How to implement your product strategy

March 30, 2016March 30, 2016 Sada KshirsagarProduct Management, Product Manager, product strategyLeave a comment

Once you have product vision established and strategy set, you need to implement and drive success. This requires leadership and management. Product managers have to play both these roles. Management is about coping with complexity, while Leadership is about coping with change.

As Product managers, you have to lead by setting direction, aligning people to that direction and inspiring people to achieve the vision.

Product managers need to be change agents and be able to implement their strategies, implement them through other individuals. There are three key aspects that product managers need to consider to be effective change agents.

1 People must agree that change is necessary

Status quo should not be acceptable and the people must see that the strategy is real, attainable and consistent with the overall company’s strategy.

The gain from it should outweigh the pain

2 Product managers must overcome barriers to change

Product managers should consider turf barriers, personality issues and any other factors that could impede a successful implementation. Product managers will need to think of ways to minimize the negative impact of those factors

3 People must understand the personal or individual implications of the strategy

As one implements the strategy through individuals and teams, product managers should address critical questions for those individuals or teams such as

How is the change relevant to what I do?
What specifically do I need to do?
What’s in it for me?
How will I be measured?
What consequences will I face?

As one goes about executing the product strategy, the product manager needs to monitor the underlying assumptions of the strategy are still viable.

Lastly as product managers implement this change, care should be taken to ensure there is a system of feedback and learning so that the strategy is not static.

Product Strategy – How to create a strategic vision for your product.

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016 Sada KshirsagarProduct Manager, strategyLeave a comment

Many product managers make the mistake of projecting the past forward and using that as their view of the future. The past is important aspect of planning, but product managers should also think about the external trends and changes that could impact their products & offerings

Tony Manning in his book ‘Making sense of strategy’ states – “Strategy must enable your organization to make a difference that matters to critical mass of the ‘right’ customers”

So as a product manager you need to ask for your product – What really matters to your customers? What really matters to your company? Strategic thinking requires product managers to look broadly at both customers and competitors.

One good tool to create your strategic vision is to write out a ‘press release’ or ‘annual report’ for your product. Pick a future date, 12 months to 3 years out and write what your product line would be and how this would make a difference that matters to your customers. How would you want your product to be performing for revenue and profitability? How would it offer ‘complete solution’? Think about the context of the problem that your product solves. What emerging business models or competitors would cause your customers to migrate away from your product? What would differentiate your product from the competition? How does this align with your company’s growth strategy?

And strategic thinking is not strategic planning. Strategic thinking = Broad, while Strategic planning = Focused

Strategic thinking requires product managers to look at all market shifts, competitors and opportunities. But you can’t chase all the opportunities or problems implied by these potential futures. You have to decide on a particular direction and plan for it.

Product managers should have a clear understanding of the relationship between strategies, tactics and operational activities. Strategic goals can be formulated by looking at what you are trying to develop. Are you looking to extend your core business? Or are you wanting to leverage your company’s existing resources and assets? Is there a trend that you want to respond to or defend against? How is the customer value chain in your business and where are you on that value chain? Thinking through these questions and answering them will provide you the right strategies to create a difference that matters to your customers.

How is product management at an ecommerce company different from a classical product manager at a company that sells software?

November 9, 2014November 9, 2014 Sada KshirsagarProduct ManagerLeave a comment

There are few differences and some similarities.

In a typical software product firm, the product manager is accountable to deliver a product which leverages the firms distinctive competency and serves a large identified market.

You start with identifying a market problem, doing technology and competitive benchmarking, creating MRDs, PRD, working with engineering teams to build the product and then work with your sales and marketing team to launch and sell the product. Depending on the size of the market, breadth of the solution, your own experience in product management, and the role of product management in the company, the product manager drives the ‘internal’ build-out, road mapping and is responsible for the ‘product’ and the sales guy carries the ‘number’. Few orgs have the PM responsible for P&L (in my experience very few are structured this way though). You might also have other PMs or Analysts that you might manage.

In an eCommerce company, you typically have product management which is aligned to the various critical functions of the eCommerce life cycle.
PM’s are aligned to specific feature sets like Search, Navigation, Content, Cart and Checkout, Shipping, Social, SEO, API, Mobile etc. Each PM is responsible for their area. For example, the Search PM is accountable for internal search on the site, optimizing both the feature function and resulting revenue. In my experience (having been a PM in classical software product firm and eCommerce PM) a classical software PM typically is optimizing product feature function for market fit, while the eCommerce PM optimizes for increased conversion and customer satisfaction. In most eCommerce product management organization, I have seen product management to be more ‘business’ focused metric driven versus software product managers have stronger bias for ‘product’. In most parts, activities like problem identification, requirements definition, road mapping are similar. But you will not see much of persona build outs, win-loss analysis, channel training, sales training etc.

Also in some organizations, non-technical PM roles tend to be slotted into vertical businesses such as shoes, automotive etc (where it has more merchandising flavor)

A chalk talk from Steve Jobs – thinking like a product manager.

October 31, 2014October 31, 2014 Sada KshirsagarProduct Manager, Steve JobsLeave a comment

Steve Jobs was undoubtedly one of the best product managers. This video is a blast from his past when he was running Next.

In this video he talks about some of the basic fundamental aspects that a product manager should think

1. Who is our target customer?

2. Why they are selecting our products over the competition’s?

3. What distribution channels are we going to use to reach these customers?

In the video he talks about how he has talked with customers, internal people, and looked at the data. He then goes on to draw out what the marketplace for his product looks like. Then touches upon a competitive look between the various market players and then calls out where his product could be a standout.

Steve is a great example of how to think about product management.

How do you identify a talented product manager?

October 16, 2014 Sada KshirsagarProduct ManagerLeave a comment

A talented product manager would be

Someone who sees consistent patterns in the market which otherwise might not be obvious and ability to relate this into a solution that addresses this opportunity
A person who has great passion for building a product (defining the overall experience and not just components of it)
He has the tenacity to execute to the product vision over multiple iterations
Understands what would constitute a true success
Knows what is ahead 3-4 steps, can identify a win or a failure and knows how to pivot from an unsuccessful position
Can communicate succinctly.

There are many more qualities, but some of the above are the ones that you would consistently see in top quality pm’s

Difference between a Project Manager and a Product Manager?

October 14, 2014 Sada KshirsagarProduct Manager1 Comment

Product Manager usually is the business side of building a product. Which means a product manager needs to think about what market to serve, which problems to solve and how to solve that profitably. He does that by building a product which addresses the market problems with the right feature sets and marketing it to get a profitable outcome. In that process he is responsible for collaborating and directing a set of cross functional teams which could include marketing, sales, engineering, finance and project management.

Generally speaking Project Managers manage projects which have definite start date and an end date. They are typically responsible for managing resources, allocations, methodologies and schedules. Their ability to stay on scope, schedule, plan and budget enables a successful delivery of the project. Their teams would typically include engineering and business analysis resources.

Another wide observation is that you will see Product Managers on the product (software, hardware, engineering etc) side of the world, while Project Managers are quite often seen in services oriented businesses (IT Services, Consulting, Construction etc)

A simplification of these roles would be –

Product managers own “What” and “Why”.
Project managers own “How” and “When”.

Getting into Product Management

October 14, 2014October 13, 2014 Sada KshirsagarProduct Manager, Project ManagerLeave a comment

A good product manager is someone who can see ‘patterns’ very well. It means that in a given market place, you can see a ‘unsolved problem’ or ‘unfulfilled need’ and you have the passion to build a solution that will address the marketplace as a whole and not just the individual constituents. Add to that some good writing, prototyping, user experience, marketing and team skills – you will have the necessary recipe to do product management.

In enterprise software companies, many Product Managers come in typically with functional or domain expertise. So having that would help if you are looking in the enterprise software market.

Also many come with Consulting background. This typically exposes them to problems businesses face or unfulfilled needs in a consumer marketplace. That experience to understand it and propose building a solution is another way to get into product management.

One can also move into product management via ‘doing things’. Go build a product, an app or a site. Use that experience and sell why a potential employer should consider you for a job in product management.

As for me – I came into product management by accident rather than design, I came in with the consulting and technology experience mixed with functional expertise, so while at consulting I was solving similar problems for a wide variety of industries and that led to a product company looking to design products and serve a market with similar solutions.

Learn from what others have to say on this topic – How do you get your first product management job?

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