Maximizing Software Product Profitability
While there are many great resources for understanding and documenting a business model, few give deep insight on maximizing software product profitability.
How to Make a Product Playbook
"A well-designed system filled with ordinary—but well-trained—people can consistently achieve stunning performance levels."—Robert I. Sutton What’s the status of your product management team? It’s likely some team members have formal training; others don’t. Some have years of experience; some have just started. They’ve probably got some tools they’ve used in ...
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Roadmaps & Release Planning: Applied Frameworks Canvas
Great results come from more than great product development. You need a coordinated effort—from idea to revenue. There’s a lot of emphasis on making this department more efficient, or implementing a new method in that department. But the silo approach can only go so far. What you really need is ...
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Types of Business Model Pivots in Lean Startup
Pivot is one of those words that some Agile people like to throw around to sound hip and cool, but often use incorrectly. I have observed in many conversations where people use the word "pivot", they tend to mean any type of course correction in product strategy (hey...I've been guilty of ...
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Is Product Marketing the Same as Marketing? (I say no)
I’m often asked to differentiate product marketing from marketing (or marketing communications, if you prefer). This effort gets confusing for most because of the term “marketing.” I’ve long been uncomfortable with the term “marketing.” For many of us, marketing is a philosophy. Marketing is looking at the business from the ...
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How to Set Pricing Which Reflects Customer Value
Pricing is all about value. "Must have" capabilities are more expensive than "nice to have." So what's the value to the client? A simple way to look at pricing is to use a 3 by 3 matrix (like a tic-tac-toe game). The vertical axis is cost of doing it myself; ...
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Customer Interviews: Analyzing the Data
She analyzes synergies, or synergizes analogies... or some such thing.—Edward Norton (as "Father Brian Finn"), Keeping the Faith. Alas, most of us have fairly rudimentary tools. Try to get some help from someone with data mining experience but let’s see what we can do without assistance. Nobody knows the data ...
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Customer Interviews: How to Conduct the Interview
My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.—Peter Drucker, American management consultant and author Interviewing is both an art and a science. Knowing when to speak and when to listen. Letting the client expand on an idea but also keeping to your agenda. ...
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Customer Interviews: Getting Ready
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.—Winston Churchill, British prime minister Every marketing person will tell you that customer interviews provide deep insights on the product, its promotion, your sales team effectiveness, and your company strategy. What they often fail to do is ...
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Who Owns Product Positioning?
Who defines product positioning? Product Management or Marketing Communications? Product managers are responsible for the features of the product and its positioning in the marketplace. The Marketing Communications (marcom or marcomms) organization is chartered with delivering the product message to the market. Product Management defines the positioning and Marcom delivers ...
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