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Do you have a solution looking for a problem to solve?

Aligning your Product Strategy with Market Demand

How would Product Management answer if asked to explain how your product strategy reflects the needs of the market?

Does your Product Strategy start by introducing the features of your product or solution before you speak about the market you are targeting? Do you present architecture diagrams showing how your product can integrate into the customer’s network without first explaining who the customer is? Do you talk about the great things that your company or product can do and include a lot of technical spiel with a sprinkling of ‘ilities’ … reliability, flexibility, usability? Can you talk at length about how performant your product is, how well you support the customer when they find a bug and what a fantastic user interface you have?

At what point in your Product Strategy do you start to talk about the customer?

Many companies struggle to talk about the market that they are targeting and the key problems or needs that they are solving for that market segment. Often they have little understanding of the buyer personas in the target market – what jobs they do, what motivates them, the difficulties they have in doing their job.

So why are technology companies generally so poor at representing the customer in their Product Strategy?

In my opinion, it is because they feel more comfortable jumping straight to the “how” without trying to articulate the “what” and the “why”. Technology people just want to make things – they love to create new things and to apply cool technology in interesting new ways.

Technology companies are often not good at understanding or articulating the problem they are trying to solve for their target customers.

Even when companies do take a stab at describing the customer, they struggle to provide evidence that they have ever validated their hypothesis with existing or prospective customers. They rarely talk to customers about their needs or wants. They often operate in broadcast mode – selling the latest feature or attempting to upgrade the customer. If they listen to their customers at all it is often in a support role where the customer logs bugs or issues with the existing product.

“If you base your product strategy around incrementally adding new features to your product, without a clear understanding of how these features benefit your target customer segment, then you run the risk of having a complex product searching for a problem to solve!“

IntegratedThinking

Could your business benefit from clarifying the core market problem you are trying to solve, through a structured approach to insight gathering? Contact: email siobhan@integratedthinking.ie for more details

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Product Management – how to be the best Product Manager!

Product Management Product Manager
Failing Fast @ Product Management

Product Management is a discipline that is gaining more traction in organisations over the last few years – more and more companies are saying that they have a product manager or at the very least are applying aspects of the discipline. In my experience there is still a huge amount of misunderstanding in the industry as to what product management actually is and its implementation in companies varies widely.

But hey, everyone says it is important to “fail fast” – to recognise when something is not working and move on – so here are some things that you may already be doing that ensure you have a better chance of failing fast at product management:

You let vested interests drive the product management agenda 

There will be many stakeholders in your organisation with an interest in “guiding” product management’s agenda. Sales might like them to attend every sales meeting or create snazzy powerpoint presentations to support their sales engagements … at the end of the day this can only help them to meet their sales targets and it will certainly keep the product manager very busy. Engineering might like them to “project manage” their activities or generally act as gofer in the product development process. After all, product management do “own” the product, so when there is someone needed to do some random task related to the product and nobody else wants to do it then who better to ask … right?! When product management become too busy delivering an agenda for one dominant stakeholder they will not be looking at the bigger picture and delivering on the organisation’s overall core objectives.

You continue to use hunches or “gut feel” to guide decision making in the organisation 

Allowing those who “shout loudest” or who wield the most power to influence decision making and ignoring market data, ROI calculations and other business metrics presented by product management will likely mean you are simply “taking a punt” and risking your hard earned money.  Continuing to manage your organisation as a bottomless pit of resources that you can just throw ad-hoc projects into will ensure you continue to have product releases that miss deadlines, products that miss the mark with regards to customer expectations and revenues that continue to flatline.

You don’t communicate business objectives to the product manager or provide any input on their role objectives

A product manager with little insight of corporate objectives will have to try and guess what it is the company is trying to achieve (this is always fun) so they will probably flip-flop between projects that delve into project management, innovation, programme management, product marketing, sales engagement, possibly a little bit of product development and really anything else that someone believes the “owner” of the product should be doing on any given day. Failing to communicate any corporate objectives to product management will often mean that the organisation as a whole will lack clarity and focus and there will be mis-alignment as to what the company is trying to achieve. If the product manager does not understand how they should apply the discipline of product management in their organisation and what the leadership team expect from the role then they are much more likely to fail to meet expectations.

You allow product development teams to pay “lip service” to product management requirements 

Hiring a product manager and assigning them to an engineering team as a glorified “backlog manager” runs the risk that they are just responsible for moving things up and down the backlog on the direction of the engineering team. This will undermine their responsibility for the overall strategic direction of the product and you will be allowing engineering to call the shots and decide what goes into each release. Engineers rarely talk to customers and will typically not understand the needs of a broader market base. Allowing a product manager to become consumed by the engineering process (the “how”) and not enabling them to focus on the strategic (the “what” and “why”) is more likely to drive your product further and further away from what potential customers and the broader market really wants!

You don’t provide mentorship or support for your new product manager 

Hiring a product manager and just letting them loose in the organisation, even though they have never performed the role before, is likely to set them on a path to failure. Not providing any guidance or training on managing up and across the organisation, on handling a portfolio of requirements and choosing the ones with the best ROI, on communicating with a leadership team and board members, on managing product strategic direction and on ensuring that the company remains innovative, can have serious consequences. We all know you need to get training and support for sales, engineering and leadership team members. Equally, product managers are not born knowing how to deliver product strategy, so failing to train, mentor and support them will result in a key resource who does not have the confidence to execute strategy.

I don’t think any of us want to fail at what we do. We definitely need to be able to recognise when things are not working well and do something that makes a positive difference. We just don’t have the time to sit around and hope things get better by themselves!

If you are interested in taking a diagnostic to help you to understand the gaps in your company’s adoption of the discipline of Product Management then contact me by email siobhan@integratedthinking.ie for more details.


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Product Management: How can you make sure investors love your strategy?

What Investors Care About?

Investors hate missing out on a great opportunity but equally they fear making a bad investment. For Product Management it is essential that they consider the needs of this crucial stakeholder.

So what are some of the things that investors think about when investing in product companies…

  • The challenge the product is trying to address and the evidence you have captured that this is a challenge the market wants solved
  • The size of the market opportunity
  • Any early traction you have obtained for your product
  • Your articulation of the value you bring to the market and how you will monetise this value
  • Why your business is uniquely different and how you compete with others?
  • Why you think people will be compelled to buy from you? Who your buyers are and what do they care about?
  • What team is in place to execute on the product strategy and how effective are this team?
  • Your strategy for marketing communications and sales
  • Your strategy for partnering with others to gain market traction or to execute on your product strategy

If this is what investors want to understand about your business, then how much attention do the leaders in your business, including Product Management give these areas?

As someone who has helped startups with their business plans and product strategy I understand that to capture the interest of the investor community it is hugely important to articulate the growth opportunity for your business through a business plan and associated Product Strategy.

Articulating the market opportunity and your value proposition for each target market is crucial. Clearly representing the challenge you address for your target market, capturing insights from this market and understanding how you will capture market interest to drive revenue growth is essential to ensure you get the kick-start of investment you need to scale your business.

Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation.” 

Robert Kaplan and David Norton (Strategy Maps)

Of course your Product Strategy needs to consider areas such as your mission and vision (with associated metrics of success), segmented market opportunity, your pricing strategy, your positioning of value for each target market, your competitive differentiation, any partnership strategy and a link to any sales and marketing strategies. You also need to highlight the key metrics that you will monitor to ensure product success – recurring revenue goals, customer acquisition rates, etc.

Everyone in the organisation needs to have sight of the key objectives (OKRs or SMART metrics of success) that the business is aiming to achieve at a high level so that they can define and align their own metrics of success to drive these corporate objectives.

A company that has captured initial investment through a clearly defined business plan and product strategy will move quickly to focus on the execution of this plan – hiring engineers, marketers and sales personnel. Keeping these resources aligned to deliver on the promises made to investors is now crucial!

It is really important that you can demonstrate to an investor that everyone in the business is aligned around the product strategy and that you can show how cross functional goals and initiatives are aligned. So it is important to define clear corporate goals and objectives that can be cascaded throughout the business. This ensures that you:

  • Create an aligned and collaborative organization that shares a common understanding of how the business will create value
  • Ensure the organization remains focused on corporate strategic objectives
  • Maximize ROI for corporate resources and ensure all resources are delivering effectively
  • Support decision making for all employees
  • Enable Sales and Marketing to clearly position the products and solutions to the target market and thereby drive revenue growth

How can you make sure you are investor ready?

Whether you are a startup or SME you should take the time to ensure that you have captured the right insights from the market to create a clear and compelling Business Plan and Product Strategy.

There are so many things that Investors care about but you need to focus on what is key in the context of your industry.

I have recently spent time running strategic insight gathering and value proposition workshops with companies across multiple industry sectors. The exercise has been enlightening for everyone – particularly those companies that have spent a lot of time focusing on the “execution” rather than the “strategic” side of product management and for those companies that have a requirement for near term investment. These workshops support the company with the insights that are needed to create a compelling product strategy.

Contact me siobhan@integratedthinking.ie for more details on how your business can capture market insights to drive future opportunity.


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Mentoring: How to stay energised, be the best you can be and actually get results!

Product Manager Mentoring Product Management Product Strategy
Product Management Mentoring

Applying a market focused discipline is core to what Product Management is about. Product Managers should feel energised by helping organisations to find and prioritise market opportunities. Finding market challenges and then aligning their company’s products or solutions to address these challenges. As a Product Management mentor, I find that quite often the reality is a little different. Product Managers are often struggling and they don’t receive mentoring. They feel accountable for everything to do with the success of the product but they are struggling to manage the depth and breadth of the role. Most of them learn on the job and don’t really have mentors outside of the organisation to support them.

A lot of companies have attempted to establish a product management discipline in their organization. Many are struggling to make it effective.

The executive team understand that to be successful they need to:

  1. Create products or services that customers love.
  2. Ensure the organization is marching not just in the “right direction” but in the “same direction.”
  3. Work to a clearly defined business model.

They hire a Product Manager. They should be focused on influencing and aligning CEO, sales, marketing and engineering strategies to address market opportunities. However, they are often floundering:

  • Some are solely focused on the engineering side of the house – helping to prioritise product development.
  • Others get consumed with sales engagements – supporting the sales teams in closing deals.
  • Many become consumed in what is effectively Product Marketing – creating content that will drive leads into the business.

So, how do you ensure that any Product Manager you have hired hits the ground running? How do you ensure they receive the right level of mentoring. What elements of the Product Management discipline are most important for your business? How can you ensure your Product Manager balances strategy, marketing, technical and tactical?

What comes up in mentoring?

In my role mentoring strategic Product Managers, I have found that most often they want to talk about how they:

  • Influence at a leadership level – how can they align sales, marketing, engineering and the CEO when they don’t have accountability for those functions and they are not even on the leadership team?
  • Remain strategic and influence others if they are not on the leadership team?
  • Achieve the right level of visibility in the organisation?
  • Create a compelling product strategy? How can they align their strategy and roadmap with organisational goals? How can they get buy-in for their product strategy across the leadership team?
  • Stop the CEO or head of sales from undermining them by going directly to the engineering team to influence the product backlog?
  • Build trust with engineering and keep a market focus?
  • Stay engaged with the market and remain strategic when they need to balance the needs of lots of functional groups in the business?
  • Work effectively with other leaders in the business – managing their own and other’s behavioural styles? How can they learn to negotiate and influence?
  • Get the leadership team to be more market focused and to prioritise market opportunities using market data rather than being scattergun in their approach to revenue generation?
  • Ensure they are involved in strategic decision making in the business and are not just seen as receivers of the outputs of the decisions?
  • Positively influence leadership alignment around the goals of the company?
  • Drive a culture of strategic rather than tactical revenue generation?

These are just some of the areas that come up in our mentoring sessions. The importance of thinking about professional development skills was the reason I did an Executive Coaching diploma and why I now spend time teaching about the benefits of working on our emotional intelligence and leadership skills. Understanding the benefits of effective collaboration for Product Managers is why I became certified as a team coach. I don’t lead with these elements in my practice but they form part of how I offer support to the clients I work with in Product Management and Strategic Marketing.

Mastering leadership development and high performing team development skills, not just functional skills, is what makes some product leaders stand out from the crowd!

When I previously worked as the head of a team of Product Managers, I had access to an external mentor – someone who had performed the role before. This person was a safe sounding board for me as I developed in the role and they felt like a trusted advisor. Giving me time to talk about what I was really finding challenging. They didn’t judge! They gave me the space to explore how I was developing as a leader and to unpack some of the challenges I was experiencing.

I did not feel safe to be this open with anyone else at a leadership level and that made things a little lonely sometimes!

I didn’t feel the psychological safety to raise issues I was having and feared exposing what I perceived as my weaknesses to the leadership team.

Finding someone to mentor and coach your Product Manager, Strategic Marketer or any key resource in the business is so important. Give them the space to explore their approach to leadership. Help them to examine their role and their challenges in a way that feels safe to them – no matter how open your organisation is. Find opportunities to get insights from people who have been in their position before and who understand them best.

Product Management can be a minefield!

It can be challenging for a Product Manager to settle into a new organisation or for an existing one to be effective. There can be many political obstacles that need to be addressed. Professional development skills are crucial to help the Product Manager to navigate interactions with other leaders. This needs to be considered when a Product Manager is hired – how well do they balance professional development and functional requirements of the role.

Consider how clearly you have defined the role and ensure it takes into account the elements of strategy, technical, tactical and marketing.

The Product Manager has the potential to lean into one specific area of their role where they feel most comfortable. They need guidance and help to take a more balanced approach.

To help with getting the balance right, you might consider pairing a strategic Product Manager with a more technical Product Owner. This is not always possible in an early stage business as funding can be a challenge to resource two roles. However, be mindful that having one person covering strategic and technical can be really challenging and they will need guidance and support to pull it off!

What can help?

Many new and established product managers exist in a state of bewilderment and despair! Even Product Managers who have been with a business for a few years can feel like this. The enormity of their role can be overwhelming.

Underlying this is a lack of clarity on what is expected of them and where they can add value.

Sometimes the leadership team sets unachievable expectations or there are no expectations at all. Everyone is scrambling to understand how the discipline of product management applies to their business. The overwhelmed Product Manager has to juggle the demands of a sales and engineering team who expect their undivided attention 24/7.

This situation can spiral and the Product Manager can become increasingly disillusioned as the leadership team begin to dismiss the product manager as ineffectual.

Things do not have to be this way! Understanding how the Product Manager can add value in your organization is a starting point. Then clearly define the role and boundaries for each organisational function. Help the Product Manager to understand how their skills and capabilities will align with the other leaders in the organisation. Help all the leaders in the business to understand how they add value and the part they play together to achieve the goals of the business. Get outside help from others who have established a discipline of Product Management before. Make sure that whatever way you apply the Product Management discipline that it aligns with your company’s stage of growth.

Don’t assume your product manager will hit the ground running – ensure they have access to mentoring

The Product Manager is an important resource in your company but don’t assume they know it all! It is not just the Product Manager who can be struggling with the discipline of product management. I often see frustration from the CEO as they try to understand how to embed the discipline in their business. Just because a product manager has previous experience, don’t assume they will hit the ground running in a new company. Sometimes it can take time and support to establish the discipline and to build the trust and respect of other leaders.

It makes sense that the new Product Manager is offered mentorship so that they can hit the ground running.

In my previous roles in Product Management, I learned quickly that applying structure and discipline ensured myself and my team could work effectively. We can all read books or attend courses. These will give us a good grounding in product management. However, the application of this discipline and the understanding of what works in reality comes with experience.

Don’t wait until either you or your product managers have reached the point of despair! Seek the support and help of those who have done this before and who have been at the coalface. It makes sense to talk to someone who understands the demands of the role.

Irrespective of whether you are new to the role of Product Management or have been doing the job for years, look to get as much insight as you can from those around you. Product Management is a continuous learning path.

Contact me @ siobhan@integratedthinking.ie for more details on how I can support Product Managers or Strategic Marketers in their role!

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