The Leading Reference for technology-based products

Product
M
   anagement Journal Volume 2 £10 / €10/ $14

 Contents
Valuing needs
How to develop the best propositions p04

Persona Profiling

Getting into your customers’ shoes p11

Thinking big
Propositions for big software products p14

 Listen and learn

Customer feedback need not cost the earth p18

 Insight: The power of a proposition

Why product managers need propositions p22

P  ropositions product
How to build sharper
propositions that really work
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 PROPOSITIONS

W
  elcome Leading the way for product managers/marketers
Why should I buy from you? If a customer asks
this question are you confident that you
have a convincing answer? The answer is Who’s who?
The Product
your proposition – a clear statement of the Management Journal
benefits a customer gets from your is published by
Product Focus as an
‘complete’ solution. independent publication
Your proposition is more than just your for product managers
with technology-based
product; it’s all the pricing, services, products. Product
processes and 3rd party elements that Focus was founded and
create the complete solution experienced by is run by Ian Lunn (top)
and Andrew Dickenson
your customers. Any one of these elements (below).
might be key to a customer deciding to buy
The founders continue to
from you. deliver many of Product
So it’s important to know what they care Focus’s training courses
and workshops.
about so you can focus your efforts. If you’re
not sure what to do or how to clearly
articulate your proposition to customers and To get all our previous journals and receive
the latest copy sign-up at
internal teams, then you need to read on. www.productfocus.com

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Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents

Go-to-market checklist Developing a proposition Succeeding in a downturn How to build a business case How to price The role Agile Market analysis
How to make your launch successful p04 The importance of unearthing what customers value p04 How to stay ahead when the market is going down p04 Step-by-step guide plus Top 10 Excel tips p04 The key to effective pricing p04 What does a product manager do anyway? p04 Agile explained and agile vs waterfall p04 How to research and analyse your market p04

Good timing Persona profiling Tools for managing requirements 7 common mistakes The psychology of pricing Leadership tools Scrum Talking to customers
Dates to chooce and avoid for launch p07 Getting into your customers shoes p08 Cut time to market, reduce errors andimprove communications p09 How to spot the warning signs p06 How to get inside your customer’s mind p07 Product manager personas and 20 things to make you great p08 The rules and what it means to be the product woner p09 What are they really thinking? p06

Relaunching Thinking big Outsourcing Scenario planning and sensitivty analysis Pricing structures Starting up Product manager checklist Research
A golden opportunitiy for you p11 Propositions for big software products p12 The pros and cons for product management p10 Separating fact from fiction p10 What are they and which ones work best? p11 How to introduce product management for the first time p10 Survive and prosper in the world of agile p10 A how-to guide p10

Taking the lead Listen and learn Job searching An idiot’s guide to finance Software pricing How are we doing? Tools Understanding competitors
Getting the most from lead customers p14 Customer feedback need not cost the earth p14 What to do if the worst happens p16 Key financial jargon and terminology explained p18 Options and terminology p14 Measuring product management p15 Software to help yo umanage requirements and projects p16 Who are they and how to compete p16

Insight: Post launch Insight: The power Insight: Voice of the market Insight: Lies, damn lies and business cases Insight: Take control of pricing Carve-up Scrum This! Insight: The analyst racket
The hidden challenge of maintaining momentum p22 Why product managers need propositions p22 Do you have your finger on the pulse? p22 Is being objective really rewarded? p22 Why it’s vital to get involved p22 Splitting responsibilitiies across multi-nationals p18 Thoughts from the Cranky Product Manager p18 Conflicts of interest - a risky game p22

Business Market
Insight: Motivation Insight: Agile hype
How happy is your donkey? p22 Hype, dogma, religious-like zeolatory - is there a bandwagon? p22

Launching Propositions Recession Cases Pricing Leading Agile Analysis

product product product product product product product product
Hit the ground running How to build sharper propositions Staying ahead in a downturn How to create outstanding business cases Setting the optimum price Product management and And its impact on product managers Understanding markets, customers
and what not to do that really work The product managers guide that deliver results Tips, tactics and theory product marketing teams and the competition

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Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents Contents

Roadmaps Requirements Training Product strategy Product Marketing What is in-life?
Product management
How to build the perfect roadmap P04 The big picture p04 The options p04 What is product strategy and why is it important p04 What is it? p04 An explanation p04
Explained in a nutshell p04

Masterclass Marketing Requirements Document (MRD) Review 10 excuses The basics Measure what matters
The big issues
Advanced ideas and strategy p06 Setting the scene p07 Pre-trianing assessment and analysis p08 Why not do a product strategy p9 Right message, right people, right place, right time p08 In-life metrics and reporting p08
What are the big issues that come up time and time again? p06

Ideas User stories Product management tube-map Tools for strategy development Planning Documentation
Smart businesses
Sounrces and how to prioritise p10 How to write user-centred requirements p11 The things product managers should know about p12 Playing to win, Blue Ocean strategy and other tools p10 The delivery of marketing materials p14 Top tips and what you should have in place p12
The 7 things smart product managers and teams do p10

Tools Demanding? Performance! Portfolio analysis Personas Time well spent

Insight: But I’m only a product manager
To help you roadmap p18 Tools to help you prioritise p15 Making training stick p14 Managing the whole product set p16 Gettinng ‘under the skin’ of our customers p16 Focus on what's important p14
Take a lead to improve performance p22

Insight: Roadkill Be prepared Justificaiton Insight: Strategic failure Inbound marketing End-of-life
Do agile and roadmaps conflicr? p22 6 things to sort out before you start p18 ROI and other models p17 More than a vision - it has to deliver p22 Going digital to attract and convert leads p18 How to successfully withdraw a product p18

Insight: Go deeper Insight: Professional Insight: Artist and expert Insight: Where the rubber hits the road
Never underestimate the value of product marketing p22

Product
The problem is the problem p22 Are you a well-intenionted amateur? p22 The importance of in-life vs new product development p22

Roadmaps Requirements Training Strategy Take control Marketing In-Life

product product product product product product
product
Compelling roadmaps that align How to make sure they deliver ...why it’s needed and Settin g the foundation for Putting product management Getting products in front of customers Making sure your product delivers
everyone to your vision how to make sure it delivers effective product plans in the driving seat and making sure they sell when it matters

All the trademarks and tradenames referenced in the Journal are the property of their respective companies
Product Management Journal Volume 2 3
FEATURE

V
  aluing needs
How to develop the best propositions

Every product is part of a proposition your business presents to its

customers even if you haven’t been through the process of analysing
exactly what it is. A proposition should be a clear statement of the
benefits a specific group of customers gets from your solution. It
should focus on how the benefits address what customers really want
and what differentiates you from the competition.
As a product manager, you’ll find propositions extremely useful
throughout the product lifecycle. In the
Case Study Avoiding mistakes with propositions
early stages, they force you to think about
“A few years ago I worked for a large software company
as VP of Product Management,” says Malcolm Lewis, why you are developing a product and why
currently working as a Senior Product Strategy customers will buy it. During development
Consultant at Vodafone. “We had just released a major
new version of our flagship billing product, and I was they help you to paint a vision that the
confidently talking through the proposition with a development team can understand and
customer. They asked if the product supported direct
debit, which is a fundamental requirement in Europe. I work towards. At launch they provide high
immediately said yes, but promised to double check.” quality content for marketing to develop
“When I spoke to my development team in India, where brochures and other collateral. And in-life
the product was created, I discovered it didn’t actually they provide the key arguments to help
support direct debit. I learnt that customers in India
commonly pay by cash and direct debit was then almost your sales channels sell your product (see
non-existent. Although this is an extreme example, it Table 1 on p. 8).
reminded me of the danger of guessing the proposition
based on your own set of reference points rather than
getting out and asking the target market.” Step 1: Gain insight
Malcolm Lewis, Senior Product Strategy Consultant, Proposition development starts with a
Vodafone full understanding of your own product, of
what target customers value and what
competitors offer. Only then is it possible to develop clearly
differentiated, customer-oriented propositions. At this stage you are
trying to build an understanding of the target market, competitors and
the potential offers that you could bring to market.
Target market: Who are the target customers? What will they

4 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 PROPOSITIONS

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Gain insight Optimise Communicate

Gather and review Evaluate positioning Clearly articulate your

base material on of potential proposition focusing
target markets, propositions looking on what customers
potential offers for differentiators value supported by
and competitors your differentators

Assess situation Evaluate propositions Document proposition

Fig. 1 3 steps
value? What problems are they having that you might be able to creating
to help resolve? and using
propositions
Competition: Which segments are being targeted? What positioning
has the competition adopted? What do they promote as their
differentiators? What are their real capabilities? Are there alternate
solutions, as well as direct competitors?
Potential offers: What are the features, advantages and benefits of
your product? What else could be included in a customer offer? What
partnerships doFig.1
you have, orsteps
Three could to
have, that might
creating enhance
and using the offer?
propositions
When you have limited time and
information it can be difficult to gain
sufficient insights to develop worthwhile Features, Advantages and Benefits (FAB)
A feature is a characteristic of your product or
propositions. However, the reality in most service. An advantage is what the feature does and
cases is that you’re not starting from a the benefit is the value it brings to the customer.
Customers value these benefits in different
blank sheet, but basing your research on ways. The chances are that less than half of
numerous past customer meetings, years most features will be really important to any one
customer.
of market experience and feedback from
the sales team. In the case of a pencil, it may not matter to you that
it is lead-filled (feature), doesn’t leak (advantage)
At the end of this stage you should have and doesn’t stain your clothes (benefit) because
developed several draft propositions that you never carry one in your suit! In a school,
however, that they are hexagonal (feature), don’t
could be offered to the same or different roll (advantage) and don’t constantly end up on the
target markets. Bear in mind that the same floor (benefit) is a significant issue for teachers!
base product can underpin many
propositions.

Product Management Journal Volume 2 5

 FEATURE

Step 2: Optimise
This next stage, often missed, compares the draft propositions against
our understanding of what the competition offers. Each of the draft
propositions has a set of features intended to appeal to a particular target
market – it might be specific functionality, a particular aspect of
performance or a price option.
What we do at this stage is to start building the differentiation story by
taking features and mapping ourselves and our competitors on positioning
maps. In the case of MP3 players in the late 1990s, manufacturers were
focusing their efforts on compatability, battery life and size. A product
manager in that field might also have considered price, memory size, ease
of use, sound recording features, display quality and so on. He or she will
have been looking for features
that gaveFig‘clear
2.water
How ‘different
Lots

differentiation compared to
mp3 players compared
Music formats supported

B by battery life, music

their competitors.
A
In the formats supported
case of MP3 players and
physical size
(Fig. 2), product B has the best
battery life and widest range of
support for music formats –
supporting key market
C messages about their
customers’ ability to play
anything, anywhere, for longer.
One

The size of the circle represents

Poor Excellent the size of the device: the bigger
Battery life the circle the smaller the device.
Product C supports a different
Fig. 2 How different proposition based on its smaller
MP3 players
compared by battery size with no particular strength in either battery life or ability to play
life, music formats different music formats.
supported and
physical size The features that give us differentiation are now going to be evaluated
through customers’ eyes. We may be differentiated from our competitors,
but will our target customers care about the features that distinguish us or
will they say “So what?”
It is salient to reveal at this point that MP3 player C was in fact the

6 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 PROPOSITIONS

Apple iPod. Apple’s

Very thin
understanding of what the
customers valued meant a
completely different
iPod
proposition map. They
recognised better than most

Thinness
what really mattered.
Customers didn’t really value A
small size, it was the thinness
of the device that made it
easier to carry. They didn’t B
Chunky

want lots of features and

buttons, but the ease of the
click wheel. Support for Unclear, multi-click Intuitive
multiple formats just creates
Ease of use
headaches for most
Fig. 3 The iPod
customers, the simplicity of has come to
quickly copying all your music onto your device from a PC makes it dominate the MP3
attractive. Apple saw these features as the battleground on which they market because Fig
Apple realised
would compete (Fig. 3). Circle size in this case represents ease of getting that thinness com
your music on the device (iTunes). and ease of use mp3
were the critical
With regard to the other attributes, Apple provided a relatively poor factors. Circle size App
offering compared to many of their competitors: a poorer display, shorter represents ease thin
of getting your
battery life and incompatibility with many of the music formats that were music onto the use
prevalent. These trade-offs could only be taken because they had an device in th
understanding of customer needs and a focus on meeting those that Circ
mattered. eas
Whilst we can’t all perform like Apple, we should always be aware that onto
most customers couldn’t care less about our product or service. They want
to know what it can do for them; how it will solve some problem or help
them achieve some career or business objective.
Carrying out this analysis into the importance that target customers
place on the different benefits of the whole product offering is certainly
not easy. It requires an in-depth understanding of what drives and
motivates customers and what they value. 
Not all features have the same value to all prospective customers, so

Product Management Journal Volume 2 7

FEATURE

this may be the point at which it becomes apparent that you need to
segment and target specific groups of customers with different value
propositions.

Step 3: Communicate
The final step is to create a document or presentation that describes
how the proposition meets the needs of a specific set of target customers.
How do you represent value in a proposition? One approach is to
construct a model that quantifies the value to a customer of features
based on £££s. Ideally your model will show how your unique features save
or make money for the customer compared to the competition. Of course,

Example Proposition Crib Sheet for Sales

Table 1
The Example Feature Advantage to the customer Benefit to the customer
Proposition Email system No complicated software to Makes life very easy for the
Crib Sheet hosted and install, set up and run customer as they don’t need
This proposition run by us for to find and pay for technical
crib sheet has the customer resource to help them set up and
been created for run the service
a mythical email
solution provided Highly reliable No backup processes to Gives customers who rely on
as a hosted service service with organise and no reliability their email peace of mind
run by ‘us’ for the Service Level issues to worry about
customer. Target Agreements
customers are (SLAs)
small professional
businesses of 2–5 Accessed Users can keep their existing Makes life easy as there is
employees. using email application and do not nothing new to learn
standard need to install new software
Competitor X email
provides an email applications
solution that is
installed at the Regular Makes it easy for customers Pricing structure reduces cash
customer’s site monthly fees to budget flow risk for the customer
and is run by the
customer.

Competitor Y High price None: our price levels are None

provides a similar level typically higher than the
hosted email competition
solution to ‘our’
own.

8 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 PROPOSITIONS

it’s often very difficult to develop a believable scenario because of all the
assumptions you have to make, so it’s important to test your assumptions
with customers to ensure you build a credible model.
Another approach is to compare and present product features against
the next best alternative. In most markets products are pretty similar, so
this is a way of teasing out key differences. The trick is to link the feature
differences to the 1 or 2 key benefits that you believe are most important
to the customer, and support these with as many proof points as possible.
The Example Proposition Crib Sheet is based on a mythical hosted email
service. This crib sheet is a powerful tool to give to your sales channel.

Compared to
Value to the customer Competitor X & Y Questions to ask
Based on our customer research Better than X and Attack: “Do you rely on your email and would you
this is by far the most important same as Y like someone else to do all the worrying about
issue for customers in this target running your solution? Would you like a company
segment that specialises in running business-critical email
solutions to run yours?”

Based on the Acme Research Not sure with X and Attack: “What would you do if your email system
Report 2018, over 75% of better than Y went down? We’ve had a number of customers
small businesses say that come over to us because of reliability issues with
email is the critical IT system Competitor Y’s service. We are the only company
in their business that provides service performance guarantees.”

Customers expect this, so it is Same as X, same Attack: “All today’s email solutions use standard
a ‘hygiene factor’ rather than as Y email applications, but how important is it that
added value your email solution is reliable?”

Our customer research has Better than X, Attack: “Although we provide regular monthly
shown that less than 10% of same as Y, but not charges so you can easily manage your costs, we
customers care about this important find that most customers value the reliability and
simplicity our service offers.”

Our customer research shows Worse than X and Defence: “Whilst it’s true Competitor X offers
that the majority of customers worse than Y slightly better pricing than us, we find that most
are not particularly price- customers are more interested in a solution they
sensitive can run without technical expertise. Whilst it’s
true that Competitor Y offers slightly better
prices than us, we’ve had a number of customers
come over to us because of reliability issues with
their service.”

Product Management Journal Volume 2 9

PROPOSITIONS

Improving your proposition

At each point in the customer Evaluation

lifecycle you have an opportunity

to provide value to your
Discovery Buy
customers through the touch
points they have with your Customer Lifecycle
Fig. 4 Customer
Lifecycle for organisation. A good exercise is for Products
Products to go through the customer
lifecycle to understand all the Stop/
Set up
customer touch points you have Replace

and to identify potential Use

activities that could add to your
proposition. You should then
check which will be the most valued by customers and therefore provide
the biggest improvement to your overall proposition (ask some
customers).
Evaluation Stage: Provide trials to allow customers to evaluate your
product and thereby reduce the risk to them of choosing the wrong
solution. This may give you a significant increase in sales.
Set up and Use Stage: Provide proactive support at these stages to
make sure customers get the best from your product. This validates the
Wise Words decision to buy and minimises returns.
“Change is the law Stop/Replace Stage: Have a programme for customers who may be
of life. And those
who look only to thinking of churning, to make it easy for them to upgrade to another of
the past or present your products. This may also win you business that would otherwise be
are certain to miss
the future.” lost.
John F. Kennedy,
35th US president
Conclusion
Developing propositions is not rocket science, but it takes dedicated
time and resource to do well. However, we believe it’s worth the
investment. Having a well-developed proposition puts you in the driving
seat within your business by providing a vision of what needs to be
developed, what’s important and what’s not.
It also clearly articulates why customers should buy from you and not
from the competition, significantly reducing the chances of your product
failing in the market place.

10 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 BEST PRACTICE

P
  ersona
Why profiling
profiling
customers is so valuable

How do you get into the mind of a customer and understand what they
really value? Easy, you go and ask them. Ahh, but it’s not that easy I hear
you say: do they trust you, will they talk to you, will they give you a
straight answer?
All you want to do is understand what customers value in your
proposition and if they are typical of a significant market segment.
When you gather and analyse
customer data, you need a model Case Study Political persona profiles
against which to test propositions; you The UK political parties use personas as a way of
need something that brings the whole creating a common shared vision for their party of the
key people to target in the run-up to the next election.
thing to life. This is especially true if These are the ‘swing voters’ who will probably decide the
you’re working with others and trying result. Some examples below.
to evolve a common vision. What you Mondeo Man The term was
need are personas. created when Tony Blair spotted
a man polishing his Ford Mondeo
Personas are made-up characters and decided he was the kind of
created to represent a group of 30-something middle income
homeowner whom Labour
customers or users, and were first needed to win over from the
popularised in the book The Inmates Conservatives in 1997.
are Running the Asylum by Alan Pebble Dash People Voters
Cooper, published in 1999. They have a identified by the Conservatives in
2001 as the group they had to win.
key role to play in user-centred design They were married couples aged
where the goals, needs and limitations 35–50, white-collar workers and
professionals, who lived in semi-
of the user are considered as part of detached, often pebble-dashed
the product design. homes in the suburbs.
Personas put a human face on the Bacardi Breezer Generation
otherwise abstract data we collect In 2004 Stephen Byers urged
Labour to get in touch with 18–25
about customers. They give us greater year–olds who were in danger
ability to ‘guestimate’ how a customer of being lost to the democratic
process.
segment will react to different

Product Management Journal Volume 2 11

PERSONAS

propositions by putting you, the product manager, in the shoes of your

customers. See Table 2 (right) for an example of personas for a mobile
phone company.

Stereotypes vs archetypes vs personas

A stereotype is a caricature which emphasises key features for comic
effect e.g. all Scotsmen wear kilts. In contrast an archetype emphasises
typical, relevant and defining features; exactly what we need to know
about a customer segment. Personas bring archetypes to
Case Study Online personas life by giving us someone we can identify with, someone
Buyer personas can be used as a that represents the archetype.
powerful way of communicating Ideally, personas are developed from data collected in
propositions to customers. Product
Education, an online marketing and interviews with real customers. The output is a short
education agency with a heritage in description covering key customer data, from goals and
product training, develops e-learning
that promotes propositions on a attitudes to values, needs and skills. Add environmental
customer’s website. and behaviour patterns, and mix in some interesting
“Facts are smooth, stories are sticky,” fictional details to bring the persona to life.
says MD Ryan Jennings. “Developing
stories to personalise propositions to
a targeted audience makes product Using personas every day
messages resonate more strongly One organisation we’ve worked with creates an area
and we’re seeing growing demand
from companies moving away from with a noticeboard of pictures and artefacts for each
fact sheets and PDFs.” persona. There might be tickets for events they’d go to, or
Ryan Jennings, MD, Product pictures of where they might live and their family and
Education friends – they even ask staff to bring in things that the
person would be associated with, like a cool T-shirt for
Lauren or a golf ball for Ben (See Table 2).
It’s all part of building a rich picture of the persona that
allows you to get inside their mind and understand what
they would do and what they would value.
Building up a picture of potential customers can be
difficult and you need to use any sources of information
you can find. However, it doesn’t have to be expensive market research.
Any contact you have with customers is a chance to build up a richer
picture and identify common patterns.
Once you’ve completed your personas you have an excellent tool to help
develop and evaluate propositions.

12 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 BEST PRACTICE

Table 2 Example Personas for a Mobile Phone Company

Name , Age Lauren, 16 Ben, 43 Mike, 70

Home Lauren lives with her Ben lives in a converted Mike lives in a bungalow
parents in a semi- terraced house in a rather on the outskirts of a
detached house in the nice part of the city. His village. His wife died a few
suburbs. She has a brother wife works too and they years ago but he now has
and a cat (she likes the don’t have any kids. Their a 65-year-old girlfriend he
cat), and escapes to her home is full of expensive met at a local tea dance.
bedroom for peace. designer furniture.

Work life Lauren is still at school. Ben is the Financial Mike is retired but helps
She quite enjoys it and has Director of a small design out at the local garden
a big circle of girlfriends. company. centre from time to time.

Social life Lauren’s social life is Ben prefers a nice Mike’s social life revolves
very busy. She’s always meal with his wife in a around the local pub. He
popping into town with her restaurant to a night out drives into the country
friends to go shopping or with the boys. He rarely with his girlfriend and to
to see a film. And there’s goes off duty and always local tea dances.
usually some new topic to wants to be in touch with
gossip about. what’s going on at work.

Goals Lauren believes that Ben aims to retire at Mike wants to be able
always being in touch with 50, for a life of golf and to stay in touch with his
her friends is important. cruises. So now he needs girlfriend (otherwise the
She wants to look cool and to make his fortune with young thing might run off)
she wants to be centre of the design company. He’s and get in touch with his
attention. always working. family in emergencies.

Current Lauren currently has Ben has a mobile he He doesn’t have a phone
mobile a pink phone. You can bought 3 years ago. It’s a because he can’t get on
change the cover and it’s trusted friend but it’s now with them. But nagging
got a camera. Her dad starting to look a little from his girlfriend and
pays the bill and so far threadbare. family has persuaded him
she’s got away with a to buy one.
couple of whoppers.

Future A future phone has got Ben would like to keep It needs to have big keys
phones to be cool. It’s got to be in touch with his emails, as his dexterity, sight and
the latest thing and let so he needs a phone that hearing aren’t what they
her do as much texting as can handle that. It also used to be.
possible on the limited has to look good or the
budget her parents will ‘creatives’ in the office will
impose. laugh at him.

Product Management Journal Volume 2 13

BIG TICKET DEALS

T  hinking
Large product
big propositions

In mass markets a key skill for product management and delivery teams
is to standardise, keeping the products and service as consistent as
possible across the customer base to maximise economies of scale.
Such companies embrace a fully ‘productised’ approach to minimise the
cost per sale and drive profitability through sales volume.
In the case of ‘big ticket’ items though, standardisation is often not
possible. These are typically high-priced software products sold in a
B2B marketplace. Regardless of the scale, a common aspect of big
ticket propositions (and a key
difference to mass market offers) is
Product approach that the proposition must offer
Off the shelf
Custom built
flexibility to meet complex customer
Build once, sell many times
requirements. The ultimate solution
Full IPR ownership
is a project to develop a bespoke,
No IPR ownership
custom-built solution. However,
most ‘big ticket’ products fall
Project approach
somewhere on the project/product
Fig. 5 Project/Product continuum (see Fig. 5) with a core
Continuum. Most big
ticket products fall product and additional custom development to give the customer the
somewhere on this flexibility they want.
line
Mike Beech is VP for Product Management and Marketing at
Acision, leaders in messaging products, which was until recently part of
Logica. He considers propositions essential to any size of product or
service. “They are absolutely critical,” he says, “we sell propositions, we
don’t sell products. Whenever we try to sell products we fail. Customers
want solutions to problems, which is the whole proposition not just the
product features."
“And when it comes to big ticket sales there is a proposition per
customer, which makes it ever harder because the proposition has to

14 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 $6400
0
be subtly different in each case. We try to strike a
balance by creating propositions per market
segment, mapping out elements and giving the
salesforce key materials to create a proposition on the fly.”

The first big sale

Imagine the scenario. A company is pitching for its first high value sale.
Such a sale is often won on the back of a strong product-based proposition
but, to close the deal, the company has to
Case Study Maintaining credibility
deliver further features with some custom
“It’s very important to gain customer feedback on
development. your proposition from a wide range of users,” says
Sales people, under pressure and rewarded Annette Stimpson, currently working as a Senior
Consultant at Nokia.
on revenue and customer satisfaction, love
this approach. The ‘cost of sale’ may have been “It’s particularly important for products with
multiple types of users who may have different
high, but their customer has been well demands on the product and place different
supported and all their valued requirements importance on the product features. In my
experience, understanding customer needs is
have been met. vital. If you’re communicating to your customers
The company aspires to deliver the something that’s just not relevant, you lose both
credibility and any future business.”
scalability of a product business, but the
seduction of a big sale distracts them into Annette Stimpson, Senior Consultant, Nokia
pitching custom solutions like this time and
time again. Consequently you get a sales-
driven organisation repeatedly responding to customers, and a product
that is increasingly pulled in conflicting directions. Customisation becomes
All about rights
an increasing element of the sale and the business costs to develop,
A key aspect of big
support and keep track of the variants spiral out of control. ticket propositions
“Customisation is one of our biggest problem areas as a business,” says is the battle
for ownership
Mike Beech of Acision. “The goal of the product manager is for the of Intellectual
proposition to be productised but easily customised. The customer wants Property Rights
(IPR). It is vital for
a bespoke solution for themselves but at product prices." a product-based
“Customisation is also a challenge when it comes to presenting our company to hang
on to the IPR of
propositions. We try to get them all onto one slide, with one top-level what is built so that
benefit for the product, and then 3/4 further features and benefits.” The it can be re-used
and offered as part
challenge, he says, "is that if we distil the proposition too far it becomes of the product to
generic, but if it is too customer-focused the proposition may work future customers.
perfectly for one client but not for another."

Product Management Journal Volume 2 15

BIG TICKET DEALS

Managing projects
When big ticket items move towards a project delivery model, what
becomes of the product manager? At the core of such offerings should be
standard product architecture, features and capabilities. Beyond these
are modules of functionality from which different propositions can be
created, and further on customer-specific elements of professional
service configuration and custom development.
The product manager has a clear role at the core of this proposition. He
or she is the voice of the customer, ensuring the core capabilities meet the
key valued needs of customers and target
prospects. Similarly, the product manager
helps direct the set of features and feature
packages to be offered as optional add-ons to
the core product.
There can be a bewildering number of
Core
product
complex and conflicting requirements from
features & ‘strategically important’ customers vying for
architecture
the attention of the product manager. Where
O pt

s
in g

customisation and configuration are used to

ion

up

lf ro
ea
a

ture g meet the needs of important clients, we may

s/fe at u r e
well ask where the role of the product manager
Cus
Co t o m s o ft w a r e ce
s ends and that of the professional services and
n fi
gu rvi
r a ti a l se development begins?
on an n
d p rofe s sio
In fact, the product manager has a key role
Fig. 6 Proposition
to play. Their role, as always, is to direct and
structure for ‘big drive a product towards profitably delivering capabilities valued by the
ticket’ products
target segment. Given this simple aim, product managers can provide
valuable insights.
They must look for commonality between the customer requirements
that are driving configuration and customised software effort so that
standardised, off-the-shelf features can be delivered more cost
effectively to future customers.
They must make decisions on product areas where configuration and
customisation should be avoided so that product direction doesn’t ‘drift’
away from planned strategy.

16 Product Management Journal Volume 2

Managing the proposition
All product managers, regardless of the
per-sale value of their product must
manage the on-going roadmap. However,
Mike Beech at Acision believes that the more
complex the proposition the greater is the need for product
managers to get involved. “Amongst other things, the software may take
time to develop. We developed a proposition for a complex rating plan
once, but a year down the line the conditions had changed, customers
didn’t want 100s of plans and we
needed to develop a new type of Case Study Managing big ticket propositions
architecture.” It is the product According to Mike Beech, VP of Product Management at
manager’s role to ensure the Acision, the development of a proposition can confuse
some people in the sales channel. “We once made a big push
proposition is still relevant, and is to talk about propositions. One day the sales team were
fine-tuned as the circumstances of the selling boxes and the next a ‘solution cloud’ that they didn’t
understand. It took us 18 months to establish the idea.”
market and customers change.
The value of a proposition, Mike Beech explains, is that it
helps businesses understand the value of their products.
Conclusion “Every company knows what their products do, but some
Product managers must take the aren’t sure why, and don’t understand their value. It’s a
question of interpreting needs and values, what my first
lead in understanding which mentor called Imaginative Understanding.”
capabilities are most highly valued in
“For big ticket items that can be a challenge if you are dealing
their target segments. These can then with a number of people within one customer organisation
become part of the basic proposition with different needs and wants. You have to know the
structure: who are the blockers, who are the supporters, who
to boost profitability, speed to market is the budget holder and what they all want.”
and customer satisfaction. The ‘high
Mike Beech, VP Product Management, Acision
value’ product manager will get a lead
on their competitors if they make the right choices about what should get
productised and what should be left for customisation.

Product Management Journal Volume 2 17

BEST PRACTICE

L  isten and Learn

Effective feedback drives the best propositions

One of the biggest challenges when developing good customer

propositions is getting real and high quality customer insights to help
you develop the proposition. It’s doubly difficult if you are trying to
persuade your company to spend good money on finding this
information through market research and they just aren’t interested. It’s
easy to sit back in the office, in our comfort zone, and assume (shut our
eyes and hope) that we know all about our customers.
Let’s make a distinction between customer information and
customer insights. You may be able to find lots of facts and figures
about potential customers and segments on the web, but what’s
essential are the insights into what drives customers, what their
Case Study Product blogs problems are and what benefits they are looking for from
Mark Maciw of Clearswift says that a your product. This qualitative rather than quantitative
really valuable source of information data is key to developing propositions.
is online ‘self-help’ customer forums or
blogs about your products. “Clearswift
cover the minimal costs of hosting and Gathering market information
then let customers have their say.!"
There are a number of different ways of gathering
“Customers can freely exchange market information (see Fig. 7, opposite). A key concept
comments and discuss issues they
are having. Although we contribute is the idea of listening posts; places and opportunities to
answers from time to time, most of take soundings from customers and the market. Many of
the discussion is directly between
customers. However, the biggest these exist already and not all of them cost money or
benefits to us are the insights we gain take up lots of your time. However, insights are usually
into how our customers are thinking.”
needed by a deadline and getting the listening posts in
Mark Maciw, Clearswift place and building the relationships is something best
done in advance.
The direct sales force, out meeting customers day-in day-out, are an
excellent source of information. The problem can be that sales people
know what one customer wants to buy (usually the last one they

18 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 MARKET RESEARCH

visited). Product managers must

High
determine if that represents a
Commissioned
single customer or a market full
market
of customers. research
Searching the web and

Cost to gather info

User groups / conferences
regularly scanning the trade Customer visits
press is a good source of Published
analyst Visionary
information but rarely gives the data Trade shows
customers
exact insights you’re after. The
parts of your organisation that Field support Suppliers
support your existing customers Support desk
Sales
(the phone support desk or field (phone)
Gut feel Press / web
support) are excellent sources of
Low

feedback. They usually have a

good insight across your Low High
Time to gather info
customer base into what
customers care about, and of course, what’s going wrong with your current Fig. 7 How to gather
customer feedback
product. They often have good relationships with the users of your product based on original
but bear in mind that it is the needs, wants and motivations of the person research by Bob
Martin
that is buying that really count.
It’s worth talking to suppliers – they should be trying to work out what
the best proposition is to you and should therefore have some insights into
what your customers want. They are also talking to your competitors so
Fig.7 How to gather customer feedback.
you may pick up useful pieces of information.
Based on original research by Bob Martin (www.ifrconsulting.com)

Searching for leaders

The best quality information comes directly from the horse’s mouth.
Visiting customers takes time and you have to set expectations correctly
so that it’s not just seen as an opportunity for them to lobby for the
features they want or an opportunity for you to sell. A really valuable
listening post is feedback from visionary customers – customers who are
thought leaders in their area.
Comments
As a product manager you should be aiming to do a regular trawl of If you have any
listening posts and establish relationships that you can call upon when you comments or
questions email
need them for proposition work. them to journal@
productfocus.com

Product Management Journal Volume 2 19

T  he Review
Reviews and feedback for product managers

Book Review This book is a fascinating read for product managers. The author is a
behavioural economist, studying the way people make decisions when
they buy, sell, and make real-life choices. His conclusion is that the
decisions that you, I and customers make may often seem irrational but
they are predictable. Instead of assessing all the options and making a
straightforward logical decision, all sorts of other factors are at play
such as emotions, comparison against what we already know and social
norms – and these all affect our choices.
In his research, he runs all sorts of interesting experiments – mainly
Predictably
Irrational, The on his students at MIT. Looking at pricing, he zapped volunteers with
hidden forces that painful electric shocks and then offered them painkillers costing either
shape our decisions
Dan Ariely (Harper, $2.50 or 10 cents prior to a second round. All the pills were identical and
2009) fake, but the $2.50 pills proved to be twice as effective as the 10 cent
pills in dulling pain. Pay more, and not only do you think you get a better
deal, but your brain convinces you that you have!
Another example is the powerful effect the word ‘free’ has on us.
Ariely quotes an example from Amazon where they offered free
shipping if you ordered 2 books rather than 1. This created a huge
increase in sales, even though some of the purchasers probably didn’t
really want a second book. However, in France, where instead of free
Wise Words shipping it was reduced to a bargain price of only 1 Franc (about 10p),
“The dread of
criticism is the there was no difference in sales. Once this was spotted and the offer
death of genius.” was changed to free shipping, France joined everywhere else with a
William G. Simms,
poet dramatic sales increase. The author contends that this is just one more
example of irrational but predictable behaviour.
With interesting chapters like why dealing with cash makes us more
honest, it’s a great read as well as providing pearls of wisdom to help
you develop your propositions and pricing strategy.

20 Product Management Journal Volume 2

 SURVEY

Have your view

Every year Product Focus runs an industry survey to
gauge the state of product management in Europe.
This gives us real insight into industry norms, trends
and best practice.
Working in product management can be exciting
and exhilarating, taking businesses forward and
helping develop and implement strategy. But, as a
profession, it lacks definition and this can lead to
recruitment issues, frustration in the role and
problems in upskilling through relevant training. Every company views Annual Survey
product management differently and the skills and competencies to We use our survey
to benchmark
excel in the role change from company to company. product
Within this variable landscape, the results of our annual product management
each year. Let us
management survey provide a point of reference. The survey questions know if you’d like
hundreds of professionals on their skills and experience in product to take part. You
management, enabling us to build a picture of current practice and can download the
latest results from
perceived skills gaps. Each participant receives personalised feedback our website.
on how they compare to their peers. Heads of product management
can ask for an aggregated view of how their teams compare to industry
averages. To see how you compare, email us at [email protected]
and we’ll take it from there.

Product Management Journal Volume 2 21

T  he Insight
The power of a proposition

As a product manager you can’t do everything you’d like. Just like revising
for an exam, there is always more you could do and the nagging feeling
that perhaps you’ve been working on the wrong things. One of the
challenges in most companies is that you tend to get sucked into only
working within the business – it’s always easier to stay in the office and
talk to people you know. The danger of spending all your time talking to
Wise Words colleagues about customers rather than using other sources is that
“The future
belongs to those
your views become disproportionately shaped by internal
who believe in the conversations, and urban myths spring up.
beauty of their
dreams.”
The truth is that most of us don’t have the time nor the money to do
Eleanor Roosevelt, all the customer research we would like, and we have to guess at some
Former US 1st Lady
and activist
of the answers. Using your gut feel is OK, but remember bona fide
customer research always trumps opinion when it comes to convincing
your management.
One priority not to forget, and a key part of the product
management role, is strategic product management. In essence, this is
understanding customer needs, identifying solutions that your
company can deliver and clearly articulating the solutions for
development, marketing and sales. This is what the task of developing
propositions is all about.
Product management is set up in different ways in every
organisation, but we think this essential part of the role is often fudged,
split between marketing and sales or missed altogether. Done well, it’s a
very powerful position – and one we think product managers should
actively embrace.
So … if you’re not developing product propositions for your
business, who is?

22 Product Management Journal Volume 2 PMJ 2.3

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