Product Management Is Really Innovation Management

Product Management Is Really Innovation Management
Product Camp Silicon Valley 2011

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

QUESTION:
What is innovation?

Innovation creates value
VALUE

Customers want solutions, not inventions
“How important are the following factors when selecting the best vendor for a technology purchase?”
The vendor's level of fit with our specific need at a specific time
31%
Customers wantto be assuredthat adoptionwill succeed . . .
The sales person’s ability to get things done for us
29%
The sales person’s ability to understand our business problem
28%
The vendor's reputation in the marketplace (e.g., a safe choice)
27%
. . . not hear abouthow impressivethe technology is.
Prior experience with the vendor
23%
Executive-level relationships between the vendor and our company
16%
Base: 152 B2B marketing professionals in the US, UK, France, and Germany(multiple responses accepted)
Source: North American And European B2B Social Technographics® Online Survey, Q1 2010

Innovation is about mutual value
CHALLENGE
EXAMPLE
Who
“We don’t understand our customers, or what they value.”
What
“We have lots of ideas, but we don’t know how to choose among them.”
Why
“We often lose track of the business objectives behind technology adoption.”
When
“We never seem to deliver the technology at the right time.”
How
“We do too much re-engineering.”

Innovation isn’t just invention
2001
2005
2006
2010
2008

But invention is a key element of success
Agile helps teamsmove swiftly andaccurately.
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.

Even the best inventors don’t always innovate
Focus on invention, not adoption.

Academic studies of innovation also have gaps
Focus on adoption, not invention.
Market share
Earlymajority34%
Latemajority34%
Laggards16%
Innovators2.5%
Earlyadopters13.5%

Combining invention and adoption
THE INNOVATION PROCESS
Assess
Adopt
Deliver
Build
Test
Conceive
But who owns this process from start to finish?

QUESTION:
What is a product?

This is a product, not a service
It does not differ significantly from a SaaS product offering.

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

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

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

Products define a quantum of value
Compartmentalization
Simplification
Design
Re-usability
Maintenance
Performance

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

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

PMs shepherd products through innovation
Are we capturing all the potentially good ideas?
Are we building the technology in the right way?
Are we delivering overall value?
Assess
Adopt
Deliver
Build
Test
Conceive
Which ideas are worth pursuing?
Is the rest of the organization ready to deliver this technology?
Did we achieve the desired business outcomes?

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

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

Questions?

Thank you
Tom Grant
+1.650.581.3846
tgrant@forrester.com
www.forrester.com

Product Management Is Really Innovation Management

by Tom Grant on Apr 04, 2011

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