easyto buyandsell product camp 2013

325M Sharon Park Drive

Menlo Park, CA 94025

www.visionandexecution.com

MODULE 3

Creating Products that are Easy to Buy and Easy to Sell

presented at Product Camp Silicon Valley 2013

Patrina Mack

Managing Partner

© 2003 - 2013 Copyright Vision & Execution

3/25/2013

• Describe one of yours

– Why did you “need” it?

– Why did you choose it over others?

– How long did it take you to make

your decision to buy?

– What price did you pay?

– What influences affected your buying decision?

– How do you feel owning it?

– Would you buy it again?

• Now describe your worst product experience

– Answer all of the above + what you did and how you felt

Your Favorite Products

What does this tell

you about designing products?


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Question for Your Company

Has your team thought of

everything that your favorite

product company thought of

to win you as a customer?


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Finding a Market Worthy of Investment

•Problem

– Not defining a sizeable enough market

•Solution

–3 mandatories of market viability

• Large & growing

• Clear customer need & willingness to pay

• Opportunity you can fulfill—defensibly


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• Why would anyone buy this general type of product or service?

• Why will someone buy our product/service?

• Why will we meet our volume and profit goals?

• If this new product was not available, what would someone do instead?

– Buy something else?

– Make something?

– Do nothing?

Solution

What is Your Value Proposition?


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Validate Your Market Opportunity

• Total addressable market size + the segments

• Market & growth trends

• Tech, regulations, environmental trends

• Your “ecosystem” & differentiated value

• Purchasing characteristics/process

– By segment

• Most receptive geographic region

• Customers buying expectations

– From where / from whom / in what form?

• Target market developmental stage


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Prioritize for Maximum Market Opportunity

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Market size

Market growth

Likelihood to adopt

Key features

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Region 1 …Channel 1





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Leveraging Customers

• During which phase of product development

would be the best time to ask this question

of customers?

• Does the product deliver on the value proposition?

– …Vision phase

– …Define phase

– …Develop phase

– …Delivery phase

How do you refine

your business model

to make it easier for

customers to buy or

adopt?


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Customer Input Matters at Every Stage

Ethnographic research

Concept evaluations

Strategic client requirement

Sales/account management

Support

Demand

validation

Feature

Prioritization/

Trade-offs

Prototype

evaluations

Working

prototype

evaluations

Process

engineering

Usability/

human factors

Cu

sto

mers

Beta test

Pilot program

User groups

Bug data

Feature request

button

Customer

satisfaction

CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF INDUSTRY RESEARCH, COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS, COST / BENEFIT ANALYSIS & METRICS

DELIVERY VISION DEFINE DEVELOP


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Deliver a Superior Customer Experience

• Problem

– Not creating value for customers by failing to deliver the “whole” product

• Solution

– Develop the product from customer need and market demand

• Not just because it’s new technology


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Create a Compelling Customer Experience

• Design for the whole product – Deliver on external customer needs

• Customers

• Channels/partners

– Deliver on internal customer needs

• Marketing

• Development

• Manufacturing

• Operations

• Sales

• Finance

Cross-functional

Requirements Create

Compelling Customer

Experiences


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Best Practices: Cross-Functional Teams

• Fully cross-functional team delivers a complete product

–Needs of external customers met

–Needs of “internal customers” met

–Global requirements embedded in initial design

Marketing

Engineering

Finance

Operations/

Manufacturing

Prof.

Serv.

Sales Global

Team

Lead

Regional GMs

Business Dev

Partners

Product Marketing

Corporate Marketing

Channel Marketing

Billing

Reporting

SLA Management

Engineering

QA

Documentation

Beta Program

Infrastructure

Support

Sourcing

Account Mgmt

Regional Leads


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“Whole” Products Deliver Solutions

What “gaps” in functional considerations do

you have in creating a “whole” product

for your company?


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Pace Development to Adoption • Understand what the

minimum feature set is to gain initial trial

• Understand what the minimum feature set is to gain widespread adoption

• Build a product roadmap

• Get customer agreement with your roadmap

• Understand how to prioritize maintenance vs. Version 2.0

CU

ST

OM

ER

’S R

AT

E

OF

A

DO

PT

ION

TIME

= YOUR ABILITY TO DELIVER

= CUSTOMER’S ABILITY TO ABSORB


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Process Has its Place

• Problem

– Missed customer expectations

– Is late to market

– Has cost over-runs

• Solution

– Apply a disciplined product development process to deliver a product or service that:

• Satisfies the customer’s entire ownership experience

• Is on time

• Is on budget


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Product Development Best Practices

9

7 .7

10.3

38.5

15.4

41.4

37 .4

25.2

25.3

25.2

44.8

33.4

54

58

40.2

44.9

48.3

52.1

69

70.7

72.2

0 20 40 60 80

Focus and portfolio management

Spiral development -- loops with usersthroughout development

Metrics, accountable teams

Heavy front end-end homework beforedevelopment begins

Customer focused

Lean, scalable, and adaptable State Gate process

Holistic, effective cross-functional teams

Low Productivity Businesses Average Productivity Businesses High Productivity Businesses

Source: APQC Study


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Key Customer/Industry Inputs by Phase Development Approval/POR

Launch Approval

Concept Approval

EOL Approval

Beta Approval

• Paper prototype testing

• Customer PRD reviews

• Ongoing concept testing

• Risk Analysis

• Prototype testing

• Usability testing

• Ongoing concept validation testing

• Alpha test

• Beta test

• Pilot programs

• Market test

• Customer satisfaction

• Business metrics

• Bug data

• Feature request data

• Lead user groups ( new uses for current technology)

• Closed Loop Marketing

EOL

GA PRT

Define Develop Stabilize Launch Sustain Propose Planning

• Market Opportunity Validation

• Industry Forecasts

• Qualitative Exploratory Research

• Quantitative Demand Research/ Concept Testing

• Competitive Analysis

• Feasibility Analysis

• Financial Analysis


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Market & product strategy vision

Platform strategy

Segmentation strategy

MRDs

Market plan

Product concept proposal / business case

Preliminary technology assessment

Risk analysis

Complete beta test

Complete customer service / support & logistics testing

Implement pre-launch marketing deliverables

Implement pre-launch training deliverables

Production/ distribution plan

Integrated test plan

Systems integration

Alpha testing

Beta test plan & exit criteria

Documentation

Customer service & support plan

Manufacturing plan

Launch plan

EOL & migration plan

3rd party contracts

Ongoing product support

Achieve or exceed program objectives (metrics capture)

Achieve product support / value objectives (customer feedback mechanism)

Execute end-of-life plan

PRD including “glocalization” requirements

Engineering response

Architecture & HL system design

Technology assessment & readiness report

Third-party LOI

Vision Define

Business Define

Product Develop Product

Test Product

Deliver Product

Sustain Product

Announce product

Transition to sustaining duties & disband the product delivery team

Implement post-launch marketing deliverables

Implement post-launch training deliverables

Localize software

Must-Do for Startups

Product Development Lifecycle Approval for Development

Approval for Release

Concept Approval

Approval for EOL

Approval for Beta


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MRD—Business Case—PRD: How They Interrelate

Written by Marketing

Vision phase

Customer value proposition

Key product functions,

features, benefits (general)

Market: size, growth rate,

trends, other characteristics

Competition, competitive

differentiation

Pricing, margin

requirements

Other: market plan, sales

channels, distribution,

service, etc.

MRD PRD BUSINESS CASE


Business Definition phase

Major functional input

from Eng., Mfg., Fin.

Customer value proposition

Market opportunity, trends

over 3-5 year period

Costs / expenses:

development, marketing,

manufacturing, support

Forecasts: pricing, sales,

margins, profits for 3-5 years

ROI


Product Definition phase

Major functional input

from Eng., Ops., Sales, Fin.

Detailed product functions

& features

Product cost targets

Customer user experience

Service, support & other

requirements


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Getting Agile

• Problem

– Not anticipating change

– Not planning for your next phase

• Solution

– Develop flexible/agile leadership skills

• Anticipate your options for growth

• Monitor your market & competitors

• Monitor your business


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Anticipate Options for Growth

Extend Business

Enrich P

roduct

Core

Product


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Contingency Plans

• Prepare for change agents

– Monitor for unexpected competition

– Track shifts in customer behavior/needs

– Monitor for new game changing delivery mechanisms

– Track changes in regulatory environment

– Monitor for changes in supplier sourcing/costs


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Monitoring Your Business Pays Dividends

Timeliness Productivity Financial Market Impact

Time to Market

Time to Revenue

% on-time Delivery

Engineering Change Cycle Time

Quality Timeliness

Customer satisfaction

First-time right

Warranty costs

Patents

% Part reuse

Function points for software

R&D as % of revenue

Margin

ROI

Profitability

% Revenue from new products

Market share

Days to close sales


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• Define a large market you can dominate

• Understand what drives your customer to buy and your

channel to sell

• Consider the entire “ownership” experience and how

emotional the decision making process is

• Remember good process gets to market faster, on

budget, especially when you focus on the minimal viable

feature set

• Stay agile by investing in monitoring your business and

anticipating market changes

Key Points to Remember


3/25/2013

Create value proposition

Size market opportunity

Conduct customer research

Write MRD

Write PRD

Prioritize features

Identify metrics to measure your business by

What Will You Do Next?

Visit http://www.visionandexecution.com

/downloads_tools.html

for tools to complete next

steps

http://www.visionandexecution.com/downloads_tools.html

http://www.visionandexecution.com/downloads_tools.html


How to reach Patrina

• Phone: +1 650 233 0256

• Cell: +1 650 380 2627

• Skype: patrina.mack

• eMail: [email protected]

• Twitter: @visionexecution

• Blog: www.visionandexecution.com/blog

3/25/2013

mailto:[email protected]