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Lessons in B2B Product Management & Solution Marketing for Enterprise Software Solutions
Chris Aulbach
ProductCampCT
Oct 2015
Quick background…
• 15+ yrs Product/Solutions Management
• 10+ yrs in Solutions Marketing
• 100% in Enterprise B2B software
• Multiple Start-ups/hyper-growth/VC-backed co’s
• Multiple Publicly traded global corporations
• Big proponent of Process to drive Execution,
and focus on Strategic Value over ‘features’
• Passionate about
• My profession
• My industry
• Work/life balance
Segmenting my Lessons and Experiences: 2 buckets
A. Market/Customer Facing
• Understanding Customers/Prospects
• NIHITO?
• Stakeholders & Buying process
• Your place in the Value Chain
• Buying vs. Liking
• Advocates & Promoters
• Customer Experiences
B. Internal/Company Facing
• Features vs. Strategic Value
• Iterative Innovation / New Products
• Roadmaps & Requirements
• Shiny Balls
• Execution vs. Strategy
• Processes & Tools
• Relationships
• Influence / Convincing others
• Working with Sales and Marketing
What is Product Management?
• IME, a highly misunderstood profession, especially in technology/software
• Several definitions and variations in roles, responsibilities, titles, accountabilities
• Clear lines/intersections with other related teams (marketing, sales/GTM, engineering, etc) are CRITICALLY important
Hint:
It’s a balance of
ALL of this!
What is Product Management?
• Business Management of “Products” (i.e. Solutions/Market offerings)
• How does “It” generate revenue and make money?
• How do you “win”?
• Outside-in: WHAT & WHY(Design/Engineering figures out HOW)
• What “problems” are you solving, or added value are you creating?
• Put finished Solutions ON the shelf (so Sales/Marketing can take them OFF)
Market /Client Facing Lessons
Part A
A1 – Understand your customers/prospects…deeply
• Many dimensions to this
• Buyers vs. Users and the differences of each
• Product Management’s role/purpose:
• Messenger of the market to the rest of the company: Promote the collective voice
• Futurist: See things they don’t see on their own
• NIHITO?
• How about a MOTHITO? (Many other things happen in the office)
A2 – Understand the Buying Process and Key Stakeholders
• CxOs, VITOs: Make sure you know who they are for your solution(s)…
• Key Buyers and Influencers, and the titles they carry
• Technical Buyer, Economic Buyer, Influencer(s)
• Top-down vs. Bottoms-up approach?
• Pains, Issues, Challenges, Problems, Opportunities
• Expected Capabilities + “Wow!s”
• Progressing them through the funnel
• Buying Style, Risk Tolerance
• Personal Win(s)
A3 – Understand the Value Chain that you play in
• Your solution’s position/role in the full ecosystem/value-chain
• What’s Upstream & Downstream?
• What parts do you OWN completely?
• Focus on maximizing your Strengths
• Unique Assets/IP
• Core Capabilities
“A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific
industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the
market. The concept comes from business management and was first
described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller,
Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”
A4 – Know the difference between Liking and Buying…
Liking your Product/Service
• Too many people leverage “likes” as their most important feedback mechanism for what to do with/put into their products
• Problem: No exchange of value; No revenue associated with likes!
• Opinions are like…
Buying your Product/Service
• Harder to obtain than a “like”
• Quantified exchange of value
• Importance of modeled/proven ROI
• Hard variables vs. soft variables
• Defensible, self-explanatory
• Price based on Strategic Value, not costs plus
A5 – Understand the Value of Advocates and Promoters
• Brand Promise & Reputation: Requires that you deliver, repeatably
• Keep your promises…or don’t make them in the first place if you can’t deliver on them
• CAUTION: Big pushy ($$s) customers
Advocates
Loyalists
Fans, Followers
A6 – Don’t forget about Whole Customer Experience
• Example from Healthcare IT Industry
• Market Success is about so much more than the “Features & Functionality” of your product(s)/solution. Don’t lose the forest from the trees.
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Internal / Company Facing Lessons
Part B
B1 – It’s about way more than Features & Functionality
• Feature/Functionality battle is expensive. Race to “Bloatware”.
• Someone will always have more/different features
• Will come down to “user preference”
• Feature Selling = selling to Users, not Buyers
> For Senior Buyers, Strategic Value ALWAYS trumps “More Features”
(TEST)
Minimize
time through
the loop
B2 – Innovation and New Product Development is incremental
• Don’t try to boil the ocean before going to market
• Don’t let GREAT be the enemy of “Good enough”.
• MVCs (Concepts/Ideas) first. Fuzzy front-end with lots of uncertainty
• MVPs, Clickable prototypes, Mock-ups, Storyboards to incrementally improve
• In Parallel: Something in front of both USERS and BUYERS
• Important to have structures/follow process as you do this
(Learn)
BIG
B3 – Don’t let Roadmaps & Requirements be dirty words…
• Executing on this is HARD. It’s a balancing act across many dimensions/stakeholders
• Can’t (Won’t) please all the people all the time. Know that going in.
• Iterations & Collaboration with stakeholders is paramount. What are the VITAL FEW?
• No hiding behind “Agile fences” – Must project “intent” & “direction” for enterprise buyers
• Use Themes; lower degrees of certainty over time
B4 – Watch out for “Shiny Balls”…they can be very destructive!
• IME, more common with less experienced founders, but can come from anywhere
• Key Questions to address
• How does that [XX] fit into the overall vision?
• How does that [XX] align with or improve our strategy?
• What impact will [XX] have on our business goals?
• Thoughtful analysis required
• Potential value of [XX] in future revenues / TAM
• Quantity of Effort/team/skills to realize potential of [XX]
• Fit in portfolio relative to positioning, messaging, market needscapacity to deliver, etc.
[XX]
B5 – Execution eats Strategy for breakfast!
• Both are essential. However…
• A great [product/solution] strategy doesn’t produce $$s……only great presentations
• Value is created from solving the HARD STUFF, and getting the entire organization aligned around delivering their contribution towards that value proposition. That’s execution.
B6 – Following Processes and using Tools increase velocity…
• Agile for SDLC; Stage-Gate/PDLC for cross-functional governance
• Story points; 2-week sprints; Open demos
• Must do planning for series of sprints in advance to map out target “releases”
• Highly recommend using tools –but vital to have alignment/training around use of tools before “jumping in”. Standardize on process/ tool taxonomies up front
• Alpha, Beta, and GA – be crystal clear on each!
B7 – Don’t underestimate the importance of Relationships
Internal Partners / Teams
• Senior Executives, Founders
• Engineering, QA, Tech Writers/Docs
• Sales, Marketing, GTM teams
• Services/Delivery Teams
• Support
External Stakeholders
• Clients / Customers
• Competitors / Advocates of Competitors
• Analysts / Reviewers
• Partners / Suppliers
B8 – The best way to influence is with DATA
• Market Size
• Competitor data
• Reasonable comparables
• Validated ROI model
• Customer/prospect interviews or survey results
• Always aggregated data vs. “one opinion” (anecdotal)
• Partner with Marketing!
- W. Edwards Deming
“In God we trust. All others must bring data.”
B9 – Educate others…you’ll sleep better!
Sales Team Marketing Team
• Value Proposition• Differentiators
Boundaries
• Test and Validate
Thank you
Chris Aulbach
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caulbach