New Product Development Strategic Planning

It has been a while since I posted something - summer kicked in, workload and also some time taken out to work out what my topic should be for my Exec MBA dissertation (Management Challenge in Henley Business School speak).  So where are we now?   Topic decided - I will elaborate more in future posts.  It is a topic that is certainly of interest to the product management community and to anybody that has been involved in a merger or acquisition.

In the mean time, a colleague sent this to me today - it certainly resonated and is closely related to my research topic as well:  Strategic Plans for Product Development:

solutioneering: does not deliver (part 2)

Following on Part 1 of this series "solutioneering: does not deliver", it is worth looking at all the different parties that suffer as a result of solutioneering and how the problem manifests itself.

It does not matter whether you are a sales account director, sales manager, sales & marketing director, a potential customer asking for a solution, an IT director trying to buy something or a pre-sales engineer trying to develop a solution specification - every single one of these roles is negatively affected by solutioneering.

If you have ever been fortunate enough to have experienced being in one of these roles, you will almost certainly relate to the absolute frustration when a proposal is submitted which does not articulate the solution that you anticipated.

Equally, as a member of the bid team, no matter whether you are the technical sales specialist or the account manager - after you have spent hours and long nights polishing a customer proposal, there is nothing more disheartening when the customer turns around and tells you that the solution is way beyond their budget and you need to shave 25% off the price.  Or even worse, they do not have a business case to support what you are proposing - can you please help put one together..... 

So what is the real problem that causes these scenarios to play out?  Customer expectation not set correctly? Customer requirements have changed?

Some analysis and reflection allows real causes to bubble to the top without offending any one party - it is human nature to help people quickly - identify solutions as soon as possible.  Look out for the following symptoms (these are not an exhaustive list - just examples):

• no documentation of requirements
• inability to articulate use cases
• budget envelope is not known
• urgent requirement to discount the solution
• have never met the actual business user with the problem
• vague process to evaluate proposals
• no/vague/flexible implementation deadlines
• no clear success criteria or metrics

Once can go on - but you get the general idea - the actual problem that needs to be solved has not been identified and as a result, the scope for disaster has been multiplied exponentially.  The risk of a deal not closing is off the scale at this point, as is the potential for delivering a very unhappy customer into the business.  What is always very scary is the fact that quite often nobody will stand up and say - we do not know what the problem is.

So what does this problem ecosystem look like?

Walking through the problem ecosystem, it becomes obvious that it is a combination of symptoms and drivers that result in the unsatisfactory outcome.  The solution to the the problem cannot easily be identified because I would argue the root cause is not described on the diagram above.

The real cause of the problem lies right at the start of the product lifecycle and has its roots in poor market needs analysis and investment decision making.  In part 3 of this series, I will look what could be the real root causes of this problem and potential options to address them.

Thoughts?

  What do you think?

Image: © Melis82 | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Great advice: 4 ways to Think like an Innovator

I am working on the draft of part 2 of my series on "Solutioneering" and starting thinking about how cracking the problem, fits into a product managers frameworks and methods.  This in turn lead me to pondering on how to trigger some focused, creative thinking when approaching a customer request for a proposal - how could this fits into an innovation cycle  - how to think out of the box?

I came across a video blog post by Scott Anthony from Innosight,  which outlines a suggestion of 4 things to think about when you are stuck - in essence, how to think like an innovator.

1. Keep an external focus - this one has particular resonance with "solutioneering" and understanding the customer problem, but more of that in a later post.
2. Learn from your mistakes
3. Embrace your inner Edison
4. Resist the pull of the core.

The blog post is only 2 minutes and 58 seconds - take some time to go and watch it, it will keep you busy, and give me some time to finish up my next post.

[Image from PublicDomainPictures.Net]

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".

Value Propositions for Services are Different

Most, if not all product marketing and product managers have been faced with the challenge of building a value proposition that needs to resonate with not only customers, but the sales team as well.  There are 4 basic principles to consider when building a value proposition that are pretty much fundamental.  These become even more important when crafting a value proposition that positions a new service as opposed to a product. (and will increasingly become even more so with the move to "cloud" solutions)

• need to be targeted at the audience - you had better understand who the audience is.
• one size does not fit all - which is it? Company size or vertical market?
• what is the best way to craft them?  Different approaches are needed for services vs products.
• what are the potential knock on effects if the customer actually thinks about buying your value proposition? Shock, horror!  :-)

Focus on the Customer

Quite often product management is focused on the product/solution that is taken to market.  I would argue that it is not the product that is important.  It is the customer.  Unless you have a very clear understanding of the customer context in the market that you are trying to address, you have a solution looking for a problem, which inevitably leads to failure in the worst case, unnecessary resource (cash) consumption and delayed success in the likely case.