Product management debt takes the concept of technical debt and applies it to the business aspects of your product. Product management debt represents the mismatch between your current product offering and what it should be in a perfect world. Like technical debt, it can be the result of prioritizing speedy delivery over other factors

1. Jay Kruemcke
jay@kruemcke.com
http://Kruemcke.com
ProductCamp Austin

2. Jay Kruemcke - ProductCamp Austin - http://kruemcke.com 2

3. Prologue
• Introduction
⎼Jay Kruemcke jay@kruemcke.com
⎼Senior Product Manager at SUSE – an Open Source company
⎼Long career in product management
• Why am I giving this presentation?
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5. Technical Debt* – a quick refresher
Technical debt* (also known as design debt or code debt) is a concept that
reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy limited
solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer
Generally, it’s the result of prioritizing speedy delivery over perfect code
• Different types of Technical debt
⎼Reckless vs Prudent
⎼Deliberate vs Inadvertent
• Common causes of Technical debt
⎼Time to market pressures
⎼Changes in technology or market requirements
⎼Bit rot
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Technical Debt Quadrant by Martin Fowler
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html
Ward Cunninham http://wiki.c2.com/?WardExplainsDebtMetaphor

6. 6Jay Kruemcke - ProductCamp Austin - http://kruemcke.com

7. Product Management Debt
Product management debt takes the concept of technical debt and applies it to
the business aspects of your product.
Product management debt represents the mismatch between your current product offering
and what it should be in a perfect world.
Like technical debt, it can be the result of prioritizing speedy delivery over other factors
• Some causes of Product Management Debt
⎼ Time to Market pressure
⎼ Resource constraints
⎼ Incomplete market knowledge
⎼ Market changes
⎼ Organizational obstacles
⎼ Legacy issues
⎼ Procrastination
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“If you’re not embarrassed about the first version of your product, you released too late” – Reid Hoffman

8. The Good and Bad of Product Management Debt
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9. Good reasons for Product Management Debt
• Get to market sooner
• Make incremental progress
• Buy time to deal with evolving market ambiguity
• Avoid organizational blocks
• Build product credibility
• Circumvent Sales channel issues
• Mitigate resource constraints
• Allow a problem to resolve itself by neglect
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10. Bad reasons for Product Management Debt
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• Laziness
• Fear
• Silo thinking
• “We always do it this way”
• Lack of market understanding
• Too much focus on short term
• Procrastination
• Oversimplify a complex problem

11. Example: New product in new market vs legacy pricing model
Scenario: Introduction of a new product that could not work with the
current charge metrics and pricing
• Environment:
⎼All channel partners used to the existing charge metric for all other products
⎼Primary competitor use the similar charge metric and pricing
⎼Executive leadership opposition to new charge metric
⎼Time pressure to be be first to market
⎼Multiple price lists in use: Public, ISV, and Embedded
• Solution:
⎼Use the new charge metric on only the Embedded price list
⎼Use the old metric on the ISV price list for legacy sales
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12. Example: New product in new market vs legacy pricing model
• Results:
⎼Positive:
◦ New product introduced on time and first to market
◦ Sellers were able to use the (admittedly) convoluted price structure
◦ Sales built credibility and awareness of the need for change
◦ Revenue!
⎼Negative:
◦ Direct sales blocked (product not on Public price list)
◦ Channel inconsistency
• One year later, all price lists were unified with a tiered structure that included
both charge metrics (traditional and new)
⎼But for only one product – introducing inconsistency and more debt!
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13. Things to watch out for when considering Product Management Debt
• Are you just digging a bigger hole?
• What is the Partner impact from changing later
• What changes are needed to Sales and sales training
• Solidified customer expectations
• Future impact on return customers
• Unrealistic plan to retire the debt
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14. Last words
• Product Management Debt is a tactic that
can be used by product managers to
circumvent problems and get products to
market faster
• Product Management Debt can be used for
good or bad reasons
• Recognize that all products have some
Product Management Debt
• Awareness is key
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15. Thanks for keeping ProductCamp Austin FREE!
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16. Thanks!
Jay Kruemcke
jay@kruemcke.com
http://kruemcke.com
@phastflyer
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