Welcome to Product Management Challenges!

04022 New Features Won’t Solve Business Problems

Companies that make software have one big strong point: they know how to make software. They know how to build all sorts of cool features that work in amazing ways. And when they do that, they create businesses that succeed.

But the problem comes when this strength at making new features is not rounded out by other strengths, such as good marketing, delivering compelling demos, strong salesmanship, or good consulting.

The management team at a software company may be too used to solving problems by developing features in the software. This can lead to expending effort to develop capabilities in response to problems that are actually solved well outside the domain of software development.

Product Managers are uniquely situated in positions whose responsibilities span both technical and business functions at a company. This placement means that they can serve as the conduit that directs the team away from a time consuming technical change and towards a business solution.

Read on below for some examples where the correct response is not a development effort but a business solution.

04021 Guerilla Training: Learning the Product

It’s an unfortunate characteristic of our economy today that inadequate time is spent on training employees on a product. Usually, companies look to Product Managers to be the gurus on the product, understanding the ins and outs of all the features. So how do you get to the point where you know the product inside and out, especially when you are assigned a new product or change companies?

The hard fact is that if you want to really learn the product, you’re going to have to figure out how to do most of the learning yourself. Read on for some tips on how to go about learning the product in all its depth.
(more…)

04020 New Features: Moving Ahead On All Fronts

When it comes to developing new features for a software product, every Product Manager is faced with the following dilemma: more new features are needed than there are resources to add them to the product. You can’t possibly get all the features in that you want to put in.

We are told to prioritize, which most people take to mean determining which features we think are most and least important. Then you’re supposed to only do those features that are most important.

But there’s a problem with choosing to develop only the highest priority features. New developments in the marketplace are rarely limited to only one, two, or three key features. There are usually several important features being developed in the market at any given time. Competitive advantage goes to the product which manages to move forward with all those features, not the ones which only succeed at a couple of them.

Which is why I try to push for moving forward on all major fronts at once. But this is something that is much easier said than done. How can you possibly do it with so few resources? Read on for some tips on how to keep making progress on several new features with each software release.
(more…)

04019 Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Product Managers usually find that their success depends in large part in how well they work with teams of others to accomplish goals related to requirements, marketing collateral, sales support, analyst relations, and much more.

It’s a situation that involves influence rather than direct control, and direct responsibility but with indirect authority over others. It involves working with people who may be tough to get along with, or trying to get people who can’t stand each other to work with you like you’re all one big, happy family.

It’s a funny thing that while the details of why people don’t get along well are as unique as the individuals involved, the causes often fall into rather simple patterns. And the problems often aren’t sparked by unusual actions, but stem instead from very typical ways that people fail to communicate with and understand each other.

Read on below for some tips on how to appreciate and reach out to a person when your personality types and communication styles don’t naturally mesh.

(more…)

04018 Building an ROI Calculator

One important contribution that Product Managers make is to play a key role in
developing tools for the sales force that qualify prospects and reduce the
sales cycle.

This
is a natural outcome of the Product Manager having deep familiarity not only
with the product and benefits but also with the needs and goals of the
product’s users.

When a business buys software, the critical question it must answer is: “Will
this make more money for us than we are going to spend on it?” If the answer is
yes, and especially if that money is made up within a year of purchase, then
you have a good chance of winning a customer.

An
ROI (Return on Investment) Calculator helps a sales rep work with a prospect to
answer this question. It helps the rep attract prospects and helps them quickly
figure out whether they stand a chance of making a sale.

People
have created all sorts of ROI Calculators for all kinds of different products.
The one you create for your product will be unique to reflect the very
individual ways your product can save money for customers. Read on below for
some tips on building an ROI Calculator that leads to better sales at a lower
cost.

(more…)

04017 Product Management As a Counterbalance

The ideal company grows in such a way that it contains a balance of all the various strengths it needs: marketing, sales, technical knowledge, customer service, and management. Each function, such as Marketing, has its inherent strengths and weaknesses. One function’s weaknesses are balanced out by strengths from other functions.

Well, that’s the ideal, anyway. But we have all seen companies that are out of balance, due to a lack of manpower or ability in one of the necessary functions. This leaves them exposed to major failings.

Product Managers are in a unique position to act as a counterbalance when they find themselves in a company in such a situation. This is because the nature of their position calls for them to cross between functional boundaries in order to get the many moving parts to work together as a whole.

Read on below for some ideas on how to help improve a company situation when it is out of balance.

(more…)

04016 The Sport of Support

Of the many activities at a software company, customer support or customer care is one of the toughest to provide. Sometimes I think that to avoid burnout, you need to approach the whole business the way an athlete deals with a sport. Realize that it’s a team effort, and that you will win some and lose some. In fact, you may lose by falling flat on your face some days. But a losing game is just one part of a longer season, and the support of teammates helps you pull through.

This doesn’t sound like the kind of function towards which people gravitate, does it? So it is with most Product Managers. They understand the necessity of customer support, but breathe a big sigh of relief that they’re not the ones who have to provide it.

Yet when a Product Manager participates in customer support, right on the hotline with struggling users, it can bring tremendous value to the product. Manning the support lines is an intense way of living the customer experience, with no watering down of the struggle, time expended, and confusion that comes with working with a software product.

Read below for some guidance on how you can enrich your understanding of the customer experience by actively participating in the customer care effort at your company, and as a result develop great requirements for new product capabilities.

With the tips provided below, you can have the confidence to go outside your comfort zone into the customer service trenches (a war zone if there ever was one).
(more…)

04015 Launching a Product: It’s Not Development

Something I have seen software companies struggle with again and again is understanding the difference between product development and product launches. In order for a software product to not just work, but succeed, you need not just a product release, but a product launch.

The product launch, like Requirements, is one of the very few of the multitude of activities at a software company that a Product Manager owns outright.

Read on below for some thoughts about the effort to launch a software release.
(more…)

04014 Where Should Product Management Report?

This week’s topic is an exciting one: where is the best place to locate Product Management in an organization? Bring it up at your company if you want to spark a lively debate.

It’s a sign of the immaturity of the profession of Software Product Management that there doesn’t seem to be a standard job function where Product Managers report. Companies are all over the map when it comes to which part of the organization is in charge of Product Management.

So often Product Management is not viewed as a vital function at a company, since its purpose and focus is poorly understood. If you read about the management team of a startup, or even a larger software company, you would be shocked if it didn’t include a Finance or CFO function. You’d be pretty surprised if there were no Marketing function. But I’m willing to bet that a large number of experienced venture capitalists and entrepreneurs wouldn’t notice if Product Management weren’t mentioned in the job descriptions of the management team.

And because Product Management for software is as young as it is, you would find very little consensus in the industry about where the Product Management function belongs in the org structure.

Yet if you take a systematic, consistent approach to Product Management, the answer to where the function belongs becomes clear. Read below for a discussion of the various areas where Product Management reports today, with the associated strengths and weaknesses, and where the function belongs in a well run organization.

When it comes to determining where Product Management should be located in an organization, there are a number of issues to consider.
(more…)

04013 Competitive Analysis for M&A

Previous issues have provided tips on competitive analysis to make the sales force more competitive, and to make the product more competitive. Today’s topic covers another important use of competitive analysis, which is to gather valuable information for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), to find companies that would make good potential acquisitions for or purchasers of your company.

This same activity can have a different outcome from an actual merger or acquisition. It could be “M&A lite,” such as a strategic alliance or partnership that strengthens your product in a new sales channel or adds competitive functionality.

And looking for new functionality, then figuring out how to put it in the product, whether by developing it internally, embedding another company’s technology, or partnering, falls right smack into the area of responsibility of a Product Manager.

Read below for tips on gathering competitive intelligence for use in M&A or strategic alliances.
(more…)