haha
hello I'm Stevens and today we're going to talk about best in class
product management and to do this when I try to introduce you to
us little bit more when I talk about the dynamic nature of
markets and the situation with product management and we're gonna talk a little
bit about
what desirable product management looks like and what undesirable product
management look like
so that we can talk about what it takes to achieve
best in class product management so little bit more about secret learning
networks
I'd like to just talk to you about my vision and that is
to professionalize product management so I don't need to tell you
that the business environment is incredibly complex
markets are global supply chains are complex
and your customers are facing incredible challenges
they're looking for greater levels of proficiency looking for a way to revenue
and what makes it even more complicated is that there are more
purchasers there are more decision-makers and there's greater
complexity in the customer segments themselves
we all learn and market segmentation that there are buyers
their users their influencers and their decision makers
Sophie think about that there are many many more
influencers and there are many many more decision-makers
so customers who are those influences decision-makers
they don't want to hear about features and functions and things like that
what they want to know is how are you going to help me
improve my business what's the value that you bring to me
and we'll understand my business and how I do what I do
then I will perceive you as a strategic partner
and that's what we're looking for and that's what you need to start adopting
in thinking about
as you start to move toward best in class product management
people confuse product management with product development and people in
product development confuse it with product management
and because there's no real document that standard even product management is
carried out
in in different ways in the same company
as well as across companies so what is best in class product management and how
do we know
so product management isn't a job title
product management doesn't what marketing does
what product management is is genetic to the fun and so what that means is it's
a commitment by a company to the efficient management of products
from beginning to end so it doesn't necessarily mean
from idea to launch and it doesn't mean from launch to discontinuation
it means from beginning and so prop manager is a person who was appointed
to be a product or product line we call
many business owner you could think about it as a general manager or CEO of
a product
and that person is responsible for leading across functional protein
so operative words there pointed and their
job is to lead a team and it is the teams responsibility
optimize the performance of the product across its life cycle
inconsistent with the financial and strategic imperatives of the
organization
park managers a leader the issue with
product managers and leadership is the fact that nobody works for them
and so what they have to do is earn their credibility
get people to follow them and to listen to them died the things that they say
and they do and that's tantamount to being entrepreneur
and entrepreneurs a very spirited the very passionate for a committed
and what they do is they get people to see the end game they see their vision
and then the use these great networking skills it's almost like a politician's
that allow them to navigate to the organization to get everybody motivated
to go in the same direction
leadership also requires intense market focus
but entrepreneurs noticed in new ones
and when they do that they were able to communicate that other people
and then help those people to act with the kind of agility that's necessary
in order to compete vigorously product leaders also provide great documentation
they do business cases not only do they do business cases they do business cases
together as a collaborative team they also apply financial techniques
you need financial Aki man in order to be able to manage the business since
money is the language of business
and lastly they use all that data to make the most appropriate decisions
on behalf of the business so free understand this universe of work
then who's going to carry out the work and some other work is going to be
carried out by a product manager
some other work is going to be carried out by marketing and maybe even other
people
but the idea is somebody has to see the larger picture
and make sure that all that work gets done and his
orchestrated in the most appropriate way at the right time
so how do we know what best in class product management is
for about 15 years both in my corporate life in my current life
we've interviewed hundreds of people in hundreds of companies
and the kinds of things we have always wanted to know is what kinds of things
do you do
when your products and services tend to be more successful
so one of the things that we find most often
is what makes a company market driven
alright why they focus so strongly on customers
and our competitors and on the industries in which they operate
the second point has to do with strategic clarity
in many companies when products and services on successful
and we ask people well what strategies your product lines where
many times people are not able to tell us but when they tell us
we understand why we're developing what we're developing and why we're bringing
to market what we're bringing to market
they're able to be or at least have the chance of achieving
higher levels of success additionally what these companies do
is they manage portfolios of products and product lines
and they make decisions as if they were managing investments
so the allocate the investments according to the strategic importance of
market importance of a given product or a given product line
and when they have business cases to create to justify future investments
those investments are lined up with the portfolio strategies
those organizations and as the creators business cases
they use cross functional product teams to make the most appropriate decisions
on behalf of the business and to that end
when people are creating the business case together the roles and
responsibilities of those team members
very very clearly organized and and what all this comes together as
is the team sport metaphor that is everybody works together toward a common
goal
and that is one of the characteristics that distinguish is best in class
companies from other companies
so i wanna talk to you about what market-driven really means
so first let's define the market market place's just
buyers and sellers coming together to exchange goods and services
so let's talk about the seller's the sellers are competitors
and if you're going to be a good competitor
need to understand about what your competitors are doing in terms
positioning their products and strategies that they're using to support
their customers in the marketplace
the second point has to do with your customers and it's your job to make sure
that you understand what
customers do how they do it and how their needs change
all the time being a market-driven company also means that people
are sharing the data they collect so as use encourage people in your team
to put up the market radar and constantly scanning the horizon
so that everybody understands what it is that's going on in the marketplace
when you have many many different points of view because you're looking at
different data points
when everybody comes together in a cross-functional environment
you have the best chance have coming up with opportunities that make
the most sense and night more significantly impact the marketplace
product managers have the power to create
and perpetuate culture sharing
and really focusing on the marketplace and this is particularly important
when products 10+2 commoditized overtime and that you have to start to draw
our really strong balance between the products that you bring to the
marketplace
the value they bring and the cultivation of the corporate brand
that brings the whole thing together one of the most undesirable characteristics
in product management has to do with how companies tend to organize themselves
when companies organized in functional silos are some people call
swim lanes they tend to perpetuate their own functional agendas which means that
a marketing department wants to do with marketing department wants to do
product development that's what they want to do in maybe they come together
at some point
and so those agendas to be kind of destructive to an organization
we also see that in some organizations when the product development process is
very very technical engineering Jeff n
it becomes very very rigid and it doesn't really allow
for the nuances of the marketplace that are so important to market at the
company's
so another undesirable characteristics for product management
has to do with something we call customer centricity
match in a very large company or a large customer coming to and say
could you build on this from me and because it's so much money involved in
racist okay
let's go build this for this person for this company
and when you do that you take away resources from other projects that could
be strategically critical for the firm
doesn't mean that this is wrong all the time but it happens so often
it takes your eyes of %uh the marketplace
and hold your eyes internally inside the company
that's not such a good thing another undesirable characteristics to do with
how business cases get created
sometimes business cases in in undesirable state done just by one
person
a product manager or marketer maybe even a product developer
business cases need to be done in a cross-functional environment
other undesirable characteristics have to do with the fact that decisions are
very often made without facts
or data sometimes based on supposition and very often decisions are made
without
understanding what the strategic impact is going to be up those decisions
and lastly one of the things that are critical to running a successful
business has to do with
making a plan establishing metrics and looking back to see how well you did
and undesirable characteristics and product management is when people don't
look back
and they don't take the most appropriate corrective actions
that result in new strategies and the tactics
desirable product management is when teens of people in a product team
own the business their product that is so critical
because everybody sees the same thing and so that goes hand in hand with
vision
a product manager or team leader may establish that vision for their future
state
and they get everybody to play together so everybody's working toward that end
and so also because we're working in a cross-functional environment
the team leverages each others strengths
and when you leveraging at each other's strengths and when you're
for instance applying a new product development process
and trying to process all the market signals team saying all the signals
together
works together in a much more effective fashion thats
more effective product management best in class product management
talk specifically about having financial facts
having market data and making the most appropriate decisions
and then going back and looking at the plans that you made with
those metrics that a financial and market in nature
and seeing how well you did so we can make the most appropriate strategic and
tactical
improvements to the business of the product a lot of what we're talking
about
in terms of best in class product management involves change
it doesn't mean by the next week everybody is going to magically
transform themselves
into best in class product managers and product teams it does take some time
so the kinds of things you'll see as you see organization evolve over time
has to do with perhaps the portfolio of products
the portfolio of products is more finely tuned it's a mix of products and
services that make the most sense
for the walking areas that you gonna be focusing on another whale now
is that people are working together capable group
skill people work together on behalf of the business
to produce the products that are necessary in order for your company to
be successful
and with everybody sees things the same way it gives you the opportunity
to be more consistent to call things
by the same names means it's a common vocabulary you have
same documents same terminology and so you're
much much more efficient and how you carry out the work and then
you just become much better competitor you and child competitor
and you're going after your competitors and what so very very interesting thing
to see
is how people's attention turn to the marketplace
and making the competition your enemy instead your internal constituencies
and your products achieve the desired walking in financial performance
and most importantly your customers keep buying your products
and they keep recommending you to other people and you some more and more and
gain market share that you really deserve
so I thank you for spending the time with me today and
when I wrote the product managers desk reference one of the things that was
most important to me
was to help people understand that this is a journey
product management isn't a single point in time
and in your career is sure going to be growing and learning
and it is a journey and from this point on I do wish you
safe journeys haha