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The following are some various notes I've accumulated on Product Management. Enjoy!ResponsibilitiesProduct Manager is accountable for the overall success or failure of the products. This includes not only envisioning how your product will be successful today but how it will continue to grow revenue, profitability and market share over time.- maintain a prioritized list of market requirements that continually improve your products’ performance and the financial return to your organization- manage a rolling tactical roadmap that outlines what customers can expect from your going forward- lead cross-functional collaboration efforts across the organization in support of product objectives- interact externally with customers, prospects, analysts and business partners which include focus groups advisory committees surveys or customer visits- provide training and support to internal stakeholders who interact with the customers that use your products- establish and communicate performance metrics for your products and report progress versus plan- allocate most of your time to the 20 percent of activities that drive the highest probability of your organization’s success- execute a 3-5 yr vision and a shorter term tactical execution plan that covers a rolling 12 months- to balance competing priorities ask 2 key questions: does this help us attain the company’s product objectives more quickly? will supporting this request enable you to become more efficient by reducing future or redundant requests for your time?- Apply your time first to those things that help you attain your objectives or make you more efficient by reducing future demands on your time- Central mission of product managers is to know their markets, customers’ needs, competitors, and trends better than anyone else. Objective is to collect information from a variety of sources and focus on what is most important based upon the best data and facts available.Draw an influence map that visualizes people who will be the most important contributors to your product’s success and get access to a copy of the business plan or at least the sections that pertain to your dutyFigure out what the company is trying to accomplish with its product activities: creating new value through innovation or augmenting existing valueStartups focus on creating new value through innovation - a high degree of flexibility is required to succeed as your assumptions about the market and customer needs are continually challenged. Lots of facetime with clients and development team and a lack of detailed processes. Skills needed at this stage are:Creative thinkingEntrepreneurial SpiritConceptual and analytic abilitiesMidsized companies focus a significant amount of resources on augmenting their existing products to ensure continued high rates of growth - company is tapping into mass market and bringing along early adopters that initially made it successful. Customers are looking for complete products with all the bells and whistles AS WELL as a product roadmap. Skills needed at this stage are:StrategicProcess developmentCross-functional engagementAnticipating problemsCalm under pressureLeadershipBudgetingMature companies require both augmenting and innovation skills. Innovation is necessary to achieve ever growing revenue targets via partnerships, or M&A. Skills required are:StrategicLeadershipPolitical astutenessAnalyticHighly developed interpersonal skillsCross-functional abilitiesProfit and lossCalm under pressureThree Product Management ApproachesCapturing the voice of the customer - what customers tell you they want.Allows you to capitalize on readily available sources of info, many of which reside inside the organization.Enables you to augment existing product and preserve existing prod. dev. momentum while you gather necessary market info with which to make informed decisions about product’s future direction.Good for augmenting existing products. NOT well suited for developing new innovations given its reliance on explicit needs.Establish process to capture customer inputs from variety of sources, ranging from 1on1 convos to customer queries.Establish framework for prioritizing various inputsEnsure proactive collection and a continuous feed into a product decision framework for evaluationFollowing these methods will quickly point to ways that your existing product line can be augmentedDecision frameworks provide logical rationale for explaining why you decide to invest in one product enhancement over anotherWorkflow Analysis - What you observe about how customers do their job.Allows you to gain deep insight into how your customers and prospects accomplish their work and correctly identify the problems they deal with so you can provide solutions.Allows you to identify common business problems shared by a broad set of customers and prospects, which provide insight into larger market opps. to reduce inefficiencies, save time, save money and increase the satisfaction of those performing tasks as part of the business process.Allows you to be embedded in your company’s processes, resulting in a codependent relationshipUltimately this allows you to transform the way your customers accomplish their objectives and make your marketing and sales processes more effectiveGood for both identifying opps. to augment or creating new value through innov.Approach customers with a clear and compelling value prop, with a promise that your insights will generate a significant return that both parties can benefit from as these steps require a significant amount of cust. engagement and time.Spend time with customers and capture steps that are taken to achieve a desired outcome, the people involved and their interactionsDocument each step of a customer’s workflow - the interactions between people in a process, their productivity and output, to establish a baseline.Outcome-driven approach - Understanding what customers are trying to achieve as they do their jobs and the metrics used to define success. It postulates that once you know what jobs and outcomes cust. are trying to accomplish, you’ll be able to methodically create products and services that generate valueAllows you to determine which performance metrics matterAllows you to reduce variation in the success or failure of value creation activities by offering a means to fully understand customer success metrics upfront BEFORE any investment in developing or extending a product.Allows you to target areas that give you the best chance of enabling cust. success without wasting resourcesGood for augmenting existing prod. and creating new value through innov.Determine where you need to focus: end user, buyer, partner or someone else? Who in the value chain makes the most important judgments about value and the metrics used to define success?Capture the measures of value that define how customers want to get the job done: the process steps taken, outcomes they are striving to achieve, definition of what it means to do the job perfectly, and the constraints that stand in a way of successfully completing the job.To collect this info, conduct a series of customer interviews from a statistically significant sample of the client baseScore the collected data and chart them on a graph that shows areas of opportunity that reveal 3 categories of needs:Underserved - opp. for growthOverserved - opp. for ceasing investment. cost reduction or potentially disruptive innovationAppropriately servedTurn a blind eye explicit customer statements that don’t conform to the process you’re followingCustomer ResearchMarket Research - used to investigate new business opportunities, identify causes of problems and provide additional information to aid in making an important decisionsMarket information - size of market, how its segmented or current trendsMarket structure - identifying the major players and their market share, brand market share or market’s distribution structureBuyer perceptions - buyer needs’ assessment or perceptions of various brands and suppliersProduct - analysis of the available products, usage and consumption patterns, differentiation, segments served or satisfaction levelsNew Prod. Dev. - defining unsatisfied needs, product acceptance or communicationPricing - sensitivity, trends, or mapping existing pricing structuresCustomer satisfaction surveyCustomer list - acquire a descending dollar volume list of active customers from finance department. If list includes inactive clients than ever better.Look for patterns in active customer listWhat do top 20% of customers have in common?How far reaching are your products in terms of geography?Does the list contain resellers of products or end users?Look for patterns in inactive customer listWhy did they stop?Any common characteristics?Identify thought-leading and valued customers who will help you enhance your product and plan to meet them once readyCollect presentations and collateral - collect the most current sample of your cust.-facing presentations from each functional area currently in use across your organization (brochures, PR, publications, articles, advertising, product fact sheets, white papers, case studies, webinars etc.)Is the product(s) consistently portrayed?Do they discuss future dev. activities? if so, what is promised?Does the sales support materialWin/Loss Analysis DataAllows you to gain current understanding of how new customer or prospects perceive the product and organizationAllows the sales team to identify ways they can improve executionStart by reaching out to unsuccessful sales prospects or newly acquired client and ask a series of questions:What companies were involved in selection process?How did we stack up?What are our perceived str and weaknessesWhat factors led to our victory or loss?Can you overview the decision-making process? who was involved and what were the key selection criteria?What could we have done diff. to improve?Customer Agreements and Signed ContractsAsk for recently signed customer agreementsAnalyze patterns and any changes that emergedAvailable Competitive InformationRequest competitive information available ‘in the public domain’.This Allows you to develop a superior market position by understanding customer needs better than anyone elseIdentify Internal Customer Data SourcesInvestigate where databases of customer information are being kept within your organizationLook in incoming customer support calls, online client discussions groups, fan page interactions, info related to lead generation, trade shows, conferences etc.Defect or “bug” reportsMany of these defects are identified during QC processOthers make it past QC and are identified by customersOnce a defect is confirmed, a priority rating is assigned to the problem using the following framework: critical issue, high priority, medium priority and low priority.Ask engineering team for defect reportsProduct Cost or Profit and Loss InformationAcquire a product P&L statement IF there is oneAsk Finance to walk you through it to make sure you fully understandThis allows you to determine if your product(s) are profitableExisting Product-Related MaterialsProduct roadmaps, visioning documentation, product-level business cases, product launch materials etc.External info sourcesAnalyst ReportsSocial mediaBusiness IntelligenceSurvey your internal constituentsWhat do you see as the biggest opps. and challenges in next 2 months to a year? 2-5 yrs?Do you believe we have clear prod. vision? is it clearly communicated throughout the org?Does our prod. roadmap enable achievement of our vision and plan?Are we on track?Is prod. management appropriately aligned with other functions?3 yr product visionbounce off ideas with thought leaders in your org. and then clientsThink of a 3 yr vision and begin with end in mind. Highlight what will happen at end of year; mid-point and end of 3 yearsList strategic product milestones in a ‘vision slide’ along with key deliverablesProduct MilestonesCall thought leaders together and facilitate a brainstorming session to capture their views of the marketBefore meeting, send every attendee explanation of meeting objective and copy of product vision MARKED DRAFTDuring meeting, capture all comments in bullets on the slideKeep everyone involved although a few will dominateStart from discussion of current state, jump to end and then goto middleAfter the meeting review the ideas and follow up with those who provided itPull out customer list and reach out to key customers and prospectsDiscuss with sales people and thought leaders in org. who the key customers areSetup meetings, preferably in person and take the sales person alongDuring meetingExplain objectives and ask the client where they believe the market is headedHave them describe the top 3 challenges they are facing today and how they are handling them.Explain to them you are finalizing thoughts regarding future direction of product and that you’ve developed a plan that you want to get their feedback on.Post-meeting assess customer’s reaction and see if the vision addressed any of the top 3 challenges the customers told you aboutFurther define each concept for the vision slidePull together several short paragraphs that describe the substance behind the concept; flesh out each conceptual milestone that will enable everyone in your org. to receive the same message and help you manage client expectationsThe presentation slide detailing each milestone contains:Title of milestoneDescriptionCustomer value prop.Operational considerationsDate slide was createdHave 1 slide per milestone and create short paragraphs that describe the substance behind the conceptual milestone. i.e. FOR “public accountability” milestone, write: Public accountability reporting will provide relevant executive level summary information and trends at a glance in real time to support governance and public reporting mandates.Next construct the value prop outlining why your cust. should be interested in the capability you’re planning to bring to market. i.e. Alpha Tech Ventures’ real-time public reporting capability will enable executives to review and effectively comply with mission-critical governance and public reporting mandates and reduce the risk of incurring a legal liability by 50 percentFinish with operational considerationsCreate a Solid Business Case - cost benefit analysis justifying investment. Business case details the various benefits, costs, and risks of pursuing a suggested course of action and supports the request for a budget to enable the effort to proceed. This allows you to align executive leadership team behind your product vision, build momentum, enlist support from diff. components, and align thought leaders, key customers and prospects behind your vision.Executive summaryConsolidation of most important info that enables a busy exec. to understand at a glance (1-3 pages)Should be the last section you writeProblem or opportunity statementProvides the necessary context to understand your request for additional resources.Needs to be aligned with company’s overall business strategyDescribe what is happening today that provides an opportunity to capitalize on (i.e. if you identified new market niches that are underserved or a means to improve your product’s market performance by adding services)Solution overviewHigh-level description of desired outcomeExplanation how your proposed sol’n addresses the market opp. or problem that you’ve highlightedRange of alternatives consideredDescribe why you’ve selected preferred option, demonstrating you’ve considered all available options to sol’n you’re proposingCost estimatesOutline total projected costs and future financial return on investmentCosts include prod. dev costs, FTEs, QA/testing, maintenance etc.Benefit analysisOutline benefits with the goal to compare estimated costs with benefitsProjected financial returns need to exceed anticipated costs and hurdlesMention all benefits: incr. market share, cust. satisfaction, decr. employee turnover etc.Implementation timetableState key milestones and how long it will take to bring new capabilities to marketIdentify what resources will be required to make this happen.Critical assumptions and risksConclusion and final recommendationsSummarize key themes and benefits and anticipated financial returnsProduct Lifecycle Management (PLM) Framework - guides products from an idea to ultimate retirement, going through 4 distinct stages (introduction, growth, maturity and eventual decline). PLM integrates cross-functional product activities - information, people, and processes throughout the product lifecycle with the aim of increasing efficiency and reducing execution risk.This allows each participant to understand the overall process, their role and expectations.This allows the company to create standardized deliverables that other parties involved in the process are counting on to do their jobs7 Phases of product lifecycle - each has defined activities, owners, collaborators and a descr. of expected deliverables at each stepStrategyRequirementsAnalysis / DesignDevelopmentDeploymentOperationRetirement12 diff activities that take place over the course of a product’s life - and each has defined owners, collaborators and descr.Strategy (development)Business case (justification)RoadmapRequirementsPlanAnalysisDesignBuildTestDeployOperateRetireDetermine who owns the PLM process. If none exist, then collaborate with key participants to define the PLM process for your org.Developing requirements - gathering inputsDetermine which product management methodology to useIdentify which sources you will use to collect inputs fromCollect relevant inputs into a central repository and convert the data into a useful formCreate a rational framework for evaluating and turning centralized inputs into prioritized requirements (Product Decision Matrix)Begin by drafting the metrics you intend to use to filter the inputsPresent draft to senior leadership team for buy-inExplain to everyone involved, and the requirements that rise to the top become the foundation of your product roadmap.Once you create your own product decision matrix, you end up with a prioritized list of high-level requirements in descending importance that list opp. your org. has to create value for customers.Form a standing cross-functional team of members from various areas to look at each prioritized requirement from an operational perspective and identify potential issues before they happenSelect people knowledgeable about the product and good team contributors with influence over their counterpartsHave a range of divergent perspectives (not just yes people) and preferably those in the same room as youList possible candidates (2 from each functional area)Explain mission of the group and decide on first meeting date as well as frequencyYou now have a req. list vetted by cross-functional counterparts for operational feasibilityDeveloping Product Roadmaps - operational plan that highlights your products’ quarterly development activity over a rolling 12 months. Most companies have 1 roadmap per product or family of related products. It’s best to create 2 types of product roadmaps: internal and externalRelease - planned deliverable that is slotted into a calendar quarter over the course of the annual plan.Items placed in roadmap provide high-level descr. of each release (not intended to communicate detailed scope or cost)Releases fall into 1 of 3 categories and you must balance these to sustain market growthNew Value Creation - release of a new product, component, capability or feature that gives customers increased value.Maintenance and Support Releases - updates to existing cust-facing products that preserve product’s revenue stream. This does not create new value but enables cust. to continue to extract expected value from productInternal Product Releases - investments made in the components of your offerings that aren’t seen by customers. These help daily ops.Internal use - roadmaps are used to coordinate cross-functional activities in support of a release, manage expectations of internal constituents, drive accountability and measure product dev. team’s productivity and performance (scope, cost and schedule)Your company’s staff must be trained on new products’ capabilities to support client inquiriesMarketing must be prepared to get the message outSales must be ready to communicate value of release to clientsExternal use - used to manage client expectations and as part of the sales processProduct Development - execution phaseAlign incentives by drafting shared performance-based objectives between different functional groups and improve coordination.This allows the company to achieve their desired goals by linking them to compensationEngineering and product management team need to accurately estimate the time and resources needed to create a given requirement.Product management must communicate clearly about the scope of what is to be accomplished based on previous prioritizing efforts; this involves relating priorities back to the business value they are attempting to createRevise the cross-functional meeting structureHold coordinated meetings at standard intervals (at their end) in the PLM process:Strategy - Objective is for prod. manag. to propose the new prod. capabilities to internal cross-functional prod. dev teamReq. - Objective is to establish a final set of expectations that clearly demo. that the commercial success criteria can be metObjective is to focus on the proposed design of prod. or capabilitiy and seek approval from biz owner and buy-in from extended cross-fxnal team members who would support the prod. post-dev.Development - Obj. is to be sure that your prod. is ready to launch, with testing and refinement complete and sign-off from biz owner and cross-fxnal dev. team.Include the business owner and internal cross-functional team members involved in prod. dev.This allows you to make sure that there is a business owner review with the extended team to agree to the plan, mitigate risks and improve overall coordinationFurther Defining Requirements - Various sections of the requirement document. It’s important to maintain flexibility and to indicate that any plans are subject to change based on market conditions (markets, competitors, M&A etc.)About this documenthistory of the doc (date, version, who made changes, descr.)descr. of key termsBusiness analysisDescribe business need at a high level and highlight key business questions the new capability is attempting to addressProposed release date tied to product roadmapList high-level biz/market req., with associated descriptions, If necessary insert SWOT and any underlying assumptionsFeature Matrix - prod. dev. estimates for prioritized list of features. Goal of this is to provide a ‘cut off-line for prod. dev. based upon available time, resources and moneyHigh-level use casesUse cases capture detailed biz req. which are then turned into fxnal specs for your productCreate a diagram illustrating the system that the user is interactingw ith to receive value from the new capabilities you’re developingList an actor heirarchy if more than 1 party is using product and list all use cases that have been developedFunctional req.These are the specific elements that define what a product is supposed to accomplish and are used to the guide the design of the productThese roll up into a use case - into the behavioral elements of how the product will be usedCompliacne req.Regulatory compliance refers to any rules, regulations and req. that re relevant to meeting a governing body’s laws or mandated procedures.These might include data use rules, security, contractual requirements, governmental obligations etc.Report req.Inputs, layout, report fields, headers and footers and any groupingsUI req.Begin with a conceptual site map and detail the associated navigationOften presented in a diagram detailing the analysis that has been conductedEnvironment req.This often includes architecture standards relating to system performance and any environment considerations as well as operational and integration requirementsIterating with customersinteract with customers as much as possibleTake a structured approached with your customers that lets them know that you value their timeStart by defining an objective.. what are you hoping to accomplish?Assess how much time they have by asking them upfront.Pick an appropriate forumSite visitsSurveysVirtual meetingsVisits to your corporate locationRegional client meetingsClient conferencesFocus groupsCreate a frameworkWalk them through product visionReveal your roadmap quarter by quarterDemo a prototypeExplain various pricing scenariosSend a thank you noteCustomer Advisory CouncilsAllows you to put a structured client input process in place to aid your product activities by ensuring thoughtful customer input into strategic or tactical product matters.Typically comprised of 7-9 clients who possess a keen insight into your market or the use of your productAsk yourself what roles do you intend to include in your council? hands-on users or economic buyer who may not be the hands-on user?Geographic distribution - its better to have those in the same room as youAdvisory council charter should cover the following topicsObjective of the groupFrequency of meetingsMeeting durationMeeting locationParticipants in the councilTimeframeMeeting dates and topicsOther expectationsExpensesPoint personSupporting the Product LaunchLaunch stylesLaunching your product into an existing marketExisting markets typically have a # of dominant competitors all jockeying for market shareRequires you to have a distinct value prop that lets you stand outLaunch plan needs to single-mindedly focus on acquiring new customers and creating demand for your productLaunch plan relies on ‘all in’ approach using every available demand creation tool at your disposal to gain maximum attention over a specific timeframeLaunching your product in a new marketPrepare to invest for the long term with the objective of driving awareness and ultimately adoption of your productTarget early adopters to establish momentum and spark interest of a currently uncaring mass market by educating themResegmenting an existing marketThis effort focuses on carving out a piece of an existing market by offering a lower-priced product than your competitors or by targeting a segment of the market that plays to your product or services strengthsObjective is to both educate and capture market shareIf market is ready to buy then consider the “all in” approach; if not focus on attracting early adoptersCreate a product brief on the product or capability you’re launchingOutlines the critical information regarding your value prop., customer audience you’re targeting and the key messages and channels you’re use to get your message outContent will be created once and used many timesThis allows your executive team to see your thought process and value prop. before the launch.Marketing will use the structured content you provide to professionally craft the message in their marketing plan and sales support materials as well as select the right channelsIt contains the following information:Product name and release dateWho the product is targeted toDescr. of the product or capabilitySummary of the key customer business needs that the prod. or capability will addressCustomer value prop.Client impactDescr. of the launch plan and timing of key eventsBenefits and featuresSales and cust. service talking pointsPricingResources and additional info.Create a launch plan frameworkEstablish your launch date and work back from thereList the activities that need to take place before that date to determine when your plan needs to startCreate a calendar that includes dates and breaks time down into weekly increments over that timeCreate columns to list the activity, owner, deliverable, target and source of needed material in chronological sequenceMarket Dynamics and Competitive Analysis FrameworksPoint-in-time Analysis: Market view analysis generally consists of the following. Place each in 1 slide.Market focus - Frames the specific market that your company is targeting and sets the context for other aspects of the analysis (i.e. BI software sol’n for U.S. hospitals)Market Size and anticipated Growth Rate - (i.e Detail how the segment targeted fits inside the overall U.S. healthcare market)Current Company Market Position Overview - Market leader? contender or further back in the pack? List company’s market share and detail where company fits into context of competing companies all vying for a piece of the BI sol’ns market)Market Segments Description (i.e. BI sol’ns for hospital finance, clinical decision support, and client satisfaction)Top Competitors Matrix, segmented by market - describe how competitors compete with organization. Do they only impact 1 market segment or multiple? List competitors on left and have series of columns that show revenue and market segments they play inDetailed Competitor Breakdown -Prepare short narrative describing each top competitor’s profile, strategic direction and partnerships.The profile paragraph should outline each company’s primary focus and what differentiates their market approach from competitors.Strategic direction segment should outline known strategy and where you think the company is headedCurrent Position Overview - Describe company’s core capabilities. Ask, what are the core gaps that need to be filled? What segment-level opps. exist that can be capitalized on?Buy-vs-Build Opportunities - Outline each gap that needs focus and the str and weakness of the current position. Also frame whether it’d be better to buy or build certain aspect of products’ future capabilitiesPossible Acquisition Candidates - detail possible targets over short and long-term to shore up competitive position. List target companies, revenue and market segment they serveList of Risks and Contingencies - detail risks with buy recommendations.Is it clear how target company should be valued?Spell out contingency plans. What happens if preferred target is not open to being acquired? what is next step? will organic dev. be pursued or other acq. targets be looked at?Potential Competitive MovementsHave competitors been on acq. binge lately?Have they raised capital?Are they trying to control strategic channels important to business?Deep Dives into Specific Competitors - Create a quick summary of each competitor, annual revenue, # of employees, ownership status, products and any conclusion that has been reached.Narrative Competitive Analysis: Customer-facing frameworkName of competitorOrg. historyBusiness model and revenuesMissionVisionStrategyEstimated client levelsPartnershipsPositioningDetailed analysis of product/service offering and stated benefitsPricingRecent developments