The Rise of the SaaS Product Manager, Why Product Management is More Important than Ever with Tom Evans, moderated by Cindy F. Solomon As the Software as a Service (SaaS) market continues to grow and change the landscape of IT products, some people are saying that the software product manager is an irrelevant and dying breed. While SaaS has changed some aspects for the Product Manager, such as the pace of new releases, the opportunity for increased influence of the user community and the ability to collect more useful data, these changes do not make the SaaS product manager irrelevant, but they do require the SaaS Product Manager to learn new skills and to use new tools in order for them to be effective and valuable in the world of SaaS. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how the principles of product management continue to apply to SaaS companies and then present a survey of effective product management practices currently being used by SaaS Product Managers. Attendees will learn: How the principles of product management continue to apply to SaaS companies. Effective product management practices and tools currently being used by SaaS Product Managers. Recommendations on how to achieve greater effectiveness with your SaaS Product Management Team.

1. AIPMM Webinar Series
http://www.aipmm.com
© AIPMM 2013

2. © AIPMM 2013 http://www.aipmm.com

3. Founded 1998
Largest Product Management professional group
Provides professional development and
certification
• Certified Product Manager
• Certified Product Marketing Manager
• Agile Certified Product Manager
• Certified Innovation Leader
© AIPMM 2013

4. Today’s Speakers
Moderator:
Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
Founder, Global Product Management Talk
http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/ProdMgmtTalk
Twitter: @ProdMgmtTalk @startupproduct @cindyfsolomon
Presenter:
Tom Evans
Principal at Lûcrum Marketing
http://www.lucrum-marketing.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/compellingpm
© AIPMM 2013 @AIPMM #prodmgmt http://www.aipmm.com

5. Stay on To Win!
Keep your Chat box open
Use the Questions box to ask questions for the Q&A
session following the presentation
Participants will be entered into drawing to win a free
ticket to Startup Product Summit
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6. 3-Day San Francisco Product
Innovation Leader Package
February 5, 6, 7, 2013 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Special Package Price:
$1797.00
Product Innovation Leadership Training
February 5 & 6, 2013 / 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
The course includes 2 Day Intensive Training ($1697 value), Certified Innovation Leader (CIL®)
certification exam fee ($395 value), and a 1 year premium AIPMM membership ($175 value). This
course also offers 16 PDUs for PMI® certified Project Management Professionals (PMP®).
Startup Product Summit
February 7, 2013 / 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
1-Day Conference: Discover how to work together to develop amazing products.
($349 value) bringing together everyone who touches product at a company to talk frankly about
what product is and our shared role in making them a success with a healthy mix of product
managers, engineers, marketers and designers speaking from their experiences about products from
every angle, including prototyping, roadmapping and marketing. Additional PDUs available.
Startup Product Talks February 7, 2013 6:30 PM – 10 PM
San Francisco meetup networking event included as part of Developer Week
($10+ value includes food and drinks)
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7. FEATURED PRESENTATION
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8. The Rise of the SaaS
Product Manager
Why Product Management Is More Important Than Ever!
Tom Evans
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com

9. About Tom Evans
• Principal – Lûcrum Marketing (Partner with 280 Group)
• 15+ Years - Product Management / Product Marketing Experience
• Domain Expertise: Document Management, Call Center
Technologies, Financial Services, Process Automation, Aerospace
& Defense, Small & Large Company, Domestic & International
• Functional Expertise: Business Case, Soliciting Market Needs,
Product Mgmt Process & Documentation, Messaging, Sales
Enablement, Agile, Product Strategy, Market Strategy, SaaS
• AIPMM Certifications: Certified Product Manager, Certified Product
Marketing Manager, Agile Certified Product Manager
• Publications: Contributor – 42 Rules of Product Management, 42
Rules of Product Marketing
• Former Board Member/Sessions Chair – ProductCamp Austin 9

10. Discussion Agenda
• Spark of the SaaS Product Management Controversy
• What Product Management Isn’t
• What Is Product Management?
• Product Management Practices in Saas Companies

11. Sources of SaaS PM Controversy
The Death of Traditional Software
Product Management
• In SaaS, the concept of traditional
product management must be retired
and replaced by community
management.
• Silly Agility: The Myth of the Agile
Product Manager

12. This Isn’t Product Management
Office Space – Tom Smykowski & The Bobs
http://www.luminomagazine.com/mw/storyimages/1021_wide.jpg

13. NOT Product Management
• PM sits in office and determines what they think the
customer wants.
• PM creates thick requirements document and expects that
engineering has all of the information they need.
• PM collects all requirements and gets cross-functional team
to prioritize.
• PM only writes technical specs and tries to tell engineering
how to do their job.

14. What is Product Management?
“Product Management ensures the
company delivers products that are
valuable for the customer, company and
partners throughout the entire product
lifecycle”
Adapted from Greg Geracie

15. Managing Throughout the Product Lifecycle

16. What Does Product Management Do?
• Conduct market & competitive research
• Solicit, validate and clarify requirements from stakeholders
• Develop business case for major product investments
• Create product strategy and communicate requirements
• Define and defend the product positioning
• Prioritize requirements (User Stories)
• Validate resulting product with market
• Support marketing, sales team, channel (sales tools)
• Communicate clear & consistent market messages.
• Help achieve key business metrics

17. Most Important Aspect of Product Management
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the
customer so well that the product or service fits him and
sells itself.
Peter Drucker
Discover Market Needs That are Worthy of Solving!

18. Discovering Market User Needs
• User communities / • Win/Loss analysis
user groups • Social media
• Usage analytics • Competitive analysis
• A/B testing • Support issues
• Feature requests • Industry analysts
• Product advisory • Potential customers
committees • RFPs
• Customer calls/visits • Etc.

19. Balance Needs of Multiple Constituents
The role of a product
manager is to serve as a
communications "hub" for
a publisher's software,
coordinating the different
and frequently conflicting
wishes, needs and
priorities of development,
sales, marketing and
customers. – Merrill R.
(Rick) Chapman (2004)
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3SJS38JIQMU8L

20. Create a Profitable Product Strategy!

21. No Product Strategy =
http://www.wengerna.com/giant-knife-16999

22. Product Management Practices for SaaS
• Define and improve key product metrics
• Create dynamic interactions with customer community
• Align customer feedback with product strategy
• Represent customers with development
• Apply usage analytics appropriately
• Create buzz around new capabilities

23. Improve Key Product Metrics
• Metrics that drive your business model (e.g.)
– Conversion ratios/times
– Usage statistics
– Net Promoter Score®
– Support issues
– Implementation time
– Time to usage
– Cost of Acquisition
– Etc.
Net Promoter, NPS, and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

24. Dynamic Interactions with Community
• Participate in the conversation
• Actively solicit feedback
• Present new ideas for feedback
• Develop consensus
• Identify customers for working groups
• Build buzz about new features, capabilities, etc.

25. Represent Customers with Development
• User Stories are a start of a conversation around a need to
be met.
– Elaborate via a grooming process
– Engage customer working groups to elaborate
requirements
• Regularly demonstrate working software to customer
working groups (after each iteration)
• Give customer working group first access to final version

26. Align Customer Feedback with Strategy
• Case Study - Mint.com
• Many users requesting Quicken/MS Money type features.
• Not their value proposition, not their target market
• Clearly understood their key user persona & thus their
product strategy.
• What if they had responded to customer requests (not
their target market, would have changed their positioning,
etc.)

27. Apply Usage Analytics
• Application of analytics depends on user interaction
– How often and how complex of interaction
• Simple workflows
– Analytics provide valuable insight
– Easy to do A/B testing
• Complex interactions
– Analytics is an important indicator, but in and of itself is
not usually sufficient
– Must understand context via customer discovery

28. Create Buzz Around New Capabilities
• Challenge: no major launch events to build buzz
• Active participation in online community and other
online/social media
• Plan schedule of new capabilities to create bundles that
synergistically increase customer value
• Make major announcements around bundle of new
capabilities

29. Characteristics of a Successful Product Manager
• Passionate about understanding market needs
• Engages well with customers & non-customers at all levels
• Provides leadership (vision, strategy) for their products
• Works well with and develops respect with all parts of the
organization
• Understands how their product supports corporate
strategy, goals, objectives
• Delivers requirements to development supported by
market evidence

30. Acknowledgements
• Tom Hale, Chief Product Office, HomeAway
• Erik Huddleston, Executive VP, Products and CTO, Dachis
Group
• Audrey Montgomery, Senior PM – SaaS Products,
Blackbaud (Convio)
• Denny Lecompte, VP – Products, SolarWinds

31. Product Management Training Dates
• Optimal Product Management & Product Marketing
– Jan 28 to 30
– April 1 to 3
• How to Be a Phenomenal Product Manager
– Jan 31
– April 4
• AIPMM Certification Prep & Exam (CPM, CPMM, Agile)
– Feb 18 to 22
• Additional Dates & Locations www.280group.com

32. Q&A
Tom Evans
Lûcrum Marketing
tevans@lucrum-marketing.com
+1.512.961.5267
@compellingpm
www.compellingpm.com
www.linkedin.com/in/compellingpm/
Copyright 2012 - LÛCRUM MARKETING

33. Please Join Us Again!
Global Product Management Talk: Monday Jan 14 How Ideas Become Products: Managing Innovation
Follow http://www.blogtalkradio.com/prodmgmttalk
AIPMM Webinar Series: Friday Jan 18 Project Portfolio Management
http://aipmm.com/aipmm_webinars/
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3 days of Startup Innovation Training, Certification Credential & Conference
San Francisco, CA
PRODUCT INNOVATION LEADER STARTUP PRODUCT SUMMIT
http://bit.ly/SEAZGA startupproduct.com
February 5 & 6, 2013 February 7, 2013
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