ProductCamp DC Blog

Silence the voice of the customer and create growth plans that work

2011-04-30T12:48:00.001-07:00

Silence the voice of the customer and create growth plans that work

Rick Norman - Strategyn

http://www.strategyn.com/

The Strategyn process - "Jobs to be done"

Product innovation - Booz Allen studies - performance of innovation processes

innovation success rate is 20% Does this make sense? 20% of portfolio?

In your company today, what % of development projects make it to market?

Of the ones that launch, how many succeed?

Create growth plans that work.

case studies.

20 years helping companies grow.

Goal is to succees 100% of the time, study shows that they succeed 86% of the time. This model for innovation is effective.

Think from a different perspective. Einstein thought experiments.

Imagine himself riding along a beam of light to observe the problem from a different perspective.

Market growth through innovation from a different perspective - that of the customer! We think differently about markets, strategy, innovation.

What is a market? Important question. Choose which market to invest in is a key determining factor for growth.

Market "A set of actual and potential buyers of a product"

# of products sold * price = market size

Remote communications products

150BC - smoke signal

1670 megaphone

1940 - 2 way radio market

1985 - walkie talkie market

1999 - mobile phone

Innovation: Forward look on what companies should be selling.

Motorola 1999 - market growth 1999 - 0% growth

We define market differently

We know people buy products and services to get jobs done.

"Jobs to be done"

clayton christiansen

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.disruptivetechnologies.com%2Fdocuments%2FGuide%2520to%2520Growth_foreward%2520by%2520Christensen.pdf&ei=qF-8TfqSMpK3tweK_OG6BQ&usg=AFQjCNEkGSJhbAl97CnRYokLYoQKpVDOpQ

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5170.html

Drucker - "a business is defined by the want that a customer has to satisfy by buying your product"

Theodore Levitt - customers don't want a 1/4" drill, they want a 1/4" hole.

Don't think about the drill, think about the hole!

What do people want to get done?

Market - "A group of people (job executors) and the job they are trying to get done"

Remote communications products: "Customers want to communicate with a select group of people"

The job remains stable over time, but the tools differ.

Context of use changes dramatically.

"How do customers define value beyond today's solutions?"

Job to be done is the "anchor"

Job map - 50 to 150 metrics per job - map all of the steps - discover how customers measure successful execution of each step in the process.

Map job completely so that you know all of the customer's needs.

Business process realignment around success metrics.

Desired outcome = customer need

"Minimize the time it takes to confirm receipt of a communication"

Communicating remotely

Direction, unit of measure, object of control - all describe what the customer wants

Voice of the Customer (VOC) -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_the_customer

practices fail to uncover all of the customer needs - use benefit statements and preserve customer's own words.

They lack the precision needed to help the innovators innovate

Presume that the customer cannot articulate all of their needs

The job they are trying to get done as well as a deep understanding of their needs?

Identify areas of opportunity

An opportunity is an important but poorly satisfied outcome.

Motorola outcome - from 0% to 18% growth.

Strategy - Michael Porter "What is strategy?"

http://www.ipocongress.ru/download/guide/article/what_is_strategy.pdf

Choosing to perform activities differently than rivals. The basic unit of competitive advantage

Market "Doctors who open a clogged artery"

Strategy

"Choosing which of the unmet customers needs to target and how to satisfy them"

Customer needs are the basic unit of competitive advantage

Which of these unmet needs do we need to target first?

Cordis - 100 outcomes in their study - had a feeling that "some of those guys don't believe that to be true"

Did an outcome based segmentation study

(e.g. http://www.webex.com/webinars/How-Outcome-based-Segmentation-creates-breakthrough-products)

Understand the set of needs in each segment - see that they are all different. Can develop strategies to address each one differently. Can sometimes use the same product and market it differently.

Segment 1 (65%) had the greatest number of opportunities

Minimize time through vessel

Minimize damage done during procedure

reduce force required to cross a lesion

reduce occurrence of restinosis (recurrence of blockage)

Lots of work with cardiac surgeons - in angioplasty balloon

interventional cardiologists - also executors to be addressed

Also wanted to include patients in this analysis. (job beneficiary)

Crest Whitestrips - Whiten teeth - executor- you - formerly the dentist. What if the beneficiary could be the executor?

Patient can't open their own artery - stick with interventional cardiologists.

Which platform(s)?

Angioplasty Balloon

40 products in pipeline (one was a stent)

Baloon could handle 3 of 4, but not restinosis

Picked the stent - picked 2 platforms to market. (eventually added a balloon to the stent)

Market Growth Strategy "Needs ->Executor -> Platforms"

Huge decisions.

Cordis experienced a 10x increase in market share.

Now a stent made from the same material dissolvable sutures are made of. Futher innovation.

Innovation

Innovattion is the creation of new products and services

Orderly innovation is an oxymoronic phrase, believed only by morons with ox-like brains

Tom Peters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Peters

MS Case study -

"creation of products that help customers get jobs done better and contribute to growth"

Business process that can be improved.

Goal - ensure that only successful product enter the development process.

Innovation in enterprise license management

Discussion of gap analysis - discounts importance. You may have a large gap on something that doesn't matter much.

Identify market oppty - found 150 needs, focused on 3 areas

Looked at ways to address top 3 needs

This is focused ideation - look at categories

App virtualization, Centralized permissions, Real-time Metering

Can download the case studies from the company website.

http://www.strategyn.com/successes/medical-devices/

These processes work measurably for customers who employ them.

--
Tom Cooper, Principal
BrightHill Group LLC

blog.brighthillgroup.com
tom@brighthillgroup.com
(240) 668-4799 voice
(815)301-9450 fax

Lean product management - what is that?

2011-04-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

Shardul Mehta

Lean Product Management

What is that?

Could product management benefit from this?

Customer feedback, market fit? product fit? Speed to market..

6 month cycle - what happens when the market shifts?

Lean startup proposes an answer - development, innovation,

There is risk - startups are about managing the risk.

Eric Riese - startup an org lookign for a business model

http://theleanstartup.com/

be willing to pivot to find traction in the marketplace Assumes it will be wrong until it finds something that does fit.

Less wasteful and still doing things that are big.

"Lean isn't about being cheap [but is about] being less wasteful and still doing things that are big."- Eric Ries

Stats about new product failures in existing companies

Ash Maurya "Building a lean startup"

http://www.slideshare.net/ashmaurya/building-a-lean-startup

New product or service + Eliminate Waste = low burn startup

Book - 4 steps to epiphany - Steve Blank

Running lean - e book from Ash

Build, Measure, Learn

Business model for the product - sketch out at a high level - based on lots of assumptions

focus groups, online surveys - break down the assumptions and create testable hypotheses. what are the top problems?

How do you establish the right metrics?

Turn ideas into products, how do customers respond?

Idea, build, product, measure, ...

Create testable and falsifiable hypothesis.

If it's not testable, it's a leap of faith.

create a dashboard tracking metrics, communicate learnings early and often.

Problem Solution/Fit ->build minimal viable product (focus - validated learning, pivot)-> Product/Market fit (ideal time to seek funding)-> scale (focus is growth and product optimization)

Are we solving the customer problem?

How do you find the minimum viable product when customers disagree?

building a path to customers early on.

How do we get to customers?

Is there a model to monetize this?

Problem - the notion that you can skip over the hard work to structure the new organization on a solid footing.

WiFi startup - looking for a partner - visited everyone - lots of freaky people - clear from 1st day - the VC brought in a professional CEO, tech people - a team in multiple spaces to address big problems of a product to go to the enterprise. Had nothing, but structured with all the team necessary

could get scooped up - bought by Cisco.

Customer segments - whose problem are you trying to solve? What is the cost structure? What's the value proposition? How do you validate?

Book - business Model Generation

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/index.php

Alex Osterwalder - business model canvas

Business model - OneHourToPlan.com Joe Calhoon

Who are your early adopters?

What are the top 3 problems to solve?

What do you think are the solutions to these problems?

Why are people interested in your solution?

What is your unique advantage?

What is your adoption plan?

How do you retain people?

How will you measure these?

What channels will you use?

How to "sneakily" bring the PM discipline to a lean startup - PMM brings the insights to the process, but doesn't "tell" leadership that's what is happening. Instead, brings the checklists systematically to attack the market needs and test hypotheses.

See The ChecklistManifesto

http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0805091742

How do we know we're solving the "right" problems?

Are developers partnered with you on methodologies?

Customer interviews. Get out the door, face to face customer interviews. what are customers saying? Let the developers hear that. Engineer, Marketer, and designer meet with customer. (This is true in hardware design as well)

Each comes back with a different take - and collaborate on a better solution than one would discover and create.

What filters do we bring to the discussion?

Engineering should be a part of the process to discover the market need. Create a prototype. Get their hands on it. Get all teams involved in the overall process.

Ask "Is this right?" - get more customer feedback.

large org, bring a 3rd party. Bring internal and external designer resources. Helps people accept what 3rd party says. (Make sure your department is paying the 3rd party to assure you get what you want.) :)

Alternative: Use Quant Surveys (e.g. SurveyMonkey) to validate assumptions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_marketing_research

Part art and part science - Geoffery Moore - pick representative customer base so that you don't develop the feature set for only one customer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Moore

Throw up a signup launch page - unique value proposition

"A better way to get customer feedback"

"Faster Innovation" - sign up here to learn more

Take email addresses, email them ask for more info.

We're not selling anything. Can we interview you?

We'd like to learn more.

This is your early adopter and potential first customer list. Do this before the product exists.

37Signals did this for their basecamp - blogs early on to attract customers - lots of initial customers - became raving fans for basecamp.

How do you filter out requests from different stakeholders? Get ahead of the top 3 problems - systematically validated these problems - that's my minimal viable product.

Only add features when you know it solves a real business problem.

--
Tom Cooper, Principal
BrightHill Group LLC

blog.brighthillgroup.com
tom@brighthillgroup.com
(240) 668-4799 voice
(815)301-9450 fax

Where Product Management, Project Management and Engineering Connect

2011-04-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Presented by Mark Routson

Started in engineering and worked his way over to PdM - personally went through this transition from engineering to PdM.

Why does it matter?

With the prevalence of Federal, Aerospace, Telecom in the area - heavy reliance on PMI and Systems Engineering. Some skills should be played up and some should be downplayed.

Sometimes people coming from 'pure play' backgrounds stick too closely to their comfort zones, making them less effective in the role, and creating tension with management expectations.

CAREER MOBILITY: What skills transfer, and what should be extended?

CAPABILITY MATURITY: Which areas are 'better' at certain aspects of the PdM overall skills - best practice transference

Key Sources for each discipline

INCOSE - System Engineering Association

PMI (PMBOK) - Product Management

For Product Management

PRAGMATIC MARKETING - marketing, etc.

PDMA - Portfolio rationalization, etc.

Many of the technical aspects of Product Management are well represented in Systems Engineering

- Integration

- Verification

- Validation

- Maintenance

Question from the audience:

How can lead engineer help product team succeed?

Answers from audience

~ Take input from your engineering team to the Pd team - real value from being that close to the product

~ Get to the real requirement, don't let the product team give you the answer, ask them to give you the problem

~ Watch an actual user use your product

~ Design for the actual users level of experience, not yours

DOD Lifecycle vs Stage Gate

DOD acquisition framework is huge and complex

Stage Gate is roughly the same even though it looks simpler

Dirty secret - In his experience large corps never use stage gates to kill off large products

Sunk costs and egos drive this refusal to axe even though they shouldn't. Even bigger issues in hardware b/c of supplier pipelines.

Audience quote re: DOD lifecycle framework "We called it the elephants mating framework - high degree of difficulty, much hoopla and 10 years to see results"

Working for a company that got a DOD contract. Stripped down the DOD lifecycle to pure essentials. Team still struggled with why it was even needed at all.

When you miss a requirement on a consumer product, you can rework or recover.

If you miss a requirement on a DOD deal, you get nothing.

TL9000 is the telecom parallel lifecycle/stage gate process.

Audience question

What do these frameworks mean for speed to market?

Audience answer

~ Telecom products tend to take 18 months to 24 months.

~ Steven blanks (sp?) has a 'customer development model' which is lighter weight.

~ Hardware will always have a longer lifecycle, although there are simulators, etc. that can help

~ if you slow down the process too much, Moore's law will lap you and you'll be behind the curve

Risk level can drive processes (DOD, Medical Devices, Hardware with long lead-times, etc.)

Example of cross domain Approach: Trade Study/ DOD analysis of options

Closing recommendation - If you have a tool set that you are familiar with and works well, get creative about how you can leverage it in the PdM role, and take advantage.

Sent from my iPad

Notes for Turning Innovation to Profit by Hector Del Castillo

2011-04-30T10:52:00.001-07:00

Turning Innovation to Profit

About Hector
I started working about 20 years ago, been in product management/marketing for about 10 years

What does it mean when your execs tell you, "We must innovate". What is your role in this process? Is your organization set up to do this?

Poll: What is the biggest barrier to fostering innovation within your company?
- Poor management, insufficient investment, lack of innovative people, inadequate planning, or cannot afford the risk

Fortune's Most Innovative Companies
All the companies (Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, Schwab, 3M, Statoil, Exxon, Disney, Whole Foods) are ranked at 1 or 2 in their industry and their stock prices are very high
- These companies have an innovation process in place - and everyone understands their role in what it means to innovate

IBM 2010 Global CEO Study
- Most CEOs believe the business environment is becoming increasingly complex
- only 49% believe their companies are equipped to manage complexity effectively

McKinsey 2010 Global Survey
- 84% believe innovation is extremely important
- 50% need a more robust pipeline of big ideas
- Only 55% innovate better than their peers

Defining innovation:
- Experts say innovation is complex, involves risk, and its outputs are unpredictable
- But I don't agree with this!

Innovation is...
- A change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries
- An incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary change in thinking, products, processes, or organizations
- Requires a formal process to capture ideas and find ways to implement them

Harnessing innovation: ideas aren't enough - you must find a way to integrate them into your company's culture, strategy, processes, and portfolio - and make a profit!

What is the failure rate for launching new products into the market? Money is spent on building them
- Around 90%

They fail because they don't have a product management framewok in place
- Phase gates: Conceive, Plan, Develop, Qualify, Launch, Deliver, Retire

Innovation is basically a funnel
- You start with a lot of ideas and filter them until you get a set of outcomes
- Ideas come from both internal and external sources: customers, competitors, executives
- Not just product management
- 7 steps: Gather, Conceive, Analyze, Build, Test, Adopt, Deliver

Story: 2 biggest innovations in modern history: adding "repeat" in the instructions for shampoo, and opening the top of Arm & Hammer baking soda and put it in the refrigerator
- Both of these innovations didn't require any product development
- They were all about market positioning

Marketing Mix Innovation: Product, Price, Promotion, Place (Distribution), People, Process, Physical Proof
- You don't change the product but you alter one of these factors, one at a time
- Ask the question, why should people buy our product?

Case study: Online DVD Rental Market
- Blockbuster was the leader 5 years ago
- Netflix came along - the product was the same but distribution was different
- Blockbuster responded with a mail distribution service
- Redbox came along with a new distribution model
- Blockbuster partnered with NCR to come up with kiosks
- But they couldn't shut down stores fast enough because of long term lease agreements - so they went bankrupt
- This shows the power of a change in distribution model and how it can ruin a huge business

Key takeaways about innovation:
1. Essential for your company's survival
2. Can foster innovation while reducing risk
3. Focus on increasing product value for customers
4. Improves business efficiency
5. Increases your company's value and profitability

Sent from my mobile

Session Notes: Social Insights - Listen to the Voice of the Market, Improve Your Position in the Market

2011-04-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

Presented by Jon Gatrell, Pragmatic Marketing (@spatially)

Notes by Darren Mauro, CustomInk.com (@darrenmauro)

Marketing: It's easy to be distracted by the shiny and new
Social Media is one of these ("140 characters to wealth!")
Social Media can be a tool for productivity

Twitter, Skype, Facebook, YouTube, TED Talks
Engage me so I can get better requirements

Who owns social media?

Marketing? MarCom? Nobody? (18% is nobody!)
Only 5% of companies have Brand or Product Marketing owning
If nobody owns it, there's no plan, no process for iterating

How are we using social today?

Requirements?
General engagement?
If you don't have a plan, your competitors will outpace you.

"The world is becoming too fast, too complex and too networked to any company to have all the answers inside." - Yochai Benkler
Other opportunities for social

Collaborate with customers
Understand innovation
Crowdsourcing for R&D

Top 5 uses of social media from Dec 2010 survey

To retain and keep customers (73%)
To find new customers (60%)
To monitor what is being said about our brand (45%)
To keep ahead of our competitors (42%)
To monitor our competitors (36%)

Product Management Usage of Social Media (Pragmatic Marketing survey)

Only 9% have social as a major part of their program
Only 11% use Twitter for work (while another 27% use for personal)

Audience question: merits of personal Twitter-building versus corporate Tweeting

Jon's take: trust comes with the person more than with the company
Building up equity and trust

Twitter is a non-stop feedback loop

If you spend time analyzing the data: can start to see patterns.

Why aren't we using social as product folk?

Our customers aren't using it (Jon asks us to challenge these assumptions)
Time
Barriers including lack of internal resources/time; knowledge; not convinced about ROI; no clear guidelines

If you have fear of negative reactions from customers

Better to know about it, be able to influence
You will never be able to "control" – get over it!

Question: How do you use Social for market understanding/sizing?

Lets you see the Market not just your existing customers
Better than the average customer advisory board (with just a handful of customers)
Cautionary tale of ComcastCares twitter ID – need to manage as well as other customer support channels with SLAs, escalation

Only 34% actually make changes based on consumer feedback from social media sites (source: MS&L/PRWeek 2009 Social Media Survey)
"Networks don't have people, people have networks" – Demien Entrekin
Participant: scalability is a challenge
Participant: how can social media be used for long-term need identification?

Jon: better for discovery, then later for validation; Don't try to "create demand"

Job as product managers: listen to market, hear & synthesize data; creates products that address these needs
Case study: Verizon

Seeing post-launch feedback, adapting marketing, plan structure & pricing, etc. in response

3 Things to Do

Figure out where your customers are. Facebook? Twitter? Google!
Listen (what are their issues? what words do they use? listen first before talking!)
Learn - actually use the data to DO something

Applying behavioral science to software product management

2011-04-30T08:50:00.001-07:00

Notes taken by Sam Aparicio of Ringio (i.e. blame me :-)

Scott Forman, Dir Prod Mgmt at Opower

Resources to learn about this subject:

* Influence - http://amzn.to/kC0CtU

* Predictably Irrational - http://amzn.to/kxtKJT

* Made to Stick - http://amzn.to/kl2dGF

Dan Yates, CEO, started Opower based out of an outrage about the uselessness of his utility bill. He was looking at a wasted opportunity. All it really told you is how much you owed the utility, and not anything insightful about how you could influence your energy related bahavior

Robert Cialdini, now an Opower advisor - Wrote a book "Influence" - the touchstone at Opower, Wes Schulz and Jessica Nolan. They're behavioral psychologists.

Studies showed that people are very bad at predicting their behavior when it came to energy conservation and instead that a lot of their behaviors was influenced by what their neighbors did.

Other observations:

* Rewarding good behavior countered "reverting back to the norm"

* Chastising bad behavior compounded the problem

Website "Stick" - http://www.stickk.com/ Making commitments and consistency principle. We are very influenced by our past statements. Also anti-commitments worked even better.

"Go vote" less effective as "Will you be going to vote?" less effective than "Where are you going to vote and how will you get there?".

Opower's business is behavior change - that's what they sell to utilities

Is Opower's business model to help their customers reduce their revenue? YES! Because in 25 out of the 50 states they're required or incentivized by regulation. They can treat reductions in demand as increases in supply... they can raise people's rates from the savings.

Social proof a stronger motivator than an appeal to a higher cause.

Session Notes: Product Management at a Startup

2011-04-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

Where do I start

-sell the benefits

-Define your scope

-Add to (and subtract from) the model

-Define terms

-what is it you mean by adding features

-Decide what you're not going to do (right now)

-based on resources

-Sanity Check

-are we meeting expectations

Product Management Triad

-none of this is software specific

-Director, Product Strategy

-Technical Product Manager

-understanding the various tasks needed

-color coded chart to claim responsibilities

Define Terms

-who owns it, what's our definition, what's getting done in the next qtr

-what we're going to do, how we're going to do it

-terms like distinctive competence, launch plan, market research, market requirements

-things that were done intuitively by the founders

-how to get other people to those things the same way (scale)

-e.g. here's how we collect information from customers

-Sales -> define buyer personas

-sales said that wasn't necessary

-if they don't buy in, they're not going to do

-understanding what you can control

Process

-New feature request > ticket system

-track requests

-tag to a release

-helps you roadmap

-roadmapping is critical

-Define PM workflow

-ticket "reviewed" to ticket "closed

-development teams loved predictability

Positives

-share vision

-repeatable process

-replaced "roadmap by gut feel"

-increased sales with focus on market

-fewer refactors

-releases on schedule

Results

-team happy

-devs satisfied

-team cohesion increased

-confusion decreased

"Experiences"
   -didn't baseline current process (couldn't measure improvements)
   -didn't clearly define scope of prod mangment
     -didn't sell benefits and celebrate successes with leadership

-didn't share enough of the challenges

Perceptions
     -too bureaucratic
     -too expensive
     -you say no too much

Question: Can you provide context about being too expensive
     -too many steps in review process, taking too long

-hurt by not baselining to show how much that originally cost

Q: Is it hard to quantify what the PM does or justify the cost

-these tasks are being done anyways, just not classified as PM

-formalizing and putting a process around it is important

-selling the benefits

Q: A lot of companies don't know how much product management costs per product

-seems to be an impediment

-trying to bring in a higher value proposition product is hard to convey

-measuring time and cost is helpful

-if lead developer doesn't buy in, hard to get that feature done

-getting influence is hard to do

Q: Need to compare against original case

-selection process against future case must factor in existing case

-can find that existing case may be better

Q: How to prioritize your backlog

-may not resonate with the vision

-features can come in as tactical, migrating to more strategic

-customers view feature request as task order system

-expressed processed helps

-get more information to make a prioritization decision

-managing without a roadmap is a nonstarter

-customers don't make release every month

-agile helps with turnaround and prototyping

-customers don't like being interrupted with updates

-consumers determine whether frequent updates work

-agile > minimum marketable feature

-is it going to generate revenue

-is it going to provide customer satisfaction

-is it going to provide innovation

Q: How much time do you invest in understanding each feature

-focus on most strategic customers

-strategic planning

-tyranny of the urgent

-getting sales to trust the roadmap

-tactical vs. strategic

-trying to think longer term

-understanding what is your direction

-do we want to be in the widget 5 years from now

-saying no when no is the answer is important

-setting expectation

-customers want to know, are you going to do it or not

-backlog/roadmap review every week

-presenting customer needs to sales, stakeholders

-battling opinions with market research

Q: Selling process of product management

-there are common things that are going to happen anyway, product management is just putting a plan or name on it

-review things that you're not going to, revisit those things in 3 months

-be realistic about what can be implemented

-understand the landscape and adjust accordingly

-push but don't push too hard

ProductCamp DC Spring 2011 Session Topics

2011-04-29T19:58:00.001-07:00

Here is a summary of the keynote panel discussion as well as the various session topics proposed for inclusion into the Spring 2011 ProductCamp DC event.

Product Camp DC Spring 2011 Keynote – Panel Discussion

Participants: Philip Braden, Calvin Stroud, Mark Routson

Moderated by Alicia Dixon.

Discussion topics for this panel discussion, in addition to fielding questions from the audience will include: What makes a good Product Manager/Product Marketer, Worst product experience/failure and lessons learned from it, Best advice you received during your career, Trends in Product Marketing and Management - what has changed over the last 5 years

The following session topics have been proposed for inclusion into the Spring 2011 ProductCamp DC event. Attendees will vote on these topics and that will result in the schedule for the day dynamically evolving.

Executing New Strategies - The Hidden Pitfalls

By Paul Weismantel

This session will discuss some of the underlying challenges that drive unspoken or last minute roadblocks and resistance to change associated with the launch of new offerings & why the same skill set that product managers rely on to recognize and leverage new market opportunities are critical to overcome falling into the grave yard of ideas!

Get Products to Market Faster through Time Boxed Releases and in Iterative Process

By James Rogers

Things change fast. We no longer have the time to spend gathering requirements, moving into product design, then writing detailed specs, then moving into development, QC, beta, release. This session will discuss how to compress all of these phases by using an iterative product development process and time boxing release approach to bring "marketable" products to market faster

Increase the Adoption Velocity of New Product Releases

By James Rogers

Whether it is a new product all together or a new release, gaining early market momentum is critical. There are so many places where customers are sharing and forming their own views on products that building positive momentum fast is critical to establishing a product for the long haul. In this session we will discuss tactics to build market momentum fast through beta programs, pricing/packaging, and a well defined launch process.

Transforming Innovation to Profit

By Hector Del Castillo

What can you do as a product manager or product marketing manager to encourage innovation? How do you harness the power of innovation to minimize risk and increase profit for your company? Why should you lead innovation within your company? We will share ideas and insights to help you create and implement a business and marketing strategy to drive innovation within your company. The speaker will identify key principles to help you increase creativity and collaboration and lead product development activities to turn product innovation to profit. He will identify the value of innovation, best business practices and proven methodologies. We will also ask questions, and open the floor for expansion and general discussion. Join me for a discussion regarding how to create an innovative environment within your company. I will identify concrete steps you can take to foster innovation.

The Product Manager Pathfinder: Accelerating Your Product Management and Marketing Career

By Hector Del Castillo

How can you position yourself to get hired or promoted over your competitors? What are your Unique Selling Propositions as a product manager or marketing manager? What can you do to accelerate your career in product management or product marketing? We will discuss key tips to differentiate yourself and accelerate you career. Learn how to convince a prospective employer why they should hire you or influence your current employer to promote you. We will identify how you can enhance your worth by increasing transferable skills. We will also discuss ways to identify your unique selling propositions so you can market yourself. Join me for a discussion regarding the importance of career planning and positioning.

Where Do Product Management, Systems Engineering and Project Management Intersect?

By Mark Routson

Given the commercial, Aerospace, Defense and Federally focused companies in the area, one often runs into practices that are similar between these arena's, but also can differ significantly. Are the opportunities to apply Product Management approaches to rigid A&D, Federal, and similar industries? Do some of the practices in the industries present an opportunity to increase the success rate of NPI/NPD? Open discussion, with some framing viewpionts (open to debate).

Retrospective - Introducing Product Management to a startup

By Tom Cooper

Town hall format with a retrospective on the rollout of formal product management in a startup on a shoestring. Wins, Losses, lessons learned, followed by open Q&A

Social Insights: Use Social Media to Improve Your Product's Position in the Market

By Jon Gatrell

With all the noise around social media and the opportunities it affords organizations it can be daunting to figure out where to start. This session will focus on how to practically leverage social media in developing products and growing market share. Participants will walk away with 3 key takeaways which you can put in practice tomorrow to improve your understanding of buyers, your customers and the problems waiting to be solved.

Silence the Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Create Growth Plans That Work

By Rick Norman

If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you ever find the time to do it over? Traditional VOC methods are often used today to guide marketing and product development efforts but with shockingly low success rates. This session will address the root causes of those failure rates. Come learn how thinking about markets, strategy and innovation from a "jobs-to-be-done" perspective consistently results in the creation of winning growth strategies and breakthrough products and services. Industry examples will be presented to show how "getting the requirements right" can deliver consistently high success rates.

What Makes a Great Product Manager

By Paul Weismantel

I have built and managed product management teams over the past 15 years in a wide variety of software & hardware categories. I will offer for discussion 4 basic characteristics I have found critical to developing high achievers & how to extract there presence during the interview process

How Are We in PM, UXD, Engineering Gaining Insight Into Our Customers' Use of Our Products?

By Karl Wirth

This will be an interactive discussion (no slides). My idea is to ask the following questions and then learn from each other: 1) What questions about customers' use of your product are you trying to answer? 2) What techniques do you use to answer these questions? 3) What are the biggest insights you have gained? 4) What are the biggest mistakes you have made?

What is the Future of Data Privacy > Can Privacy / Trust Be A Competive Advantage?

By Shaun Dakin

Data Privacy is a hot topic these days with Facebook, Pandora, Skype, and many others getting hit in the press and in DC (Cap Hill) time and time again. I'd like to discuss: Current state of privacy regulations and law being proposed on the Hill. What can industry / product managers do to build in Privacy and Trust from the first requirements documents, rather than after shipping? Do customers care about privacy?

Linking Corporate & Product Strategies for Performance Excellence

By Paul Weismantel

Why do companies fall from the list of best in class as quickly as they rise? Focus & alignment within your product line or portfolio is hard enough, but to move the needle for the entire business year after year would seem a bridge too far. We will discuss how product management leaders can chart a course towards excellence and help leadership grapple with the heavy lifting.

Building the User Into the Requirements Process

By John Ticer

A crisp understanding of target user/customer wants and needs is key to creating great products. Unfortunately, few organizations have the processes and discipline in place to build this focus and alignment across departments and business functions. This session will explore emerging best practices in linking user research to deliverables and performance. Product managers are at the center of the challenge, and this is the forum for sharing your war stories and suggestions

"Lean" Product Management

By Shardul Mehta

Can Product Management run "lean"? What does "lean" mean? Lean Startup practices are revolutionizing the way startups are being done. Startups are about innovation and new product development. So is Product Management! Lean Startup is about speed to market, testing a vision by measuring how customers behave, and engaging customers throughout the product development cycle. Most of all, it is about a methodology of learning through a systematic Build > Measure > Learn process. Can Lean Startup practices be applied to Product Management to increase the chances of market success for our products?

ProductCamp DC Spring 2011

2011-04-29T18:07:00.001-07:00

Washington DC's Product Management, Product Marketing and Technology folks are all set to converge upon the Dulles Marriott on Saturday April 30th for ProductCamp DC Spring 2011. Watch this space for updates during the event.

Pradheep Sampath

Startups and Product Management are made for each other

2011-03-04T13:18:00.001-08:00

Earlier this week, some 200 folks got together for the first DC Tech Meetup organized by Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs. The meetup was to convene technologists and entrepreneurs focused on developing software for consumer and enterprise use. Attendees included folks from Living Social and PCampDC friends from Network Solutions, including the social media swami himself, Shashi Bellamkonda. After kicking things off, attendees were treated to an early demo of Spinnakr's Welcome Bar product, followed by an interview of Bobby Ocamp of Grotech Ventures by Frank Gruber, CEO of TechCocktail. Afterward, an open mic session was held where folks were encouraged to step up and "say a tweet" to promote a project, job opening, seek a co-founder, or plug an upcoming event.

Enthusiasm was high and continues to remain so after the event as is evidenced by the message board postings on the DC Tech site. A 900-person venue is being sought for the next event in April!

The event was a timely reminder of how many startups are looking for expertise to help develop, launch and promote their products. This presents a great opportunity for product development, management and marketing professionals to get plugged into the local tech and startup scene.

On the flip side, more and more startups are realizing the importance of the Product Management functionality, that it's not just the realm of large enterprises. While the "tech guy" develops the technology, Product Management focuses on understanding the realities of the marketplace and figure out how to bring the product to market in a way that resonates and maximizes profitability (or whatever ROI the organization is shooting for). In that respect, startups have the same challenges as large organizations.

A year and half ago, Saeed Khan had a great blog post on the importance of hiring a PM first, and has a link to an interview with Bill Campbell, former CEO of Intuit, who says the same thing!

Product Management is also the critical engine of growth. Growth comes from innovation, and that is precisely what Product Management brings as a discipline into any organization. Many startups find initial success with an innovative product, but then stumble as they struggle to continue to find that innovative spark. Product Management is about repeatedly identifying and creating new products and have them succeed in the market in a systematized way. Saeed calls this "repeatable success".

DC Tech is a great opportunity for ProductCampers to get plugged into the local tech and startup scene. And ProductCamp DC is a great opportunity for startups to meet the best and brightest minds in the DC area on delivering products that resonate, and creating and sustaining a culture of innovation for sustained growth!

shardul

Photos and Twitter feed from today's event

2010-08-28T18:37:00.001-07:00

Today's ProductCamp DC was a great success!

Check out the Twitter activity:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pcampdc

And photos here: http://bit.ly/bVstYv

Top 10 Quotes Heard at Product Camp DC

2010-08-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

Live from Product Camp Washington DC

We are winding down a very successful Product Camp here at the Network Solutions offices in Herndon, VA. As I reflected on the day, here are the top 10 quotes I recalled from the day:

1. "Has anyone ever seen a business case that looked like a loser?" John Mansour of ZigZag

2. "People think development is like factory work - as if we're putting semicolons on code as it comes by on the assembly line." Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing

3. "People buy products to get jobs done. Products come and go, but the job is the stable, long-term focal point around which value creation should be centered." Rick Norman of StrategyN

4. "How can we get product marketing to be more than the brochure and presentation department?" John Mansour of ZigZag

5. "There is always one more thing to you can do to increase your odds of success." Hal Moore quoted by Rick Wilhelm of Network Solutions

6. "We need something between a cocktail napkin and a 900 page requirements document." Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing

7. "Does this sound familiar - Here's product #1, here's product #2, #3. Stop me when you hear something you like." John Mansour of ZigZag

8. "The best engineers are the ones that worry about sales and revenue. Although there is a correlation, it is not causal." Rick Wilhelm of Network Solutions

9. "Nothing seems hard to people who don't do it." Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing

10. "Medical professionals have used army ants to close wounds. Just pop off the head and it will stay there." Rick Norman of StrategyN

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter with #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com

Steve Keifer

Product Managers and P&L

2010-08-28T13:09:00.001-07:00

Live from Product Camp DC

Navin Ganeshan, a product manager, within Network Solutions, led a session this afternoon called "Adventures in P&L." A standing room only crowd gathered to discuss topics such as:

· "Who should own P&L? CXOs, Product Managers, General Managers?"

· "Which types of margins are most important to measure (e.g. contribution, net, gross)?"

· "How often do you measure P&L?"

One the biggest challenge for product managers is the lack of control over the activities of other organizations. Navin talked through four good examples of activities performed by other teams that ultimately impact the P&L, which product managers are accountable for:

1. Marketing runs a campaign for 70% off Product A, drives X new customers, destroys margins and then declares success! What was the goal again?

2. The technology operations group wants new $1M hardware and allocates cost across your product. The ambiguous expense is now looking for a home

3. The product delivery team is overstaffed for the volume of products sold. Such variable costs are not truly variable.

4. Your engineering team for Product A has 8 developers, of whom only 3 work on Product A. Who are these guys and what do they do again?

Three additional challenges I captured during the P&L discussion (and earlier sessions) were:

· Macaroni & Cheese - One of the audience members stated that frequently C-level executives make comparisons between technology product management and the brand management function at packaged foods companies. Is managing a cloud-computing product the same as rolling out a new type of macaroni & cheese?

· Must Haves - In other cases, products are developed and commercialized because the features are required to meet minimum expectations for the target market segment. Navin explained how there are certain market segments where we have to play even though it is barely profitable, because it adds to overall value proposition.

· Market Driven - In an early session John Mansour of ZigZag marketing asked a good question, which is "Should we measuring P&L for market segments or individual products?" Companies which are market-driven think about their business as targeting specific market segments, rather than selling individual product lines. With a market-driven approach, should product-specific P&L be measured? Or are market-segment P&Ls better? Or both?

Navin offered four recommendations for success:

· Monitor cost drivers – understand all the dimensions

· Understand (and negotiate!) cost allocation – your financial analyst is your new BFF

· Agree on overarching "neutral" goals – customer value, strategic goals, etc

· Provide guidance on pricing ranges within channels

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter using the hashtage #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com

Steve Keifer

The Difference between Product Management and Engineering

2010-08-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

Live from Product Camp DC

Rick Wilhelm of Network Solutions spoke on the topic of Engineering and Product Management – Friend or Foe at today's Washington DC Product Camp. I loved his opening slide which highlighted the differences between product management and engineering.

Product management says

· What's the estimate

· Why so long

· Make it_

· That's a bug

· They don't listen

Engineering says

· What do you want?

· Why so big?

· That's not a requirement

· Was an unclear requirement

· They don't tell us

Product Management is focused on what while engineering is focused on how.

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter with #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com

Shut Up and Code

2010-08-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Live from Product Camp DC

Rick Wilhelm of Network Solutions spoke on the topic of Engineering and Product Management – Friend or Foe at today's Washington DC Product Camp. Rick addressed one of the biggest tensions between engineering and product management, which involves getting developers to care about what they are coding without becoming overly concerned with business plan for the products? Rick states that too often people are not focused on their job, but instead focused on trying to do someone else's job. For example many engineers question the business plan, revenue potential or customer needs for features specified by product managers. The exchange causes friction, delays development and creates long-term relationship challenges. Business questions from engineers often alienate product managers, which is unfortunate as success demands that these two functions partner for success. Sometimes product managers want engineers to just "shut up and code." However, the other extreme is developer apathy in which engineers state "I just coded what the requirements said."

So Should Engineers Worry about Revenue? Rick states that for his engineers at Network Solutions there is a strong correlation between business-focus and developer quality. The best engineers are the ones that worry about sales and revenue. Although there is a correlation between revenue-focus and quality of deliverable, Rick stresses that it is not causal. It is OK to question requirements, but there is a certain level respect that should be afforded to product managers. The issue is challenge versus respect. The most dysfunctional situation is one where either engineering or product management is consistently winning all of the conflicts.

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter with #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com

Steve Johnson: Three roles of Product Management

2010-08-28T10:22:00.001-07:00

How Can We Get Product Marketing to Expand Beyond the Presentation and Brochure Department?

2010-08-28T09:32:00.001-07:00

Live from Product Camp Washington DC

During the second round of sessions at Product Camp, John Mansour of ZigZag Marketing, led a session on the topic of Strategic Product Marketing, which he referred to as "the missing link in a top-down product management culture." The session started off with common complaints that product management and product marketing have of one another. Typically product managers complain that product marketing managers don't have enough knowledge about the product. On the other hand, product marketing people believe that many product managers can only view the market through the lens of their product. But the underutilization of product marketing causes far greater problems across the company. In the session we discussed four types of challenges technology vendors face with product strategy:

#1 - Competing Priorities

John states that "Product marketing and product management have to be the conscience of the company," because different groups with a corporation have different priorities:

· Senior management seeks to please the board and the investors

· Marketing communications is focused on image and awareness

· IT/Engineering says let's build cool new technology

· Sales is just focused on winning the next deal to make their quota

· Service & support are worried about the existing customer base' satisfaction

Product management and marketing have to balance all of these competing priorities.

#2 - Product versus Market Segment Focus

Executives don't understand the difference between product categories and market segments. A typical response to the question "What are your market segments?" is "We sell security products to corporations." Too often we focus on product line profitability, when we should be focused on market segment profitability.

#3 - The Biggest Lie Wins

John asks "Has anyone ever seen a business case that looked like a loser?" In today's hyper-competitive tech-sector whoever can lie the best wins. The product manager, which promises the biggest contribution to revenue, margin and growth goals will win the resources regardless of whether it is the best long term strategy. Product Managers end up competing with each other for engineering resources and marketing programs spend. Competition is intensified in today's struggling macroeconomic environment.

#4 - We Sell Vaporware

Executives say that "We shouldn't let the lack of a product stop a sale." A common theme is "why can't we can take a product built for another industry and sell it to another segment." So the key question is - Why is it easier to sell vaporware than what we actually have? John states that when we have products we sell features. When we don't have a product we sell the vision and the user scenarios. And customers love it. Their typical response is "That sounds fantastic. How soon can we have it?" The end result is that you end up with customers who are not happy and sales people who are not happy either.

The root cause of many of these four problems outlined above is that "We way underutilize product marketing." The typical product marketing organization motto is: "Marketing materials R us. Can I help you?" Sales bombard them with requests like "Can we create a brochure that makes us look like we are in this market (higher education or financial services)?"

What is Strategic Product Marketing

So how can we get product marketing to be more than the brochure and presentation department? And how can they solve the problems outlined above? John recommends that strategic product marketing should own market segments and creates the profile of the segment. Product marketing becomes the internal market analyst who must socialize the market size and segmentation. As a result there is one baseline set of numbers for total addressable market and definitions of markets. Such an approach is very different than the traditional approach of everyone creating their own business case with numbers that support their own ideas. Specifically, John recommends that product marketing own a mix of strategic and tactical functions:

· Market assessment segment (strategic)

· Market segment strategy (strategic)

· Segment pricing and packaging (strategic)

· Segment messaging and positioning (tactical)

· Segment marketing plans and programs (tactical)

· Sales and marketing readiness (tactical)

· Sales and channel support (tactical)

What is Strategic Product Management?

John defines product management as:

· Category & best practice trends

· Strategic portfolio roadmap

· Segment needs & solutions

· Product release plans

· Product requirements

· Product design oversight

· Readiness & rollout support

Benefits of the New Approach

There are numerous benefits of the new approach. I few that I captured are:

· Both have higher value to the company, because you are uniquely qualified to set direction with segment, business and product expertise.

· There is one agenda for the organization. Market segments drive everything.

· Marketing and sales differentiation that transcends products

· Greater momentum – unplanned initiatives aligned to segment priorities

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter with #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com

What Customers Want - Using the Outcome Driven Innovation Approach

2010-08-28T08:27:00.001-07:00

Live from Product Camp Washington DC

Rick Norman, Director of Programs for Innovation at STRATEGYN, presented this morning at Product Camp DC on the topic of Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI). The key challenge that product managers and entrepreneurs alike face is the 80-90% failure rate of new initiatives. In fact, venture capitalists expect that they will progmmatically invest in 10 new ideas in order to get one success.

Rick likens innovation to solving an algebraic equation with constants and variables. Some people try to solve the problem by guessing at the variables, which requires extensive trial-and-error. Brainstorming sessions to generate ideas are comparable to guessing the variables in an algebraic equation. Rick recommends focusing on identifying the needs – ALL the needs first. Then companies must determine which needs are unmet. Finally, product managers must devise solutions that specifically address unmet needs.

Most companies fail because they don't get the needs right. Strategyn recommends a process called Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI). There are 8 key tenets of ODI. A few of the key ones include:

1. It's all about the job. People buy products to get jobs done. Products come and go, but the job is the stable, long-term focal point around which value creation should be centered. Customers are loyal to getting the job done. Therefore, the goal of innovation is to help get the job done.

2. Figuring out what a need is. Customers intrinsically use metrics to define successful execution of a job. These metrics are the customer's need. The perfect execution of the job reflects the customer's true definition of value.

3. Opportunity Algorithm T - Once needs are identified, do a survey to identify how important the need is and how satisfied are you with your ability to achieve it. Then rank the opportunities use the importance score and satisfaction.

4. The Opportunity Landscape – Create a scatter diagram which buckets opportunities into three types of markets. The first are over-served markets are ripe for disruption and cost reduction. The second are appropriately served markets help to address adjacent markets. And the third are under-served markets, which are the ones which enable extreme opportunities for value creation.

A few other points of trivia I learned during the presentation:

· Medical professionals have used army ants to close wounds for thousands of years.

· The Wall Street Journal declared the IBM PC Jr a failure the day after its launch.

Follow Product Camp DC live on Twitter with #pcampdc. More posts next week on my marketing blog – www.outsideinmarketing.wordpress.com.

Steve Keifer

ProductCamp DC Live updates

2010-08-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

This is the official blog for ProductCamp DC Live updates