Idiot! You can't disconnect your Value Proposition, Corporate Vision and Personal Freedom!

There is a powerful talk by Simon Sinek on TED that outlines his reasoning why there is a case for communicating your value proposition from the inside out:  talk about what your company vision is, before you discuss the specifics of the product value proposition, and what you do.

As I have outlined before, the reason for bringing a specific product to market and understanding exactly what the problem is that you are trying to solve is fundamental.  If you cannot answer the simple question of what the problem is that you are solving, then "Houston, we have a problem".

5 Lessons for Product Practitioners from Steve Jobs

As the world reflects on the passing of Steve Jobs, it inevitably triggers some thinking about lessons learned and the legacy of learning's that he leaves behind.  Here is my list of Jobs'isms, which I am sure is just one of many.

• Keep it simple
• Believe in what you are doing
• Love your product
• Failure is simply another step towards success
• Release your product when it is ready - not before.

Product managers generally understand that curve balls are going to come at them constantly.  Print out these 5 ideas, and stick them up somewhere - it will be a simple reminder to keep you on track.
I am currently working through the implementation of a new strategy, a portfolio repositioning and a new product development kickoff (all @ the same time), these 5 key principles coupled with understanding WHY (see previous post), has been absolutely key to keeping focused on the key objectives at hand.

You only have a Scale of 1: Why org's should consider cloud solutions

Recently there have been a number of occasions when I have been asked to explain what the potential benefits are for an enterprise organisation of a "cloud" deployment over a typical enterprise CPE (customer premises equipment) deployment.   There is so much hype, and marketing generated positioning that tries to pretend that it is a complex value proposition, where in reality the answer is fairly simple ... simple common sense I think.

Firstly, the value proposition for "cloud" and its potential benefits are not complex (that does not necessarily mean that the techniology underneath is not); and secondly the difference between an in-house controlled CPE deployment and a cloud based deployment can simply be articulated as one of scale.  If one is deploying an in-house CPE solution, no matter how small or large the organisation, the only economy of scale benefit that can be gained is directly related to the size of your organisation .. the level of aggregation is always 1.

Stakeholder Interests Have to be Balanced

One of the things that I have been trying to do is understand exactly what is required when doing due diligence on a company, whether it is well established or a startup.

Part of that evaluation is undoubtadly understanding why the organisation exists, what the problem is that it solves, and whether its value proposition resonates, but there is another dimension which is equally important - how it approaches the management of its various stakeholders.

While I was researching the topic I came across this article by Charles J. Fombrun on Forbes.com about How To Restore Your Company's Reputation which describes why some organisations have suffered because they have paid more attention to short term financial results than longer term value.  The article identifies 7 key indicators that need to be addressed: