Value Driven Product Management Process by Terry Mosbaugh

Value-Driven Product Management
WHAT IS IT?

6-Step Process to Drive Successful
Business Growth
 Product Lines
 Small Businesses
 Start-ups

$$

Provides thought leadership by bringing
customer and market expertise to the strategic
planning process
Categorizes strategy implementation to better
manage details and apply best practices
Aligns the product team around a strategic vision
to drive execution towards:

Building Products & Services
Customers Want !!

 Gives market insights
 Don’t be tricked into focusing only on major customer unique needs

 Drives alignment between executives and product
management team

 Aligns business strategy with product strategy
 Communicates the strategic vision to internal stake
holders
(i.e. Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Finance, Operations, Legal)

 Provides market feedback to help adapt and
improve along the way

6 Steps to VDPM:
1. Voice of the Customer [VOC] Assessment
2. Product Profile SWOT Analysis

3. Product Portfolio vs. VOC Gap Strategy
4. Order Fulfillment Strategy
5. Go-To-Market Strategy

6. Infrastructure Review
Apply “Best Practices” within each step

1.) Voice of the Customer (VOC) Assessment
- Ask lots of open-ended questions then “Listen”
- Utilize multiple channels for collecting VOC
- Summarize details in a MRD (Market Requirement Document)
 Who are your target customers ?
- Influencers, End-Users, Buyers
- Enterprise, SMB, SOHO, Consumer
 What do they do? What do their customers do?

 What are their “problems, needs, and pains”?
- True requirements may not be obvious at the start
- They mostly emerge during customer interactions
 What VALUE it is to them to address needs and /or eliminate pains?

1.) Voice of the Customer [VOC] Assessment (Cont.)
 What is the overall size of the market opportunity?
 Why are customers buying existing products / technology?
 What was their fundamental needs? How did you address their
needs?
 What was their alternative solutions?
 What was their ROI perception?
 Did your products meet, exceed, fall short of customer’s
expectations?
 What prospects did you forecast to purchase products but did not?
 Why?
objections, barriers, competitive solution
 What is your competition [direct and indirect]?
 Do you have a differentiator over competition? Why now?
 What are the major roadblocks to you growing faster? Why?

2.) Product Profile SWOT Analysis

SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
 What do you have today ?
 Is it a solution or a product ?

 Does it offer

“Value”

to your customers ?

 How does it compare to competition ?
 Is the product portfolio sustainable (roadmap strategy) ?
 Do you have IP (patents or trade secrets) ?

3.) Product Portfolio vs. VOC Gap Strategy

Options to Fill Gaps:






Repackage what you have
Private brand labeling
Create custom product extensions
Develop new products / services
M & A strategy

3.) Product Portfolio vs. VOC Gap Strategy (Cont.)
 Regular evaluation of the portfolio and development pipeline to
assign resource priority (what offers the best ROI)
 Invest in product development technologies that improve the agility
and speed of the engineering portion of the product development
lifecycle
 Product Management is key to bridging communications between
Voice of the Customer and Product Development teams
Apply ‘Best Practices’
o LEAN - PD
o Agile Development Methodology

4.) Order Fulfillment Strategy

 Manufacture Internally
 Outsource to Contract Manufacturer / ODM
 Private Label
 All of the Above
What is your Vendor, Logistics and Supply Chain Support
Strategy?

5.) Go-To-Market Strategy
 Product [Packaging, MOQ’s, Vertical’s]
 Price [Standard, Tiered, Disty, eBusiness)]

 Promotion [Social Media, eMarketing, Lead Gen, PR]
 Placement [Sales Channels]

 Position = “Targeted Value-Add Solutioning”

5.) Go-To-Market Strategy (Cont.)
Targeted Value Add Solutioning (Step 1)
1. Promote “Value” not Features / Benefits
 Customers do not buy product features nor benefits
 Focus sales enablement and marketing tools around the
value features and benefits bring to addressing identified
customer’s needs or pains

Value Driven Product Management
2. Develop “Solutions” not Products
 Solutions can be a combination of products, services,
messaging, and operational best practices
 Solutions drive differentiating value resulting in greater
revenue and higher margins
 Solutions have less competitive pressures

Targeted Value-Add Solutioning
2. Develop “Solutions” not Products (cont.)
 Four Samples of Solutions are:
 Stand Alone: a product and/or service combined with Best-of-Class
Customer Service
 Vertical Market/Niche Market Specific: a product wrapped in value-add
messaging crafted for specific users
 Bundle: a combination of existing discrete products, services, and
operational best practices into a solution possibly with promotional
package pricing

 Integrated Solution: an offering that integrates multiple components
such as products, services, processes, intellectual property, and pricing
that delivers value beyond which each individual component could
provide on its own

3. Identify “Targeted Customer Needs”
 Be the expert on "Targeted Customer Needs" and how your
products are used to address the needs
 In addition to existing customers be sure to evaluate the
needs of new prospects, vertical marketing teams, sales
engineers, and channel partners (MSP, VAR, SI, Dealers)
 Focusing only on major customer unique needs can be
dangerous

3. Identify “Targeted Customer Needs” (Cont.)
 Influencers, Users and Buyers all have different needs
 Enterprise customers have different needs than SMB, SOHO
or Consumer

 Specific Vertical Markets have unique different needs
 Hunter sales people have different needs than Farmer sales
people

3. Identify “Targeted Customer Needs” (Cont.)
 Prioritize Target Customers
 “Execute” on GTM strategy

6.) Infrastructure Review
 What infrastructure is required to support Steps 1 through 5?
 Create Org Chart with boxes of functionality

 Assess existing personnel / support groups
 Assign personnel / groups to best functionality
 Recruit / Hire / Train key performers – Fill function gaps
 Develop KPI metrics reporting dashboards
 Lead, Manage, Mentor and Motivate team(s)

Communicate

Communicate

Communicate

VDPM Process
 Generates:

 Business Strategy
 Product Line Strategy
 Product Roadmap

 Gains Stakeholders Agreement
 Creates Milestones and Budget Allocations
 Set Target Dates to Achieve
 Can Monitor Budgets Status
 Monitors Progress via KPI dashboards
 Adjust Strategy [Pivot] as needed
 Be Flexible to Market & Customers Changes
 Anticipate vs. React
DIFFERENTIATION ISN’T ENOUGH



YOU HAVE TO BE BETTER


Jim Brown
VP - Global Product Innovation and Engineering
Aberdeen Group

THANK You
ThankYOU

Terry P. Mosbaugh
terry.mosbaugh@gmail.com

Value Driven Product Management Process by Terry Mosbaugh

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