the 44 activities product managers are likely to engage in. Some daily, some rarely. Print it off, stick it on the wall and see how many you tick off. And see where the gaps in your product management skillset are.

Product Lifecycle

Product retirement is a misused term. Most teams I work with don't retire products, they replace them. They try to transition their customers from product A to Product B. By missing this point, they don’t take a joined-up view and end up unbalanced – the old product often still in market with the new one struggling for traction. Here are five steps to manage a product transition.

1. Understand why.
Make sure you know exactly why a product is planned for retirement. Validate with customer and market feedback. List these issues as problem statements

2. Define replacement offer.
If yo...

Product retirement is a misused term. Most teams I work with don't retire products, they replace them. They try to transition their customers from product A to Product B. By missing this point, they don’t take a joined-up view and end up unbalanced – the old product often still in market with the new one struggling for traction. Here are five steps to manage a product transition.

1. Understand why.
Make sure you know exactly why a product is planned for retirement. Validate with customer and market feedback. List these issues as problem statements

2. Define replacement offer.
If you want customers to transition, you’ll need a product for them to transition to, so define it. Does it address the problem statements from point 1? If not, start again!

3. Find points of difference.
Treat your old product as a direct competitor. Define clear points of difference with it. If you can’t, go back to step 2.

4. Build exit and entry value propositions
Your sales teams need to clearly describe why the old product is retiring and what the one will offer. Build value propositions for both

5. Define exit and entry pricing models.
Pricing drives demand to some degree – as prices increase, demand falls. Think about the pricing strategy of old and new offer to drive to your desired outcome

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proto personas

We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them.

I find this tool helpful when I’m trying to build out a persona suite for a product or service. Its helps me build proto personas (i.e. unvalidated), that I can then test against real people.

It’s a simple model:

1. Start with their wants and needs

2. Then describe how they think and feel based on those wants and needs

3. Next, what do they do about the situati...

We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them.

I find this tool helpful when I’m trying to build out a persona suite for a product or service. Its helps me build proto personas (i.e. unvalidated), that I can then test against real people.

It’s a simple model:

1. Start with their wants and needs

2. Then describe how they think and feel based on those wants and needs

3. Next, what do they do about the situation

4. Finally, knowing more about their situation we can create a problem statement around their pain points

You can use your knowledge and make assumptions to create proto-personas that you then go and validate.

Read more

proto personas

We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them.

I find this tool helpful when I’m trying to build out a persona suite for a product or service. Its helps me build proto personas (i.e. unvalidated), that I can then test against real people.

It’s a simple model:

1. Start with their wants and needs

2. Then describe how they think and feel based on those wants and needs

3. Next, what do they do about the situati...

We can’t develop a relationship with every single one of our customers, but we still need a way of understanding them. Grouping together customers with similar problems, needs, wants or desires helps us define them.

I find this tool helpful when I’m trying to build out a persona suite for a product or service. Its helps me build proto personas (i.e. unvalidated), that I can then test against real people.

It’s a simple model:

1. Start with their wants and needs

2. Then describe how they think and feel based on those wants and needs

3. Next, what do they do about the situation

4. Finally, knowing more about their situation we can create a problem statement around their pain points

You can use your knowledge and make assumptions to create proto-personas that you then go and validate.

Read more

Churn or retention

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make...

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make your product frictionless

The more barriers you put in the way of usage, the lower the usage (and therefore retention). Something as simple as a complex login process can kill a product. Think of amazon one click as properly frictionless and try to away the barriers to using your product.

Hard work I know, but think about the results – a two percent reduction in churn equates to more than a 10% revenue increase over a 5 year window. It’s worth the effort

Read more

Churn or retention

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make...

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make your product frictionless

The more barriers you put in the way of usage, the lower the usage (and therefore retention). Something as simple as a complex login process can kill a product. Think of amazon one click as properly frictionless and try to away the barriers to using your product.

Hard work I know, but think about the results – a two percent reduction in churn equates to more than a 10% revenue increase over a 5 year window. It’s worth the effort

Read more

Churn or retention

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make...

Ever tried to fill a sink with the plug out? Thought not. Trying to grow a business with a high churn rate is similar – every good thing you do to grow with new product and service is negated by customers leaving.

Something every product manager should sweat about are their churn or retention stats. Here are two things to do to reduce churn:

1. Know your customer behaviour and lifecycle

Customers who churn typically show pre-churn behaviour (lack of use, complaints, etc) or are date driven (contract renewal). Work out the signs and timing and build intervention strategies

2. Make your product frictionless

The more barriers you put in the way of usage, the lower the usage (and therefore retention). Something as simple as a complex login process can kill a product. Think of amazon one click as properly frictionless and try to away the barriers to using your product.

Hard work I know, but think about the results – a two percent reduction in churn equates to more than a 10% revenue increase over a 5 year window. It’s worth the effort

Read more

Capability in the Team

How capable is your product management team?

We’ve worked with many product teams over the last twelve months, and I thought it was worth sharing what ‘normal’ looks likes. The graphic below shows the average capability assessment of about 1,500 product managers. We take a look at 18 skills (E.g. Economic Management assesses whether the team have the skills and tools to deliver robust economic data to their leadership team. This includes forecasting costs and demand, reviewing P&L, and presenting the information) and rate the individual and the team. Our most common findings are that ...

How capable is your product management team?

We’ve worked with many product teams over the last twelve months, and I thought it was worth sharing what ‘normal’ looks likes. The graphic below shows the average capability assessment of about 1,500 product managers. We take a look at 18 skills (E.g. Economic Management assesses whether the team have the skills and tools to deliver robust economic data to their leadership team. This includes forecasting costs and demand, reviewing P&L, and presenting the information) and rate the individual and the team. Our most common findings are that PMs have technical competencies, but are often missing some commercial strength (e.g. pricing ), strategic capability (e.g. Vision setting), and communication depth (e.g. narrative building). We can then figure out the best program to plug those skills gaps.

Drop a note to Info@tarigo.co.uk if you’d like capability template that sits behind this so you can reflect where you and your team are in terms of core capability

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Art or Science

Is product management art or science?

I’m helping an organisation build out their product management team. We’ve looked at their needs, built a skills gap canvas and identified what they require in terms of hard skills. Even with all that in place, the stand out skill that I’m always looking for is an ability to balance art and science. You can describe this in a number of ways; creativity and structure, ingenuity and discipline. Great product managers have enough creativity to define a truly compelling proposition and enough structure to get a complex product to launch without droppi...

Is product management art or science?

I’m helping an organisation build out their product management team. We’ve looked at their needs, built a skills gap canvas and identified what they require in terms of hard skills. Even with all that in place, the stand out skill that I’m always looking for is an ability to balance art and science. You can describe this in a number of ways; creativity and structure, ingenuity and discipline. Great product managers have enough creativity to define a truly compelling proposition and enough structure to get a complex product to launch without dropping a major component. It’s a mix of skills that is makes the role pretty special and it’s difficult to find discipline and creativity in the same person.

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Tribes and Squads

The concept of Tribes and Squads seems to be really gaining attention in our customer base. We’re working with customers and trying to help them build models that work for their markets, people and products. Thought it was worth sharing this – our view of how Tribes and Squads could structure in large B2b teams.

1. Market-focused teams gather customer and market feedback. They build business cases in the form of commercial propositions

2. Portfolio owners (Tribe leader with P&L responsibility for a product range) reviews the propositions and accepts or rejects them

3. Squads (smal...

The concept of Tribes and Squads seems to be really gaining attention in our customer base. We’re working with customers and trying to help them build models that work for their markets, people and products. Thought it was worth sharing this – our view of how Tribes and Squads could structure in large B2b teams.

1. Market-focused teams gather customer and market feedback. They build business cases in the form of commercial propositions

2. Portfolio owners (Tribe leader with P&L responsibility for a product range) reviews the propositions and accepts or rejects them

3. Squads (small cross function teams) deliver the work

4. Chapters own the resource

The benefit is the dynamic team structure – rather than the traditional world where a static team need to be kept busy, this model gives flexibility – Tribes and squads grow and shrink, form and fracture according to market demand.

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Key Characteristics of a Good PM

It’s a question we face all the time. Mostly, when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. When recruiting experienced Product Managers, you might look for certain skills; launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc.

Why not look internally for those who are looking for a new challenge? They might not have the experience or skill set just yet, but do they have the core capability?

Try our quick checklist for working out if they have PM potential:

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eager to learn?

Drive – Do they s...

It’s a question we face all the time. Mostly, when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. When recruiting experienced Product Managers, you might look for certain skills; launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc.

Why not look internally for those who are looking for a new challenge? They might not have the experience or skill set just yet, but do they have the core capability?

Try our quick checklist for working out if they have PM potential:

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eager to learn?

Drive – Do they show ambition?

Discipline – Are the organised?

People skills – Can they get people to listen to them. Can they take people with them? Are they charismatic?

Communication – Can they get their point across clearly and quickly?

Thought leadership – Do they have vision? Are they a creative problem solver?

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MVP

Why Do We Use It?
Answering this question allows us to really pin point the value of our product, why do customers buy in and use the product, what is it that seals the deal for them?

The MVP approach helps us to identify & prioritize our:
• Addressable market.
• Market segments.
• Personas in that segment.
• User stories for our personas.
Building the final product; takes a long time, is expensive and high risk. Rather than trying to deliver a fully rounded product, that is all things to all segments, at the outset; we use the MVP approach to help us prioritize our developme...

Why Do We Use It?
Answering this question allows us to really pin point the value of our product, why do customers buy in and use the product, what is it that seals the deal for them?

The MVP approach helps us to identify & prioritize our:
• Addressable market.
• Market segments.
• Personas in that segment.
• User stories for our personas.
Building the final product; takes a long time, is expensive and high risk. Rather than trying to deliver a fully rounded product, that is all things to all segments, at the outset; we use the MVP approach to help us prioritize our development roadmap.

Careful prioritisation means we can manage the capacity of our development team while still meeting the needs of our customers.
Some recent high-profile success stories include Dropbox, Airbnb, Groupon, Spotify and Twitter.
So before development:
- We prioritize our markets.
- Then we prioritise our personas.
- Followed by the features.
- Then we develop user stories
And we do all of this so that we can develop our product in a controlled and carefully prioritized sequence, meaning we deliver what is of highest value to our prioritised customer base and start generating revenue early. This also gives us a plan for updates a developments to improve the product, post launch.

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Big Business vs Small Business

We train product management in some of the biggest and smallest companies globally.

Last year our biggest client employed over 4,000 people in product roles and our smallest had a product management team of one. Clearly there is going to be some change to the PM role depending on the size of the business and the product team, so what is the difference?

What does product management look like at these extremes? I’d characterise it like this – GLUING VS DOING.
In a big team, the product manager has marketers, pricing experts, launch managers, research teams, etc. Their job is to us...

We train product management in some of the biggest and smallest companies globally.

Last year our biggest client employed over 4,000 people in product roles and our smallest had a product management team of one. Clearly there is going to be some change to the PM role depending on the size of the business and the product team, so what is the difference?

What does product management look like at these extremes? I’d characterise it like this – GLUING VS DOING.
In a big team, the product manager has marketers, pricing experts, launch managers, research teams, etc. Their job is to use those extensive resources to build out the perfect product. They GLUE.

In a small team, the product manager doesn’t have the same extensive team and resources available, therefore they need to figure out most of the detail for themselves. They DO.

The core discipline remains the same but the daily actions can look very different. When we train teams we pay attention to this because we are aware of the differences – it’s one of the ways we can be effective in very big and very small teams.

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The End User

Who is your customer?

We often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that, and as a Product Manager we need to define and communicate these complexities.

Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party resellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. Think of this as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weake...

Who is your customer?

We often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that, and as a Product Manager we need to define and communicate these complexities.

Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party resellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. Think of this as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link; if the sales team don’t understand your product, or the third party reseller wont stock it then the end user won’t even see your product.

So who is your customer? Everyone in the value chain. Try and address ALL their needs and motivations along the way. The chain will be strong and more likely to reach the final link – the end user.

Gee – problem you’ve got, is your pictures are so good, I want you to make this in to a blog pic as well…. It’s your own felt for being too sick!

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Continuous Improvement

What does a Product Manager do?

Our role can be complex and difficult to describe, and product culture within company can influence our definition massively. If we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business, step forward all those Product Managers who really act as sales support or project managers...

So we define the Product Management role in this way.

“Product Managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”.

So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By u...

What does a Product Manager do?

Our role can be complex and difficult to describe, and product culture within company can influence our definition massively. If we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business, step forward all those Product Managers who really act as sales support or project managers...

So we define the Product Management role in this way.

“Product Managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”.

So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By using a professional PM framework a Product Manager reduces the risk of a potential product flop getting to market (we assess before we launch). Then, by using the same PM framework, they ensure that existing products remain successful for longer (we continuously improve products). If there’s a 25% product failure rate in your industry and your PM skills reduce that to 5% in your business then that’s great product management.

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Product Life-cycle

Managing Through Product Life-cycle

Product management and innovation are intimately connected processes that require skilful interventions to maximise returns at every stage.

Milestone phases that are tackled as products move from their birth to infancy and ultimately to their maturity include:

- The Product Lifecycle,

- Crossing the Chasm,

- Entering the Tornado,

- Sustaining and Disruptive innovation theories

Familiarity with these theories is critical for product management success. The 7Ps of the marketing mix also provides a framework for different actions that can b...

Managing Through Product Life-cycle

Product management and innovation are intimately connected processes that require skilful interventions to maximise returns at every stage.

Milestone phases that are tackled as products move from their birth to infancy and ultimately to their maturity include:

- The Product Lifecycle,

- Crossing the Chasm,

- Entering the Tornado,

- Sustaining and Disruptive innovation theories

Familiarity with these theories is critical for product management success. The 7Ps of the marketing mix also provides a framework for different actions that can be taken across the lifecycle.

In order to maximise profit, product managers need to firstly understand at which stage the market is at. If the product is new for a brand-new market then disruptive innovation and its techniques are required to move through introduction and growth. If the market is already in the growth/maturity phases or beyond then sustaining innovation techniques are essential.

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Trusting Product Features

An IP rating on a phone informs you, officially, what a phone is capable of handling in terms of its exposure to water. But it cost a company money to put any product through this testing and receive the official IP certification. Making a product more expensive in order to ‘officially’ reiterate the work the company has already done during product’s research and development.

OnePlus, a Chinese tech company known for their smart phones, have seen an opportunity here and instead of paying to have their OnePlus 6 & 7 Phones rated officially on their waterproofing capabilities, they have...

An IP rating on a phone informs you, officially, what a phone is capable of handling in terms of its exposure to water. But it cost a company money to put any product through this testing and receive the official IP certification. Making a product more expensive in order to ‘officially’ reiterate the work the company has already done during product’s research and development.

OnePlus, a Chinese tech company known for their smart phones, have seen an opportunity here and instead of paying to have their OnePlus 6 & 7 Phones rated officially on their waterproofing capabilities, they have saved the time and money and just shown the customer exactly what the phone is capable of.

The reason its paid off… they have advertised the waterproof capabilities of the phones in a very honest way.

This has created an admirable amount of trust within the OnePlus community, with the consumer trusting the business, and helping to keep the price point much lower than the flagship equivalents.

This is a great cost saving method and the benefit can be passed onto the customer in a very visible way. Helping you to build customer loyalty and trust, though the method may not be as effective in heavily regulated markets, or B2B.

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PM VS PM

Product Owner & Product Manger

Plenty of teams with have experienced this issue, how do you structure Product Owners and Product Managers in a team?

It’s a dilemma for many – we often work with teams where there is no role clarity, and often, one person ends up doing both jobs.

Typically, the urgency of Product Owner duties overwhelm the importance of Product Management duties. The net result of this is very little commercial and strategic thinking taking place – the individual becomes technical, tactical and faces into the organisation.

Short term thinking isn’t a problem,...

Product Owner & Product Manger

Plenty of teams with have experienced this issue, how do you structure Product Owners and Product Managers in a team?

It’s a dilemma for many – we often work with teams where there is no role clarity, and often, one person ends up doing both jobs.

Typically, the urgency of Product Owner duties overwhelm the importance of Product Management duties. The net result of this is very little commercial and strategic thinking taking place – the individual becomes technical, tactical and faces into the organisation.

Short term thinking isn’t a problem, but look out over a longer timeline and the impact could be huge; limited vision, little market connection, and incremental product enhancement that exposes the business to risks from disruptive technology.

Product Managers need time to be strategic, commercial, outward facing and market-connected. Having Product Owners work well, alongside, Product Mangers can be difficult to balance but it can pay off when you get it right.

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5 tips for delivering bad news

There are times in every Product Managers career where we have to deliver bad news – a late product, a missing feature, a metric not achieved. It’s never easy, but here are my tips for delivering bad news:

Never delay - Bad news doesn’t get better with time.

Have clear reasons - You need to explain why. Be specific

Bring options and solutions - You need to show an action plan that solves or at the very least mitigates the problem as much as possible.

Write it down - Conversations can get misinterpreted.

Follow through - Track actions and keep everyone informed

There are times in every Product Managers career where we have to deliver bad news – a late product, a missing feature, a metric not achieved. It’s never easy, but here are my tips for delivering bad news:

Never delay - Bad news doesn’t get better with time.

Have clear reasons - You need to explain why. Be specific

Bring options and solutions - You need to show an action plan that solves or at the very least mitigates the problem as much as possible.

Write it down - Conversations can get misinterpreted.

Follow through - Track actions and keep everyone informed

Measure with your Product

Knowing where you’ve come from is interesting, knowing where you’re going is critical.

Most Product Management teams I work with have some form of metric set in place – they recognise the importance of tracking product success. But I’d estimate in 80% of cases those metrics are ones that look backwards. They tell you what HAS happened and give no clue as to what might happen next – they measure things like profit, usage & revenue. This is akin to a satnav giving you numerous stats on your journey so far, but not mentioning the road ahead is closed.

We know it’s impossible to ...

Knowing where you’ve come from is interesting, knowing where you’re going is critical.

Most Product Management teams I work with have some form of metric set in place – they recognise the importance of tracking product success. But I’d estimate in 80% of cases those metrics are ones that look backwards. They tell you what HAS happened and give no clue as to what might happen next – they measure things like profit, usage & revenue. This is akin to a satnav giving you numerous stats on your journey so far, but not mentioning the road ahead is closed.

We know it’s impossible to predict the future, but decent metrics give the opportunity to at least estimate it - tracking metrics on regulation, competitive landscape, tech trends, customer satisfaction & forecast financials make it a little less likely that your product hits a roadblock.

So what do you measure with your product?

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What's in a name?

I always tell product managers that a good start is to make the name descriptive - it helps customers to understand your offer quickly. In the UK, think of WeBuyAnyCar.com - if you've never heard of them I'm betting you can guess roughly what they do by their name.

But walking through London last week it struck me that the name also had to be realistic. Take a look at this café I walked past- it certainly looks like it's seen plenty of battles, perhaps not so many victories. As names go, it's sailed past 'ambitious' and landed firmly in 'delusional'. Any examples of really good or really b...

I always tell product managers that a good start is to make the name descriptive - it helps customers to understand your offer quickly. In the UK, think of WeBuyAnyCar.com - if you've never heard of them I'm betting you can guess roughly what they do by their name.

But walking through London last week it struck me that the name also had to be realistic. Take a look at this café I walked past- it certainly looks like it's seen plenty of battles, perhaps not so many victories. As names go, it's sailed past 'ambitious' and landed firmly in 'delusional'. Any examples of really good or really bad product or business names? A prize awaits the winner - an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Victory Café!

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Tribes, Squads, Prod Mgnt

Tribes and squads and product management

We’re all aware that waterfall is last century and agile is the way to go. But many of us are also aware that our whilst our business proclaims to be agile, it really isn’t - using scrum et al to deliver product does not make a business agile. Often we see a waterfall business and an agile dev team working to a horribly compromised Wagile model. A way through this? Take a look at Spotify with its squads and tribes model. Essentially the organisation completely embraces agile and has small, empowered, intact teams that don’t just think about the...

Tribes and squads and product management

We’re all aware that waterfall is last century and agile is the way to go. But many of us are also aware that our whilst our business proclaims to be agile, it really isn’t - using scrum et al to deliver product does not make a business agile. Often we see a waterfall business and an agile dev team working to a horribly compromised Wagile model. A way through this? Take a look at Spotify with its squads and tribes model. Essentially the organisation completely embraces agile and has small, empowered, intact teams that don’t just think about the tech product, but the complete customer solution.

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Prepare to Interview

Recruiting and employment is a minefield of matching skill sets and personalities, finding the right people to fit into your current team or disruptive individuals that promote change.

It is difficult to find the right balance.

Finding the right fit is hard to do from looking at CV’s, and interviews don’t help to much either… ‘On my best behaviour with my best foot forward’.

You can get a sense of their skills from the CV, but this isn’t going to be a fully accurate representation of what they can provide. Really, an interview needs to realise candidates’ attitudes and p...

Recruiting and employment is a minefield of matching skill sets and personalities, finding the right people to fit into your current team or disruptive individuals that promote change.

It is difficult to find the right balance.

Finding the right fit is hard to do from looking at CV’s, and interviews don’t help to much either… ‘On my best behaviour with my best foot forward’.

You can get a sense of their skills from the CV, but this isn’t going to be a fully accurate representation of what they can provide. Really, an interview needs to realise candidates’ attitudes and personality traits in order to identify if they are going to fit into the role or gap that you are trying to fill.

In order to do so you should understand a few things about what you would like the net result of their employment to look like:

? Should they disrupt and become the catalyst for change?

? Should they be a team player that helps spreads workload?

? What is key to being successful in this role?

? How will the role impact the company over the next 12/24/36 months?

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levels of competition.

I was talking to a team who describe their product as having “no competition”. Great news? Perhaps, but think about it like this.

We should think about levels of competition.

1. We might face products similar to ours from competitors that look a lot like us. These are direct competitive threats - think Audi vs BMW vs Mercedes.

2. Sometimes the competition is less obvious. Its other ways that our customers can solve the problem that we help them solve. These are indirect competitive threats – think car vs plane vs video conferencing

3. Occasionally we see our product having no...

I was talking to a team who describe their product as having “no competition”. Great news? Perhaps, but think about it like this.

We should think about levels of competition.

1. We might face products similar to ours from competitors that look a lot like us. These are direct competitive threats - think Audi vs BMW vs Mercedes.

2. Sometimes the competition is less obvious. Its other ways that our customers can solve the problem that we help them solve. These are indirect competitive threats – think car vs plane vs video conferencing

3. Occasionally we see our product having no competition. This sounds great, but we should be cautious. No competition might mean you’re first to market, but it might also mean that there really no market. Even being first to market isn’t without risk. History is littered with examples of products and businesses that got there first, but didn’t thrive – think Palm in the PDA market, the Beta max format in the video market or Atari in the games console market. All three were first to market. All three failed to capitalise on first mover advantage.

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Innovation vs Maintenance

Maintenance vs innovation



How do product managers balance the needs of their current product versus investing in new ideas? We’re working with a company where about 80% of development effort is directed towards product maintenance, some towards enhancements and the little bit that’s left goes to innovation. The result? A very frustrated senior management team who see a huge spend and nothing new to sell. There can be many reasons behind this (badly architected product, fixed sized dev teams, etc) but it clearly cant be sustained. Our fix? Set a target maintenance spend (say 20%) and...

Maintenance vs innovation



How do product managers balance the needs of their current product versus investing in new ideas? We’re working with a company where about 80% of development effort is directed towards product maintenance, some towards enhancements and the little bit that’s left goes to innovation. The result? A very frustrated senior management team who see a huge spend and nothing new to sell. There can be many reasons behind this (badly architected product, fixed sized dev teams, etc) but it clearly cant be sustained. Our fix? Set a target maintenance spend (say 20%) and a target date to hit that spend (say 3 years) and then ratchet spend down each quarter. This gives teams the time to address the fundamentals, get a plan in place and move towards a more appropriate spending level.

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Engaging with the audience

Communication is a vital skill for a product manager. It might be a 5 minute elevator pitch or a full technical review. Either way you need to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you saying. Here are a few tips :

1. Tell the audience why they are there

2. Pick three major points you want to talk about and focus on those.

3. Don't overload your presentation with text and pictures.

4. Keep an eye on time. Use a parking lot to collect points that can be answered later.

5. Don't just deliver dry facts.

6. Deliver with passion.

7. Banish your nerves.

Communication is a vital skill for a product manager. It might be a 5 minute elevator pitch or a full technical review. Either way you need to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you saying. Here are a few tips :

1. Tell the audience why they are there

2. Pick three major points you want to talk about and focus on those.

3. Don't overload your presentation with text and pictures.

4. Keep an eye on time. Use a parking lot to collect points that can be answered later.

5. Don't just deliver dry facts.

6. Deliver with passion.

7. Banish your nerves.

Mega Trends

Mega trends are substantial changes that can impact any aspect of our business. Once upon a time the internet was a potential mega trend, out on the horizon, gathering strength. Some businesses saw it, built or modified their products to accommodate it, and rode the internet wave. Others weren’t so visionary and floundered as the world moved online.

How do we identify mega trends? product managers must constantly look for trends in four broad categories:

· Technology – today we see trends such as A.I or the Internet of Things gathering momentum.

· Social – think of trends such...

Mega trends are substantial changes that can impact any aspect of our business. Once upon a time the internet was a potential mega trend, out on the horizon, gathering strength. Some businesses saw it, built or modified their products to accommodate it, and rode the internet wave. Others weren’t so visionary and floundered as the world moved online.

How do we identify mega trends? product managers must constantly look for trends in four broad categories:

· Technology – today we see trends such as A.I or the Internet of Things gathering momentum.

· Social – think of trends such as the ageing population or urbanization

· Economic – the gig economy and peer-to-peer networks are relevant examples

· Political – trends could be border security or environmental controls.

Once we’ve identified the trends, we need to think of what they mean to our business. For example, IoT presents risk and opportunity around cybersecurity. There will be an estimated 26 billion connected devices by 2020 – some sharing sensitive data and payment information. Hacking into that network could cause widespread disruption.

So what mega trends present opportunity or risk to your product? Product Managers should be thinking about this regularly.

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Themed Roadmap

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

Losing a deal

How do you react to losing a deal?

I’ll admit that I react badly, but how should a Product Manager really react? After a couple of months of not putting a wrong (we’ve just recorded our best month and will record our best quarter – go team!) we missed a deal. We’ll deal with this using GRIT.

Grieve – In my opinion good losers tend to be infrequent winners so don’t feel bad about feeling bad. Go for a run, beat a punch bag, relax in a hot bath. Whatever your way of dealing with it, give yourself a bit of time to get it out of your system.

Research - Gather as much data as y...

How do you react to losing a deal?

I’ll admit that I react badly, but how should a Product Manager really react? After a couple of months of not putting a wrong (we’ve just recorded our best month and will record our best quarter – go team!) we missed a deal. We’ll deal with this using GRIT.

Grieve – In my opinion good losers tend to be infrequent winners so don’t feel bad about feeling bad. Go for a run, beat a punch bag, relax in a hot bath. Whatever your way of dealing with it, give yourself a bit of time to get it out of your system.

Research - Gather as much data as you can. Gather from all sources and gather without filter or preconception.

Identify - Work out what went wrong. It’s easy to make price or product assumptions, but discount nothing. I recall a deal lost years ago where we worked out that the customer had not even read our proposal. Be aware that the answer might be that the deal was never in your sights.

Translate - Make changes so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes. Remember the lesson of marginal gain - small changes can deliver significant results.

So I need to go and give my punch bag 30 minutes of hell.

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What does a PM do?

What does a product manager do?

Our role can be quite complex and difficult to describe. But if we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business (step forward all those product managers who are really sales support or project managers, ....).

Here’s a definition that might help. “Product managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”. So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By using a professional pm framework a product manager reduces the risk of a potential p...

What does a product manager do?

Our role can be quite complex and difficult to describe. But if we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business (step forward all those product managers who are really sales support or project managers, ....).

Here’s a definition that might help. “Product managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”. So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By using a professional pm framework a product manager reduces the risk of a potential product flop getting to market (we assess before we launch) and then by using the same pm framework, they ensure that existing products remain successful for longer (we continuously improve products). If there’s a 25% product failure rate in your industry and your pm skills have reduced that to 5% in your business then that’s great product management.

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Dealing with obstacles

Navigating obstacles is a daily part of Product Management – dealing with product issues, pressures from other teams, workload, worrying about product performance…..

Some Product Managers become so overwhelmed that they can’t see anything but obstacles. Their performance suffers, their product suffers, they suffer! Here’s a tip from the world of cycling; instead of looking at the obstacles, look beyond them at where you want to go. Look through the trees and around the rocks. By focusing on where you want to go instead of what you want to miss, the obstacles shrink and that good pat...

Navigating obstacles is a daily part of Product Management – dealing with product issues, pressures from other teams, workload, worrying about product performance…..

Some Product Managers become so overwhelmed that they can’t see anything but obstacles. Their performance suffers, their product suffers, they suffer! Here’s a tip from the world of cycling; instead of looking at the obstacles, look beyond them at where you want to go. Look through the trees and around the rocks. By focusing on where you want to go instead of what you want to miss, the obstacles shrink and that good path becomes clear.

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Market research

What does a great market research session look like?

I was reminded of this with a team I’m working with. They’re in a B2B market and are conducting early stage research on a new concept. A couple of product managers reported back that their customer visit had gone well. A deeper dive and it was clear that what they really meant was that the customer hadn’t asked any tough questions and so the meeting had been a breeze. This is bad news for the product; interested customers always ask difficult questions (date, price, detail). Think of these as buying signals – if they don’t ask �...

What does a great market research session look like?

I was reminded of this with a team I’m working with. They’re in a B2B market and are conducting early stage research on a new concept. A couple of product managers reported back that their customer visit had gone well. A deeper dive and it was clear that what they really meant was that the customer hadn’t asked any tough questions and so the meeting had been a breeze. This is bad news for the product; interested customers always ask difficult questions (date, price, detail). Think of these as buying signals – if they don’t ask “how much” or “when” they’re really not that interested.

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A new product or service

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging with no historic or foundation data to work from. Challenging, but critical! Scope it right and you’ll align costs with opportunity to deliver a profitable proposition We use a seven step process:

1.Find the total available market – How many could buy or use your service?

2. Understand the stage of lifecycle your market is in – For example, is the market in growth or maturity phase? This will dictate how much of your available market is ready to adopt.

3.Identify key segments to do your research – Do quality research in a...

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging with no historic or foundation data to work from. Challenging, but critical! Scope it right and you’ll align costs with opportunity to deliver a profitable proposition We use a seven step process:

1.Find the total available market – How many could buy or use your service?

2. Understand the stage of lifecycle your market is in – For example, is the market in growth or maturity phase? This will dictate how much of your available market is ready to adopt.

3.Identify key segments to do your research – Do quality research in a core market rather than spreading you research too thin

4.Triangulate your qualitative research – It’s not research if you only talk to one customer!

5.Underpin with quantitative research – Use surveys to check the opinions expressed in qualitative research are supported in larger numbers

6. Use ratio modelling to build a global view – if you’ve sized the US market, then use stats around population size, GDP, or more focused market factors to estimate adjacent markets

7.Build an estimate – Use error bars to give an forecast range.

One of the harder aspects of product management, but a very valuable skill.

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good development, bad product

A good development process doesn’t make a good product

Many teams seem to turn to agile models in the hope that it will fix product problems. And although agile processes are great, they don’t generate great products in isolation.

Two points:

1. A bad idea stays a bad idea no matter how well it’s developed - it’s just a well executed bad idea.

2. Product is more than technology - think naming, pricing, positioning,

etc. Agile gives you only a small part of what you need for product success.

The product management lesson? Agile won’t fix your world. It might make one...

A good development process doesn’t make a good product

Many teams seem to turn to agile models in the hope that it will fix product problems. And although agile processes are great, they don’t generate great products in isolation.

Two points:

1. A bad idea stays a bad idea no matter how well it’s developed - it’s just a well executed bad idea.

2. Product is more than technology - think naming, pricing, positioning,

etc. Agile gives you only a small part of what you need for product success.

The product management lesson? Agile won’t fix your world. It might make one small part a bit more predictable.

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Finding the innovator

Driver-less cars. Love them or hate them, it feels like we are moving towards a future where automation will at the very least reduce driver engagement. But how will this market grow and form? It’s easy to get caught in the hype at the consumer end of the driver-less revolution and envisage the everyday commuter ‘driving’ to work eating breakfast, shaving, reading email. But as product managers we know that most markets form around innovators with big problems to solve.

Q: Who has the biggest problem that driver-less technology can solve?

A: Logistics companies spending a huge amou...

Driver-less cars. Love them or hate them, it feels like we are moving towards a future where automation will at the very least reduce driver engagement. But how will this market grow and form? It’s easy to get caught in the hype at the consumer end of the driver-less revolution and envisage the everyday commuter ‘driving’ to work eating breakfast, shaving, reading email. But as product managers we know that most markets form around innovators with big problems to solve.

Q: Who has the biggest problem that driver-less technology can solve?

A: Logistics companies spending a huge amount on drivers.

But what does that mean?

The driver-less market will hit the freight sector first and us commuters might have to wait longer than expected before jumping in the passenger seat. The product manager lesson: an innovator nearly always has more pain around the problem you solve.

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Product Portfolio

Managing a product portfolio

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?

We use a dashboard so that Product Managers can make sure the tactical balance is correct (The BCG matrix), the Lifecycle mix is right (ideally we don’t want a portfolio all at the same stage of Lifecycle) , and the fit to longer term strategy is correct (the GE tool)

This gives a balanced view of portfolio.

Managing a product portfolio

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?

We use a dashboard so that Product Managers can make sure the tactical balance is correct (The BCG matrix), the Lifecycle mix is right (ideally we don’t want a portfolio all at the same stage of Lifecycle) , and the fit to longer term strategy is correct (the GE tool)

This gives a balanced view of portfolio.

Is your price right?

We know that setting a price for a new product in a new market is based upon perceived or actual value, but what about price points when you’re taking upgrades into existing markets?

Here’s a five step process to check if your price point makes sense:

Product Name:
1. Target - Write down the target price point
2. Expectation - How does the target price point compare with pricing over the last three years in the market?
3. Difference – What does your product or service offer as a point of difference? Are these differences tangible and valuable to your target market?
4. Bran...

We know that setting a price for a new product in a new market is based upon perceived or actual value, but what about price points when you’re taking upgrades into existing markets?

Here’s a five step process to check if your price point makes sense:

Product Name:
1. Target - Write down the target price point
2. Expectation - How does the target price point compare with pricing over the last three years in the market?
3. Difference – What does your product or service offer as a point of difference? Are these differences tangible and valuable to your target market?
4. Brand – How does your brand impact perceived value? Don’t dismiss the power of the brand!
5. Costs – Does the price point deliver against financial goals
Evidence : Describe where you gathered your evidence

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Who is your customer?

As product managers, we often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that. Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party re sellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. It’s best considered as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the sales team don’t understand it or the third party re selle...

As product managers, we often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that. Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party re sellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. It’s best considered as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the sales team don’t understand it or the third party re seller wont stock it then the end user won’t even see your product.

So who is your customer? Every one in the value chain. Try and address their needs and motivations, and the chain will be strong.

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Pricing - in the right ball park

Want to quickly check if your pricing is in the right ball park? Then answer three questions:

1. Is the price higher than the unit cost – we don’t want to lose money every time we sell

2. Is the price lower that the (perceived or tangible) delivered customer value – customers won’t buy if your product doesn’t represent fair value

3. Is the price broadly equivalent to comparable offers in the market – if price expectations are already set, customers will be unwilling to move far from that price

For the mathematically inclined, this turns into a simple model for sanity ch...

Want to quickly check if your pricing is in the right ball park? Then answer three questions:

1. Is the price higher than the unit cost – we don’t want to lose money every time we sell

2. Is the price lower that the (perceived or tangible) delivered customer value – customers won’t buy if your product doesn’t represent fair value

3. Is the price broadly equivalent to comparable offers in the market – if price expectations are already set, customers will be unwilling to move far from that price

For the mathematically inclined, this turns into a simple model for sanity checking a price point.

P = Selling price
U = Unit cost
V = Customer value
C = Comparable solution price

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Getting the message right

When should product managers engage with marketing to get the message right?

All too often, product marketing is an afterthought; we see many cases where teams don’t engage with marketing until late in a delivery cycle. And then they’re disappointed when the collateral, the positioning, the imagery and the core message don’t hit the mark.

My advice? Engage early. Really early. Get the marketing team involved at the ideation stage – at the very least they can help identify USPs, more likely they’ll add real value to the discussion and ultimately help drive a better product to m...

When should product managers engage with marketing to get the message right?

All too often, product marketing is an afterthought; we see many cases where teams don’t engage with marketing until late in a delivery cycle. And then they’re disappointed when the collateral, the positioning, the imagery and the core message don’t hit the mark.

My advice? Engage early. Really early. Get the marketing team involved at the ideation stage – at the very least they can help identify USPs, more likely they’ll add real value to the discussion and ultimately help drive a better product to market. Remember, Product Management is a team sport.

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Getting a product wrong

The impact of getting a product wrong

You can get a product wrong in many ways - badly designed, poorly build, doesn’t solve any specific need, too expensive etc....

We often think of the cost of the mistake in relation to the product - x million in development effort has been wasted, but the cost is much bigger than that. Think of it from a brand perspective. If a company delivers a bad product then customers don’t just reject the product, but they become wary of brand. An example from two brands- Alfa Romeo and Porsche; Alfa have a history of highs and lows. Sometimes they delight,...

The impact of getting a product wrong

You can get a product wrong in many ways - badly designed, poorly build, doesn’t solve any specific need, too expensive etc....

We often think of the cost of the mistake in relation to the product - x million in development effort has been wasted, but the cost is much bigger than that. Think of it from a brand perspective. If a company delivers a bad product then customers don’t just reject the product, but they become wary of brand. An example from two brands- Alfa Romeo and Porsche; Alfa have a history of highs and lows. Sometimes they delight, sometimes not. Porsche have consistency. Now imagine both companies announce a new sports car for 2019 that you can place a deposit on today. Guess who would have the fuller order book? Brand confidence is a war that products battle to win.

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Marginal Gain

Marginal gain can lead to market dominance

The product managers I meet are an ambitious bunch, often looking for ways to drive huge growth and dominate their market. My response sometimes surprises them “Huge product success often lies in the tiny detail”. Let me explain. In many markets the difference between product offers is pretty small. Winning in these markets can often be about tiny detail – a slightly better interface, a small feature, a better sales pitch or even a quicker response to a customer email. The point is that in competitive markets the detail counts. Rather than th...

Marginal gain can lead to market dominance

The product managers I meet are an ambitious bunch, often looking for ways to drive huge growth and dominate their market. My response sometimes surprises them “Huge product success often lies in the tiny detail”. Let me explain. In many markets the difference between product offers is pretty small. Winning in these markets can often be about tiny detail – a slightly better interface, a small feature, a better sales pitch or even a quicker response to a customer email. The point is that in competitive markets the detail counts. Rather than thinking about wholesale reinvention, many product managers should think of marginal gain – small scale improvements that in isolation mean nothing, but in aggregate can help you win. Market dominance can be achieved by being slightly better than your competitor most of the time. So what could you do today to slightly improve your product offer?

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Simplicity is Key

I’m going to get this printed on a t-shirt and give it to the next product manager who starts by telling me their product is complex to explain! Part of the art of great product management is making the complex as simple to understand as possible. Want to test you or your team on simplicity? Then try this; describe your new product offer/feature in 30 seconds or less to a group who are in your market. Wait 10 minutes and the ask them to describe your product offer. Did they remember it? If not, that’s your problem, not theirs.

I’m going to get this printed on a t-shirt and give it to the next product manager who starts by telling me their product is complex to explain! Part of the art of great product management is making the complex as simple to understand as possible. Want to test you or your team on simplicity? Then try this; describe your new product offer/feature in 30 seconds or less to a group who are in your market. Wait 10 minutes and the ask them to describe your product offer. Did they remember it? If not, that’s your problem, not theirs.

What to look for - Prod Manager

What to look for in a Product Manager

I was asked recently to define the qualities or attributes of my best Product Manager hires. This is my list, what is yours?

• You’re curious – You have a natural born curiosity and are eager to learn and understand. You always ask ‘Why?’.

• You have great people skills – You can influence and inspire through your passion, drive and credibility. People want to work with you.

• You make things happen – You’re a doer as well as a thinker. You solve problems. ‘Proactive’ defines you because you want to a difference

• Y...

What to look for in a Product Manager

I was asked recently to define the qualities or attributes of my best Product Manager hires. This is my list, what is yours?

• You’re curious – You have a natural born curiosity and are eager to learn and understand. You always ask ‘Why?’.

• You have great people skills – You can influence and inspire through your passion, drive and credibility. People want to work with you.

• You make things happen – You’re a doer as well as a thinker. You solve problems. ‘Proactive’ defines you because you want to a difference

• You’re disciplined – You are structured in your approach and utilise processes and tools effectively to get the job done consistently.

• You’re a thought leader - You are able to distil complex information down into an insightful and compelling narrative. You use insight and evidence to make recommendations.

• You get your message across – You are clear, concise and credible in your communication, being able to deliver a message in a few words with complete clarity

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Presentation Skills

Yesterday I delivered a webinar on communicating with clarity.

For a product manager, being able to present with clarity and conviction is a skill worth working on. Your bright new product idea could fall at the first hurdle if the review team simply don’t understand it or pay enough attention because of how you present. Sometimes a presentation unravels from slide one as they fail to get the introduction right.

So how should your presentation start? The key is structure; your audience want to know some basics. “Why am I here?”, “How long will I be here?”, “What decisions wil...

Yesterday I delivered a webinar on communicating with clarity.

For a product manager, being able to present with clarity and conviction is a skill worth working on. Your bright new product idea could fall at the first hurdle if the review team simply don’t understand it or pay enough attention because of how you present. Sometimes a presentation unravels from slide one as they fail to get the introduction right.

So how should your presentation start? The key is structure; your audience want to know some basics. “Why am I here?”, “How long will I be here?”, “What decisions will I need to make?” So tell them! Whoever the audience, take the lead from word one, slide one. You give the audience confidence that you’re in control.

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How do you prioritise features?

A common issue for Product Managers – they have a list of features and they need to make the call about which gets built first. The issue being that each feature is important to some customers.

Here’s a simple tool to help. Don’t start with the feature, start at the market end – prioritise your segments from most to least important (this could be based on value, growth , access, profits, etc). Then prioritise the people in those markets (for example, who controls the budget, or acts as the technical gatekeeper). Only when you’ve done this do you think about the features - what doe...

A common issue for Product Managers – they have a list of features and they need to make the call about which gets built first. The issue being that each feature is important to some customers.

Here’s a simple tool to help. Don’t start with the feature, start at the market end – prioritise your segments from most to least important (this could be based on value, growth , access, profits, etc). Then prioritise the people in those markets (for example, who controls the budget, or acts as the technical gatekeeper). Only when you’ve done this do you think about the features - what does you most important persona in your most important market value from the feature list?

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A Product plan

A Product plan is the nucleus of your product! It takes a lot of work to complete but it helps to align cross-functional teams and provides all the information available about your product, from hard market research to detailed financial models.

It’s time to present your product plan in order to bring teams in-line with your product. And all that hard work could be for nothing if you get this wrong and fail to communicate your message clearly. You have to be sure that the review team are going to understand, the product, the vision and all the key ancillaries that surround your product.
...

A Product plan is the nucleus of your product! It takes a lot of work to complete but it helps to align cross-functional teams and provides all the information available about your product, from hard market research to detailed financial models.

It’s time to present your product plan in order to bring teams in-line with your product. And all that hard work could be for nothing if you get this wrong and fail to communicate your message clearly. You have to be sure that the review team are going to understand, the product, the vision and all the key ancillaries that surround your product.



This requires a presentation that has clarity and conviction, a critical skill that all Product Managers should master. Communicating with clarity, during presentations or any cross-team activity is key to building the right foundations and setting your product on the right course!

Learn more about Communicating with Clarity in our Webinar session tomorrow, sign up here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XVIik3g6R-SSUTEFN2InqA

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Agile Updates and Delivery

Agile delivery of product requirements and updates allows teams to maintain momentum and focus. Each sprint cycle within the agile world gives you a package update that is customer ready every 30 days, great!

But just because we work agile within the company setting doesn’t mean our customers want these updates delivered at the same rate.

We have to think about our customer base and the types of customers we deliver our product to, if we have customers working in a highly regulated sector then we have to be very considerate as to the frequency of updates to products and solutions that ...

Agile delivery of product requirements and updates allows teams to maintain momentum and focus. Each sprint cycle within the agile world gives you a package update that is customer ready every 30 days, great!

But just because we work agile within the company setting doesn’t mean our customers want these updates delivered at the same rate.

We have to think about our customer base and the types of customers we deliver our product to, if we have customers working in a highly regulated sector then we have to be very considerate as to the frequency of updates to products and solutions that those customers use. Whereas public consumers are less likely to be upset or irritated if they receive updates more regularly.

Even with that in mind, we don’t have software updates for our smart phones every month, that would become tedious to most! Instead updates are delivered when there is a substantial package ready for consumer use!

Remember just because you can deliver an update every 30 days doesn’t mean that your customer types want to receive those updates at such frequency!

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Strategic Thinking

Don’t fall into the trap of spending all your time in back to back meetings. Product Managers need time to think of future trends in their markets, new regulation, changes in customer behaviour etc. They must develop a clear vision of where they want to take their product based on trends and market changes. If not the product becomes directionless. If we spend all our time making tactical changes that in aggregate mean nothing, eventually our product will become irrelevant. Think about what happened with HMV and blockbuster.

My advice? Diarise strategic thinking - 30 minutes during the w...

Don’t fall into the trap of spending all your time in back to back meetings. Product Managers need time to think of future trends in their markets, new regulation, changes in customer behaviour etc. They must develop a clear vision of where they want to take their product based on trends and market changes. If not the product becomes directionless. If we spend all our time making tactical changes that in aggregate mean nothing, eventually our product will become irrelevant. Think about what happened with HMV and blockbuster.

My advice? Diarise strategic thinking - 30 minutes during the week where you ask yourself “What are the trends and changes happening in my markets that could impact my product” Don't wait for the trend to hit - it’s too late then.

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Improving the user experience

A hotel I was in had tea and coffee making facilities in the room. But I couldn't get water in the kettle due to the shape of the sink. Not a great user experience! This type of niggle is common - many products and services have their equivalent of the hotel kettle - a feature that’s been included with good intent but not thought through in terms of customer interaction.

How do we fix this?

Product Managers should utilise user journeys, stepping through the customer experience to see how the feature works. It’s the difference between saying "We've put a kettle in the hotel room, jo...

A hotel I was in had tea and coffee making facilities in the room. But I couldn't get water in the kettle due to the shape of the sink. Not a great user experience! This type of niggle is common - many products and services have their equivalent of the hotel kettle - a feature that’s been included with good intent but not thought through in terms of customer interaction.

How do we fix this?

Product Managers should utilise user journeys, stepping through the customer experience to see how the feature works. It’s the difference between saying "We've put a kettle in the hotel room, job done" and "A guest arrives in the room for the first time and tries to make a drink. Let's step though that process".

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Thinking of product retirement

Many Product Managers spend very little time at the retirement end of the Product Management discipline. Consequently, it’s an area where many teams have limited process or procedure. But remember, a bad product withdrawal can impact future product introductions – would you buy a new product from a company that had let you down with a previous product retirement? As with many things PM, the key is to step back and think a little. If you have a product that you’re thinking of withdrawing or replacing or retiring, spend 15 minutes answering these six questions before diving into a retireme...

Many Product Managers spend very little time at the retirement end of the Product Management discipline. Consequently, it’s an area where many teams have limited process or procedure. But remember, a bad product withdrawal can impact future product introductions – would you buy a new product from a company that had let you down with a previous product retirement? As with many things PM, the key is to step back and think a little. If you have a product that you’re thinking of withdrawing or replacing or retiring, spend 15 minutes answering these six questions before diving into a retirement plan.

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Brand and Price

How do you price a product? There are many aspects to think about (the value it delivers, the competitive landscape, etc), but many Product Managers underestimate the impact of brand. Your brand sets parameters on the price points you can achieve (and therefore the products you can deliver). “Easyjet launches super premium business class service” is not a headline we’re likely to see – the product might make sense but not in the context of the Easyjet brand. And don’t think of this as exclusive to B2C products. Earlier in my career I managed a product that was white labelled and reso...

How do you price a product? There are many aspects to think about (the value it delivers, the competitive landscape, etc), but many Product Managers underestimate the impact of brand. Your brand sets parameters on the price points you can achieve (and therefore the products you can deliver). “Easyjet launches super premium business class service” is not a headline we’re likely to see – the product might make sense but not in the context of the Easyjet brand. And don’t think of this as exclusive to B2C products. Earlier in my career I managed a product that was white labelled and resold by Cisco. The Cisco team could achieve higher price points in the market because they were a known, trusted brand with relationships, history etc. A great example of how to do it can be seen in the VW/Audi group, who take a range of products to market from low cost to super high-end using the power of brand to distinguish their offers.

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How do you deal with new ideas?

“We have loads of news ideas!” Sounds like a great place to be, but for many Product Managers the stress of managing those ideas is formidable – ideas from sales teams “I can sell 100% more if you add these features” to managers “We need this new product to dominate market X”, to technical teams “We can build AI capability to enhance our product”, etc….

When the next person walks up to your desk with another great idea, whip out the innovation canvas. Fifteen minutes of effort, ten questions long, helps you understand what’s worth taking further and what should be drop...

“We have loads of news ideas!” Sounds like a great place to be, but for many Product Managers the stress of managing those ideas is formidable – ideas from sales teams “I can sell 100% more if you add these features” to managers “We need this new product to dominate market X”, to technical teams “We can build AI capability to enhance our product”, etc….

When the next person walks up to your desk with another great idea, whip out the innovation canvas. Fifteen minutes of effort, ten questions long, helps you understand what’s worth taking further and what should be dropped.

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The most common persona mistake?

The last few years has seen an increasing use of Personas and User Journeys across Product Management teams. They give us great insight and help us define products that truly meet customer needs. However, I see a common mistake; personas are so often focused solely on the end user. End users are important but they’re not the whole story – those end users won’t get to use your product if it does not make sense to the full value chain. Take a new credit card as an example; Banks would need to offer it and Merchants would need to accept it before consumers could access the value. The value ...

The last few years has seen an increasing use of Personas and User Journeys across Product Management teams. They give us great insight and help us define products that truly meet customer needs. However, I see a common mistake; personas are so often focused solely on the end user. End users are important but they’re not the whole story – those end users won’t get to use your product if it does not make sense to the full value chain. Take a new credit card as an example; Banks would need to offer it and Merchants would need to accept it before consumers could access the value. The value chain will break at its weakest point of value.

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Refining your PM Skills

We’re half way through the year- a good time to reflect on team performance. When thinking about the performance of a product management team it’s way too simple to describe it as great, or terrible, or somewhere in between. It’s better to break it down into skills – what do they do well and where do they need support. It’s even better to prioritise those skills around business need. We use the skills curve to do this – prioritise the skills the team need to have, review their capability per skill, build out the skills curve, then focus on closing the gaps around the skills that ...

We’re half way through the year- a good time to reflect on team performance. When thinking about the performance of a product management team it’s way too simple to describe it as great, or terrible, or somewhere in between. It’s better to break it down into skills – what do they do well and where do they need support. It’s even better to prioritise those skills around business need. We use the skills curve to do this – prioritise the skills the team need to have, review their capability per skill, build out the skills curve, then focus on closing the gaps around the skills that will make the biggest difference.

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What is a roadmap?

Product Managers are often requested to build out a roadmap. Our first response should be ‘Which Roadmap?’. We identify three roadmaps:

1. The Visionary Roadmap – A broad brush view of where your products need to go over the next 5/10 years based on market mega trends. It sets the direction of travel.

2. The Product Roadmap – It takes the vision and breaks it down into tangible customer deliveries . It defines how value will be delivered and identifies the major landmarks on our journey to our vision

3. The Technical Roadmap – It adds detail. It describes how we get to eac...

Product Managers are often requested to build out a roadmap. Our first response should be ‘Which Roadmap?’. We identify three roadmaps:

1. The Visionary Roadmap – A broad brush view of where your products need to go over the next 5/10 years based on market mega trends. It sets the direction of travel.

2. The Product Roadmap – It takes the vision and breaks it down into tangible customer deliveries . It defines how value will be delivered and identifies the major landmarks on our journey to our vision

3. The Technical Roadmap – It adds detail. It describes how we get to each major landmark identified in the Product Roadmap, the people involved, etc. It tells us how we’ll make our journey to vision.

All three clearly link together. We start with the Visionary Roadmap. Without it, our product direction can’t be set.

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Defining the product value curve

When you book a hotel room how do you decide which hotel to book? Price? Location? Points? Facilities? The likelihood is that you choose based on a number of reasons rather than just one. We can use this insight to help position our own products more effectively. The Value Curve is a tool that maps buying factors vs execution. Simply list the top 5 reasons customers choose a product in your market, work out how well you execute against that need and do the same for your competition. You can then see where to refine your offer.

When you book a hotel room how do you decide which hotel to book? Price? Location? Points? Facilities? The likelihood is that you choose based on a number of reasons rather than just one. We can use this insight to help position our own products more effectively. The Value Curve is a tool that maps buying factors vs execution. Simply list the top 5 reasons customers choose a product in your market, work out how well you execute against that need and do the same for your competition. You can then see where to refine your offer.

Defining product success

How would you define product success? Revenue? Profit? Volume? The point is this; product success comes in many flavours that do not always directly link to a simple financial metric. A product portfolio can often be thought of as a team, where products perform different roles. Think of HP – printers make ink sales possible. Or google; its search engine is an enabler for its AdWords business. Like a soccer team would not be great if it was made up of 11 strikers, a product portfolio needs balance.
So when looking at what constitutes product success, think about the role your product need...

How would you define product success? Revenue? Profit? Volume? The point is this; product success comes in many flavours that do not always directly link to a simple financial metric. A product portfolio can often be thought of as a team, where products perform different roles. Think of HP – printers make ink sales possible. Or google; its search engine is an enabler for its AdWords business. Like a soccer team would not be great if it was made up of 11 strikers, a product portfolio needs balance.
So when looking at what constitutes product success, think about the role your product needs to play in your product team.

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Skills Matrix

Welcome to the Tarigo Product Management Skills Matrix.
A useful & easy-to-use tool designed for Product Managers who would like to assess their current levels of knowledge, expertise and skills.
Once completed it can then be used to identify personal development plans and build a successful and rewarding career.
• Rate your personal competencies against those found in high performing product teams
• Identify your aspirations in terms of your competency targets and the associated gap analysis
• Put together a plan of action to develop yourself in order to meet your aspirations....

Welcome to the Tarigo Product Management Skills Matrix.
A useful & easy-to-use tool designed for Product Managers who would like to assess their current levels of knowledge, expertise and skills.
Once completed it can then be used to identify personal development plans and build a successful and rewarding career.
• Rate your personal competencies against those found in high performing product teams
• Identify your aspirations in terms of your competency targets and the associated gap analysis
• Put together a plan of action to develop yourself in order to meet your aspirations.

See the full paper on our website under resources.

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Revenue Forecasting

A question from a the head of a product team I’ve been training “Are there any quick tips for helping the team with revenue forecasting?” The background to this was a very frustrated leadership team who had been presented with revenue forecasts that turned out to be orders of magnitude different to actuals. My one quick tip would be this – DON’T FORGET LIFECYCLE STAGE! Most Product teams get the basics right in terms of understanding the available and serviceable market. The bit they miss is that they need to overlay the lifecyle stage to get a sense of adoption rates. For exampl...

A question from a the head of a product team I’ve been training “Are there any quick tips for helping the team with revenue forecasting?” The background to this was a very frustrated leadership team who had been presented with revenue forecasts that turned out to be orders of magnitude different to actuals. My one quick tip would be this – DON’T FORGET LIFECYCLE STAGE! Most Product teams get the basics right in terms of understanding the available and serviceable market. The bit they miss is that they need to overlay the lifecyle stage to get a sense of adoption rates. For example, take a market with £100M in revenue potential. At the innovator stage circa 2.5 – 5% of that market is likely to adopt. Think that sounds severe? Look at the plug-in electric car market and you’ll see a market share of 2.53% here in the UK.

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Marginal Gains

Marginal Gains – make them invisible!

Marginal Gains is a popular topic at Tarigo and in the product management world in and we want to hear your thoughts on the topic!

It’s a great model to teach and understand as there are plenty of success stories and examples that we can look at in the product world to help explain product success and why certain products always seem to beat competitors!

Team Sky publicly displayed their passion and focus on marginal gains and claimed it was the reason for much of their Olympic success. Well Olympian and Tour De France winner Sir Bradley Wig...

Marginal Gains – make them invisible!

Marginal Gains is a popular topic at Tarigo and in the product management world in and we want to hear your thoughts on the topic!

It’s a great model to teach and understand as there are plenty of success stories and examples that we can look at in the product world to help explain product success and why certain products always seem to beat competitors!

Team Sky publicly displayed their passion and focus on marginal gains and claimed it was the reason for much of their Olympic success. Well Olympian and Tour De France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins disagrees. ‘I just think you have got to get the fundamentals right: go ride your bike, put the work in, and you’re either good or you’re not good.’ He was involved in the GB squad during the Sir Dave Brailsford revolution. He also has a gold medal from the 2012 Olympics…

Is this a case of conflicting attitudes or were the marginal gain techniques employed by team GB so subtle that an athlete such as Wiggins didn’t even notice the positive impacts these marginal gains had on his performance.

What do you think?

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What’s your product value?

Product managers should be able to articulate the value of their product to the target market in a concise, coherent and compelling way. Here’s the value proposition template with Nespresso as an example. Simply replace the black words with your own to build your value statement.

Product managers should be able to articulate the value of their product to the target market in a concise, coherent and compelling way. Here’s the value proposition template with Nespresso as an example. Simply replace the black words with your own to build your value statement.

How fast is too fast?

The dev manager of a team I’m working with at the moment has proudly announced that their new dev model has enabled them to release new code daily. The whole organisation is wowed by this, but no-one seems to have asked the question ‘Why?. The point is this; these guys work in the highly regulated and security-conscious world of banking. To an IT director the idea of daily software updates is the stuff of nightmares. As always, with anything to do with product, know your customers and build solutions (including delivery models) that work for them.

The dev manager of a team I’m working with at the moment has proudly announced that their new dev model has enabled them to release new code daily. The whole organisation is wowed by this, but no-one seems to have asked the question ‘Why?. The point is this; these guys work in the highly regulated and security-conscious world of banking. To an IT director the idea of daily software updates is the stuff of nightmares. As always, with anything to do with product, know your customers and build solutions (including delivery models) that work for them.

Building the habit.

Want to change part of your life? If you do something for thirty days it becomes a habit. It can help people stop smoking, start exercising - break or make habits in your daily routine We use this to help Product Managers build the right discipline - thirty small tasks for the product manager to complete over 30 days. We deliver this as a card deck and once per day email. Want to try it? Drop us a note at info@tarigo.co.uk

Want to change part of your life? If you do something for thirty days it becomes a habit. It can help people stop smoking, start exercising - break or make habits in your daily routine We use this to help Product Managers build the right discipline - thirty small tasks for the product manager to complete over 30 days. We deliver this as a card deck and once per day email. Want to try it? Drop us a note at info@tarigo.co.uk

Metrics.

Over the next few days we’ll revue the key metrics that help you track and measure your product. We break these down into 5 categories:

• Product P&L
• Market
• New Business
• Customer
• Other

Starting with Product P&L, these are the key high level commercial and monetary metrics associated with managing your Product as a Business (PaaB). This could include revenues, costs, both direct and indirect and a resulting profitability measurement. These metrics are best worked out in collaboration with finance.

What metrics do you use to track and measure products?.

Over the next few days we’ll revue the key metrics that help you track and measure your product. We break these down into 5 categories:

• Product P&L
• Market
• New Business
• Customer
• Other

Starting with Product P&L, these are the key high level commercial and monetary metrics associated with managing your Product as a Business (PaaB). This could include revenues, costs, both direct and indirect and a resulting profitability measurement. These metrics are best worked out in collaboration with finance.

What metrics do you use to track and measure products?.

Portfolio Analysis

Here’s a tool we use for portfolio review. It enables you to look at your product portfolio through three lenses:

Tactically. We use a BCG matrix to assess whether our current product suite is in the right shape. For example, low-share products in no-growth markets are probably best removed.

Lifecyle. We plot our products in terms of stage of life cycle. For example, if your product suite clusters around late-stage growth you might be generating great profits today, but could feel portfolio-wide communication soon.

Strategically. Are the markets you are in likely to remain attractiv...

Here’s a tool we use for portfolio review. It enables you to look at your product portfolio through three lenses:

Tactically. We use a BCG matrix to assess whether our current product suite is in the right shape. For example, low-share products in no-growth markets are probably best removed.

Lifecyle. We plot our products in terms of stage of life cycle. For example, if your product suite clusters around late-stage growth you might be generating great profits today, but could feel portfolio-wide communication soon.

Strategically. Are the markets you are in likely to remain attractive and do you have capability to win in those markets. We use a multi-factorial matrix to answer this.

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Major Tasks

What are the major tasks for a Product Manager?

We’ve built this framework that describes what we need to think about throughout the product delivery process. The 5D process defines the point in the delivery cycle (From Direct, where we set product strategy, to Drive, where we use marginal gain to enhance our in-market product), and the blocks beneath describe the major activities. The framework is a useful tool to make sure you’re not missing anything major on your journey to Product Management Excellence!

What are the major tasks for a Product Manager?

We’ve built this framework that describes what we need to think about throughout the product delivery process. The 5D process defines the point in the delivery cycle (From Direct, where we set product strategy, to Drive, where we use marginal gain to enhance our in-market product), and the blocks beneath describe the major activities. The framework is a useful tool to make sure you’re not missing anything major on your journey to Product Management Excellence!

Product Narrative

What’s the narrative of your product?

We’ve had President Trump in the UK this week. I guess it’s fair to say he is a figure that generates a wide emotional response wherever he goes. But love him or hate him, he has a skill around messaging that serves him well. He’s a world-class narrative builder; Ask the question “What does Donald Trump stand for” and you get immediate response “Make America great again”, “Build the wall”, “Drain the swamp”. Ask the same question about his rival Hilary Clinton and the room goes quiet. You can love or hate the message, but he gets...

What’s the narrative of your product?

We’ve had President Trump in the UK this week. I guess it’s fair to say he is a figure that generates a wide emotional response wherever he goes. But love him or hate him, he has a skill around messaging that serves him well. He’s a world-class narrative builder; Ask the question “What does Donald Trump stand for” and you get immediate response “Make America great again”, “Build the wall”, “Drain the swamp”. Ask the same question about his rival Hilary Clinton and the room goes quiet. You can love or hate the message, but he gets it out there.

This translates into Product. What’s your product narrative? What do your customers think your product stands for?

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iTunes is dead.

Apple have announced that iTunes will be absorbed by the release of new and dedicated apps that will handle different media types separately – Apple Music, Apple Podcast, Apple TV.

From a product perspective, Does this make sense? & what considerations might have affected this change in direction?

Firstly, Apple music isn’t new. But it hasn’t been met with the same success that iTunes had when it was introduced. Perhaps this is the reason for dissolving iTunes – Apple music has traction already, but never matched up with its main competitor, Spotify. This move from Apple means th...

Apple have announced that iTunes will be absorbed by the release of new and dedicated apps that will handle different media types separately – Apple Music, Apple Podcast, Apple TV.

From a product perspective, Does this make sense? & what considerations might have affected this change in direction?

Firstly, Apple music isn’t new. But it hasn’t been met with the same success that iTunes had when it was introduced. Perhaps this is the reason for dissolving iTunes – Apple music has traction already, but never matched up with its main competitor, Spotify. This move from Apple means that they are able to better influence the on boarding of users by pushing them closer to the streaming platform.

The Apple TV and Apple Music names are newer and are already associated with products mores modern then that of iTunes and the decoupling of different media types feels like a brand update as well as a bit of a tidy up. Maybe this will allow there to be more focus on each platform, and therefore a better user experience!

Let us know what you think of this strategy from a product management perspective. Maybe we can come up with a better way to achieve the same goal!

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Revenue Forecast

Remember in school when you did a maths exam. You didn’t 100% for just getting the correct answer - you had to show your method and working. Same’s true in product management. When you build out your revenue forecast the answer can’t be a simple £100M! You need to show your working. Here’s our seven step model that helps put structure around forecasting.

Remember in school when you did a maths exam. You didn’t 100% for just getting the correct answer - you had to show your method and working. Same’s true in product management. When you build out your revenue forecast the answer can’t be a simple £100M! You need to show your working. Here’s our seven step model that helps put structure around forecasting.

Project vs Product Manager

Project manager and Product manager.
Our names are almost the same, so what’s the difference in these roles?
A project manager focuses on the project - making sure we deliver on time, on budget, on quality, etc.
A product manager focuses on the product - making sure the features and functions map to market needs.
We need each other to work well.

Project manager and Product manager.
Our names are almost the same, so what’s the difference in these roles?
A project manager focuses on the project - making sure we deliver on time, on budget, on quality, etc.
A product manager focuses on the product - making sure the features and functions map to market needs.
We need each other to work well.

Delivering value vs pain points

Delivering value vs addressing pain points

Sometimes the point of difference you have over a competitor has nothing to do with the product and all to do with an adjacent pain point you can address. Simple example, two companies supply house bricks to the construction industry. Their bricks are identical in every way. Which would the house builder choose? Conventional logic says “the cheapest” and both businesses would engage in a price war. But step away from the product and think about the bigger picture. House builders can have a real pain point around cash-flow – address that and y...

Delivering value vs addressing pain points

Sometimes the point of difference you have over a competitor has nothing to do with the product and all to do with an adjacent pain point you can address. Simple example, two companies supply house bricks to the construction industry. Their bricks are identical in every way. Which would the house builder choose? Conventional logic says “the cheapest” and both businesses would engage in a price war. But step away from the product and think about the bigger picture. House builders can have a real pain point around cash-flow – address that and you unlock a point of difference. Charging more per brick, but having payment terms that mean the house builder doesn’t pay until the property is sold is a potentially disruptive strategy

Even for Product Managers, it’s not always about the product.

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Disinter-mediation

Disinter-mediation is driving change

There’s a theme amongst many of our customers at the moment – when they look forward 5 years they see a radically different market as technology reduces the need for intermediaries between producers and consumers. This can be seen in many sectors; banking (p2p), legal (e-conveyancing) , finance (robotic accounting). Known generally as disinter-mediation, this trend generates risk and opportunity for Product Managers. But how should we react? The key is to understand who your customers are today and who they will be tomorrow – disinter-mediation doe...

Disinter-mediation is driving change

There’s a theme amongst many of our customers at the moment – when they look forward 5 years they see a radically different market as technology reduces the need for intermediaries between producers and consumers. This can be seen in many sectors; banking (p2p), legal (e-conveyancing) , finance (robotic accounting). Known generally as disinter-mediation, this trend generates risk and opportunity for Product Managers. But how should we react? The key is to understand who your customers are today and who they will be tomorrow – disinter-mediation does not necessarily remove the market need, but it can change the economic buyer. If your product is aimed at an intermediary its worth thinking about how disinter-mediation will impact your offer and how you need to change to appeal to those adjacent in the value chain.

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How should you retire a product?

Before starting a product retirement we use these six questions to check if retirement is something that should be considered – a set of basic checks to clarify why you’re retiring a product and what it will mean to you, your customers and your competition.

Before starting a product retirement we use these six questions to check if retirement is something that should be considered – a set of basic checks to clarify why you’re retiring a product and what it will mean to you, your customers and your competition.

PM health check

How do you review the maturity of a PM function? We use a 360 review:

• People

Without the right team in place it’s impossible to excel. We review the team through capability (Do they have the potential to be a great PM?), skills (Do they have the right PM experience?) and scale (Is there enough of them?)

• Processes

We review the full process, reporting, RACI, etc, viewing the process in terms of fit to your business (Risk vs reward vs scale vs speed vs certainty vs evidence vs innovation)

• Tools

Without standardisation, product managers use such a wide variety of t...

How do you review the maturity of a PM function? We use a 360 review:

• People

Without the right team in place it’s impossible to excel. We review the team through capability (Do they have the potential to be a great PM?), skills (Do they have the right PM experience?) and scale (Is there enough of them?)

• Processes

We review the full process, reporting, RACI, etc, viewing the process in terms of fit to your business (Risk vs reward vs scale vs speed vs certainty vs evidence vs innovation)

• Tools

Without standardisation, product managers use such a wide variety of tools that it becomes increasingly difficult for a management team to make reasoned decisions – they cannot do an ‘apples to apples’ comparison. We review the complete process suite for robustness, ease of use, visibility and adherence.

• Environment

A great PM team, with the right processes, tools and templates can still fail to thrive because of the environment - stakeholders, supporting processes and management not aligning with product. We review stakeholder teams leadership engagement and adjacent processes to asses alignment.

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Managing feature parity

Three customers I’m working with at the moment all have the same core issue; they’re going through a platform rewrite and are struggling with feature parity – thinking that the new product should offer EVERYTHING that the old product offered and more on day one. The start point is often bad customer- communication “Of course the new platform will deliver everything that the old one did” followed by blind panic at the realisation that feature parity will take years. Here are our tips for dealing with this:

• Find your new platform USP and make that the narrative – perhaps bette...

Three customers I’m working with at the moment all have the same core issue; they’re going through a platform rewrite and are struggling with feature parity – thinking that the new product should offer EVERYTHING that the old product offered and more on day one. The start point is often bad customer- communication “Of course the new platform will deliver everything that the old one did” followed by blind panic at the realisation that feature parity will take years. Here are our tips for dealing with this:

• Find your new platform USP and make that the narrative – perhaps better security, speed, data. Something the old platform doesn’t do has to be the focus

• Make the list and prioritise – there’s nearly always an 80/20 rule, so list every feature and find the 20% that customers really use to help define the MVP. Hard research required

• Find you initial sector – Don’t attempt a big bang release – find that sector who see most benefit around your new USP and who match your MVP

• Build from there – It took years to build your current platform. It will take time to build the new one.

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Aligning with the sales team

What do your sales team sell? Might sound a weird question and many Product Managers would respond with “They sell my products!” .But in truth some sales teams don’t sell product, they sell capability. Think of it like this; if the sales team hasn’t traditionally been well-served with great go-to-market messaging and collateral about the product set then they tend to develop a habit of selling capability – an approach where they say “You tell me what you want and we will get it built”. The most obvious symptom of this is that every customer has special requirements that load deve...

What do your sales team sell? Might sound a weird question and many Product Managers would respond with “They sell my products!” .But in truth some sales teams don’t sell product, they sell capability. Think of it like this; if the sales team hasn’t traditionally been well-served with great go-to-market messaging and collateral about the product set then they tend to develop a habit of selling capability – an approach where they say “You tell me what you want and we will get it built”. The most obvious symptom of this is that every customer has special requirements that load development and reduce product profitability. From a Product Manager perspective the best response is to get in front of your sales team, deliver great go-to-market content and make sure they are ready, willing and able to sell the product you’ve built. From a business perspective it’s worth thinking about how sales teams are rewarded – getting a bigger commission cheque for selling off-the-shelf vs could be the right incentive.

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Automation

Meet my new travel buddy. Not sure of his name, but he works in the hotel I’m staying in and can deliver things to my room. A gimmick or the start of a revolution?

In product management we often think of mega trends and the impact those trends will have on our market. My robot buddy fits into the trend of ‘automation’. This trend could drive huge change from autonomous vehicles through to robotic accounting. How impactful will automation be? We don’t know, but as product managers we better have a plan. The risk of no plan? Ask Kodak about digital photography or blockbuster about onl...

Meet my new travel buddy. Not sure of his name, but he works in the hotel I’m staying in and can deliver things to my room. A gimmick or the start of a revolution?

In product management we often think of mega trends and the impact those trends will have on our market. My robot buddy fits into the trend of ‘automation’. This trend could drive huge change from autonomous vehicles through to robotic accounting. How impactful will automation be? We don’t know, but as product managers we better have a plan. The risk of no plan? Ask Kodak about digital photography or blockbuster about online movie delivery and see the risks of ignoring trends.

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Measuring Product Managers

How do you measure product managers?

It’s a regular question - how should I assess a product manager? My view is a simple one - don’t assess what they do, assess what they help the business achieve. There are three things that an effective product manager can help a business achieve:

These are valuable to the business and define the value of product management to the organisation

How do you measure product managers?

It’s a regular question - how should I assess a product manager? My view is a simple one - don’t assess what they do, assess what they help the business achieve. There are three things that an effective product manager can help a business achieve:

These are valuable to the business and define the value of product management to the organisation

Marginal gain in action

Marginal gain in the Product Management world is about sweating the small stuff - taking care of the details that might just get you ahead of the competition. Here’s my real-world example. I landed in Shanghai yesterday, got to my hotel and found my laptop power supply not working. In a bit of a panic (I’ve got three days of presentation ahead of me) I went down to the hotel lobby for help. They checked if any were in lost property, and when that didn’t work they actually took me to a local store, dealt with the translation and, much to my relief, got me a temporary fix that will get me ...

Marginal gain in the Product Management world is about sweating the small stuff - taking care of the details that might just get you ahead of the competition. Here’s my real-world example. I landed in Shanghai yesterday, got to my hotel and found my laptop power supply not working. In a bit of a panic (I’ve got three days of presentation ahead of me) I went down to the hotel lobby for help. They checked if any were in lost property, and when that didn’t work they actually took me to a local store, dealt with the translation and, much to my relief, got me a temporary fix that will get me through the next few days. So how does this translate into marginal gain? Well next time I’m booking a hotel, this very positive experience of the Crowne Plaza will stay with me and make me more likely to book with them. Marginal gain works in aggregate – taking care of small stuff really does add up and make a difference.

Good job Cowne Plaza Shangai Xiayang Lake!

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What’s in a name?

Here is England the new royal baby has just been named - Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. For Archie it’s less important, but for most of us our name gives all sorts of clues as to who we are, where we came from, our gender, our age, etc. The same’s true with product naming. What we call our product, service or business can have significant impact on its success and position (Think Easyjet and you have a business name that can’t be exclusive and high-end). Then there are local language issues (Think Mitsubishi Pajero in South America), search engine optimisation problems, (call it so...

Here is England the new royal baby has just been named - Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. For Archie it’s less important, but for most of us our name gives all sorts of clues as to who we are, where we came from, our gender, our age, etc. The same’s true with product naming. What we call our product, service or business can have significant impact on its success and position (Think Easyjet and you have a business name that can’t be exclusive and high-end). Then there are local language issues (Think Mitsubishi Pajero in South America), search engine optimisation problems, (call it something so common it will be on page 5 of the search results or so complex and no-one will be able to spell it), etc. Here’s our checklist of things to think about when you name a product

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Customer Research

Making sense of customer research

So you’re conducting some customer research in the b2b world, trying to figure out if that new product idea is something your customers will buy and use. But how can you tell? You present your slide deck and they seem positive – but does that mean they will buy? This is a typical product management issue – trying to interpret customer reaction and turn it in to a revenue forecast. Here’s a simple tip. When you present your new idea hold three pieces of information back:

1. The price
2. The delivery date
3. Some integration details

Customers ...

Making sense of customer research

So you’re conducting some customer research in the b2b world, trying to figure out if that new product idea is something your customers will buy and use. But how can you tell? You present your slide deck and they seem positive – but does that mean they will buy? This is a typical product management issue – trying to interpret customer reaction and turn it in to a revenue forecast. Here’s a simple tip. When you present your new idea hold three pieces of information back:

1. The price
2. The delivery date
3. Some integration details

Customers with real interest will ask questions like “When can I have it?”, “How much is it?” or “Will it work with our back office processes?”. Customers who don’t ask are probably not interested.

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Building a business case

Building the business case is like doing a maths exam

“Build a business case”. A request many product managers hear when looking for funding for a new product or enhancement. But what do we mean by business case? Many take it to be some financials – a set of numbers to validate that by spending X we’ll gain Y (and hopefully Y is bigger than X!). But the financials are really just the business case summary. The rest of the document tells the full story – why we should build, what our market looks like, etc. It builds the narrative that makes the numbers believable. Think of it like...

Building the business case is like doing a maths exam

“Build a business case”. A request many product managers hear when looking for funding for a new product or enhancement. But what do we mean by business case? Many take it to be some financials – a set of numbers to validate that by spending X we’ll gain Y (and hopefully Y is bigger than X!). But the financials are really just the business case summary. The rest of the document tells the full story – why we should build, what our market looks like, etc. It builds the narrative that makes the numbers believable. Think of it like that maths exam you did at school, 1 point for the answer and 9 points for the method that got you there.

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Four Tips

Four tips for building outstanding Value Propositions

Building a really compelling value proposition is central to great Product Management – a great product needs great messaging to thrive in a market.

So how do we do it? The start point is to use a framework like the one in the image below, complete it, and then review it with these four simple rules:

1. Does it clearly identify a targetable market?
Know who you’re aiming at

2. Does it define a real and substantial need in that market?
Fix a problem they want you to fix

3. Is there clarity in the proposition and the valu...

Four tips for building outstanding Value Propositions

Building a really compelling value proposition is central to great Product Management – a great product needs great messaging to thrive in a market.

So how do we do it? The start point is to use a framework like the one in the image below, complete it, and then review it with these four simple rules:

1. Does it clearly identify a targetable market?
Know who you’re aiming at

2. Does it define a real and substantial need in that market?
Fix a problem they want you to fix

3. Is there clarity in the proposition and the value it delivers?
The market needs to understand what you’re trying to sell to them and why

4. Is there a defensible point of difference?
The market need to know why they should choose your product.

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Competitive landscapes

Here’s a neat tool to help Product Managers assess their competitive landscape . Based on the fact that customers buy or use products for a set of reasons, it takes value proposition thinking and gives more depth and detail. Here’s how to use it:

1. Define a set of factors that drive use and adoption of your product or service. For example, what a guest books a hotel room they will consider price, but they’ll also think about location, facilities, rating, etc

2. Prioritise these factors from most to least important from the customer perspective

3. Plot your product in terms of e...

Here’s a neat tool to help Product Managers assess their competitive landscape . Based on the fact that customers buy or use products for a set of reasons, it takes value proposition thinking and gives more depth and detail. Here’s how to use it:

1. Define a set of factors that drive use and adoption of your product or service. For example, what a guest books a hotel room they will consider price, but they’ll also think about location, facilities, rating, etc

2. Prioritise these factors from most to least important from the customer perspective

3. Plot your product in terms of execution – score high if you deliver really well on a factor, low is you execute poorly

4. Plot your competitors on the same graph

You can then think about action – where to invest or where to promote so that you optimise the value you deliver.

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Beating commoditization

Many Product Managers struggle with a ‘me too’– they believe that their product has no discernible point of difference, so price is the only point they can win on. It’s true that commonization at a feature level is a fact of life for some teams, but that does not mean price is the only difference left. Think about your own purchasing experience – product is important, but so is service, brand, availability, etc. The point is, people buy and use products for a range of factors and Product Managers should try and find points of difference across that range. Here’s our tip, step thr...

Many Product Managers struggle with a ‘me too’– they believe that their product has no discernible point of difference, so price is the only point they can win on. It’s true that commonization at a feature level is a fact of life for some teams, but that does not mean price is the only difference left. Think about your own purchasing experience – product is important, but so is service, brand, availability, etc. The point is, people buy and use products for a range of factors and Product Managers should try and find points of difference across that range. Here’s our tip, step through the 7 P’s of marketing and for each one try and identify a USP – you might find that your commoditized product is in fact a proposition with clear points of difference when you look though this lens.

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Minimal Viable Product

We’re all familiar with the Minimal Viable Product concept. Granted, it gets misused, but the idea of finding a point of initial traction with a product and iterating from there is attractive. So how does this work with things like platform upgrades? It’s a common issue; development have spent months building a new platform, it promises great things in the future, but currently it does not have every single feature of the outgoing product. When sales try and sell it they hit many brick walls. The key problem is that lifecyle management is missed – the team try and promote their new solut...

We’re all familiar with the Minimal Viable Product concept. Granted, it gets misused, but the idea of finding a point of initial traction with a product and iterating from there is attractive. So how does this work with things like platform upgrades? It’s a common issue; development have spent months building a new platform, it promises great things in the future, but currently it does not have every single feature of the outgoing product. When sales try and sell it they hit many brick walls. The key problem is that lifecyle management is missed – the team try and promote their new solution to every customer when in truth only a small number of innovators will be willing to move. The trick is to find those who benefit most from the upgrade and use them as a reference to the rest of the market. For example, if you’ve moved from enterprise to cloud, your innovators are likely to have more issues around on-premise hardware – use that to open the door, build references and cross the chasm. Think of it as a steady transition through the adoption curve rather than a big bang and you’ll be closer to reality.

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Growth – Who’s job is it?

Growth is something we are all familiar with. But are we fully aware of where the responsibility of growth lies?

We all get set our own targets to hit, but growth is more than just a target. Being able to produce the capability of growth, and with that – large scale growth, is a different thing entirely. Growth has become a fundamental of the product itself and therefore a lot of the responsibility lies with the product manager.

So, where does growth start? First, it’s important to note that as a product manager, growth starts with the vision - How big are you looking at the opport...

Growth is something we are all familiar with. But are we fully aware of where the responsibility of growth lies?

We all get set our own targets to hit, but growth is more than just a target. Being able to produce the capability of growth, and with that – large scale growth, is a different thing entirely. Growth has become a fundamental of the product itself and therefore a lot of the responsibility lies with the product manager.

So, where does growth start? First, it’s important to note that as a product manager, growth starts with the vision - How big are you looking at the opportunity you’ve identified? You will not be able to influence growth if you aren’t planning for growth.

Planning growth cannot happen if you, as a product manager, don’t have a deep understanding of your product! With a clear and deep understanding of your product, it is possible to coherently communicate concise points of value to the customer.

Ultimately, the goal is to manage the communication of the product so that target customers move to a point of curiosity and interest as quickly as possible… within seconds of seeing your product!

As product managers, we are pulling on the strings of influence as oppose to directing this process first hand!

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Are Apple Pro?

Apple are very good at using marginal gains each product release to maintain a point of difference over the competitor. Once you include Apple ID, iTunes, Apple music and iCloud, it becomes a whole infrastructure that surrounds their products. A slightly different approach to retaining a customer base.

Apple becomes part of your lifestyle, which makes it more difficult to change over to a different brand later on. Being aware of this helps us to realise that each product release has become more iterative as appose to innovative, in recent years. In fact, some changes caused more pain for th...

Apple are very good at using marginal gains each product release to maintain a point of difference over the competitor. Once you include Apple ID, iTunes, Apple music and iCloud, it becomes a whole infrastructure that surrounds their products. A slightly different approach to retaining a customer base.

Apple becomes part of your lifestyle, which makes it more difficult to change over to a different brand later on. Being aware of this helps us to realise that each product release has become more iterative as appose to innovative, in recent years. In fact, some changes caused more pain for the consumer than good. Take the headphone jack, or lack off, as an example.

This wasn’t always the case for Apple – Their Pro systems and phones were innovations that changed workflow for photo, video and music editing, amongst plenty more professional application that required a lot of computing power!

From a customer perspective you might be scared off to other brands when considering the cost of being an Apple user today. This may explain how Samsung and Huawei are selling more smart phones than Apple, by a considerable margin.

But Apple are getting something right, even with a lack of market share they are pulling in dominant revenue figures!

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Testing Process

Samsung have some serious work to do to fix ‘foldgate’ – the new foldable handset that seems remarkably easy to break in the hands of the media who have versions ahead of release date.

The launch has been delayed, but some warm words from Samsung won’t fix this – would you put $2000 of your money into one when Samsung says “we’ve fixed the issue” in a few weeks time? Thought not. A sceptical market will need many proof points before they’ll be willing to spend. And the impact will be felt outside Samsung. They were in a race to beat Motorola, Huawei and others with a fol...

Samsung have some serious work to do to fix ‘foldgate’ – the new foldable handset that seems remarkably easy to break in the hands of the media who have versions ahead of release date.

The launch has been delayed, but some warm words from Samsung won’t fix this – would you put $2000 of your money into one when Samsung says “we’ve fixed the issue” in a few weeks time? Thought not. A sceptical market will need many proof points before they’ll be willing to spend. And the impact will be felt outside Samsung. They were in a race to beat Motorola, Huawei and others with a foldable device. Samsung have made the chasm bigger for everyone to cross.

The one Product Management lesson I take from this is the testing process. Samsung proudly released videos of the fold being stress tested by robots. The problem is this; robots are not people, and people treat your product in ways you didn’t expect. I would always recommend the use of external test labs where people who don’t live and breathe your product get to show you how it works in the real world.

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Presenting to your peers Pt.2

4. Start Strongly you have 3 minutes to impress
The first three minutes, as when you first meet someone, is so important to a presentation. Make eye contact and smile, make sure the first 3 minutes of the presentation holds the stakeholder’s attention. Make them laugh!
Think of a story that is relevant at the start of the presentation which will hold the audience

5. Don’t use the presentation as a script
Don’t bore the audience with ‘Death by PowerPoint’. By all means use the presentation as a reminder but do this in as fewer words as possible and use images if you can.
You...

4. Start Strongly you have 3 minutes to impress
The first three minutes, as when you first meet someone, is so important to a presentation. Make eye contact and smile, make sure the first 3 minutes of the presentation holds the stakeholder’s attention. Make them laugh!
Think of a story that is relevant at the start of the presentation which will hold the audience

5. Don’t use the presentation as a script
Don’t bore the audience with ‘Death by PowerPoint’. By all means use the presentation as a reminder but do this in as fewer words as possible and use images if you can.
You want your stakeholders to listen to you, not be deciphering what the slides are saying

6. Tell stories
The best presenters are raconteurs, who can tell a story about the subject and keep an audience’s attention. We all relate to stories, we also remember things better through stories.
Make your story funny and about you

7. Relax and enjoy
Many people find it hard to relax and enjoy a presentation, but your body language and the speed you speak will have a major effect on the stakeholder’s perception, if you know your subject and if you can get a message across. Breath, and slow your delivery of the presentation down.
Remember you know more about your solution than they do.

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Presenting to your peers Pt.1

The ability to communicate well is an important skill for any Product Manager. This means, among other things, that you should be able to present about your solution fluently and to different stakeholders, who will require different levels of information.

A persuasive presentation not only requires thorough preparation of content, but also good style. For this purpose, here are some tips to offer guidance and help you on the way to delivering a memorable presentation.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most importa...

The ability to communicate well is an important skill for any Product Manager. This means, among other things, that you should be able to present about your solution fluently and to different stakeholders, who will require different levels of information.

A persuasive presentation not only requires thorough preparation of content, but also good style. For this purpose, here are some tips to offer guidance and help you on the way to delivering a memorable presentation.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do this is to let passion for your solution shine through.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Stakeholders Needs

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what your stakeholders need and what they want to know, not what you can tell them.

Don’t show your homework, just because it makes you feel good

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

You should be able to communicate that key message very succinctly.

Always have in mind what are the core three points I want to get across?

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Strategy

Beating the competition with Strategy

Strategy is at the core of delivering a solution effectively. For Product Mangers, it is absolutely vital that they become acquainted with strategic thinking in order to plan for the future and always be that one step ahead of the competition.

Strategy can come into play in many areas.

- How have you set your team up?

- What methods are in place to communicate with transparency?

- What does the future of your product look like?

- How do you plan to attain your product vision?

All of these points relate to strategic thinking and could b...

Beating the competition with Strategy

Strategy is at the core of delivering a solution effectively. For Product Mangers, it is absolutely vital that they become acquainted with strategic thinking in order to plan for the future and always be that one step ahead of the competition.

Strategy can come into play in many areas.

- How have you set your team up?

- What methods are in place to communicate with transparency?

- What does the future of your product look like?

- How do you plan to attain your product vision?

All of these points relate to strategic thinking and could be the difference between 1st and 2nd place.

For example - Take the Formula 1 season so far, three races in and Mercedes have done what was only last done by the Williams team in 1992. Starting the season with 3 back-to-back 1-2 finishes. Dominating the points table.

BUT!

They haven't been as dominant as the points might suggest, with the Ferrari pace causing them issues. So, how have they got themselves into such a strong position so early on?

Strategy!

In practice, in qualifying and in race. They have executed strategy throughout the entire team so coherently and effectively that, so far, they haven't made a mistake and capitalised on other’s issues!

It pays to be ahead with strategy!

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Part 2

Getting Product culture right in your organisation Part 2.

The Product Manager is the person responsible for defining the Why? When and What? of the product that the engineering team builds. It is an important organisational role that:

- Sets the vision and strategy for the business solutions

- Communicates the roadmap

- Defines the feature definition for a product or product line.

- The position may also include marketing, forecasting, and profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. In many ways, the role of a Product Manager is similar in concept to being a CEO of a solution.

...

Getting Product culture right in your organisation Part 2.

The Product Manager is the person responsible for defining the Why? When and What? of the product that the engineering team builds. It is an important organisational role that:

- Sets the vision and strategy for the business solutions

- Communicates the roadmap

- Defines the feature definition for a product or product line.

- The position may also include marketing, forecasting, and profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. In many ways, the role of a Product Manager is similar in concept to being a CEO of a solution.

Product Managers provide the deep product expertise needed to lead the organisation and make strategic product decisions. They analyse market and competitive conditions, laying out a product vision that is differentiated and delivers unique value based on customer needs. The role spans many activities from strategic to tactical and provides important cross-functional leadership most notably between engineering, marketing, sales, and support teams.

The help in transparent cross-team communication means that everyone in the company is working towards the same goal and product messages don’t get diluted or misrepresented, it’s this accuracy in communicating that helps drive product success!!

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Part 1

Getting product culture in your organisation part 1.

Through the many years of working with different companies, it is amazing how many people say the product sells itself. Yet the truth in many cases is:

- The solution has cost far more than it had to, because they didn’t truly understand their market needs, so compensated by building everything a customer wants.

- Had no control on costs and this means no control on profit.

- The price normally was too low, as no understanding of the competition or value.

- The product was not used to its full potential, so customers didn’...

Getting product culture in your organisation part 1.

Through the many years of working with different companies, it is amazing how many people say the product sells itself. Yet the truth in many cases is:

- The solution has cost far more than it had to, because they didn’t truly understand their market needs, so compensated by building everything a customer wants.

- Had no control on costs and this means no control on profit.

- The price normally was too low, as no understanding of the competition or value.

- The product was not used to its full potential, so customers didn’t understand the true benefit.

- The business doesn’t understand the value of the solution, so direction of where the business is going is organic, with no true vision.

If you see truth in the above then maybe your organisation isn’t quite hitting the mark in getting product culture right and therefore product management, and the organisation could benefit massively by making some small changes to this.

This is where Product Managers are able to add value to a company, driving the commercial success of a product and leading the cross functional teams to deliver a solution that meets the needs of customers and drives the greatest growth for the business.

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Importance of persona’s Part 2

The importance of persona’s Part 2

The Benefits of Persona Development

If you don’t think Personas are worth the trouble, think again. Benefits include:

· Personas give stakeholders an opportunity to discuss critical features of a redesign: Using Personas to walk stakeholders through common interactions unveils frustrations and pain-points that will help clarify actual user priorities over the stakeholder’s personal wish list.

· They help team members share a consistent understanding of the user group: Personas take data and make the stories more compelling and fun, thus ma...

The importance of persona’s Part 2

The Benefits of Persona Development

If you don’t think Personas are worth the trouble, think again. Benefits include:

· Personas give stakeholders an opportunity to discuss critical features of a redesign: Using Personas to walk stakeholders through common interactions unveils frustrations and pain-points that will help clarify actual user priorities over the stakeholder’s personal wish list.

· They help team members share a consistent understanding of the user group: Personas take data and make the stories more compelling and fun, thus making them easier to remember and consider when the team is working towards a solution – together.

· Personas help designers develop informed wireframes and site architecture: Since Personas focus on the needs of the users, the team can walk through scenarios and determine optimal placement of content to specifically support the goal of the product. This is vital to the success of a website or application and could save a lot of time, effort and money!

· Personas provide a “face” to the user story, creating more empathy and understanding about the person using
the product: This prevents designers and developers from applying their own mental models to the product design which may not align with actual user needs.

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Importance of Personas Part 1

The importance of Personas Part 1

A “Persona” is a fictional representation of an actual user and is applied in the early stages of product development or product redesign. Personas are vital to the success of a product because they drive design decisions by taking common user needs and bringing them to the forefront of planning before design has actually started. Personas provide the team with a shared understanding of users in terms of goals and capabilities.

We use a persona map to efficiently store all of the information of our personas. The canvas is split into sections – Give...

The importance of Personas Part 1

A “Persona” is a fictional representation of an actual user and is applied in the early stages of product development or product redesign. Personas are vital to the success of a product because they drive design decisions by taking common user needs and bringing them to the forefront of planning before design has actually started. Personas provide the team with a shared understanding of users in terms of goals and capabilities.

We use a persona map to efficiently store all of the information of our personas. The canvas is split into sections – Give your persona a name and fill out their background information i.e. age, occupation. Try to include as much background information as possible! Then we have to get into the minds of the persona and generate as much detail as we can about; how they think and feel, the environments they are exposed to, what they hear and what they see.

Collecting Data to Make Persona’s

Because Personas are fictional representations of actual users, they’ll only work if you fully understand who your users are – or will be. The more information you have, the better. Generally, 4-7 Personas (whittled down from several user groups) are sufficient to capture and document a majority of user requirements.

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better product communicators

Leaders of Product Management often ask how to get their team to be better product communicators - to be able to get their message across well. My response is to ask one simple question “When did you last ask the team about value propositions?”. Here are some simple tips to drive better product communications:

1. Be value proposition obsessed
Test the team regularly by getting them to present the following:
• Elevator pitch
• Five minute overview
• Product vision
• Value proposition
• Objection handling

2. Measure communications effectiveness
• E.g. does the sal...

Leaders of Product Management often ask how to get their team to be better product communicators - to be able to get their message across well. My response is to ask one simple question “When did you last ask the team about value propositions?”. Here are some simple tips to drive better product communications:

1. Be value proposition obsessed
Test the team regularly by getting them to present the following:
• Elevator pitch
• Five minute overview
• Product vision
• Value proposition
• Objection handling

2. Measure communications effectiveness
• E.g. does the sales team know the message

3. Coach on multi-channel delivery
• Face to face
• Audio
• Video
• Written

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Think more strategically

Leaders of Product Management are often concerned that their team are all tactics and no strategy. The question asked is “How do I make product managers more strategy focused”. The answer often lies with the manager – teams focus on what they’re measured, rewarded and questioned on.

So if you want your team to think more strategically here are some simple tips:

1. Set an objective for building a vision – if they have it as an objective, it’s more likely to happen

2. Talk strategy – if you only ever talk to your team about short term, urgent issues, they’ll only focus ...

Leaders of Product Management are often concerned that their team are all tactics and no strategy. The question asked is “How do I make product managers more strategy focused”. The answer often lies with the manager – teams focus on what they’re measured, rewarded and questioned on.

So if you want your team to think more strategically here are some simple tips:

1. Set an objective for building a vision – if they have it as an objective, it’s more likely to happen

2. Talk strategy – if you only ever talk to your team about short term, urgent issues, they’ll only focus on the short term.

3. Coach on urgent vs important – help them understand how to manage workload and recognise that we must take care of our products today (urgent) be we cannot forget about the future and must have an eye on where to go next (important)

4. Test strategy – a quarterly review keeps the team focused

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NFR’s

Make NFR’s one of the first things you understand?

In Systems engineering and Requirements engineering, a non-functional requirement is a requirement that specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific behaviours. For example: Scalability, Accessibility, Capacity. However, it should be about more than this in a SaaS world!

From an Architecture perspective, you need to get this right or you will have heavy costs fixing issues in the future. More importantly you should be setting out what your expectations of the overall customer experience l...

Make NFR’s one of the first things you understand?

In Systems engineering and Requirements engineering, a non-functional requirement is a requirement that specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific behaviours. For example: Scalability, Accessibility, Capacity. However, it should be about more than this in a SaaS world!

From an Architecture perspective, you need to get this right or you will have heavy costs fixing issues in the future. More importantly you should be setting out what your expectations of the overall customer experience looks like.

When thinking of your NFR’s, think about the experience you want your customers to have and draw out all these journeys, so that every area of the business is aware of their responsibility. Just some questions to ask are:

- Are we going to offer free trials? If so, how are we going to support them? What do we need from development, sales, pre-sales, marketing?

- What is the work flow for customers to purchase? Do we have Account Managers selling? Are we expecting customers to purchase from a portal?

- Are we going to do all training online? Do we have partners who need to train the software? Who across the business needs to be involved?

- How are we going to support our customers, once they are trained and on-board?

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What Makes a Good PM

How do you identify a good Product Manager?

I'm constantly asked what makes a great Product Manager. In my experience, a strong Product Manager is the CEO of their solution and gets involved in all aspects from inception to launch, and then in-life management. Due to this I am a strong believer in ‘Hire for attitude, train for skill’. If someone has the right behaviours, then you can teach them the skills to be a great product manager.

My approach to interviewing is firstly to understand their personality, so :

1) Can they fit into the team dynamic? (disruption of the ‘status qu...

How do you identify a good Product Manager?

I'm constantly asked what makes a great Product Manager. In my experience, a strong Product Manager is the CEO of their solution and gets involved in all aspects from inception to launch, and then in-life management. Due to this I am a strong believer in ‘Hire for attitude, train for skill’. If someone has the right behaviours, then you can teach them the skills to be a great product manager.

My approach to interviewing is firstly to understand their personality, so :

1) Can they fit into the team dynamic? (disruption of the ‘status quo’ to strengthen is ok as well)

2) What does their personality bring to the team that is currently missing?

3) Do I think they can work within a team, yet be focused enough to work on their own and drive the solutions that they will be managing?

4) Are they tenacious and can they prove this?

5) Have they got the right social skills to be able to work with a number of disciplines around the company?

6) Are they someone that thrives on ownership and responsibility?

An initial 1-2-1 personal interview approach allows the candidate to understand if the company is the right fit for them. They get to know my expectations and the companies.

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Product Strategy

I have worked with many CEO’s who say the trouble with strategising is they don’t see any action! People can procrastinate around strategy and in many cases, boards are reluctant to spend money, if there are any questions unanswered, or like Donald Rumsfeld said, “known unknowns”.

However, like a lot of situations in business, what is the right amount of information to make a decision? You cannot know everything at the beginning and like the rest of the product process you will continue to iterate the strategy as you have more information and realign.

A strategy lays out a plan o...

I have worked with many CEO’s who say the trouble with strategising is they don’t see any action! People can procrastinate around strategy and in many cases, boards are reluctant to spend money, if there are any questions unanswered, or like Donald Rumsfeld said, “known unknowns”.

However, like a lot of situations in business, what is the right amount of information to make a decision? You cannot know everything at the beginning and like the rest of the product process you will continue to iterate the strategy as you have more information and realign.

A strategy lays out a plan on how that goal will be achieved. Without a product strategy, product execution is often haphazard, moving from one crisis to the next or from one deal to the next, as you will be redirected by the different priorities of your internal stakeholders.

If you do not own the strategy, communicate it and get buy-in from all your stakeholders, everyone else will set a strategy in their heads and start to communicate it, it will become hard to own the direction of your solution(s). This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be listening to all stakeholders, but you need to own the strategy and direction of your solution.

Remember you are the CEO of your Products!

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Usage Analytics

Why do people forget usage analytics?

According to McKinsey, if a software company grows at only 20%, it has a 92% chance of ceasing to exist within a few years.

This means that software companies - particularly SaaS companies - must look at every advantage possible to stay alive in an ever-competitive market, remember it is the small margins that can be the deciding factor as to how successful you are.

Customer analytics can be just one way that gives you that competitive edge. Whether it is measuring retention, product usage, or on-boarding, SaaS businesses must have comprehensive d...

Why do people forget usage analytics?

According to McKinsey, if a software company grows at only 20%, it has a 92% chance of ceasing to exist within a few years.

This means that software companies - particularly SaaS companies - must look at every advantage possible to stay alive in an ever-competitive market, remember it is the small margins that can be the deciding factor as to how successful you are.

Customer analytics can be just one way that gives you that competitive edge. Whether it is measuring retention, product usage, or on-boarding, SaaS businesses must have comprehensive data collection and usage analytics, thus enabling them to make agile decisions as to the priorities and direction of their overall solution.

When starting a project, make sure that usage analytics are part of the initial NFR’s think about, what information do you want to understand and act upon. Ask your stakeholders what information would they find useful to support their business area and so they can offer the best service they possibly can. Ensure the Architect and development lead build in these analytics from the beginning, as you want the feedback at every opportunity.

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Maintaining a business case

How many of us build out a business case to get our product funded and then simply forget it? It worth remembering that the business case changes as conditions change; customers, markets, competition, risks, numbers, etc all can change. To build the business case once and then forget it is to neglect this fundamental of change. And if we build the business case and forget it, we’re building a product for historical market conditions – what our markets used to look like.

Simple product management tip – make a habit of reviewing your business case and updating it – 15 minutes per wee...

How many of us build out a business case to get our product funded and then simply forget it? It worth remembering that the business case changes as conditions change; customers, markets, competition, risks, numbers, etc all can change. To build the business case once and then forget it is to neglect this fundamental of change. And if we build the business case and forget it, we’re building a product for historical market conditions – what our markets used to look like.

Simple product management tip – make a habit of reviewing your business case and updating it – 15 minutes per week where you record any new information that you’ve uncovered over the last 7 days so you always have an up-to-date record.

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marginal improvement program

I’m working with a team who have a 5% market share and falling vs a competitor at 35%. Simple question – what should they do?. To answer this Product Managers first need to establish how competitive their product offer is. It’s very easy to think the competition is too far ahead by looking simply at market share, but that’s not always the full picture – it could be that the competitor is marginally better, and that marginal advantage turns into market dominance (i.e. most customers choose the competitor because it’s ever so slightly better). So before throwing your product away and...

I’m working with a team who have a 5% market share and falling vs a competitor at 35%. Simple question – what should they do?. To answer this Product Managers first need to establish how competitive their product offer is. It’s very easy to think the competition is too far ahead by looking simply at market share, but that’s not always the full picture – it could be that the competitor is marginally better, and that marginal advantage turns into market dominance (i.e. most customers choose the competitor because it’s ever so slightly better). So before throwing your product away and starting again, think about a marginal improvement program.

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Do Product Management have power

A question that comes up frequently on the basis that we often have significant responsibility for our product. So, don’t we need enough authority to execute our responsibilities? The short answer is no - product management is a role of influence rather than direct control. We influence leadership teams to invest in products, right the way through to influencing sales teams to focus on our product. So how do we gain influence? Through evidence - coherent and compelling market research. Want to secure that 7 figure investment from your leadership team? Compelling evidence is what it takes. Re...

A question that comes up frequently on the basis that we often have significant responsibility for our product. So, don’t we need enough authority to execute our responsibilities? The short answer is no - product management is a role of influence rather than direct control. We influence leadership teams to invest in products, right the way through to influencing sales teams to focus on our product. So how do we gain influence? Through evidence - coherent and compelling market research. Want to secure that 7 figure investment from your leadership team? Compelling evidence is what it takes. Remember, no one is really interested in the opinion of the product management team, they’re interested in the evidence you bring from the markets you serve.

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Pricing is a strategy

Pricing is a strategy, not just a number Too many product teams treat pricing as an afterthought - they come up with a number some time near launch when asked “how much is it?”. Pricing should be something we start thinking about at ideation and build a strategy for through to launch. Think of products such as the HP inkjet - it’s priced using a penetration and premium model (printers are low price to penetrate the market, ink is high price to generate profit). This pricing model directs design decisions (e.g. make printers with different ink cartridge design to protect the market from ...

Pricing is a strategy, not just a number Too many product teams treat pricing as an afterthought - they come up with a number some time near launch when asked “how much is it?”. Pricing should be something we start thinking about at ideation and build a strategy for through to launch. Think of products such as the HP inkjet - it’s priced using a penetration and premium model (printers are low price to penetrate the market, ink is high price to generate profit). This pricing model directs design decisions (e.g. make printers with different ink cartridge design to protect the market from a third party ink manufacturers). It’s clearly thought about way in advance. And it’s not an isolated case - think of google with a free to use search engine and the ad words business. Don’t think of a number just before launch!

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Building the product funnel

Sales team often think of sales pipeline – a tool that enables them to describe where customers are in the sales process from initial contact through to closed. It helps the sales manager build a robust forecast, track progress within the sales team and give an early indicator of issues – no new leads in the pipeline won’t affect this quarter but will impact the next. Product managers can adopt this technique too – building a product funnel that helps them visualise how their product is tracking. Think of building a suite of metrics that don’t just measure success (e.g. revenue, prof...

Sales team often think of sales pipeline – a tool that enables them to describe where customers are in the sales process from initial contact through to closed. It helps the sales manager build a robust forecast, track progress within the sales team and give an early indicator of issues – no new leads in the pipeline won’t affect this quarter but will impact the next. Product managers can adopt this technique too – building a product funnel that helps them visualise how their product is tracking. Think of building a suite of metrics that don’t just measure success (e.g. revenue, profit), but also lead metrics that show we’re heading in the right direction (e.g. Lighthouse customer reference, product launch date, customer feedback, etc). This gives confidence that your tracking to plan.

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Why is growth so important?

We all want our business to grow, but how important is it? Growth is much more than a nice-to-have. It’s a fundamental for success; competition is a daily reality and without growth, you are offering opportunities for others to establish in your markets. Think of it like this, over 20,000 tech businesses were registered across Europe last year alone. That’s 20,000 more reasons to grow before they start to take a share of your business. Growing isn’t about greed, it’s about survival.

We all want our business to grow, but how important is it? Growth is much more than a nice-to-have. It’s a fundamental for success; competition is a daily reality and without growth, you are offering opportunities for others to establish in your markets. Think of it like this, over 20,000 tech businesses were registered across Europe last year alone. That’s 20,000 more reasons to grow before they start to take a share of your business. Growing isn’t about greed, it’s about survival.

Building trust in a brand

A team I was working with earlier this week have a goal of being “The trusted brand” in their sector and they were looking at how to make that happen. This is one of those topics with no shortcut - building brand trust takes time. My example; having just stepped off flight number 18 of the year so far the one constant travel companion over the last 20 years has been #samsonite. The picture below shows my current selection that has been beaten and battered through more airport terminals than I care to remember. They never let me down. Building brand trust isn’t about getting it right onc...

A team I was working with earlier this week have a goal of being “The trusted brand” in their sector and they were looking at how to make that happen. This is one of those topics with no shortcut - building brand trust takes time. My example; having just stepped off flight number 18 of the year so far the one constant travel companion over the last 20 years has been #samsonite. The picture below shows my current selection that has been beaten and battered through more airport terminals than I care to remember. They never let me down. Building brand trust isn’t about getting it right once, it’s repeatedly delivering. So every time you release a product ask the question “does this live up to our brand goals”, and trust will eventually follow.

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Life-cycle

You can’t size a product opportunity without knowing about Life-cycle

A recurring theme in my world is a frustration in many organisations about their inability to forecast. It’s pretty obvious why we need to do this – if you can’t scale an opportunity then you can’t right-size the organisation. But I constantly meet teams where the forecast is orders of magnitude wrong. Fundamental to this is lack of understanding life-cycle – a model that describes how a market turns on and off over time as different types of users buy in to your product. The main point being that a market is ...

You can’t size a product opportunity without knowing about Life-cycle

A recurring theme in my world is a frustration in many organisations about their inability to forecast. It’s pretty obvious why we need to do this – if you can’t scale an opportunity then you can’t right-size the organisation. But I constantly meet teams where the forecast is orders of magnitude wrong. Fundamental to this is lack of understanding life-cycle – a model that describes how a market turns on and off over time as different types of users buy in to your product. The main point being that a market is not available on one day – some customers buy in early, some much later. Think of this as an adoption model and when you’re trying to build a revenue forecast your Total Addressable Market is limited to that stage of life-cycle your product is in. For example, a $100M market won’t be bigger than $5M in the introductory phase until some lighthouse customers have bought in.

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Five of five – Drive

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time time frame, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Drive – Build on your success

Getting a product successfully out to market is a huge success. Great job! But, let’s not forget that on launch day you’re likely to have spent huge amounts on developing your product. Now i...

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time time frame, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Drive – Build on your success

Getting a product successfully out to market is a huge success. Great job! But, let’s not forget that on launch day you’re likely to have spent huge amounts on developing your product. Now it’s time to see a return on that investment. Throughout the drive phase, Product Managers use a marginal gain model – identifying small improvements to all aspects of their product that will make them more competitive for longer. They use win/loss analysis, competitor and customer insight, trend data, etc to continuously improve because they recognise that their markets are not static. Using this model they maximise the benefit of their solution to customers, maximise the return to their business and lengthen the lifecyle of their product before taking it through a planned replacement and withdrawal process.

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Four of five - Deliver

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Deliver – launch with momentum

Building a great product is only part-way to success– great technology needs great messaging, marketing and planning to turn it into a world class solution. Product Managers work with marketin...

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Deliver – launch with momentum

Building a great product is only part-way to success– great technology needs great messaging, marketing and planning to turn it into a world class solution. Product Managers work with marketing teams to ensure the value of the product is clearly articulated by producing winning value propositions for target personas, launch planning and creating campaigns. They also work with delivery teams to ensure an effective launch - making sure elements such as naming, pricing, or support don’t get forgotten in the rush to market.

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Three of five - Define

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Define – translating the best opportunities into business cases and user stories.

The next step is to do a deep dive – clearly understand the market need, translate it for our development and delivery teams, and build out a...

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Define – translating the best opportunities into business cases and user stories.

The next step is to do a deep dive – clearly understand the market need, translate it for our development and delivery teams, and build out a robust plan. . To do this, Product Managers construct a business case. This provides justification for undertaking the project by demonstrating the value delivered versus the cost and risk involved. It focuses on validating a set of core questions that drive the business case. As part of this process, we start to build out requirements - Personas, user journeys and high-level user stories that translate customer needs into the language that development and build teams use that we prioritise and track through to product launch. All of this work is driven by deep dive market research

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Two of five - Discover

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time time frame, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Discover – assessing new ideas

Into the product management world comes with huge numbers of ideas. These ideas range in scope and type; new products, new markets, enhancements, pricing initiatives…. the list is endless. Al...

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time time frame, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s continue with Discover – assessing new ideas

Into the product management world comes with huge numbers of ideas. These ideas range in scope and type; new products, new markets, enhancements, pricing initiatives…. the list is endless. All ideas are welcome, but not all should be delivered. Some just don’t make sense; they might not deliver benefit or fit with vision, or perhaps they overlap with our existing products. As for the rest, we prioritise them based on how well they serve our customers and how they fit with our plans.

We use our one-page innovation canvas to structure this process; 10 questions that help us uncover winning ideas and prioritise those that remain. The key is quick feedback; delivering bad news is always best done quickly so we let idea originators know how we’ve prioritised their idea before their expectation & anticipation builds.

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One of five - Direct

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.e of five - Direct

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s start with Direct – setting the product vision.

Imagine stepping on a plane and the Captain announces “Not sure where we’re going today, we’ll just take off and fly and see where we end up”. Pretty unnerving, but ...

Over the week we’re going to step through the Product Management process. We call this our 5D process; Direct, Discover, Define, Deliver & Drive.e of five - Direct

Process Is vital for successful Product Management – it ensures we build the right products at the right price point in the right time timeframe, communicated well to the right customers.

So, let’s start with Direct – setting the product vision.

Imagine stepping on a plane and the Captain announces “Not sure where we’re going today, we’ll just take off and fly and see where we end up”. Pretty unnerving, but this is how many product managers captain their product – no sense of final destination.

Having a product vision underpins our work. Without one we run the risk of being directionless; busy with work but doing nothing to move our product towards a grand vision. Essentially we go around in circles.

To address this Product Managers set a clear and coherent direction for their product. Building a 360-degree view of the landscape - markets, competition, current offers, mega trends and business goals - and then defining a product vision to drive the desired result.

You wouldn’t set out on a flight with a plan. Don’t set out on a product journey with a vision.

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Building a tech business

Stephen Allott shared his thoughts about building a tech business at the PMC launch this week. Stephen has an incredible track record in the tech sector and has built a business to a $7Bn market capitalisation.

1. Hire the best
He talked through some of his hiring at Micromuse, for him one of the magic ingredients for success was an insistence on hiring the best. Not ‘good enough’ and not a body to fill a hole in an org chart, but world-class individuals.

2. Dream big and clearly
His view was to step five years into the future and imagine your perfect scenario. Not an ambiguous dr...

Stephen Allott shared his thoughts about building a tech business at the PMC launch this week. Stephen has an incredible track record in the tech sector and has built a business to a $7Bn market capitalisation.

1. Hire the best
He talked through some of his hiring at Micromuse, for him one of the magic ingredients for success was an insistence on hiring the best. Not ‘good enough’ and not a body to fill a hole in an org chart, but world-class individuals.

2. Dream big and clearly
His view was to step five years into the future and imagine your perfect scenario. Not an ambiguous dream like “we want to be big”, but the detail of what you will achieve. Then track it back to today and plan a path to it.

3. Embrace the difficult journey
The clearest point was this. He talked of times where Micromuse was days from running out of cash, of key people setting up in opposition, of difficult legal wrangles with early deals. The point was simple; the journey is difficult and to grow a tech business you’ve got to be ready to take the blows and stand back up every time. Problems happen, don’t let them kill your dream.
Inspirational points from a great leader who's been there and done it more often and more successfully than anyone I know

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Building a tech business

Stephen Allott shared his thoughts about building a tech business at the PMC launch this week. Stephen has an incredible track record in the tech sector and has built a business to a $7Bn market capitalisation.

1. Hire the best
He talked through some of his hiring at Micromuse, for him one of the magic ingredients for success was an insistence on hiring the best. Not ‘good enough’ and not a body to fill a hole in an org chart, but world-class individuals.

2. Dream big and clearly
His view was to step five years into the future and imagine your perfect scenario. Not an ambiguous dr...

Stephen Allott shared his thoughts about building a tech business at the PMC launch this week. Stephen has an incredible track record in the tech sector and has built a business to a $7Bn market capitalisation.

1. Hire the best
He talked through some of his hiring at Micromuse, for him one of the magic ingredients for success was an insistence on hiring the best. Not ‘good enough’ and not a body to fill a hole in an org chart, but world-class individuals.

2. Dream big and clearly
His view was to step five years into the future and imagine your perfect scenario. Not an ambiguous dream like “we want to be big”, but the detail of what you will achieve. Then track it back to today and plan a path to it.

3. Embrace the difficult journey
The clearest point was this. He talked of times where Micromuse was days from running out of cash, of key people setting up in opposition, of difficult legal wrangles with early deals. The point was simple; the journey is difficult and to grow a tech business you’ve got to be ready to take the blows and stand back up every time. Problems happen, don’t let them kill your dream.

Inspirational points from a great leader who's been there and done it more often and more successfully than anyone I know

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Learning on demand

“Knowledge is power” goes the old adage.

Most Product Managers I meet have an appetite to learn – we’re an intellectually inquisitive bunch! But as a product management trainer I have this dilemma; we immerse teams in the whole Product management process from ideation through to retirement in the sure knowledge that most of the team won’t use most of the learning in the next few months. They’ll focus on the topics that directly impact their immediate work and forget the rest. It’s a completely rational response, but it highlights a real issue; learning and work are out of sync...

“Knowledge is power” goes the old adage.

Most Product Managers I meet have an appetite to learn – we’re an intellectually inquisitive bunch! But as a product management trainer I have this dilemma; we immerse teams in the whole Product management process from ideation through to retirement in the sure knowledge that most of the team won’t use most of the learning in the next few months. They’ll focus on the topics that directly impact their immediate work and forget the rest. It’s a completely rational response, but it highlights a real issue; learning and work are out of sync.

So how can we address this?
Our response is Product Management Central – Our online platform that breaks product management work down into a set of skills that you can learn at your own pace through videos, papers, webinars and blogs, and at a time that suits you. Learn what you need to learn, when you need to learn it. Lets adapt the original quote to 21st century product management “Knowledge is power, but gaining knowledge at the right time makes it more useful”

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Don’t overload you presentation

I’ve just sat through presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely unengaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, they do not tell the full story and proba...

I’ve just sat through presentation torture – a product manager with slides full of 10 point font! It was an hour of staring at the back of a the persons head as they read their own slides. I understand why this happens - nervousness. They think “I’ll never remember everything I need to say so I’ll write in it the deck as support”. But the problem when they present is that either the audience just read the slides or the presenter reads for them - both are pretty dull and completely unengaging.

Remember, slide decks are a presentation aid, they do not tell the full story and probably make little sense without the presenter. So use them as an aid – three or four big statements per slide that gives your presentation structure and direction.

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Marginal Gain

How can we as Product Managers use marginal gain to ensure we always stay ahead of our competitors ?

First gaining prominence with Sir Dave Brailsford, Performance Director for Team Sky, the UK’s professional cycling team, he pushed the team to search for the 1% in hundreds of tiny areas that were overlooked by their competitors: they looked at more obscure areas such as taking their favourite pillows on tour to get the best night’s sleep and teaching riders how to wash their hands to avoid illness and time off training. They were relentless in their pursuit of marginal gains and it pai...

How can we as Product Managers use marginal gain to ensure we always stay ahead of our competitors ?

First gaining prominence with Sir Dave Brailsford, Performance Director for Team Sky, the UK’s professional cycling team, he pushed the team to search for the 1% in hundreds of tiny areas that were overlooked by their competitors: they looked at more obscure areas such as taking their favourite pillows on tour to get the best night’s sleep and teaching riders how to wash their hands to avoid illness and time off training. They were relentless in their pursuit of marginal gains and it paid off.

What can we learn from this? Lots of small gains that in isolation mean nothing can add up to remarkable aggregate improvements over time. Think of apple and blackberry handsets – a product that is marginally better across the piece translates into a hugely dominant market performance.

Marginal gains in your product can mean the difference between success and failure, because when product deals are won, it can be on the smallest of margins.

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Getting to ‘no’

Sales teams often talk about ‘getting to yes’, but for Product Managers I’d argue that getting to ‘no’ is just as important when managing new ideas. In fact, getting to ‘no’ quickly and cleanly is a really useful skill. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen products blown off course by deals being won that created more distraction than dollars – dev teams burning huge resource to try and fit what’s been sold into what’s already been built.

The key to rejection is to act quickly (wait too long and expectation builds) and logically (saying ‘no’ without r...

Sales teams often talk about ‘getting to yes’, but for Product Managers I’d argue that getting to ‘no’ is just as important when managing new ideas. In fact, getting to ‘no’ quickly and cleanly is a really useful skill. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen products blown off course by deals being won that created more distraction than dollars – dev teams burning huge resource to try and fit what’s been sold into what’s already been built.

The key to rejection is to act quickly (wait too long and expectation builds) and logically (saying ‘no’ without rationale just won’t work).

My advice? ASAP spend 20 minutes with an innovation canvas and establish if that new idea really makes sense before support for it builds – a fast ‘no’ is so much more positive than a slow and reluctant ‘perhaps’.

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Getting your message across

I’m working with a team on messaging this week. I’m struck by how complicated many product managers make their message – I often have to spend an hour trawling through brochures and slides to get any sense of their product and I’m told ‘it’s complicated’ . Think of this from a customer perspective – if your product doesn’t grab their attention immediately then they’ll move on – they’re busy people with a thousand other things to do. To fix this, think of a newspaper article – great content is wasted if there isn’t a compelling headline to draw you in or an image tha...

I’m working with a team on messaging this week. I’m struck by how complicated many product managers make their message – I often have to spend an hour trawling through brochures and slides to get any sense of their product and I’m told ‘it’s complicated’ . Think of this from a customer perspective – if your product doesn’t grab their attention immediately then they’ll move on – they’re busy people with a thousand other things to do. To fix this, think of a newspaper article – great content is wasted if there isn’t a compelling headline to draw you in or an image that captures your attention. When messaging to customers make those first ten words count!

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Customer Domination

How much of your customers day is consumed with activities that involve your product or service?

Imagine you build a successful product that help shopkeepers manage inventory. A typical train of thought for the Product Manager looking for growth is “Who else has an inventory problem that I can sell to”. This is completely valid, but you could also look for growth by answering a different question “What else keeps shopkeepers busy?”. The downside of this is pretty obvious – you’ll need new products to meet the new needs you identify. But before you discount it, think about the co...

How much of your customers day is consumed with activities that involve your product or service?

Imagine you build a successful product that help shopkeepers manage inventory. A typical train of thought for the Product Manager looking for growth is “Who else has an inventory problem that I can sell to”. This is completely valid, but you could also look for growth by answering a different question “What else keeps shopkeepers busy?”. The downside of this is pretty obvious – you’ll need new products to meet the new needs you identify. But before you discount it, think about the cost of taking your ‘off -the-shelf’ product to a new market – there’s likely to be development costs, plus building channels and reputation is an expensive business. It’s always tempting to look at customer wins as flags on a map when in reality what we’ve won is a small share of their spend by solving a small problem in their world – we’ve not planted a flag, we’ve secured a small piece of the pie.

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Product Management potential

Question: How can you spot Product Management potential?

You know the type of scenario – that person who’s doing a great job in support/presales/etc is looking for a move, has no Product Management background, but do they have potential? Here are the six attributes to look for:

Curiosity - Has a natural curiosity for the product and eager to dive into the details (technology, markets, regulation, customers, competitors, etc).

An influencer - Is an Influencing and inspiring individual who is through their charismatic attitude able to drive and lead progress whilst creating a posit...

Question: How can you spot Product Management potential?

You know the type of scenario – that person who’s doing a great job in support/presales/etc is looking for a move, has no Product Management background, but do they have potential? Here are the six attributes to look for:

Curiosity - Has a natural curiosity for the product and eager to dive into the details (technology, markets, regulation, customers, competitors, etc).

An influencer - Is an Influencing and inspiring individual who is through their charismatic attitude able to drive and lead progress whilst creating a positive working environment.

Dynamic – They are a proactive problem solver, with a can-do attitude and can take the team with them.

Organised - Is disciplined and organised. They have a structured approach and utilise process effectively to get the job done. They are structured in their way of managing information.

A thought leader - Is able to distil complex information down into an insightful and compelling narrative..

A skilled communicator - Needs to be clear, concise and credible in their communication, being able to deliver a message in a few words with complete clarity.

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Lessons from Donald

I’ve been working with a Product Management team, helping them sharpen their product positioning because it was too vague and vanilla – it tried to please everyone and ended up appealing to no-one.. Simple question from the team “who gets this right” got a response they didn’t expect – Donald Trump. Let me explain.

1. Love him or hate him, you know what he stands for. Make America great again, Build a wall…. He has his messaging pillars in place and he sticks with them.

2. He knows who is target audience and he speaks to them and only them .

3. Critically, he knows who i...

I’ve been working with a Product Management team, helping them sharpen their product positioning because it was too vague and vanilla – it tried to please everyone and ended up appealing to no-one.. Simple question from the team “who gets this right” got a response they didn’t expect – Donald Trump. Let me explain.

1. Love him or hate him, you know what he stands for. Make America great again, Build a wall…. He has his messaging pillars in place and he sticks with them.

2. He knows who is target audience and he speaks to them and only them .

3. Critically, he knows who is target audience isn’t and he never tries to appease them. He actually never speaks to them (he might stand in front of them and talk, but he is always speaking to his target audience)

Think of this in product terms. We sometimes miss steps 1 and 2. – we don’t have our messaging pillars in place or our target market clearly identified so our market has no idea what we stand for. But even when we get steps 1 and 2 right, we often blow it at step 3 – we try to appeal to non-target customers, diluting our core message, diverting our development team, and confusing our core market. Of all the things you could catch Donald doing, appeasing his non-target market isn’t one!

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What do Product Managers do?

It’s a question we’ve answered many times before, but this was presented to me last week and I thought it was a great way of simply describing our job. We sit at the interface of customers, technology and our company, and we try to deliver solutions that meet a real customer need whilst addressing both the goals of the business and tech capability. Put simply, we solve market needs while achieving business goals.

Thanks to Willem Bekkers for this - a great product guy.

It’s a question we’ve answered many times before, but this was presented to me last week and I thought it was a great way of simply describing our job. We sit at the interface of customers, technology and our company, and we try to deliver solutions that meet a real customer need whilst addressing both the goals of the business and tech capability. Put simply, we solve market needs while achieving business goals.

Thanks to Willem Bekkers for this - a great product guy.

Launch

When do you start to launch your solution?

You are delivering a solution not just a product. A lot of companies make the mistake that they are purely building products and as soon as they are ready, then they can release. But the solution is larger than this, it is scaling your delivery and support teams are ready. This includes:

- Consultants prepared

- Marketing campaigns understood. Advocates ready to help with communication, organise your PR

- Sales enablement complete and sales teams trained

- Support Desk trained and the SLA’s (Service Level agreements) and OLA’s (Oper...

When do you start to launch your solution?

You are delivering a solution not just a product. A lot of companies make the mistake that they are purely building products and as soon as they are ready, then they can release. But the solution is larger than this, it is scaling your delivery and support teams are ready. This includes:

- Consultants prepared

- Marketing campaigns understood. Advocates ready to help with communication, organise your PR

- Sales enablement complete and sales teams trained

- Support Desk trained and the SLA’s (Service Level agreements) and OLA’s (Operational Level Agreements) are in place

- Product ready. Are you going to trial/pilot?

- Solution feedback mechanisms are in place

- All teams are trained and ready to answer customer queries about the solution, using the right value proposition



As soon as you have had the approval for the project to go ahead, and you have secured the budget for development, the next step is bringing together your stakeholder group from around the company. Build a checklist of all the activities and add owners from the stakeholder group. Have the stakeholders keep you updated with progress, you are not to deliver on their behalf!!

The success of the solution will depend on the support of the business.

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Talking the right language

Ever feel your message isn’t getting through to your customer? It could be that the message is wrong, but often it’s not the message, but the delivery – language that doesn’t resonate with your target market. Here’s a simple example; you want to encourage your children to exercise more. Which statement is more likely to work: ‘ Shall we go for a long ride on our bikes to improve our cardiovascular fitness’ or ‘Let’s see who can get muddiest on the canal path!

’’Simple rule of product management – when you talk to your customers, speak in a way that makes sense to the...

Ever feel your message isn’t getting through to your customer? It could be that the message is wrong, but often it’s not the message, but the delivery – language that doesn’t resonate with your target market. Here’s a simple example; you want to encourage your children to exercise more. Which statement is more likely to work: ‘ Shall we go for a long ride on our bikes to improve our cardiovascular fitness’ or ‘Let’s see who can get muddiest on the canal path!

’’Simple rule of product management – when you talk to your customers, speak in a way that makes sense to them not in language that impresses your boss!

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Communicating MVP

Communicating MVP – learning from Brexit.

Brexit was miss sold using indefinite data and promises. During the leave campaign, the ‘350 million pound extra a week for the NHS’ was quickly dismissed as the referendum vote had taken place, despite clear proof of this promise.

So as Product Managers, what can we learn from this?

Having a clearly defined MVP (minimum viable product) is crucial to your credibility and success, especially on large scale projects, like Brexit. See the problem is that so many people of political influence promised so many things that the public then exp...

Communicating MVP – learning from Brexit.

Brexit was miss sold using indefinite data and promises. During the leave campaign, the ‘350 million pound extra a week for the NHS’ was quickly dismissed as the referendum vote had taken place, despite clear proof of this promise.

So as Product Managers, what can we learn from this?

Having a clearly defined MVP (minimum viable product) is crucial to your credibility and success, especially on large scale projects, like Brexit. See the problem is that so many people of political influence promised so many things that the public then expected to see put in place. Now the mood of the public is tangibly disinterested and untrusting, this is down to a lack of delivery on promises made by influential people that, in reality, had no power to deliver.

Having a clearly defined MVP is a great foundation for communicating your product clearly and accurately to your colleagues and target audience, what you know you can definitely deliver within a set timeframe whilst still maintaining the core customer values. Don’t let other teams within the organisation cloud the public view and set unrealistic expectations.

Don’t lose control of your product, own your product.

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Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong once wrote a book entitled ‘it’s not about the bike’. Turned out there was more truth in that title than we’d imagined, but ‘It’s not about the product’ would be a good product management book title.

Working with a new team today on a go to market plan and they were surprised how much of product management is not about the product. It’s so true. Think about a launch plan - it shines a light on this and shows that to launch well you must have a product, but you also need legals, messaging, sales plans, support, pricing, etc. Great products need lots of round...

Lance Armstrong once wrote a book entitled ‘it’s not about the bike’. Turned out there was more truth in that title than we’d imagined, but ‘It’s not about the product’ would be a good product management book title.

Working with a new team today on a go to market plan and they were surprised how much of product management is not about the product. It’s so true. Think about a launch plan - it shines a light on this and shows that to launch well you must have a product, but you also need legals, messaging, sales plans, support, pricing, etc. Great products need lots of rounding out to be world class propositions.

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The 80:20 Rule of Prod Mgnt

The 80:20 rule of product management

There’s snow across quite a bit of the uk right now. Not snow like our Scandinavian friends would recognise (we’ve barely enough to build a snowman in most places), but enough to bring our trains and planes to a grinding halt. Across the UK you’ll get a typical reaction. “Why does one centimetre of snow stop our country when many regions have months of more severe weather each year and seem to manage!” The answer lies in that response. If your country has three months of snow each year then you need to invest to manage it. If your country ha...

The 80:20 rule of product management

There’s snow across quite a bit of the uk right now. Not snow like our Scandinavian friends would recognise (we’ve barely enough to build a snowman in most places), but enough to bring our trains and planes to a grinding halt. Across the UK you’ll get a typical reaction. “Why does one centimetre of snow stop our country when many regions have months of more severe weather each year and seem to manage!” The answer lies in that response. If your country has three months of snow each year then you need to invest to manage it. If your country has maybe a day or two each year, perhaps it’s not worth the investment. Think of that with your products – don’t focus on the edge case condition or edge case customer, build for the majority of your market.

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Tracking Product Success

How do you track product success?

Product Managers need to be able describe if the product they launched was successful, typically in metric form. Simple idea, but difficult to do. Whether you’re an OKR or KPI or SMART fan, it’s important to think in terms of lag and lead. Some metrics lag – think revenue. It’s critical, but if that’s all you quantity then there’s very little action you can take at the point that the metric becomes measurable. Other metrics lead – think pilot customer or launch date. These give an indication that you’re on the right path. Product Managers s...

How do you track product success?

Product Managers need to be able describe if the product they launched was successful, typically in metric form. Simple idea, but difficult to do. Whether you’re an OKR or KPI or SMART fan, it’s important to think in terms of lag and lead. Some metrics lag – think revenue. It’s critical, but if that’s all you quantity then there’s very little action you can take at the point that the metric becomes measurable. Other metrics lead – think pilot customer or launch date. These give an indication that you’re on the right path. Product Managers should think of a funnel of metrics that describe not just what success looks like, but that journey to success.

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Disappear or Shift?

Does your Market Disappear or Shift?

The ‘decline of the high-street’ has been regular news for the what seems like forever. Few weeks go by without another casualty hitting the headlines. Talking with a group who are dealing with this got me thinking - is it market decline or market shift? Take Blockbuster for example, they filed for bankruptcy, blaming a declining market. In reality, their market was larger than ever, it had just shifted towards the online & digital space.

So, what can we learn from this? Sure, some markets disappear, but most shift. And these shifts cause disru...

Does your Market Disappear or Shift?

The ‘decline of the high-street’ has been regular news for the what seems like forever. Few weeks go by without another casualty hitting the headlines. Talking with a group who are dealing with this got me thinking - is it market decline or market shift? Take Blockbuster for example, they filed for bankruptcy, blaming a declining market. In reality, their market was larger than ever, it had just shifted towards the online & digital space.

So, what can we learn from this? Sure, some markets disappear, but most shift. And these shifts cause disruption that product managers can either embrace and take advantage of or ignore and find their products and services irrelevant.

Don’t get left behind by your market because of stubbornness or short-sighted, tactical thinking.

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Product Manager Characteristics

What are the characteristics of a good product manager?

It’s a question we face when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. If you’re recruiting experienced Product Managers then you might look for skills – launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc. But what about that person sat in support who is looking for a new challenge? They might not have the skills just yet, but do the have the core capability?
Here’s our quick checklist for working out if they have pm potential:

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eage...

What are the characteristics of a good product manager?

It’s a question we face when we’re helping businesses build a product management function. If you’re recruiting experienced Product Managers then you might look for skills – launch skills, research skills, pricing skills, etc. But what about that person sat in support who is looking for a new challenge? They might not have the skills just yet, but do the have the core capability?
Here’s our quick checklist for working out if they have pm potential:

Curiosity – Do they demonstrate intellectual interest? Are they eager to learn?
Drive – Do they show ambition?
Discipline – Are the organised?
People skills – Can they get people to listen to them. Can they take people with them? Are they charismatic?
Communication – Can they get their point across clearly and quickly?
Thought leadership – Do they have vision? Are they a creative problem solver?

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Releasing a Product

How often is too often to release a product?

Working with a team last week, we got to a common agile conundrum; core to the agile process is the concept of frequent, iterative product releases. This is often seen as nothing but positive by many teams “You can release product updates every 7 days!”, but there are many markets where this makes no sense at all. For instance, your customer is a bank and your product has security implications – the iterative agile model simply can’t operate in that world. So is agile the wrong process for these types of products? Not necessarily. The agi...

How often is too often to release a product?

Working with a team last week, we got to a common agile conundrum; core to the agile process is the concept of frequent, iterative product releases. This is often seen as nothing but positive by many teams “You can release product updates every 7 days!”, but there are many markets where this makes no sense at all. For instance, your customer is a bank and your product has security implications – the iterative agile model simply can’t operate in that world. So is agile the wrong process for these types of products? Not necessarily. The agile process delivers regular product updates, but the product management team can choose what to do with those updates release to customer or hold back and bundle into a bigger product release that works for the customers business.

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Importance of Innovators

If, like me, you believe your greatest marketing and sales tool is through advocacy and referral, having others talk about your product, getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit likeminded customers with the same need then you will believe this approach will drive the strongest growth and, if you get it right, a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward.

I have never, over the years, found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into customers’. The client, through developing a great relationship with you, then progresses to buyin...

If, like me, you believe your greatest marketing and sales tool is through advocacy and referral, having others talk about your product, getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit likeminded customers with the same need then you will believe this approach will drive the strongest growth and, if you get it right, a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward.

I have never, over the years, found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into customers’. The client, through developing a great relationship with you, then progresses to buying into the brand and solutions you deliver. They become your unofficial ambassadors.

The first and the greatest voice of these customers you want onboard, are the customers that everyone is looking towards to guide the market, these are your innovators. If you are entering into an existing market with a new product, and you have a prior relationship with any of this influential group then gather them together to give them a close up look at your product. Get them excited and engaged so they will talk about and promote your product.

If it is a new market, you are going to have to do some work on segmentation of the market and start building personas as to what an innovator looks like in this new market. Then start to build relationships with these innovators either on a 1-2-1 basis or via group consultation.

In a new market, once the innovators have bought into your culture and vision, you need to show how working with you will help change the market. When they are excited with the vision, get them engaged with the product you are going to launch. You can do this in a number of ways but here are some ideas: Offer them an incentive to take a look at your new product before anyone else; get them on the pilot providing feedback; offer them a sizable free subscription.

Ultimately whatever tool you are using to bring the innovators onboard, if you can get the innovators to understand and start talking to the market about the value of the product you are launching, you will move from the innovator to early adopter phase of the maturity model much quicker than through direct mailing or other marketing techniques.

Remember, innovators generally are happy to take a risk on a new solution if they feel it gives them a competitive advantage.

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Value Curve

Why do customers buy your product?

Working with a team this week to help them position their solution in a complex market. When asking teams why their product wins or loses they often come up with one reason - perhaps a specific product feature or aspect of the service model. Worth remembering that customers rarely buy on one dimension - think about buying a house or a car or some expensive electronics. They are usually a number of factors that drive buyer behaviour. Product managers should always see value through the value curve.

Why do customers buy your product?

Working with a team this week to help them position their solution in a complex market. When asking teams why their product wins or loses they often come up with one reason - perhaps a specific product feature or aspect of the service model. Worth remembering that customers rarely buy on one dimension - think about buying a house or a car or some expensive electronics. They are usually a number of factors that drive buyer behaviour. Product managers should always see value through the value curve.

Product Partners

The importance of Product Partners: 4 ways software organisations can increase revenue

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop software in keeping pace with changes in the sector. To be successful, you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.
Product Partners are different to straightforward channel re sellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have cr...

The importance of Product Partners: 4 ways software organisations can increase revenue

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop software in keeping pace with changes in the sector. To be successful, you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.
Product Partners are different to straightforward channel re sellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have created software of their own which adds value to your existing solution. They can help you to offer a functionally-rich solution, create better revenue opportunities, position your company as the strongest supplier, and create new active and passive income streams.
There are four main different types of software Product Partner, all of which need to be carefully managed to make the business successful:

1. Advocate partners – recommend a partner product and company to your customers in return for remuneration but would remain in control of the sale from proposal through to closing. It’s a low-touch partnership to add value to your solution.

2. Strategic partners – these are high-value relationships between your company and the Partner, working together for common goals and revenue-share incentives and aligned around the same values and messaging. This involves working in true collaboration and allows your business to position itself as a leading supplier in a given deal.

3. Technical partners – pay a fee to pass information between their product and your product, but their product does not feature within your portfolio. This can represent a separate but active revenue stream for your company.

4. Referral partners – you pass sales leads to Partner companies in exchange for commission remuneration, either per lead or per sale, and allow them to lead the sale through to closure. This is more of a passive income partnership where you are allowing partner companies to capitalise on your customer base in exchange for % of revenue.

Whichever Product Partner strategy you go for (and it can easily be a combination of all four) it’s important to keep the main goal of any partnership in mind; both sides must get value from the relationship.

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Product Mgmt in Tech

Where does Product Management belong in Tech organisations?

As tech companies grow and the nature of technology evolves into the world of SaaS and apps, there’s often confusion around where Product Management should sit in the organisation.
Traditional consumer organisations have had a tendency to consider Product Management in the same arena as Marketing. However, the danger here is when Marketing is actually ‘Marketing Communications’ - it means that no-one is involved in defining and delivering the products.

In a lot of Tech companies, the Product Management function tends to ...

Where does Product Management belong in Tech organisations?

As tech companies grow and the nature of technology evolves into the world of SaaS and apps, there’s often confusion around where Product Management should sit in the organisation.
Traditional consumer organisations have had a tendency to consider Product Management in the same arena as Marketing. However, the danger here is when Marketing is actually ‘Marketing Communications’ - it means that no-one is involved in defining and delivering the products.

In a lot of Tech companies, the Product Management function tends to be viewed in the technical arena, lumped in with the Development Directorate. The problem here is that the Product Managers can get tied up in functionality and requirements and spend so much time building products that there is no-one engaging the customers to understand their problems or looking ahead and strategising as to what the business needs to do in the future to continue to be successful
To drive the maximum success from a Product Management team, you need to understand exactly what their role is.
A successful Product Management Directorate looks at the needs of the entire business and the entire market. It’s broadly comprised of three main focuses:

· Product strategy
· Product marketing
· Technical product management

The Product Management Directorate will focus the product management team on the business of building solutions for needs now and into the future. The team will engage and communicate with existing and potential customers, articulate and quantify market problems, create business cases and market requirements documents, define standard procedures for product delivery and launch, support the creation of collateral and sales enablement tools, and trains the sales teams on the product.

Within the Tech market, or any market for that matter, the truth is: if you want better products in the future, and for the product management team to be held accountable at organisational level, then it must be represented at Board level in its own right.

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Webinars VS Face to Face

When are webinars actually BETTER than face-to-face meetings?

Now don’t get me wrong, webinars are great.
They are a good way of being able to communicate with lots of people at once and they work around your customer’s needs, they allow them to dip in and out as they please and you can offer webinars during the evenings and weekends when they won’t necessarily be tied up with other commitments.
From a business point of view, it allows you to test your solution or concept within the wider market to multiple people at once from the comfort of your own office, drastically reducing y...

When are webinars actually BETTER than face-to-face meetings?

Now don’t get me wrong, webinars are great.
They are a good way of being able to communicate with lots of people at once and they work around your customer’s needs, they allow them to dip in and out as they please and you can offer webinars during the evenings and weekends when they won’t necessarily be tied up with other commitments.
From a business point of view, it allows you to test your solution or concept within the wider market to multiple people at once from the comfort of your own office, drastically reducing your cost.
But they do have a down side.
Almost everyone who uses them says they aren’t as good as face-to-face meetings as it’s difficult to make any real connection. While there is the functionality to ask questions and chat, this is something webinar attendees tend not to do. You effectively end up ‘broadcasting’ your idea when, as anyone who knows me will testify, I believe the key to building a new solution or idea is “listening” and understanding what the customer wants.
It may take more time and effort to meet your potential customers in person, requiring a significant investment of your time, however it usually results in a stronger relationship which can then be taken forward throughout the lifecycle of the developing concept or solution.
But the question is: So when is a webinar actually better than a face-to-face meeting?
Answer: When you want honesty!
Webinars are the perfect platform for showcasing a new product or service and asking for honest feedback. Given the relative anonymity of a webinar (i.e. you don’t have to look the presenter in the eye) your customers will give you their honest opinion on what they’re being shown which makes it an excellent platform for market testing.
Try it out.
Create a webinar with the purpose of gaining feedback and see what happens. People love being asked their opinion and you might get an insight into your product or service which you’ve never had before.
I would also argue that you'll be able to get honest opinions from new users and not just those who already know you and your product well - an excellent way to cast your net wider!

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Prod, Prob or Sol managers?

Product, Problem or Solution managers?
I was in conversation with some sales people yesterday and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on t...

Product, Problem or Solution managers?
I was in conversation with some sales people yesterday and we got on to one of the regular hot topics - product managers talk too much about product. It can sound a little weird - surely a product manager should talk about the product? But too much product focus is wrong because customers don’t really buy products. Think of it like this; the old saying in sales that ‘people buy from people’ has a product management equivalent. “People don’t buy products they buy solutions to problems”. Help sales team sell by ensuring they have clarity on the issues that are front of mind for your customers rather than a dry list of features. Develop a problem and solution focus

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Customer Centric

Many organisations would claim to be customer-focused. In truth, to say you’re focused on your customers should really come as standard. Keeping customers happy and giving them the products and services they need is basic business common sense.To be truly successful you need to start being customer-centric – an entirely different approach.

The reasons for being customer-focused are about maximising revenue and this often comes across as a bit self-serving, they look at how they can get more business by creating a product or service that is ‘better’ than the competitors.
Customer-ce...

Many organisations would claim to be customer-focused. In truth, to say you’re focused on your customers should really come as standard. Keeping customers happy and giving them the products and services they need is basic business common sense.To be truly successful you need to start being customer-centric – an entirely different approach.

The reasons for being customer-focused are about maximising revenue and this often comes across as a bit self-serving, they look at how they can get more business by creating a product or service that is ‘better’ than the competitors.
Customer-centric organisations aren’t just responding to customer needs. They spend time properly understanding their needs and creating a strategy that brings long-term mutual benefits. The revenue, which results from this approach, is a result of the degree to which their customers have been satisfied.

Customer-focused organisations make decisions that superficially address customer expectations, it’s the Customer-centric approach that results in increased engagement, support, loyalty – and essentially profits – from a happy, expanding customer base.

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Concentrate on the footsteps

We’re a couple of weeks into the new year – just long enough for those ambitious plans we had for our product in the new year to start unravelling as the daily grind takes hold. How can Product Managers remain on track when we’re overwhelmed with work? The trick is to divide and conquer – complex, difficult, or overwhelming tasks are made up of many simple and easy steps. So don’t dwell on that huge product launch today to the point it overwhelms, tackle some simple steps that move you a little closer. Concentrate on the next footstep, not the mountain.

We’re a couple of weeks into the new year – just long enough for those ambitious plans we had for our product in the new year to start unravelling as the daily grind takes hold. How can Product Managers remain on track when we’re overwhelmed with work? The trick is to divide and conquer – complex, difficult, or overwhelming tasks are made up of many simple and easy steps. So don’t dwell on that huge product launch today to the point it overwhelms, tackle some simple steps that move you a little closer. Concentrate on the next footstep, not the mountain.

Building out a vision

Building out a vision is tough. Working out how to deliver is even tougher! We’ve built a one page canvas that helps:-

1. Define your three year goals for your product
2. Think of annual initiatives or themes for years 1, 2 and 3 that drive to that goal
3. Break the annual initiative down into quarterly points of value

It breaks a big problem down into smaller, bite sized steps.

Building out a vision is tough. Working out how to deliver is even tougher! We’ve built a one page canvas that helps:-

1. Define your three year goals for your product
2. Think of annual initiatives or themes for years 1, 2 and 3 that drive to that goal
3. Break the annual initiative down into quarterly points of value

It breaks a big problem down into smaller, bite sized steps.

Product business case

How do you build out a product business case?

It’s a loaded term and everyone seems to have different expectations. So what is a business case?

In simple terms it’d a model to provide justification for undertaking a project or programme. It evaluates the benefit, cost and risk of alternative options and provides a rationale for the preferred solution. Over the next few days we’ll look at the key questioned needed to be answered at each stage of the business case.

How do you build out a product business case?

It’s a loaded term and everyone seems to have different expectations. So what is a business case?

In simple terms it’d a model to provide justification for undertaking a project or programme. It evaluates the benefit, cost and risk of alternative options and provides a rationale for the preferred solution. Over the next few days we’ll look at the key questioned needed to be answered at each stage of the business case.

Technique 4 of 4

Finally, we can use surveys to build a quantitative view of our market. These could be online, over the ‘phone or even postal, but we need to be aware that these type of surveys have the greatest potential for causing resentment on the part of those surveyed and can have very low (less than 1%) response rates. Additionally, respondents may not be representative of the market with just the extremes feeling motivated to complete the survey

Finally, we can use surveys to build a quantitative view of our market. These could be online, over the ‘phone or even postal, but we need to be aware that these type of surveys have the greatest potential for causing resentment on the part of those surveyed and can have very low (less than 1%) response rates. Additionally, respondents may not be representative of the market with just the extremes feeling motivated to complete the survey

Technique 3 of 4

A one-on-one either in face-to-face or virtual form is a great way of conducting market research . People are more willing to respond in more depth, detail and honesty outside of a group dynamic. But focus groups also fall into this category – a group of 6 to 12 people who are brought together by researchers to discuss a particular situation or reactions to a product.
More than any other technique, the researcher can impact the outcome. Individuals can build a view of the researchers opinion and modify their response based on that. For example, if interviewees believe the researcher has ...

A one-on-one either in face-to-face or virtual form is a great way of conducting market research . People are more willing to respond in more depth, detail and honesty outside of a group dynamic. But focus groups also fall into this category – a group of 6 to 12 people who are brought together by researchers to discuss a particular situation or reactions to a product.
More than any other technique, the researcher can impact the outcome. Individuals can build a view of the researchers opinion and modify their response based on that. For example, if interviewees believe the researcher has strong concerns about the environment then some of the cohort will modify their views in an attempt to cause less offence to the researcher.

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Technique 2 of 4

Observational market research is a technique which involves directly observing consumers or another target audience in their natural environment - for instance, watching how shoppers stop outside a fashion retailer, what they are drawn to in a window display and which direction they go after entering the store. But be aware OBSERVING is not the same as UNDERSTANDING.

Observational market research is a technique which involves directly observing consumers or another target audience in their natural environment - for instance, watching how shoppers stop outside a fashion retailer, what they are drawn to in a window display and which direction they go after entering the store. But be aware OBSERVING is not the same as UNDERSTANDING.

Technique 1 of 4

Experimental market research is a useful refinement and validation technique. Take two market research groups and change one single variable within the 7 P model. For example, the same product is presented, but the price point is changed. We then gauge reaction to this change.

Experimental market research is a useful refinement and validation technique. Take two market research groups and change one single variable within the 7 P model. For example, the same product is presented, but the price point is changed. We then gauge reaction to this change.

Market Research

Market research is a core product management discipline. It helps us build an evidenced-based view of our market, meaning we’re more likely to make the right decisions more often. So what do we mean by market research? There are many techniques/methods we can use but which is the right one? The graphic below summarises the type of market research that is likely to be most effective at each stage of product development from Ideation through to validation. Over the following days we’ll explain each technique.

Market research is a core product management discipline. It helps us build an evidenced-based view of our market, meaning we’re more likely to make the right decisions more often. So what do we mean by market research? There are many techniques/methods we can use but which is the right one? The graphic below summarises the type of market research that is likely to be most effective at each stage of product development from Ideation through to validation. Over the following days we’ll explain each technique.

Core Value of your product?

Can you describe the core value of your product?

Sounds simple, but some product managers struggle to get to a clear, coherent and concise statement. We use a structure, shown here for a nespresso coffee maker – replace the black text with your words and you’ve got a first-pass value proposition statement.

Can you describe the core value of your product?

Sounds simple, but some product managers struggle to get to a clear, coherent and concise statement. We use a structure, shown here for a nespresso coffee maker – replace the black text with your words and you’ve got a first-pass value proposition statement.

Big versus Small

How should product management approach a big idea versus a small idea?

The answer is pretty simple; the process remains the same but the depth and detail is different. We assess, define and deliver all ideas, but we might do that work in a day or a week or a month depending on the scale, the effort, and the risk. And the business case? Its scale is appropriate to risk and reward - no management team wants a 100 page document for a trivial upgrade or a single paragraph when they’re taking a huge risk.

How should product management approach a big idea versus a small idea?

The answer is pretty simple; the process remains the same but the depth and detail is different. We assess, define and deliver all ideas, but we might do that work in a day or a week or a month depending on the scale, the effort, and the risk. And the business case? Its scale is appropriate to risk and reward - no management team wants a 100 page document for a trivial upgrade or a single paragraph when they’re taking a huge risk.

Turning vision into action.

Building a vision is great.

But Product managers need to turn that vision into action – work out how to deliver customer value in incremental as we work towards that vision. We use this vision template to help:

1. Describe the core value you plan to offer (your vision)

2. Work out what the annual goal needs to be that help move towards that vision

3. Describe the incremental customer value you deliver each quarter that move towards your annual goal

Building a vision is great.

But Product managers need to turn that vision into action – work out how to deliver customer value in incremental as we work towards that vision. We use this vision template to help:

1. Describe the core value you plan to offer (your vision)

2. Work out what the annual goal needs to be that help move towards that vision

3. Describe the incremental customer value you deliver each quarter that move towards your annual goal

Building out the roadmap

Carrying on from the attribute map,

Now we have identified our initial product offer we review our second priority persona and ask the question “What additional user stories need to be developed to build product acceptance with this group?” For example, if a user story required the coffee to be delivered at 85 degrees, a build-on story might request that the coffee machine could keep the coffeeheated to 85 degrees for five minutes post brewing.

We repeat this with lower value personas to build out the attribute map, giving us a view of what we need to initially deliver and how we can...

Carrying on from the attribute map,

Now we have identified our initial product offer we review our second priority persona and ask the question “What additional user stories need to be developed to build product acceptance with this group?” For example, if a user story required the coffee to be delivered at 85 degrees, a build-on story might request that the coffee machine could keep the coffeeheated to 85 degrees for five minutes post brewing.

We repeat this with lower value personas to build out the attribute map, giving us a view of what we need to initially deliver and how we can increase the reach and value of the product with incremental stories being added along the way.

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The attribute map

One of the tools we can use to design our MVP and iterations is called an attribute map and we describe our features in terms of user stories. As reminder, a user story is a development requirement that is expressed as follows:

As a
I want to
So that .

This example focuses on the Nespresso coffee machine:
• Our target segment is for personal use in the home environment.

• Our primary persona is a busy working professional.

• And our priority feature is making a cup of coffee in less then 60 seconds.

• The user story reads: As a bu...

One of the tools we can use to design our MVP and iterations is called an attribute map and we describe our features in terms of user stories. As reminder, a user story is a development requirement that is expressed as follows:

As a
I want to
So that .

This example focuses on the Nespresso coffee machine:
• Our target segment is for personal use in the home environment.

• Our primary persona is a busy working professional.

• And our priority feature is making a cup of coffee in less then 60 seconds.

• The user story reads: As a busy working professional I want to go from turning on my Nespresso machine to a cup of coffee in under 60 seconds so that I can start my journey to work without delay.

We then complete all the priority stories for our primary persona.

This gives us a clear view of which features to prioritize.

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Why do we use it?

Why do we use it?

Building the final product takes a long time and is expensive and high risk.Rather than trying to be all things to all segments at the outset, we use the MVP approach to help us prioritize our development roadmap.

The MVP approach helps us to:
• Identify our addressable market.
• Identify and prioritize our segments.
• Identify and prioritize our personas in that segment.
• Identify and prioritize our user stories for our personas.

Careful prioritisation means we can manage the capacity of our development team while still meeting the needs of our customer...

Why do we use it?

Building the final product takes a long time and is expensive and high risk.Rather than trying to be all things to all segments at the outset, we use the MVP approach to help us prioritize our development roadmap.

The MVP approach helps us to:
• Identify our addressable market.
• Identify and prioritize our segments.
• Identify and prioritize our personas in that segment.
• Identify and prioritize our user stories for our personas.

Careful prioritisation means we can manage the capacity of our development team while still meeting the needs of our customers.
Some recent high-profile success stories include Dropbox, Airbnb, Groupon, Spotify and Twitter.
So before development, we prioritize our markets and then we prioritise our personas, then the features and then we develop user stories so that we can develop our product in a controlled and carefully prioritized sequence.

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MVP

This week we’re going to explore the minimum viable product, commonly known as the MVP, and how it helps product managers deliver products faster to market with less risk.
MVPs…
• …increase speed to market and generate revenue sooner.
• …reduce risk with a test-and-learn approach.
• …are market and persona-focused.
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Start-up, first used the term, he described it as follows:
“A minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.
...

This week we’re going to explore the minimum viable product, commonly known as the MVP, and how it helps product managers deliver products faster to market with less risk.
MVPs…
• …increase speed to market and generate revenue sooner.
• …reduce risk with a test-and-learn approach.
• …are market and persona-focused.
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Start-up, first used the term, he described it as follows:
“A minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.

”Later, more commercially focused, definitions include:
“A minimum viable product is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and to provide feedback for future product development.

”To be clear, we define the MVP as a live product that is capable of bringing in revenue because our target group of customers see enough value in the product to pay for it. An MVP is not the finished version, it is an early iteration of our final product that appeals to a small sub-set of our market. An MVP approach has to be supported by rapid iterations and improvements to give our customers confidence that we are working towards a much richer, more mature version.

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THE CLOSE step 4

And so we approach the end of the presentation. It’s almost identical to the start – restate your major points, what you’d like the team to do next, and thank them for their time.
Nothing guarantees success but using this type of structure irons out a few bumps in the road.

And so we approach the end of the presentation. It’s almost identical to the start – restate your major points, what you’d like the team to do next, and thank them for their time.
Nothing guarantees success but using this type of structure irons out a few bumps in the road.

CORE CONTENT Step 3

Product Managers often present complex content. Imagine presenting a Product Plan at a peer review with a 50 slide deck full of 10 point writing. How do you think your audience would respond?

It’s better to adopt a “less is more” approach. If we take the product plan example, a great way to present it is to build the content into an eight slide deck. Each slide has a heading (the section name) one image (a graph, or picture) and three bullet points. You can then present from it rather than read it.

You’ll get questions as you go, some easy to handle others requiring more thought...

Product Managers often present complex content. Imagine presenting a Product Plan at a peer review with a 50 slide deck full of 10 point writing. How do you think your audience would respond?

It’s better to adopt a “less is more” approach. If we take the product plan example, a great way to present it is to build the content into an eight slide deck. Each slide has a heading (the section name) one image (a graph, or picture) and three bullet points. You can then present from it rather than read it.

You’ll get questions as you go, some easy to handle others requiring more thought. For those questions, think of using a “parking lot” – a board where we write questions and comments we’ll address after the meeting.

And one other tip – keep an eye on the time. You don’t want to ruin your big finale because the clock beat you!

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Pick your talking points Step 2

The next major hurdle is the content – what do you want to talk to the team about? We often have complex product ideas to discuss and can quickly get lost as we try and explain them.

So, here’s a simple tip. Pick the three major points you want to talk about and focus on those. It will give your content some structure and direction.

For example, we might say “There’s lots we can talk about around this new product today, but the three major points I want to focus on are:
? Revenue is forecast for $10M by end of year
? New regulation presents a risk
? Two new features promise t...

The next major hurdle is the content – what do you want to talk to the team about? We often have complex product ideas to discuss and can quickly get lost as we try and explain them.

So, here’s a simple tip. Pick the three major points you want to talk about and focus on those. It will give your content some structure and direction.

For example, we might say “There’s lots we can talk about around this new product today, but the three major points I want to focus on are:
? Revenue is forecast for $10M by end of year
? New regulation presents a risk
? Two new features promise to lift us above the competition

So you’ve now let the team know why they’re there, what you need them to decide, how long you’ll present for and the major points you’ll cover. We’re under way, now let’s think about the core of the presentation

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Start with structure Step 1

The foundation to a great product plan presentation is structure; your audience want to know some basics. Think about it from their perspective:

? Why am I here?
? How long will I be here?
? What decisions will I need to make?

So tell them!
We can think of that basic structure as a template we use at the start of any presentation.
For example: “The purpose of this presentation is to discuss a new Product Plan.
We need 15 minutes of your time
We’re looking for you to get on board and help us”
Deliver this well and you’re heading in the right direc...

The foundation to a great product plan presentation is structure; your audience want to know some basics. Think about it from their perspective:

? Why am I here?
? How long will I be here?
? What decisions will I need to make?

So tell them!
We can think of that basic structure as a template we use at the start of any presentation.
For example: “The purpose of this presentation is to discuss a new Product Plan.
We need 15 minutes of your time
We’re looking for you to get on board and help us”
Deliver this well and you’re heading in the right direction.

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Step 5

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research
Step 3 of 6 Understand the life cycle component
Step 4 of 6 Triangulate with qualitative research
The next step is: Step 5 of 6 Underpin with quantitative research

Test your research findings with surveys. Look for proof points and anomalies – feedback that either supports your qualitative research or challenges it. Essen...

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research
Step 3 of 6 Understand the life cycle component
Step 4 of 6 Triangulate with qualitative research
The next step is: Step 5 of 6 Underpin with quantitative research

Test your research findings with surveys. Look for proof points and anomalies – feedback that either supports your qualitative research or challenges it. Essentially, try and get to a point where you can say: “Three client groups said this solution will speed up processing time by 30% and, when surveyed, an additional 200 clients supported these findings.

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Step 4

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research
Step 3 of 6 Understand the lifecycle component

The next step is: Step 4 of 6 Triangulate with qualitative research
There’s no substitute for direct market research. Test the proposition with a minimum of three client groups in your target market and also with other relevant stakeholders such as support functions or other pr...

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research
Step 3 of 6 Understand the lifecycle component

The next step is: Step 4 of 6 Triangulate with qualitative research
There’s no substitute for direct market research. Test the proposition with a minimum of three client groups in your target market and also with other relevant stakeholders such as support functions or other product teams. Get answers to questions such as:

If we supply it, will they use it?
Why would they use it?
How often would they use it?
How are they solving the issue today?
What are the barriers to adoption and use?

From this, make an estimate – how many of my target market are likely to adopt.

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Step 3

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research

The next step is: Step 3 of 6 Understand the lifecycle component

Understand where the product or service sits on a lifecycle or adoption curve. This will hugely influence demand. For example, think of the electric car – the Total Available Market is all car owners, but because it’s new and innovative technology, we know...

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market
Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research

The next step is: Step 3 of 6 Understand the lifecycle component

Understand where the product or service sits on a lifecycle or adoption curve. This will hugely influence demand. For example, think of the electric car – the Total Available Market is all car owners, but because it’s new and innovative technology, we know that only a 5% innovator group is likely to be interested in buying this product initially. In contrast, a car such as a Diesel-powered SUV is in decline in European markets because of new emissions legislation, so we wouldn’t plan to launch in a declining market.

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Step 2

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market

The next step is:

Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research.

Research is expensive and time consuming. Almost always, it’s better to identify two or three groups within the total available market and focus our research efforts with them. Research group candidates should include groups with the most pressing need for the solution.

Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. In our six step process we’ve so far considered:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market

The next step is:

Step 2 of 6 Identify key segments to do your research.

Research is expensive and time consuming. Almost always, it’s better to identify two or three groups within the total available market and focus our research efforts with them. Research group candidates should include groups with the most pressing need for the solution.

Step 1 of 6

How many clients will use a new product or service? It’s a difficult question to answer, but if we can’t put an estimate on product demand then we cannot scale our delivery or support teams. Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. Over the next few days we’ll look at a six step process to help:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market

The first step is to work out how many customers could use your product or service – the maximum number of clients across your markets if there was 100% take up (known as ...

How many clients will use a new product or service? It’s a difficult question to answer, but if we can’t put an estimate on product demand then we cannot scale our delivery or support teams. Forecasting for a new product or service is challenging when we have no historic or foundation data to work from. Over the next few days we’ll look at a six step process to help:

Step 1 of 6 Find the total available market

The first step is to work out how many customers could use your product or service – the maximum number of clients across your markets if there was 100% take up (known as the total available market). Using this technique, we calculate the back stop number - a number that represents 100% market saturation. We can break this down by regions, sectors, customer types, etc.

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Start with the problem

So many product managers start at the wrong end of ideation- they start with a solution and then look for the market problem. Think about like this; if you were presented with a new product idea right now and were asked if you’d spend your own money developing it, what questions would you ask? Here are my starter questions:

• “What is it?”

• “What problem does it solve?”

• “Who it is solving that problem for?”

• “How is it being solved today?”.

Let’s pause for a moment on those four questions. They’re powerful. Think of products that have failed �...

So many product managers start at the wrong end of ideation- they start with a solution and then look for the market problem. Think about like this; if you were presented with a new product idea right now and were asked if you’d spend your own money developing it, what questions would you ask? Here are my starter questions:

• “What is it?”

• “What problem does it solve?”

• “Who it is solving that problem for?”

• “How is it being solved today?”.

Let’s pause for a moment on those four questions. They’re powerful. Think of products that have failed – the reason for their failure will at least in part sit within those questions. These questions are also great to push back out to idea originators. It helps you test their thinking before the idea gathers momentum and becomes yet another product for you to deliver. Remember to START WITH THE PROBLEM.

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Technique 6

Technique number 6: TEST MARKETING
And finally, there’s test marketing. The product and its marketing plan are exposed to a carefully chosen sample of the population before its full-scale launch. It’s conducted in real-life buying situations and can last from few weeks to several months. Due to its high cost, however, test marketing is more suitable for fast moving packaged goods

Technique number 6: TEST MARKETING
And finally, there’s test marketing. The product and its marketing plan are exposed to a carefully chosen sample of the population before its full-scale launch. It’s conducted in real-life buying situations and can last from few weeks to several months. Due to its high cost, however, test marketing is more suitable for fast moving packaged goods

Technique number 5

Technique number 5: SURVEYS
POSTAL SURVEYS, PHONE INTERVIEWS, INTERNET SURVEYS
Postal, phone and Internet surveys have the greatest potential for causing resentment on the part of those surveyed. And very low (less than 1%) response rates.
Additionally, respondents may not be representative of the market and can misdirect you.

Technique number 5: SURVEYS
POSTAL SURVEYS, PHONE INTERVIEWS, INTERNET SURVEYS
Postal, phone and Internet surveys have the greatest potential for causing resentment on the part of those surveyed. And very low (less than 1%) response rates.
Additionally, respondents may not be representative of the market and can misdirect you.

Technique number 4

Technique number 4: PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

Personal Interview research is a face-to-face meeting. People are more willing to respond in person, but can often tell you what they think you want to hear.

Participants tend to say the first thing that comes to mind or what they think they want. Once you look deeper into it you notice that there’s a lot more that must be uncovered, sometimes what they think they want or why they think they choose a product or service isn’t always the true motivation.

Technique number 4: PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

Personal Interview research is a face-to-face meeting. People are more willing to respond in person, but can often tell you what they think you want to hear.

Participants tend to say the first thing that comes to mind or what they think they want. Once you look deeper into it you notice that there’s a lot more that must be uncovered, sometimes what they think they want or why they think they choose a product or service isn’t always the true motivation.

Technique number 3

Technique number 3: FOCUS GROUP

In focus group research, 6 to 12 people are brought together by researchers to discuss a specific situation or reactions to a product. Questions are asked to the group, who are free to discuss the topics with each other. One key issue is that the research is reliant on the interpretation of group discussion. This can raise questions about observer dependency and validity.

Technique number 3: FOCUS GROUP

In focus group research, 6 to 12 people are brought together by researchers to discuss a specific situation or reactions to a product. Questions are asked to the group, who are free to discuss the topics with each other. One key issue is that the research is reliant on the interpretation of group discussion. This can raise questions about observer dependency and validity.

Technique 2

This week we’re running through the techniques for market validation.

Technique 2 - OBSERVATIONAL

In observational research actions of people are watched either by cameras or observers, typically in a natural environment. Using this technique, product managers can see how clients respond to different stimuli and situations. The benefit is that clients are more likely to demonstrate typical behaviour in a natural setting rather than ‘ideal’ behaviour in a simulated or artificial environment. However, what it cannot show is why customers behave in a certain way – their attitudes o...

This week we’re running through the techniques for market validation.

Technique 2 - OBSERVATIONAL

In observational research actions of people are watched either by cameras or observers, typically in a natural environment. Using this technique, product managers can see how clients respond to different stimuli and situations. The benefit is that clients are more likely to demonstrate typical behaviour in a natural setting rather than ‘ideal’ behaviour in a simulated or artificial environment. However, what it cannot show is why customers behave in a certain way – their attitudes or motivations.

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Technique 1

This week we’ll run through the techniques for market validation. We will describe 6, but feel free to highlight techniques you use

Technique 1 - Experimental

In experimental research, we observe the results of changing one or more marketing variables while keeping certain other variable constant. Are groupings of features. They describe the value that a customer can gain from using the features within a theme.

A theme describes the core value and each feature is a proof point of how that value is being delivered.

This week we’ll run through the techniques for market validation. We will describe 6, but feel free to highlight techniques you use

Technique 1 - Experimental

In experimental research, we observe the results of changing one or more marketing variables while keeping certain other variable constant. Are groupings of features. They describe the value that a customer can gain from using the features within a theme.

A theme describes the core value and each feature is a proof point of how that value is being delivered.

Life cycle thinking

Life cyle thinking is something that’s often overlooked by Product Managers. In their rush to launch they neglect to consider how the market will shape and grow. Think about taking a new product to market . Quite naturally, expectations and excitement run high on launch day. But a few weeks later those highs often feel like a distant memory as sales don’t meet projections and the product runs the risk of being perceived as a flop. An understanding of the introductory phase can save lots of heartache!! There are a couple of critical learnings:

1. Most customers wait for others to try ne...

Life cyle thinking is something that’s often overlooked by Product Managers. In their rush to launch they neglect to consider how the market will shape and grow. Think about taking a new product to market . Quite naturally, expectations and excitement run high on launch day. But a few weeks later those highs often feel like a distant memory as sales don’t meet projections and the product runs the risk of being perceived as a flop. An understanding of the introductory phase can save lots of heartache!! There are a couple of critical learnings:

1. Most customers wait for others to try new products – When a product comes to market, most customers see risk – Will it work? Does it add value? Do I really need it? Will it be a fad? Consequently they wait; let others take the risk whilst they see if something of real substance materialises. The risk takers, known as ‘innovators’ buy in. They are likely to have more pain around the problem your product solves, so find themselves willing to try out your solution – their risk/reward threshold was crossed.

2. As a consequence the full market is not available – The innovator sector is typically seen as about 5% of the total market. Think about the consequences of this; a new product with a total market size of $100M typically only has access to $5M of that market at first. Miss this and point and revenue forecasting will at best be ambitious!

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Product Launch

Preparing for market launch is a complex task. Product managers should make this task a little easier with the use of launch checklists. These focus on five main areas:

1) Is the product ready?

2) Does it satisfy a true market need?

3) Are all processes required to support it in place? (e.g. operational support and pricing)

4) Is the market or channel ready to receive the product? These are the sales and marketing teams who are willing and able to handle this product and have an effective delivery plan.

5) Are our customers ready? Do our consumers have all that they need to ...

Preparing for market launch is a complex task. Product managers should make this task a little easier with the use of launch checklists. These focus on five main areas:

1) Is the product ready?

2) Does it satisfy a true market need?

3) Are all processes required to support it in place? (e.g. operational support and pricing)

4) Is the market or channel ready to receive the product? These are the sales and marketing teams who are willing and able to handle this product and have an effective delivery plan.

5) Are our customers ready? Do our consumers have all that they need to be able to access and successfully use the new product?

Keep in mind, that a product launch is not a short-duration, high-intensity event that is concentrated near the end of product development; instead, it’s a long-term activity that starts during product planning and gradually ramps up to a successful, on-time launch, based on full readiness of many disparate elements, systems and cross-functional organizations.

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Level of competition

I was talking to a team who describe their product as having “no competition”. Great news? Perhaps, but think about it like this.

We should think about levels of competition.

1. We might face products similar to ours from competitors that look a lot like us. These are direct competitive threats - think audi vs bmw vs mercedes.

2. Sometimes the competition is less obvious. Its other ways that our customers can solve the problem that we help them solve. These are indirect competitive threats – think car vs plane vs video conferencing

3. Occasionally we see our product having ...

I was talking to a team who describe their product as having “no competition”. Great news? Perhaps, but think about it like this.

We should think about levels of competition.

1. We might face products similar to ours from competitors that look a lot like us. These are direct competitive threats - think audi vs bmw vs mercedes.

2. Sometimes the competition is less obvious. Its other ways that our customers can solve the problem that we help them solve. These are indirect competitive threats – think car vs plane vs video conferencing

3. Occasionally we see our product having no competition. This sounds great, but we should be cautious. No competition might mean you’re first to market, but it might also mean that there really no market. Even being first to market isn’t without risk. History is littered with examples of products and businesses that got there first, but didn’t thrive – think Palm in the PDA market, the Betamax format in the video market or Atari in the games console market. All three were first to market. All three failed to capitalise on first mover advantage.

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A quick tip on market research

A quick tip on market research.

With all research techniques we should remember that what customers do and say and think is not always consistent. I may LIKE the yellow car. It might be my FAVOURITE colour, but I might BUY the blue car – it stays looking clean, it’s easier to sell, it’s less a risky choice. So remember to ask the same question from many angles and look for consistency:

What is your favourite colour?

Which colour would you choose?

Which will be most popular?

Which colour would your partner choose?

Which colour would you buy?

A quick tip on market research.

With all research techniques we should remember that what customers do and say and think is not always consistent. I may LIKE the yellow car. It might be my FAVOURITE colour, but I might BUY the blue car – it stays looking clean, it’s easier to sell, it’s less a risky choice. So remember to ask the same question from many angles and look for consistency:

What is your favourite colour?

Which colour would you choose?

Which will be most popular?

Which colour would your partner choose?

Which colour would you buy?

The Approach

Watching paint dry or being presented with an endless list of features that describes everything a product manager is planning to add to their product over the next twelve months. They compete for the title of “Most boring thing I can imagine doing”. From a customer or an internal stakeholder perspective, trying to deduce where the value might be in the list of the 100 features the product manager plans to add is mind-numbing. And the risk? All that hard work from development gets lost as customers simply can’t see the value to them. A better approach is to group features into themes �...

Watching paint dry or being presented with an endless list of features that describes everything a product manager is planning to add to their product over the next twelve months. They compete for the title of “Most boring thing I can imagine doing”. From a customer or an internal stakeholder perspective, trying to deduce where the value might be in the list of the 100 features the product manager plans to add is mind-numbing. And the risk? All that hard work from development gets lost as customers simply can’t see the value to them. A better approach is to group features into themes – each theme conveying the core value and the majority of features demonstrating delivery of that value.

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Point of Difference

What’s your point of difference?
I’m working with a company whose strategy for domination is to build a multitude of similar products so that one of their offers is bound to grab your attention if you are in their market. At first glance, it might seem a strange strategy (vs focusing energies on building one world class product), but with the right infrastructure it can work well – think how the VW Audi group offer a range of cars from the Skoda to the Bugatti with a shared platform approach across many products. The key to making this approach work is two-fold:
1. Each product needs ...

What’s your point of difference?
I’m working with a company whose strategy for domination is to build a multitude of similar products so that one of their offers is bound to grab your attention if you are in their market. At first glance, it might seem a strange strategy (vs focusing energies on building one world class product), but with the right infrastructure it can work well – think how the VW Audi group offer a range of cars from the Skoda to the Bugatti with a shared platform approach across many products. The key to making this approach work is two-fold:
1. Each product needs a different purpose (e.g. we see skoda as different to audi)
2. Sharing common components make the model efficient.

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Life cycle Model

Got this question from a product manager today “I understand the lifecycle model, but how do I know what stage of the lifecycle my product is at?” Here’s my 50,000 foot view:

You’re in the introductory phase if the majority of your target market has just about heard of your product, and a very small percentage would actually buy “What the hell is an autonomous car?”

You’re in the growth phase if the majority of you target market understands your product and think of it that might be something to consider whilst a significant minority want to buy “I’m going to take a lo...

Got this question from a product manager today “I understand the lifecycle model, but how do I know what stage of the lifecycle my product is at?” Here’s my 50,000 foot view:

You’re in the introductory phase if the majority of your target market has just about heard of your product, and a very small percentage would actually buy “What the hell is an autonomous car?”

You’re in the growth phase if the majority of you target market understands your product and think of it that might be something to consider whilst a significant minority want to buy “I’m going to take a look at the electric car”

You’re in the maturity phase if the majority of your market see your product as a normal choice “It’s either petrol or diesel for me”

You’re in the decline phase when the majority of your market think your product is old “You’re buying a horse!!”

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Presentation Skills

Presentation skills; it feels like some have them and some don’t! But for a product manager, being able to present with clarity and conviction is a skill worth working on. Your bright new product idea could fall at the first hurdle if the review team simply don’t understand it or pay enough attention because of how you present. But many product managers fall at the first hurdle – their presentation unravels from slide one as they fail to get the introduction right.

So how should your presentation start? The key is structure; your audience want to know some basics. “Why am I here?�...

Presentation skills; it feels like some have them and some don’t! But for a product manager, being able to present with clarity and conviction is a skill worth working on. Your bright new product idea could fall at the first hurdle if the review team simply don’t understand it or pay enough attention because of how you present. But many product managers fall at the first hurdle – their presentation unravels from slide one as they fail to get the introduction right.

So how should your presentation start? The key is structure; your audience want to know some basics. “Why am I here?”, “How long will I be here?”, “What decisions will I need to make?” So tell them! Whoever the audience, take the lead from word one, slide one. You give the audience confidence that you’re in control.

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The perfect PM

What do you look for in a product manager? We often get asked to assess a potential PM candidate. Outside of their PM knowledge, these are the attributes that I look for:
Communicates powerfully, clearly and credibly
Solves problems and analyses issues
Innovative and entrepreneurial
Inspires
Collaborates and can work I nor drive a team
Builds relationships
Inspires and motivates others to high performance
Disciplined
Focuses on results
Drives for results
Practices self-development
What do you look for in the perfect product manager?

What do you look for in a product manager? We often get asked to assess a potential PM candidate. Outside of their PM knowledge, these are the attributes that I look for:
Communicates powerfully, clearly and credibly
Solves problems and analyses issues
Innovative and entrepreneurial
Inspires
Collaborates and can work I nor drive a team
Builds relationships
Inspires and motivates others to high performance
Disciplined
Focuses on results
Drives for results
Practices self-development
What do you look for in the perfect product manager?

Process

Process. Some Product Managers love it, whilst most of us grudgingly accept it as something we should do . It’s like eating your greens or walking your 10k steps a day. But skip the process and, just like regular exercise or healthy eating, you’ll soon start to find out why it’s important. Without process we introduce randomness – ideas get selected, products get built, and prices get set without clear, consistent and coherent rationale. We end up with an incoherent product set that can confuse our customers. And once a process is broken then everyone feels justified in breaking it a l...

Process. Some Product Managers love it, whilst most of us grudgingly accept it as something we should do . It’s like eating your greens or walking your 10k steps a day. But skip the process and, just like regular exercise or healthy eating, you’ll soon start to find out why it’s important. Without process we introduce randomness – ideas get selected, products get built, and prices get set without clear, consistent and coherent rationale. We end up with an incoherent product set that can confuse our customers. And once a process is broken then everyone feels justified in breaking it a little more.So, eat your greens, walk every day, and follow your PM process. They’re all good habits!

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Market Research

How do you interpret market research?

I’m currently doing some market research for a new b2b product and trying to answer the most basic question “should we build it” by gathering customer feedback on the problem that the new product solves. So far the feedback has mostly been along the lines of “We’re mildly interested”. So what does that mean? It could mean a number of things (they’re the wrong audience, they don’t understand the problem statement, etc), but fundamentally it means that the research group we’ve spoken to are not going to be knocking our door down to get...

How do you interpret market research?

I’m currently doing some market research for a new b2b product and trying to answer the most basic question “should we build it” by gathering customer feedback on the problem that the new product solves. So far the feedback has mostly been along the lines of “We’re mildly interested”. So what does that mean? It could mean a number of things (they’re the wrong audience, they don’t understand the problem statement, etc), but fundamentally it means that the research group we’ve spoken to are not going to be knocking our door down to get to the new product. “Mildly interested” does not get them awake in the night worrying about the problem you solve or rushing to get that PO in place to buy your product. When conducting b2b market research look for three indicators of interest:

1. “How much will it be”
2. “When is it coming to market”
3. “Give me the details about how it works”

These are true signals of interest

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Meeting Customers

When did you last meet customers?

I’m amazed how many product managers in the b2b space have no/limited customer contact. Remember, without customer contact you’re doing no more than guessing. Product manager does not need an opinion, they need market gathered evidence.

When did you last meet customers?

I’m amazed how many product managers in the b2b space have no/limited customer contact. Remember, without customer contact you’re doing no more than guessing. Product manager does not need an opinion, they need market gathered evidence.

Find the 3 A.M. problem

Find the 3 A.M. problem
We work with many teams who want to innovate more – find the next big thing that will propel their business forward. Often these conversations focus on the product “What new shiny thing can we take to market?”. This is not the right place to start. In the B2B world, great products are built on solving real world problems. The bigger the problem, the more motivation there is to fix it. Obvious really, but missed by so many teams on their quest to uncover a winning idea. So, next time you’re looking to innovate, start with this question “What problems are keepi...

Find the 3 A.M. problem
We work with many teams who want to innovate more – find the next big thing that will propel their business forward. Often these conversations focus on the product “What new shiny thing can we take to market?”. This is not the right place to start. In the B2B world, great products are built on solving real world problems. The bigger the problem, the more motivation there is to fix it. Obvious really, but missed by so many teams on their quest to uncover a winning idea. So, next time you’re looking to innovate, start with this question “What problems are keeping our customers awake at night?”. Problems that wake someone at 3am, are problems they’re motivated to solve

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What does a product manager do?

What does a product manager do?
Our role can be quite complex and difficult to describe. But if we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business (step forward all those product managers who are really sales support or project managers, ....).

Here’s a definition that might help. “Product managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”. So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By using a professional pm framework a product manager reduces the risk of a potential pr...

What does a product manager do?
Our role can be quite complex and difficult to describe. But if we don’t have a clear purpose then we run the risk of being misplaced in our business (step forward all those product managers who are really sales support or project managers, ....).

Here’s a definition that might help. “Product managers reduce the risk of launching a product flop and increase the success of products in market”. So what does that mean? Well, product failure occurs in every sector. By using a professional pm framework a product manager reduces the risk of a potential product flop getting to market (we assess before we launch) and then by using the same pm framework, they ensure that existing products remain successful for longer (we continuously improve products). If there’s a 25% product failure rate in your industry and your pm skills have reduced that to 5% in your business then that’s great product management.

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Maintenance vs innovation

Maintenance vs innovation
How do product managers balance the needs of their current product versus investing in new ideas? We’re working with a company where about 80% of development effort is directed towards product maintenance, some towards enhancements and the little bit that’s left goes to innovation. The result? A very frustrated senior management team who see a huge spend and nothing new to sell. There can be many reasons behind this (badly architected product, fixed sized dev teams, etc) but it clearly cant be sustained. Our fix? Set a target maintenance spend (say 20%) and a tar...

Maintenance vs innovation
How do product managers balance the needs of their current product versus investing in new ideas? We’re working with a company where about 80% of development effort is directed towards product maintenance, some towards enhancements and the little bit that’s left goes to innovation. The result? A very frustrated senior management team who see a huge spend and nothing new to sell. There can be many reasons behind this (badly architected product, fixed sized dev teams, etc) but it clearly cant be sustained. Our fix? Set a target maintenance spend (say 20%) and a target date to hit that spend (say 3 years) and then ratchet spend down each quarter. This gives teams the time to address the fundamentals, get a plan in place and move towards a more appropriate spending level.

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What is a product

What is a product - this question comes up constantly in our world. On the surface this would seem a simple question to deal with , but teams get wrapped in knots as they try to work out what it is that they sell, how they should structure product teams etc.
We think the answer is pretty simple. ‘ A product is any deliverable that provides value (tangle or not) to a target customer group. All products need to be managed, the level of effort being a function of the risk and reward associated with the product’

What is a product - this question comes up constantly in our world. On the surface this would seem a simple question to deal with , but teams get wrapped in knots as they try to work out what it is that they sell, how they should structure product teams etc.
We think the answer is pretty simple. ‘ A product is any deliverable that provides value (tangle or not) to a target customer group. All products need to be managed, the level of effort being a function of the risk and reward associated with the product’

Product Impact

The impact of getting a product wrong
You can get a product wrong in many ways - badly designed, poorly build, doesn’t solve any specific need, too expensive etc....
We often think of the cost of the mistake in relation to the product - x million in development effort has been wasted, but the cost is much bigger than that. Think of it from a brand perspective. If a company delivers a bad product then customers don’t just reject the product, but they become wary of brand. An example from two brands- Alfa Romeo and Porsche; Alfa have a history of highs and lows. Sometimes they delight,...

The impact of getting a product wrong
You can get a product wrong in many ways - badly designed, poorly build, doesn’t solve any specific need, too expensive etc....
We often think of the cost of the mistake in relation to the product - x million in development effort has been wasted, but the cost is much bigger than that. Think of it from a brand perspective. If a company delivers a bad product then customers don’t just reject the product, but they become wary of brand. An example from two brands- Alfa Romeo and Porsche; Alfa have a history of highs and lows. Sometimes they delight, sometimes not. Porsche have consistency. Now imagine both companies announce a new sports car for 2019 that you can place a deposit on today. Guess who would have the fuller order book? Brand confidence is a war that products battle to win

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Market Research

Market research is essential for product managers it centres your business on your consumers and keeps you focused. It allows you to pursue the most lucrative growth opportunities and keeps you relevant and future-oriented it also improves your decision-making capabilities and reduces your risk.

A great example of this Harper Collins found sales of Agatha Christie novels declining.
Quantitative & qualitative research was commissioned, and they found that :
Readers liked “niceness” of the crimes, but covers were gruesome and bloody.

Result: New cover designs commissioned. Sales rose...

Market research is essential for product managers it centres your business on your consumers and keeps you focused. It allows you to pursue the most lucrative growth opportunities and keeps you relevant and future-oriented it also improves your decision-making capabilities and reduces your risk.

A great example of this Harper Collins found sales of Agatha Christie novels declining.
Quantitative & qualitative research was commissioned, and they found that :
Readers liked “niceness” of the crimes, but covers were gruesome and bloody.

Result: New cover designs commissioned. Sales rose by 40%

#productmanagement

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Crossing the Chasm

An article on the bbc this morning described the ‘shockingly’ slow take up of the electric car and how many consumers were unlikely to buy electric for their next purchase. These were my the figures:
- 5.5% of new car purchases are electric.
- 56% of those surveyed were very unlikely to buy an electric car as their next car purchase.

I think they might want to get a copy of ‘crossing the chasm’ in their library. The electric car market is almost textbook adoption model - innovators are in, laggards and late majority need more convincing.

An article on the bbc this morning described the ‘shockingly’ slow take up of the electric car and how many consumers were unlikely to buy electric for their next purchase. These were my the figures:
- 5.5% of new car purchases are electric.
- 56% of those surveyed were very unlikely to buy an electric car as their next car purchase.

I think they might want to get a copy of ‘crossing the chasm’ in their library. The electric car market is almost textbook adoption model - innovators are in, laggards and late majority need more convincing.

Do you know your customers?

I’m often shocked by how little contact some product managers have with their customers. Think about it for a second - potentially spending huge amounts of money building a product for group of people you’ve never met! I know it’s expensive and time consuming and sometimes difficult, but a product manager who does not regularly meet customers and understands them is really just taking a huge bet at the point of product launch.

I’m often shocked by how little contact some product managers have with their customers. Think about it for a second - potentially spending huge amounts of money building a product for group of people you’ve never met! I know it’s expensive and time consuming and sometimes difficult, but a product manager who does not regularly meet customers and understands them is really just taking a huge bet at the point of product launch.

Who Does What ?

Product owners vs product managers vs product marketing managers!!

We don’t make our life easy in product management - trying to untangle who does what across the multiple job titles we see can be a nightmare.
Here’s my take on it; product marketing managers own markets, product managers own products that serve those markets and product owners own modules that make up those products.

Take the Ford Focus as an example. My model would have a product marketing manager for Ford UK working with the full Ford product set, a product manager for the Ford Focus, another for the Ford Mondeo,...

Product owners vs product managers vs product marketing managers!!

We don’t make our life easy in product management - trying to untangle who does what across the multiple job titles we see can be a nightmare.
Here’s my take on it; product marketing managers own markets, product managers own products that serve those markets and product owners own modules that make up those products.

Take the Ford Focus as an example. My model would have a product marketing manager for Ford UK working with the full Ford product set, a product manager for the Ford Focus, another for the Ford Mondeo, etc, understanding the needs of each product marketing manager across the globe, and a product owner for suspension systems, another for Interiors, etc working with the product manager of each car.

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Discounting

Dealing with discounts.

Customers ask for discounts. In the b2b sector it’s pretty unusual for customers not to push the price point down. This is obviously something for sales teams so how does it impact product management?

Firstly, we can help sales teams deal with discount discussions in how we structure the product - a modular approach to pricing means that when a customer asks a £10k solution, we have a £10k product. We can strip out the higher value components and hit the price point with a suitable product offer. But we all know customers often want all the features and the di...

Dealing with discounts.

Customers ask for discounts. In the b2b sector it’s pretty unusual for customers not to push the price point down. This is obviously something for sales teams so how does it impact product management?

Firstly, we can help sales teams deal with discount discussions in how we structure the product - a modular approach to pricing means that when a customer asks a £10k solution, we have a £10k product. We can strip out the higher value components and hit the price point with a suitable product offer. But we all know customers often want all the features and the discount. In this case, think of what the sales team can ask for in return for a discount that might benefit your product - reference site visits, a quote to use in some marketing piece, a joint presentation at a conference, access to end users to conduct market research...

The point is this, don’t let discounts be given for ‘free’. It’s much easier to get the quote agreed during a negation than trying to secure it afterwards when the customer wants nothing from you.

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Competition

Tonight is one of the most important England matches for a very long time. All the way through this competition the team will have been closely looking at their competitors and trying to make sure they understood what they could do to give them the edge and win.

Do you know what your point of difference is with your competitors ?
What do you do differently that gives your product the edge ?

Give this card a try from our 30 Tasks to Improve Product Management card deck.

Tonight is one of the most important England matches for a very long time. All the way through this competition the team will have been closely looking at their competitors and trying to make sure they understood what they could do to give them the edge and win.

Do you know what your point of difference is with your competitors ?
What do you do differently that gives your product the edge ?

Give this card a try from our 30 Tasks to Improve Product Management card deck.

Communication

Communication is a vital skill for a product manager. It might be a 5 minute elevator pitch or a full technical review. Either way you need to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you saying. Here are a few tips :

1. Tell the audience why they are there
2. Pick three major points you want to talk about and focus on those.
3. Don't overload your presentation with text and pictures.
4. Keep an eye on time. Use a parking lot to collect points that can be answered later.
5. Don't just deliver dry facts.
6. Deliver with passion.
7. Banish your nerves.

Communication is a vital skill for a product manager. It might be a 5 minute elevator pitch or a full technical review. Either way you need to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you saying. Here are a few tips :

1. Tell the audience why they are there
2. Pick three major points you want to talk about and focus on those.
3. Don't overload your presentation with text and pictures.
4. Keep an eye on time. Use a parking lot to collect points that can be answered later.
5. Don't just deliver dry facts.
6. Deliver with passion.
7. Banish your nerves.

Product Naming

What do think about when naming a product ? There are so many things to consider. Below is an example of BAD product naming. In Iran where this product is made the word "barf" means snow, so ideal for the idea of making your whites nice and bright. However where the product is sold it has a whole other meaning. I don't think anyone wants there clean washing to smell like Barf !

What do think about when naming a product ? There are so many things to consider. Below is an example of BAD product naming. In Iran where this product is made the word "barf" means snow, so ideal for the idea of making your whites nice and bright. However where the product is sold it has a whole other meaning. I don't think anyone wants there clean washing to smell like Barf !

Themed Roadmaps

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

Product Plan

Are you keeping your product plan up to date?
The product plan is the place that product managers catch all relevant market data. They use it to help direct their product and make evidence based decisions. Contact me if you'd like the latest product plan template from Tarigo.

Are you keeping your product plan up to date?
The product plan is the place that product managers catch all relevant market data. They use it to help direct their product and make evidence based decisions. Contact me if you'd like the latest product plan template from Tarigo.

Product Failure

There is actually a museum of product failure. The purpose however is not to mock those who have failed but to provide visitors a learning experience about the important role of failure for innovation.

Not every product will be a success but we need to look at those failures and learn from them.

How do you innovate and ensure your product success ?

There is actually a museum of product failure. The purpose however is not to mock those who have failed but to provide visitors a learning experience about the important role of failure for innovation.

Not every product will be a success but we need to look at those failures and learn from them.

How do you innovate and ensure your product success ?

Agile

Does agile development need agile marketing?

More of a thought for the day - really interested in opinions and how you’re solving this issue....

Over the past few years, agile processes have become the dominant process-type in the development and delivery of technology. Promising a level of agility and customer focus, variants of the core agile method are now commonly used for developing products from gaming apps through to sophisticated medical technology. But whilst product teams have embraced the brave new world of agile, their colleagues in marketing, support, finance and other f...

Does agile development need agile marketing?

More of a thought for the day - really interested in opinions and how you’re solving this issue....

Over the past few years, agile processes have become the dominant process-type in the development and delivery of technology. Promising a level of agility and customer focus, variants of the core agile method are now commonly used for developing products from gaming apps through to sophisticated medical technology. But whilst product teams have embraced the brave new world of agile, their colleagues in marketing, support, finance and other functions have not seen the relevance to them. The net result? A fragmented response - technology is delivered through regular sprint iterations whilst messaging, marketing, support and other deliverables follow a much more static delivery path and fail to match the agility of development. This presents a market problem; customers buy solutions. Building agility into the development team and not matching that through the other functions is like building a car with one wheel that can spin faster than the rest.
Thoughts...…..

#productmanagement #productmanager #blog #tarigo

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Is Product Mgmt art or science?

Is product management art or science?

I’m helping an organisation build out their product management team. We’ve looked at their needs, built a skills gap canvas and identified what they require in terms of hard skills. Even with all that in place, the stand out skill that I’m always looking for is an ability to balance art and science. You can describe this in a number of ways; creativity and structure, ingenuity and discipline. Great product managers have enough creativity to define a truly compelling proposition and enough structure to get a complex product to launch without droppi...

Is product management art or science?

I’m helping an organisation build out their product management team. We’ve looked at their needs, built a skills gap canvas and identified what they require in terms of hard skills. Even with all that in place, the stand out skill that I’m always looking for is an ability to balance art and science. You can describe this in a number of ways; creativity and structure, ingenuity and discipline. Great product managers have enough creativity to define a truly compelling proposition and enough structure to get a complex product to launch without dropping a major component. It’s a mix of skills that is makes the role pretty special and it’s difficult to find discipline and creativity in the same person

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Managing your manager

A team I’m working with have an issue with their boss; he is forever coming to them with ‘opportunities’ – ideas and initiatives that might well have merit, but that distract from the current plan and overwhelm the team. Plenty of us have been there, but how can product teams handle this? It’s often impossible just to say “no“ ,and it’s wrong just to blindly accept the ideas and say “yes”, so try saying “why”. For any and every new idea try to quickly validate it with these questions:

• What problem is it solving?

• Who is it solving for?

• How many have...

A team I’m working with have an issue with their boss; he is forever coming to them with ‘opportunities’ – ideas and initiatives that might well have merit, but that distract from the current plan and overwhelm the team. Plenty of us have been there, but how can product teams handle this? It’s often impossible just to say “no“ ,and it’s wrong just to blindly accept the ideas and say “yes”, so try saying “why”. For any and every new idea try to quickly validate it with these questions:

• What problem is it solving?

• Who is it solving for?

• How many have this problem?

• How do they deal with the problem today?

• How could we be better than their existing solution?

• Does it fit with our products and plans?

• Is it something we can build/deliver?

• Is it something our sales channel could sell?

A five minute step through these questions and many bad ideas are stopped before they start.

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Product Management & Marketing

Product Management and Product Marketing

Clarity of the roles and responsibilities across the two disciplines is vital in any organisation.

For many product managers, the role of product marketing may be undertaken by another group or individual in the organisation. It may be considered part of their own role but is often undertaken with lower levels of knowledge & experience.

In some cases, product marketing may not be practiced at all, and a new or improved product "thrown over the wall" to the rest of the organisation and the market!

It is clear to me that the combination of st...

Product Management and Product Marketing

Clarity of the roles and responsibilities across the two disciplines is vital in any organisation.

For many product managers, the role of product marketing may be undertaken by another group or individual in the organisation. It may be considered part of their own role but is often undertaken with lower levels of knowledge & experience.

In some cases, product marketing may not be practiced at all, and a new or improved product "thrown over the wall" to the rest of the organisation and the market!

It is clear to me that the combination of strategies and processes from both disciplines maximises the success of a new or updated product.

In many ways it is less about the need for an organisation to have both roles (although this is undoubtedly important as a product scales) but more about the need for an organisation to adopt & integrate both disciplines, perhaps using a collaborative team approach.

In simple terms we could state that Product Management has to define and oversee the build of the product and Product Marketing has to take it to market. The reality is more complex than this and is discussed more in our white paper:

https://lnkd.in/dns2DZ7

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Product narrative

What’s the narrative for your product?

Here’s a quick question. What are Donald Trumps key messages? Love him or hate him, we all know those narratives (make America great again, build a wall, etc). Point is this; brand Trump is very good at building and driving the narrative (again, for clarity I make no opinion on those narratives, other than they’re clear). This makes the Trump proposition clear to the target market. Second question; what’s your product narrative? No narrative and confusion ensues!

What’s the narrative for your product?

Here’s a quick question. What are Donald Trumps key messages? Love him or hate him, we all know those narratives (make America great again, build a wall, etc). Point is this; brand Trump is very good at building and driving the narrative (again, for clarity I make no opinion on those narratives, other than they’re clear). This makes the Trump proposition clear to the target market. Second question; what’s your product narrative? No narrative and confusion ensues!

Product failure or forecast fail

Product failure or forecast failure?
We’re working on a product over the next couple of weeks where the pm believes his product has failed - sales are 10% of forecast. My instinct is that the pm hasn’t taken into account life cycle models, and his disruptive product is simply not being supported by the large market he sees until those innovators (circa 5% of market) buy it, use it, reference it. For new and disruptive products you need success with and innovator before the rest of the market is willing to buy It’s a lesson many teams forget in our impatience to get to the bigger pr...

Product failure or forecast failure?
We’re working on a product over the next couple of weeks where the pm believes his product has failed - sales are 10% of forecast. My instinct is that the pm hasn’t taken into account life cycle models, and his disruptive product is simply not being supported by the large market he sees until those innovators (circa 5% of market) buy it, use it, reference it. For new and disruptive products you need success with and innovator before the rest of the market is willing to buy It’s a lesson many teams forget in our impatience to get to the bigger prize

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Product Owner + Manager Team?

Just off a call with a team working through this issue; how do you structure Product Owners and Product Managers in a team?
It’s a dilemma for many – we often work with teams where there really is not role clarity and often one person is trying to do both jobs. Typically the urgency of Product Owner duties overwhelms the importance of Product Management duties with the net result of very little commercial and strategic thinking taking place – the individual becomes technical, tactical and faces in to the organisation.
Short term this isn’t a problem, but look out over a longer hori...

Just off a call with a team working through this issue; how do you structure Product Owners and Product Managers in a team?
It’s a dilemma for many – we often work with teams where there really is not role clarity and often one person is trying to do both jobs. Typically the urgency of Product Owner duties overwhelms the importance of Product Management duties with the net result of very little commercial and strategic thinking taking place – the individual becomes technical, tactical and faces in to the organisation.
Short term this isn’t a problem, but look out over a longer horizon and the impact can be huge; limited vision, little market connection, and incremental product enhancement that exposes the business to risks from disruptive technology. Product Managers need time to be strategic, commercial, outbound and market-connected.

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Reaction to losing a deal

How do you react to losing a deal?

I’ll admit that I react badly, but how should a Product Manager really react? After a couple of months of not putting a wrong (we’ve just recorded our best month and will record our best quarter – go team!) we missed a deal. We’ll deal with this using GRIT.

Grieve – In my opinion good losers tend to be infrequent winners so don’t feel bad about feeling bad. Go for a run, beat a punch bag, relax in a hot bath. Whatever your way of dealing with it, give yourself a bit of time to get it out of your system.

Research - Gather as much data as y...

How do you react to losing a deal?

I’ll admit that I react badly, but how should a Product Manager really react? After a couple of months of not putting a wrong (we’ve just recorded our best month and will record our best quarter – go team!) we missed a deal. We’ll deal with this using GRIT.

Grieve – In my opinion good losers tend to be infrequent winners so don’t feel bad about feeling bad. Go for a run, beat a punch bag, relax in a hot bath. Whatever your way of dealing with it, give yourself a bit of time to get it out of your system.

Research - Gather as much data as you can. Gather from all sources and gather without filter or preconception.

Identify - Work out what went wrong. It’s easy to make price or product assumptions, but discount nothing. I recall a deal lost years ago where we worked out that the customer had not even read our proposal. Be aware that the answer might be that the deal was never in your sights.

Translate - Make changes so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes. Remember the lesson of marginal gain - small changes can deliver significant results.

So I need to go and give my punch bag 30 minutes of hell.

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What's in a Name

What’s in a name.

My kids have recently started requesting biscuits for breakfast. They saw a product called “Breakfast Biscuits” and no amount of talking will convince them that these are plain and simple biscuits. They could be called “Bedtime cookies” or “sports snacks” and they’d still be biscuits. Got me thinking about how important a product name is in giving context and meaning to your audience. Anyone for some cold, dead, wet fish? Thought not, but some of us like Sushi. The name is often the first point of connection with your product or service. Don’t treat it as...

What’s in a name.

My kids have recently started requesting biscuits for breakfast. They saw a product called “Breakfast Biscuits” and no amount of talking will convince them that these are plain and simple biscuits. They could be called “Bedtime cookies” or “sports snacks” and they’d still be biscuits. Got me thinking about how important a product name is in giving context and meaning to your audience. Anyone for some cold, dead, wet fish? Thought not, but some of us like Sushi. The name is often the first point of connection with your product or service. Don’t treat it as an afterthought.

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Presenting Product Financials.

I’ve just sat through a review of product financials – an hour I’m not going to get back! There was nothing wrong with the data (in this case, a decent P&L), and everything wrong with the presentation. We sat looking at an excel spreadsheet in 8 point font as the presenter walked us through it. The audience was a mix of asleep, confused and grumpy. This is a classic presentation problem; the data is great, the narrative is missing.

My advice? Give the audience the highlights (perhaps ROI, Break Even and total investment), tell them what decision you’re looking for, and then give so...

I’ve just sat through a review of product financials – an hour I’m not going to get back! There was nothing wrong with the data (in this case, a decent P&L), and everything wrong with the presentation. We sat looking at an excel spreadsheet in 8 point font as the presenter walked us through it. The audience was a mix of asleep, confused and grumpy. This is a classic presentation problem; the data is great, the narrative is missing.

My advice? Give the audience the highlights (perhaps ROI, Break Even and total investment), tell them what decision you’re looking for, and then give some data insights to demonstrate your highlights and your ask. Great presentations always have a point and purpose, not an hour of rambling through some numbers until your audience lose the will to live!

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Market Research Session

What does a great market research session look like?

I was reminded of this with a team I’m working with. They’re in a B2B market and are conducting early stage research on a new concept. A couple of product managers reported back that their customer visit had gone well. A deeper dive and it was clear that what they really meant was that the customer hadn’t asked any tough questions and so the meeting had been a breeze. This is bad news for the product; interested customers always ask difficult questions (date, price, detail). Think of these as buying signals – if they don’t ask ...

What does a great market research session look like?

I was reminded of this with a team I’m working with. They’re in a B2B market and are conducting early stage research on a new concept. A couple of product managers reported back that their customer visit had gone well. A deeper dive and it was clear that what they really meant was that the customer hadn’t asked any tough questions and so the meeting had been a breeze. This is bad news for the product; interested customers always ask difficult questions (date, price, detail). Think of these as buying signals – if they don’t ask “how much” or “when” they’re really not that interested.

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How do you retire a product?

How do you retire a product? It’s easy to dismiss product retirement as unimportant. You’re retiring the product so why worry? Two reasons:

1. Customers - Do it badly and customers aren’t going to be knocking at your door for your next product. You lost their trust.
2. Competition - Get it wrong and you leave the door wide open for competitors to enter and build their position.

Think of retirement as the mirror of market entry - do your research, build your plan, and communicate your position clearly and frequently.

How do you retire a product? It’s easy to dismiss product retirement as unimportant. You’re retiring the product so why worry? Two reasons:

1. Customers - Do it badly and customers aren’t going to be knocking at your door for your next product. You lost their trust.
2. Competition - Get it wrong and you leave the door wide open for competitors to enter and build their position.

Think of retirement as the mirror of market entry - do your research, build your plan, and communicate your position clearly and frequently.

Prod Mgmt is a team sport

Product Management is a team sport

The FIFA world cup kicks off today and in a few short weeks one team will be crowned world cup winners. But will the winning team be the best players? Not necessarily. What they will be is the best team; playing in the correct position, working as a unit, understanding their role. I see this in product management way too often; the outstanding product manager ‘played’ in the wrong position (e.g. the launch expert tasked with building an ROI model), the team not knowing who does what in terms of roles and responsibilities, cross-team communication being...

Product Management is a team sport

The FIFA world cup kicks off today and in a few short weeks one team will be crowned world cup winners. But will the winning team be the best players? Not necessarily. What they will be is the best team; playing in the correct position, working as a unit, understanding their role. I see this in product management way too often; the outstanding product manager ‘played’ in the wrong position (e.g. the launch expert tasked with building an ROI model), the team not knowing who does what in terms of roles and responsibilities, cross-team communication being almost non-existent. Remember, great product management is not just about the individual, but about the team. Think of it as complete product management.

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Big vs small business ProdMgmt

Big business vs small business Product Management
We train product management in some of the biggest and smallest companies – Last year our biggest client employed over 4,000 people in product roles and our smallest had a product management team of one. So what’s the difference? What does product management look like at these extremes? I’d characterise it like this; DOING VS GLUING. In a big team, the product manager has marketers, pricing experts, launch managers, research teams, etc. Their job is to use those extensive resources to build out the perfect product. They GLUE. In a small ...

Big business vs small business Product Management
We train product management in some of the biggest and smallest companies – Last year our biggest client employed over 4,000 people in product roles and our smallest had a product management team of one. So what’s the difference? What does product management look like at these extremes? I’d characterise it like this; DOING VS GLUING. In a big team, the product manager has marketers, pricing experts, launch managers, research teams, etc. Their job is to use those extensive resources to build out the perfect product. They GLUE. In a small team, the product manager doesn’t have that extensive team and need to figure out most things for themselves. They DO.
The core discipline remains the same, the daily activity can look very different. When we train teams we pay attention to this - its one of the ways we can be effective in very big and very small teams.

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Mega Trends

Mega trends are substantial changes that can impact any aspect of our business. Once upon a time the internet was a potential mega trend, out on the horizon, gathering strength. Some businesses saw it, built or modified their products to accommodate it, and rode the internet wave. Others weren’t so visionary and floundered as the world moved online.

How do we identify mega trends? product managers must constantly look for trends in four broad categories:

· Technology – today we see trends such as A.I or the Internet of Things gathering momentum.

· Social – think of...

Mega trends are substantial changes that can impact any aspect of our business. Once upon a time the internet was a potential mega trend, out on the horizon, gathering strength. Some businesses saw it, built or modified their products to accommodate it, and rode the internet wave. Others weren’t so visionary and floundered as the world moved online.

How do we identify mega trends? product managers must constantly look for trends in four broad categories:

· Technology – today we see trends such as A.I or the Internet of Things gathering momentum.

· Social – think of trends such as the ageing population or urbanization

· Economic – the gig economy and peer-to-peer networks are relevant examples

· Political – trends could be border security or environmental controls.

Once we’ve identified the trends, we need to think of what they mean to our business. For example, IoT presents risk and opportunity around cybersecurity. There will be an estimated 26 billion connected devices by 2020 – some sharing sensitive data and payment information. Hacking into that network could cause widespread disruption.

So what mega trends present opportunity or risk to your product? Product Managers should be thinking about this regularly.

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Keeping your business case up to

Product managers understand the need for a business case when they are looking for investment in a new product. It tells stakeholders about customers, markets, competition, and the solution needed to capture those markets. But what about post launch - should the business case be filed and forgotten? The short answer is no – the business case needs to reflect current market conditions to enable good decisions throughout the product lifecycle . Here’s our tip on making this happen; When you launch your product, file a copy of the business case. But also take a second copy and spend a few min...

Product managers understand the need for a business case when they are looking for investment in a new product. It tells stakeholders about customers, markets, competition, and the solution needed to capture those markets. But what about post launch - should the business case be filed and forgotten? The short answer is no – the business case needs to reflect current market conditions to enable good decisions throughout the product lifecycle . Here’s our tip on making this happen; When you launch your product, file a copy of the business case. But also take a second copy and spend a few minutes at the end of each week updating it with new insights “What have I learnt about my business over the last few days”. Every three months file the updated copy and continue with the process. The net result? A business case that describes why you went to market and a set of incremental updates that describe current market conditions.

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Differentiate or die

Hotel I’m staying at is next to a mall with a full sized funfair - log flume, rollercoaster. The lot!

Got me thinking; high streets often look like ghost towns because they can’t find their point of difference over online retailers. This mall has turned itself into a go-to destination and made shopping a family event. They’ve nailed their point of difference and built something that offers an experience that online shopping can’t touch. So when we hear about the death of the high street we should really see that as the death of the traditional high street. Differentiate or die - a ...

Hotel I’m staying at is next to a mall with a full sized funfair - log flume, rollercoaster. The lot!

Got me thinking; high streets often look like ghost towns because they can’t find their point of difference over online retailers. This mall has turned itself into a go-to destination and made shopping a family event. They’ve nailed their point of difference and built something that offers an experience that online shopping can’t touch. So when we hear about the death of the high street we should really see that as the death of the traditional high street. Differentiate or die - a book product managers should read and a mantra we shouldn’t forget.

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How's 2018 looking so far?

We’re already in June and hopefully you’re in the middle of a great year, tracking to plan. But does your product management team have the right skills to deliver against those business goals you have mapped out over the next sixth months?

We can help keep you on the right track:
1. Build out your market map to turn company vision into actionable product initiatives
2. Map product initiatives to skill needs
3. Assess your team for skills gaps
4. Close those gaps with training

We call this Mind the Gap.

We’re already in June and hopefully you’re in the middle of a great year, tracking to plan. But does your product management team have the right skills to deliver against those business goals you have mapped out over the next sixth months?

We can help keep you on the right track:
1. Build out your market map to turn company vision into actionable product initiatives
2. Map product initiatives to skill needs
3. Assess your team for skills gaps
4. Close those gaps with training

We call this Mind the Gap.

Keeping the vision

Today's Product Management lesson comes courtesy of South Pacific. We’re midway through the year and those good intentions form January can seem long gone. Tactics and day-to-day interrupts have diluted your strategic thinking to near zero. Remember this; if you don’t have a product vision there’s every chance you’ll start to drift – engaging in activity that gets you no nearer your goal. Now is a good time to restate that vision and make sure you and your team are at least spending some of the day tracking towards it.

Today's Product Management lesson comes courtesy of South Pacific. We’re midway through the year and those good intentions form January can seem long gone. Tactics and day-to-day interrupts have diluted your strategic thinking to near zero. Remember this; if you don’t have a product vision there’s every chance you’ll start to drift – engaging in activity that gets you no nearer your goal. Now is a good time to restate that vision and make sure you and your team are at least spending some of the day tracking towards it.

Winning and Losing

Winning and losing is part of product management but the way we handle wins and losses can make a difference. Take two extremes:

1. You win a huge new deal and feel unbeatable or.

2. You lose an important deal and feel your product has no hope.

Before opening the Champagne or looking for another job reflect on this; the difference between winning and losing can be wafer thin – one feature, a better reference visit, a slicker sales pitch………. So the product management reaction to winning and losing is not to celebrate or commiserate, but investigate. In simple words FIND OUT ...

Winning and losing is part of product management but the way we handle wins and losses can make a difference. Take two extremes:

1. You win a huge new deal and feel unbeatable or.

2. You lose an important deal and feel your product has no hope.

Before opening the Champagne or looking for another job reflect on this; the difference between winning and losing can be wafer thin – one feature, a better reference visit, a slicker sales pitch………. So the product management reaction to winning and losing is not to celebrate or commiserate, but investigate. In simple words FIND OUT WHY. If you won, look for the reason and reinforce. For losses, look at how to mitigate. Learning opportunity

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Marginal Gain

Why Product Managers should sweat the small stuff.
You’re in a market with some fierce and strong competitors. The temptation is to think big “we need a new GUI, we need new features, we need a new product!”. Before going big, think about going small. To win a new deal, you don’t need to be massively ahead of the competition, you need to be marginally better in areas that matter. And being marginally better most of the time turns into market dominance. So step into your customers shoes and think small – what are those little things we could do that might get us across the line first...

Why Product Managers should sweat the small stuff.
You’re in a market with some fierce and strong competitors. The temptation is to think big “we need a new GUI, we need new features, we need a new product!”. Before going big, think about going small. To win a new deal, you don’t need to be massively ahead of the competition, you need to be marginally better in areas that matter. And being marginally better most of the time turns into market dominance. So step into your customers shoes and think small – what are those little things we could do that might get us across the line first? In isolation they feel inconsequential, but in aggregate they count. Welcome to the world of Marginal gain.

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Managing a product portfolio

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?
We use a dashboard so that Product Managers can make sure the tactical balance is correct (The BCG matrix), the Lifecycle mix is right (ideally we don’t want a portfolio all at the same stage of Lifecycle) , and the fit to longer term strategy is correct (the GE tool)
This gives a balanced view of portfolio

How do Product Managers make the right investment decisions so that the portfolio is performing well today and will continue to perform well in the future?
We use a dashboard so that Product Managers can make sure the tactical balance is correct (The BCG matrix), the Lifecycle mix is right (ideally we don’t want a portfolio all at the same stage of Lifecycle) , and the fit to longer term strategy is correct (the GE tool)
This gives a balanced view of portfolio

Embedding Training

At Tarigo we know how important it is to have a holistic view to training . Our training approach is to offer a structure that we believe truly engages the delegates, improves learning outcomes and offering the best opportunity for knowledge transfer. It has three key elements:

? Pre-training preparation
Engaging the delegates so they arrive at training already thinking about product management

? Classroom training
Keeping delegates engaged by making them part of the training

? Post-training reinforcement & continuous improvement
Helping delegates adopt the training and also contin...

At Tarigo we know how important it is to have a holistic view to training . Our training approach is to offer a structure that we believe truly engages the delegates, improves learning outcomes and offering the best opportunity for knowledge transfer. It has three key elements:

? Pre-training preparation
Engaging the delegates so they arrive at training already thinking about product management

? Classroom training
Keeping delegates engaged by making them part of the training

? Post-training reinforcement & continuous improvement
Helping delegates adopt the training and also continue to develop their skills.

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Step Ten

Step 10 - How large is the opportunity

This step is where we look at the size of the available market for the product.

"Every Product Manager"

We hope you have found our step through the innovation canvas helpful. we have 10 of the wipe clean boards available FREE to the first 10 people that message.
To get yours email: info@tarigo.co.uk

Step 10 - How large is the opportunity

This step is where we look at the size of the available market for the product.

"Every Product Manager"

We hope you have found our step through the innovation canvas helpful. we have 10 of the wipe clean boards available FREE to the first 10 people that message.
To get yours email: info@tarigo.co.uk

Step Nine

Step Nine "What are the key risks?"

Every new product idea has risk, but don't get overwhelmed with small issues. What are the big risks that could derail your product - regulation, innovation, etc

" Some people might object to it being a printed piece"

Step Nine "What are the key risks?"

Every new product idea has risk, but don't get overwhelmed with small issues. What are the big risks that could derail your product - regulation, innovation, etc

" Some people might object to it being a printed piece"

Step Eight

Step eight - What does the opportunity look like three years ahead?

This reaffirms the opportunity has long term potential how will your Product and market develop in 3 years.

"Digital version on iPad and Tablet"

Step eight - What does the opportunity look like three years ahead?

This reaffirms the opportunity has long term potential how will your Product and market develop in 3 years.

"Digital version on iPad and Tablet"

Step Seven

Step seven - Is it a growing market?

Sometimes we take new technology to an existing market, sometimes we build brand new markets for new markets. It's worth understanding if you're in a growth market or not - stage of life cycle will partly define the risk profile for your product - innovation tends to be high risk and high reward.

"Innovation management is a branch of Product Management with significant momentum. We see 65% of customers requesting innovation management as part of their training program"

Step seven - Is it a growing market?

Sometimes we take new technology to an existing market, sometimes we build brand new markets for new markets. It's worth understanding if you're in a growth market or not - stage of life cycle will partly define the risk profile for your product - innovation tends to be high risk and high reward.

"Innovation management is a branch of Product Management with significant momentum. We see 65% of customers requesting innovation management as part of their training program"

Step Six

Step Six - does it fit with our business model?

Does the idea fit with your sales channel (is it at a price point your channel can support), vision (does it fit with your three year view), and portfolio (does it cannibalise an existing offer). It might be a great product idea, just not for your business

"The innovation canvas is a great extension to our existing canvas suite"

Step Six - does it fit with our business model?

Does the idea fit with your sales channel (is it at a price point your channel can support), vision (does it fit with your three year view), and portfolio (does it cannibalise an existing offer). It might be a great product idea, just not for your business

"The innovation canvas is a great extension to our existing canvas suite"

Step Five

Step five - who else competes and how are we different?

If there are alternate solutions we need to think what our USP is. Its worth remembering that the difference might be outside the product (service, range, reach, brand, etc) No USP? Price becomes the last point of difference.

"The Innovation Canvas encourages consistency and collaboration. It makes innovation part of the product management process"

Step five - who else competes and how are we different?

If there are alternate solutions we need to think what our USP is. Its worth remembering that the difference might be outside the product (service, range, reach, brand, etc) No USP? Price becomes the last point of difference.

"The Innovation Canvas encourages consistency and collaboration. It makes innovation part of the product management process"

Step Four

Step four - How is the problem being solved today?

If it really is a problem, your target customer will be trying to solve it. Perhaps in a clunky, expensive, error prone way. If your customer isn't trying to solve the problem today? Ask if the problem is significant to them.

"Mostly in an ad-hoc manner - some ideas just pass through without due diligence, some get lost in email chains, most teams have no mechanism for consistently and coherently responding to new ideas"

Step four - How is the problem being solved today?

If it really is a problem, your target customer will be trying to solve it. Perhaps in a clunky, expensive, error prone way. If your customer isn't trying to solve the problem today? Ask if the problem is significant to them.

"Mostly in an ad-hoc manner - some ideas just pass through without due diligence, some get lost in email chains, most teams have no mechanism for consistently and coherently responding to new ideas"

Step Three

Step three - who does it solve the problem for.

Does it solve for a customer group you already sell to? Targeting new markets is harder and much more expensive.

"it solves for product managers by helping them manage ideas consistently and for other stakeholders by offering a transparent model for idea review"

Step three - who does it solve the problem for.

Does it solve for a customer group you already sell to? Targeting new markets is harder and much more expensive.

"it solves for product managers by helping them manage ideas consistently and for other stakeholders by offering a transparent model for idea review"

Step Two

Step two - what problem does it solve?

If it doesn’t solve a problem or open an opportunity then where is the value. Think of this from a customer perspective.

”product managers have to handle many ideas from many sources. This tool solves the issue of consistency, transparency, and response-speed for idea management”

Step two - what problem does it solve?

If it doesn’t solve a problem or open an opportunity then where is the value. Think of this from a customer perspective.

”product managers have to handle many ideas from many sources. This tool solves the issue of consistency, transparency, and response-speed for idea management”

Step One

Over the next few days we’ll look at the innovation canvas - a tool to help product managers assess and qualify new ideas.
Step one - tell us about your new idea. Just a few words that explain it in the language of your target customer.

“ The innovation canvas is a tool that helps product teams assess new ideas in a consistent way. It checks the business rational of the idea”

Over the next few days we’ll look at the innovation canvas - a tool to help product managers assess and qualify new ideas.
Step one - tell us about your new idea. Just a few words that explain it in the language of your target customer.

“ The innovation canvas is a tool that helps product teams assess new ideas in a consistent way. It checks the business rational of the idea”

7 Habits

I hope you've enjoyed the posts about the 7 habits of being an effective product manager. If you want to learn more about this, please join us on one of our Complete Product Management training courses.

I hope you've enjoyed the posts about the 7 habits of being an effective product manager. If you want to learn more about this, please join us on one of our Complete Product Management training courses.

Habit 7

Own your product
Product Management is at its best when the product manager owns a go to market proposition, rather than a horizontal piece of technology.
Think of it like this. Being the UK Product Manager for the Ford Focus gives you a real product that you can successfully manage. Being the Product Manager of a global 4 cylinder engine removes that direct customer connection.

Own your product
Product Management is at its best when the product manager owns a go to market proposition, rather than a horizontal piece of technology.
Think of it like this. Being the UK Product Manager for the Ford Focus gives you a real product that you can successfully manage. Being the Product Manager of a global 4 cylinder engine removes that direct customer connection.

Habit 6

Know your market
Let’s not sugar coat this; A product managers opinion is irrelevant. The evidence that they gather from the market they serve is what drives good decision making.
There’s no short cut, product managers must step out of their office and into their customers world on a regular basis if they are to truly know their market and represent its needs.

Know your market
Let’s not sugar coat this; A product managers opinion is irrelevant. The evidence that they gather from the market they serve is what drives good decision making.
There’s no short cut, product managers must step out of their office and into their customers world on a regular basis if they are to truly know their market and represent its needs.

Habit 5

Get the most out of people
Product Managers have significant responsibility with very little direct authority – we might be measured on a huge revenue stream, but development, sales, marketing and any other team implicated in our product success do not report to us. What that means is that our role is one of influence rather than control. Influence comes from being credible, reliable, clear and consistent. Influential product managers represent the views of their market, and represent them with evidence clarity and consistency.

Get the most out of people
Product Managers have significant responsibility with very little direct authority – we might be measured on a huge revenue stream, but development, sales, marketing and any other team implicated in our product success do not report to us. What that means is that our role is one of influence rather than control. Influence comes from being credible, reliable, clear and consistent. Influential product managers represent the views of their market, and represent them with evidence clarity and consistency.

Habit 4

Communication
Clear communication is a critical product management skill - from presentation to value proposition building, a product manager knows this; If you don’t decide what to say about your product or service, someone else will. Loose control of communication and you loose control of the product.

Communication
Clear communication is a critical product management skill - from presentation to value proposition building, a product manager knows this; If you don’t decide what to say about your product or service, someone else will. Loose control of communication and you loose control of the product.

Habit 3

Work to a process and a plan
Without process all bets are off in terms of what we will deliver. A lack of process means who shouts loudest wins ! We risk delivering products that miss the market need.
Be a process advocate.

Work to a process and a plan
Without process all bets are off in terms of what we will deliver. A lack of process means who shouts loudest wins ! We risk delivering products that miss the market need.
Be a process advocate.

Habit 2

-Making Effective Decisions
Hitting the right date window is hard. Give yourself a fighting chance by limiting the communication of lower value features. That way you can descope and deliver on time without delivering below customer expectation.

-Making Effective Decisions
Hitting the right date window is hard. Give yourself a fighting chance by limiting the communication of lower value features. That way you can descope and deliver on time without delivering below customer expectation.

Habit 1

Stop Firefighting and start strategizing
Product Managers need to balance technical and strategic workload. The risk of just being technical? No long term thinking can mean no long term business. Think Blockbuster, HMV, Kodak. Don’t be the next

Stop Firefighting and start strategizing
Product Managers need to balance technical and strategic workload. The risk of just being technical? No long term thinking can mean no long term business. Think Blockbuster, HMV, Kodak. Don’t be the next

Value Proposition Canvas

Albert Einstein said that the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.

This really resonates when some product managers try to describe their product - they struggle to take a complex product and make it understandable.

Can you make your product understandable? Try using this value proposition canvas to make your value statement resonate and be one step closer to a genius product manager!

Albert Einstein said that the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.

This really resonates when some product managers try to describe their product - they struggle to take a complex product and make it understandable.

Can you make your product understandable? Try using this value proposition canvas to make your value statement resonate and be one step closer to a genius product manager!

Bad News and How to Deal With it

We’ve seen examples recently in the press of companies trying deal with bad news and the damage it can cause to an organisation, brand or product. So how should a product manager deal with bad news about their product?

There are some basic rules to follow that minimise the risk:
Scale it. Work out the size of hole you’re in. Properly understand the issue – the scale, propensity, impacts, etc. You can’t dig your way out of a hole if it keeps getting bigger.
Share it. Be honest about the problem scale. Nothing undermines your credibility more than the constant drip of new informati...

We’ve seen examples recently in the press of companies trying deal with bad news and the damage it can cause to an organisation, brand or product. So how should a product manager deal with bad news about their product?

There are some basic rules to follow that minimise the risk:
Scale it. Work out the size of hole you’re in. Properly understand the issue – the scale, propensity, impacts, etc. You can’t dig your way out of a hole if it keeps getting bigger.
Share it. Be honest about the problem scale. Nothing undermines your credibility more than the constant drip of new information.
Plan it. Describe a credible high-level plan to deal with it.
Communicate it. Give regular updates and detail as you execute the plan.

We’d prefer no bad news, but how you handle bad news will significantly determine the impact

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Who is your customer?

As product managers, we often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that. Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party resellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. It’s best considered as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the sales team don’t understand it or the third party reseller ...

As product managers, we often think of our customer as the person or business that uses our product – the end user. But it’s often more complex than that. Reaching that end user often means working with other teams – sales, support, third party resellers, etc. The point is this; If those intermediary teams do not see the value in your product, you’ll never get to the end user. It’s best considered as a value chain – you’re at one end, the end user is at the other. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the sales team don’t understand it or the third party reseller wont stock it then the end user won’t even see your product.
So who is your customer? Every one in the value chain. Try and address their needs and motivations, and the chain will be strong.

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Leading product management

What are the most important tasks for a leader of a product management team? I’d argue that top of the list is setting out a clear direction of travel. A product vision. Think about it; you could build the perfect team with a perfect set of processes and a perfect execution model, but without vision the team will be directionless. A bit like owning the worlds fastest race horse and then forgetting to point it towards the finishing line. At least show your team the finishing line you’re trying to get to!

What are the most important tasks for a leader of a product management team? I’d argue that top of the list is setting out a clear direction of travel. A product vision. Think about it; you could build the perfect team with a perfect set of processes and a perfect execution model, but without vision the team will be directionless. A bit like owning the worlds fastest race horse and then forgetting to point it towards the finishing line. At least show your team the finishing line you’re trying to get to!

Is your price right?

We know that setting a price for a new product in a new market is based upon perceived or actual value, but what about price points when you’re taking upgrades into existing markets? Here’s a five step process to check if your price point makes sense:
Product Name:
1. Target - Write down the target price point
2. Expectation - How does the target price point compare with pricing over the last three years in the market?
3. Difference – What does your product or service offer as a point of difference? Are these differences tangible and valuable to your target market?
4. Brand – ...

We know that setting a price for a new product in a new market is based upon perceived or actual value, but what about price points when you’re taking upgrades into existing markets? Here’s a five step process to check if your price point makes sense:
Product Name:
1. Target - Write down the target price point
2. Expectation - How does the target price point compare with pricing over the last three years in the market?
3. Difference – What does your product or service offer as a point of difference? Are these differences tangible and valuable to your target market?
4. Brand – How does your brand impact perceived value? Don’t dismiss the power of the brand!
5. Costs – Does the price point deliver against financial goals
Evidence : Describe where you gathered your evidence

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What’s your point of difference?

How do you find a point of difference when your product doesn’t have one? This is a problem in regulated and reseller markets where lack of differentiation can lead to a price war - when no other points of difference exist, customers choose the cheapest. The trick is to look outside the product; think service, support, reputation, range, reach, brand. Truth is customers rarely buy on a single factor. The surrounding eco system really counts. I was reminded of this using Amazon OneClick; the major factor in my buying decision wasn’t price, it was ease of purchase.

The Product Management...

How do you find a point of difference when your product doesn’t have one? This is a problem in regulated and reseller markets where lack of differentiation can lead to a price war - when no other points of difference exist, customers choose the cheapest. The trick is to look outside the product; think service, support, reputation, range, reach, brand. Truth is customers rarely buy on a single factor. The surrounding eco system really counts. I was reminded of this using Amazon OneClick; the major factor in my buying decision wasn’t price, it was ease of purchase.

The Product Management lesson? To be successful we need to think bigger than our product and look at the eco system that surrounds it. We use a tool called the value curve to address this.

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Setting Goals

It’s great to set your team or yourself a challenge; it can motivate, give focus and generate energy. But if the challenge is too big, unrealistic or just plain unachievable it will have the opposite effect. I was working with a team recently where this happened; team working well, manager sets impossible target, heads drop, team moral plummets. Think of it like this; If we took an average person off the street and set them a fitness challenge of completing a 5 kilometre run in the next 6 months then we might see them being nudged towards fitness. Take that same person and set them a fitne...

It’s great to set your team or yourself a challenge; it can motivate, give focus and generate energy. But if the challenge is too big, unrealistic or just plain unachievable it will have the opposite effect. I was working with a team recently where this happened; team working well, manager sets impossible target, heads drop, team moral plummets. Think of it like this; If we took an average person off the street and set them a fitness challenge of completing a 5 kilometre run in the next 6 months then we might see them being nudged towards fitness. Take that same person and set them a fitness challenge of completing an ironman and their running shoes will never leave the house, but multiple small challenges might see an ironman performance eventually. The proof? The picture is of me completing ironman UK (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, marathon run) . A challenge I was nudged towards over an eighteen month period.

The product management lesson?
Set multiple small challenges that nudge you and your team in the right direction.

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Opinions that matter

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the products we try to deliver; opinions on features, dates, design, pricing, etc... This can be frustrating. Worse, it can mean that nothing gets done as contrary opinions challenge your plan and slow things down. The key word here is opinion.

How should we deal with this? Evidence. Opinions lose power when evidence shows up.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the products we try to deliver; opinions on features, dates, design, pricing, etc... This can be frustrating. Worse, it can mean that nothing gets done as contrary opinions challenge your plan and slow things down. The key word here is opinion.

How should we deal with this? Evidence. Opinions lose power when evidence shows up.

Protecting your ideas

In 1989 the anti-smoking campaigns were heating up, RJ Reynolds put $325 million into a new product: smokeless cigarettes.

They didn't work, people didn't buy them. After four months they were pulled from the market.
What tools do you use to make sure your Product ideas don't go up in smoke ?

In 1989 the anti-smoking campaigns were heating up, RJ Reynolds put $325 million into a new product: smokeless cigarettes.

They didn't work, people didn't buy them. After four months they were pulled from the market.
What tools do you use to make sure your Product ideas don't go up in smoke ?

Market Sizing

A report out today suggests that 30% of us will “never be willing to buy an electric car”. This stat, produced to sway regulators in some way, should never shock a Product Manager. I’m teaching a market sizing masterclass today and this one slide tells us all we need to know. The lifecycle model suggests that when you’re in an innovator market (e.g. the electric car) laggards and late majority are in no way ready to buy and may well not relate to your product at all. So at least 30% will say ‘no’. Just like they would have done to questions such as ‘will you ever own a pc’ or e...

A report out today suggests that 30% of us will “never be willing to buy an electric car”. This stat, produced to sway regulators in some way, should never shock a Product Manager. I’m teaching a market sizing masterclass today and this one slide tells us all we need to know. The lifecycle model suggests that when you’re in an innovator market (e.g. the electric car) laggards and late majority are in no way ready to buy and may well not relate to your product at all. So at least 30% will say ‘no’. Just like they would have done to questions such as ‘will you ever own a pc’ or even ‘will you ever own a car!’.

The Product Management lesson?
Be careful what you infer from snapshot stats.

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Dealing with obstacles

Navigating obstacles is a daily part of Product Management – dealing with product issues, pressures from other teams, workload, worrying about product performance…

Some Product Managers become so overwhelmed that they can’t see anything but obstacles. Their performance suffers, their product suffers, they suffer! Here’s a tip from the world of cycling; instead of looking at the obstacles, look beyond them at where you want to go. Look through the trees and around the rocks. By focusing on where you want to go instead of what you want to miss, the obstacles shrink and that good path ...

Navigating obstacles is a daily part of Product Management – dealing with product issues, pressures from other teams, workload, worrying about product performance…

Some Product Managers become so overwhelmed that they can’t see anything but obstacles. Their performance suffers, their product suffers, they suffer! Here’s a tip from the world of cycling; instead of looking at the obstacles, look beyond them at where you want to go. Look through the trees and around the rocks. By focusing on where you want to go instead of what you want to miss, the obstacles shrink and that good path becomes clear.

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Are your team ready for the year ahead?

There are many skills that make up the complete product manager; market research, requirements definition, launch planning and retiring to name just a few. In fact, the skillset is so broad that finding all those skills in one person is unlikely and training the team across the full skillset is expensive and time consuming. This paper helps to guide you on how best to get your team in great shape for the year ahead.

There are many skills that make up the complete product manager; market research, requirements definition, launch planning and retiring to name just a few. In fact, the skillset is so broad that finding all those skills in one person is unlikely and training the team across the full skillset is expensive and time consuming. This paper helps to guide you on how best to get your team in great shape for the year ahead.

Turning strategy into action with the Market Map

We’ve all seen strategy documents that lay out the grand vision for our business; how we’ll grow and dominate our markets to gain or maintain a leadership position. But once we’ve read them, and had some time to think we’re often left wondering “How does that relate to me and what am I supposed to do with my product to help deliver on the strategic intent?”. This paper looks at a tool that helps build that link and turn corporate strategy into product action.

We’ve all seen strategy documents that lay out the grand vision for our business; how we’ll grow and dominate our markets to gain or maintain a leadership position. But once we’ve read them, and had some time to think we’re often left wondering “How does that relate to me and what am I supposed to do with my product to help deliver on the strategic intent?”. This paper looks at a tool that helps build that link and turn corporate strategy into product action.

Managing through the lifecycle

Product management and innovation are intimately connected processes that require skilful interventions to maximise returns at every stage.

Product life cycle, Crossing the Chasm, Entering the Tornado, Sustaining and Disruptive innovation theories model steps to be taken as products move from their birth to infancy and ultimately to their maturity. Familiarity with these theories is critical for product management success. The 7Ps of the marketing mix also provides a framework for different actions that can be taken across the life-cycle.

In order to maximise profit, product m...

Product management and innovation are intimately connected processes that require skilful interventions to maximise returns at every stage.

Product life cycle, Crossing the Chasm, Entering the Tornado, Sustaining and Disruptive innovation theories model steps to be taken as products move from their birth to infancy and ultimately to their maturity. Familiarity with these theories is critical for product management success. The 7Ps of the marketing mix also provides a framework for different actions that can be taken across the life-cycle.

In order to maximise profit, product managers need to firstly understand at which stage the market is at. If the product is new for a brand-new market then disruptive innovation and its techniques are required to move through introduction and growth. If the market is already in the growth/majority phases or beyond then sustaining innovation techniques are essential.

In this paper we bring all of this together, providing a straightforward and actionable guide for all companies and product teams.

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Themed Roadmaps

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

The themed roadmap is a major element of the Tarigo Course

A themed roadmap is the perfect framework to manage your product along strategic lines. It enables long term objectives & product deliverables to be realised but can flex to meet shorter term demands or agreed variations on the importance of each product strategy.

Moreover, a Themed Roadmap is a single "view" of product strategies and deliverables that can be used in all discussion with major stakeholders as you seek to gain alignment and agreement on a complex set of future product deliverables.

The themed roadmap is a major element of the Tarigo Course Product Management Leadership

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Measure Success with Product Management Metrics

An informative paper introducing and explaining the many metrics that product managers use to measure, monitor and manage product success.

Product Managers work hard to ensure the success of their product, but how do they measure this success?

Based on work with product management professionals, the paper discusses the many metrics that can be used to monitor performance and presents a framework of categories where these metric can be grouped, to enable improved decision making.

An informative paper introducing and explaining the many metrics that product managers use to measure, monitor and manage product success.

Product Managers work hard to ensure the success of their product, but how do they measure this success?

Based on work with product management professionals, the paper discusses the many metrics that can be used to monitor performance and presents a framework of categories where these metric can be grouped, to enable improved decision making.

Introducing the Tarigo Product Management Skills Matrix

A free tool to help you assess your current levels of knowledge, expertise and skills. Once completed, you can use it to identify personal development plans and build a successful and rewarding career.

The matrix is based on over 20 years work, leading and consulting with product management teams and acquiring a considerable understanding of the knowledge and skills that make up high performing individuals.

Use the Skills Matrix to

• Rate your competencies against a number of skills relevant to your role as a product manager.


• Identify your aspirations in...

  A free tool to help you assess your current levels of knowledge, expertise and skills. Once completed, you can use it to identify personal development plans and build a successful and rewarding career.

  
  
  

  The matrix is based on over 20 years work, leading and consulting with product management teams and acquiring a considerable understanding of the knowledge and skills that make up high performing individuals.

  
  

  Use the Skills Matrix to
  

  
  
  • Rate your competencies against a number of skills relevant to your role as a product manager.
  
  
  • Identify your aspirations in terms of competency targets you want to set yourself.
  
  
  • Build a personal development plan.
  
  
  • Establish a common skills improvement framework across an entire team.
  
  
  
  

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The Market Map: Strategic Thinking for Product Managers

A tool to set high level strategies in collaboration with senior product stakeholders.

A tool to set high level strategies in collaboration with senior product stakeholders.

Habit 2 Video

The 7 habits of Effective Product Management

The 7 habits of Effective Product Management

Insights Paper 1: Product Management & Marketing

Insights Paper 2: Product Management in an Agile World

Using Agile development and delivery methodologies alongside Product Management strategies and objectives requires a clarity on roles & responsibilities as well as a collaborative approach. Ways to achieve a harmonious partnership across both disciplines are discussed in this second Insights paper.

Using Agile development and delivery methodologies alongside Product Management strategies and objectives requires a clarity on roles & responsibilities as well as a collaborative approach. Ways to achieve a harmonious partnership across both disciplines are discussed in this second Insights paper.