ProductCamp Boston, April 2011 *********
Ten years ago during the Internet boom years I was invited by the business school I had graduated from over a decade earlier to be part of a marketing career panel with other alumni. In trying to explain the role of product marketing/product management to the MBA students (it is not really taught in b school), I used a volleyball analogy that seemed to help. I'd like to present that as well as lessons learned from 20 years in product marketing/product management...
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Armed with an engineering degree from Northeastern and a shiny new MBA from Harvard, I was unleashed upon the software industry 25 years ago. Since then, it has been a "never a dull moment" existence in the murky world between engineering and sales at startups and emerging growth companies in the greater Boston area: business cases, product launches, competitive battlecards, sales guides, acquisitions, an IPO, etc.
2. Volleyball as a metaphor for product
marketing/product management
Lessons learned from 20 years in software
product management/product marketing
Larry Concannon
◦ Spike Product Marketing
◦ 170 Systems (Kofax), Workscape (ADP), Kronos,
Allaire (Macromedia), Aimtech (SumTotal)
◦ Northeastern Engineering, Harvard MBA
3. Dig Set Spike
◦ Programmers ◦ Prod. Mgmt ◦ Sales
◦ QA ◦ Prod. Mktg. ◦ Bus dev
◦ Doc ◦ Marcom, PR, ◦ Partners
◦ Tech Support programs ◦ Execs
◦ Services ◦ Press
◦ Training ◦ Analysts
Greek Norwegian
5. Non-balance leads to problems
If Sales rules
◦ Chasing deals, develop what last customer wanted,
job shop, not a sustainable business…
If Marketing rules
◦ Awareness, pr, adv, parties, leads, etc... Revenue
will not meet expectations…
If Development rules
◦ Develop “cool” products, products miss the market,
market too small..
6. Dig Set
◦ Programmers ◦ Prod. Mgmt
◦ QA ◦ Prod. Mktg.
◦ Doc ◦ Marcom, PR,
◦ Tech Support programs
PRD/MRD/Spec ◦ Services
◦ Training
Product roadmap
Build/buy decisions
Team meetings
Volunteer: test, read doc, etc.
Milestone rewards
Feedback
Protect from distractions
7. Set Spike
Sales meetings ◦ Prod. Mgmt
◦ Sales
Sale training (record) ◦ Prod. Mktg. ◦ Bus dev
◦ Marcom, PR, ◦ Partners
Sales tools in use programs ◦ Execs
◦ Press
Sales engineers ◦ Analysts
Online meetings/demos
On site meetings
Push info to Sales
Contests
Syndicate success
8. Sales is obsessed with competitors
Analyst and the press want to put your
company in a box with other competitors
VCs: “no competitor, no market”
Challenge the need for a feature if the only
reason is that competitor X has it
Focus on what the prospective customers
need (known and unknown)
Competitive battlecard to hit the highlights
Win/loss analysis is key
9. In market research, the question can skew the
results
Ex. Phillips and remote controls
Ex. HR management software and monopoly
10. Prospects have pre-existing buying criteria
◦ Ex. 4WD vs. AWD
Your installed base has using criteria
◦ Do not rely just on existing customers for research
Validate buying criteria
Educate customer on using criteria
◦ Ex. Sears vacuum
12. Sales reps sell for you and to you
Sales’ input should not drive roadmap
Ex: Aimtech vs. Macromedia (mid-1990s)
◦ Multimedia authoring tools ($3500 to $5000/user)
◦ CBT, kiosks, CDROMs
◦ Macromedia: Mac; added Windows
◦ Aimtech: Windows; needed to add Mac
◦ Dilemma: limited dev resources
Strategic: add Mac
Tactical: add Unix (Sun, HP, DEC, SGI…)
◦ Result: Chased the $$$, believed Unix vendors, failed
13. Dev discounts value if feature is easy to create
Dev overstates value of labor intensive work
Ex. Allaire HomeSite and WYSIWYG
Ex. 170 Systems and SAP
“Table Stakes”
Corporate Visions’ “Power Position”
◦ Valued by the customer
◦ Differentiate somehow
Only your solution has it
Proof that your solution is superior.
14. Map product features to the user
◦ “What’s in it for me?”
◦ Knowledge is power
Execs want actionable information
◦ BI, analytics, reports, dashboards, scorecards
Ex. 170 Systems AP automation software
◦ Business Process Automation (workflow)
◦ Execs: Business Process Performance Management
“Advisor”: overview of invoices, $$$, and people
Ex. HiSoftware compliance management
◦ Compliance with Section 508, HIPAA, other regulations
“Insight”: overview of people and groups compliance perf.
15. Fast: update a spreadsheet
Powerful: changes target markets, perception
Dangerous: revenue, margins, profits
Ex. Aimtech IconAuthor
◦ $4995/user vs. Macromedia’s $3,500/user
◦ “IconAuthor Select” at $995
◦ Disaster: limited market size + experimental cust.
Ex. Allaire ColdFusion app server
◦ $1,295 vs. free .ASP and expensive J2EE
◦ “CF Pro” at $995; “CF Enterprise” at $3495/server
◦ Expected 75%/25% mix; got 25%/75% mix; revenue soared
16. Software
◦ Your software (the product)
◦ Other software required
◦ Complementary software available
Hardware required
Services
◦ Implementation, training and tech support
◦ Hosting
◦ SAAS
Expertise
◦ Domain experience: product, people
17. You Prospect
- Solution - Increase revenue
- Decrease costs
- Mitigate risk
How far is it from your solution to the prospect’s
core goals?
How convoluted is the path? How easy is it to
understand?
Apply the “so what” test and drive positioning
and messaging to business value.
18. Q&A?
Other lessons learned?
Larry Concannon
◦ www.linkedin.com/in/larryconcannon
◦ larryconcannon@hotmail.com