product management is really innovation management

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Product Management Is Really Innovation Management

Product Camp Silicon Valley 2011

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Product managers (PMs) own the bridge between the business and IT, improving the odds of successful innovation.

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QUESTION:What is innovation?

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Innovation creates value

VALUE

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Customers want solutions, not inventions

Prior experience with the vendor 23%

The vendor's level of fit with our specific need at a specific time

31%

The vendor's reputation in the marketplace (e.g., a safe choice)

27%

Executive-level relationships between the vendor and our company

16%

The sales person’s ability to understand our business problem

28%

The sales person’s ability to get things done for us

29%

Source: North American And European B2B Social Technographics® Online Survey, Q1 2010

“How important are the following factors when selecting the best vendor for a technology purchase?”

Customers want

to be assured

that adoption

will succeed . . .

. . . not hear about

how impressive

the technology is.

Base: 152 B2B marketing professionals in the US, UK, France, and Germany

(multiple responses accepted)

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Innovation is about mutual value

Why

What

How

When

Who“We don’t understand our customers,

or what they value.”

“We have lots of ideas, but we don’t know how to choose among them.”

“We often lose track of the business objectives behind technology adoption.”

“We never seem to deliver the technology at the right time.”

“We do too much re-engineering.”

CHALLENGE EXAMPLE

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Innovation isn’t just invention

2001

2005

2006

2008

2010

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But invention is a key element of success

Agile helps teams

move swiftly and

accurately.

Success depends

on relationships in

the team and

between the team

and stakeholders.

Requirements are

the language that

describes value in

the customer’s

terms.

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Even the best inventors don’t always innovate

Focus on invention, not adoption.

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Academic studies of innovation also have gaps

Market sh

are

Innovators

2.5%

Early

adopters

13.5%

Early

majority

34%

Late

majority

34%

Laggards

16%

Focus on adoption, not invention.

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Combining invention and adoption

AssessAdoptDeliverBuildTestConceive

THE INNOVATION PROCESS

But who owns this process from start to finish?

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QUESTION:What is a product?

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This is a product, not a service

It does not differ significantly from a SaaS product offering.

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This is a product

10 million lines of code, plus 100 electronic controllers, each with its own IP address

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Services might be products

By productizing, companies hope to make services easier to reproduce and more predictable in their outcomes.

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A simple definition of what product managers manage

Product (n):A discrete piece of technology designed to make a valuable contribution to one or more larger solutions

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Products define a quantum of value

Compartmentalization

Simplification

Design

Re-usability

Maintenance

Performance

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QUESTION:What is product management’s role in innovation?

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What is a product manager?

Responsible for the success of a product over its

entire life cycle

Manages product within the larger portfolio

Collects, analyzes, and prioritizes requirements

Translates between languages of engineers and

business users

Supports teams responsible for the delivery of the

technology

Rewarded based on the adoption of the

technology

Builds long-term partnerships between

technologists and business users

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PMs shepherd products through innovation

AssessAdoptDeliverBuildTestConceive

Are we capturing

all the potentially

good ideas?

Which ideas are

worth pursuing?

Are we building the

technology in the

right way?

Are we delivering

overall value?

Is the rest of the

organization ready

to deliver this

technology?

Did we achieve the

desired business

outcomes?

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And that’s how top-notch PMs see it

Source: July 7, 2009, “Best Practices For Product Management And Product Marketing Leaders” report,

prepared exclusively for Forrester Leadership Boards

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QUESTION:What does this mean for job descriptions? Team structure?

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Questions?

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Thank you

Tom Grant+1.650.581.3846

tgrant@forrester.com

www.forrester.com