The white paper by Paul Alex Gray discusses the impact of social media on product management, highlighting its functional applications and the importance of engaging with customers to enhance product development. It outlines an action plan for product managers to effectively integrate social media into their processes, including monitoring, promotion, gathering feedback, and collaboration. The document also provides case studies demonstrating successful use of social media in product management efforts.

1. Collaborative conversations
Using social media in product management
Page no.
white paper presentation | August 2010

2. Overview
Paul Alex Gray, Senior Consultant at brainmates has published a white
paper on a topic that is highly relevant to product managers.
 Overview of social media
 Four functional applications of
social media within product
management
 Three case studies representing
different applications
 The opportunities and challenges
for product managers
 An action plan to begin using
social media in your role
To get your free copy of the white paper please visit www.brainmates.com.au or email info@brainmates.com.au

3. What is social media?

4. Social Media is…
Conversations across boundaries
Sharing of ideas and opinions
Instantly accessible and spread virally
Permanent
Owned by the audience
Facilitated through technology
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5. “Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build
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relationships.” David Alston

6. Old world:
I speak, you listen

7. New world:
Many conversations

8. Like it or not…
Everyone’s talking about your product
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8

9. Social media is part of modern life
5 of the global top 10 sites are social media (Facebook, Youtube,
Wikipedia, Blogger, Twitter)
source: Alexa.com May 2010
B2B and B2C marketers are increasing spend on social media
initiatives faster than any other category. It will account for
almost 18% of marketing budgets by 2014
source: CMO Survey, American Marketing Association Feb 2010
Every negative comment shared via social media reaches 30
other people
Source: Convergys Corp, Nov 2009
85% of social media users believe a company should interact
with customers via a social media presence
Source: Cone Business in Social Media Study 2008
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10. Social media implications for
product managers
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11. “Product managers must join online conversations to understand what
customers like, what they don’t like, what they want and how they want
it. This insight helps in the design, development and deployment of
products that are relevant, compelling and competitive.”
Paul Alex Gray, brainmates
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12. Applications for product managers
Product managers define, develop, deploy and maintain
products that:
1. Deliver more value than the competition
2. Create a sustainable competitive difference
3. Generate business benefit to the organisation
“Now we’ve got social media that allows both B2B and B2C product professionals to
engage in dialogue with individual customers and users to give them a much deeper,
more nuanced understanding of the products and services being offered and in turn
gain a deeper understanding of what customers like and dislike about the offerings”
April Dunford, founder and principal consultant at Rocket Launch Marketing
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13. Functional applications of social media
brainmates has conducted research which suggests product
managers use social media in four ways:
Download the white paper to learn more about the four functional applications.
Visit www.brainmates.com.au or email info@brainmates.com.au 13

14. Monitoring & Listening
67% of product managers and marketers are already using monitoring tools
such as Google Alerts or Backtweets to find references to their products or
services and any references related to their market, customer segments or
competitors.
As this function was so common, many expected to do about the same although
those yet to start using social media stated that this would be their stepping
stone.
No, 33%
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15. Promoting and sharing
66% of product managers and marketers use social media tools to promote and
share information about their products.
Most expected to significantly increase this in the next twelve months, mostly
through major services such as Twitter, facebook and RSS feeds although some
individuals are using niche networks or developing their own proprietary social
media tools.
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16. Gathering feedback
Only 29% of product managers and marketers report that they use social media
tools such as Uservoice or Crowdsound to gather feedback.
The expectation was that this would significantly increase in the next twelve
months as organisations became more receptive to accepting feedback and
input in product development cycles and for existing products.
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17. Collaboration
65% of product managers and marketers reported that they used social media
tools such as Wikis, LinkedIn Answers or Google Wave to collaborate with
others.
The view was that this would also increase with a major focus being on involving
external parties such as suppliers, partners and customers.
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18. Social media in action
The white paper provides detailed summary of three case studies in
which social media has supported product development and
ongoing product management and marketing efforts.
“As a new business with limited marketing funds, Shoes of Prey had to invest
wisely to not only build brand awareness but also create demand for the product.
From day one we nurtured relationships with customers via social networking.”
Michael Fox, Director of Operations and Co-founder
“The customers determine our product roadmap. They tell us which features they
need most and provide feedback on all our ideas and developments. It’s a
collaborative effort that helps us ensure we delivery quality and value to our
customers” Nicholas Muldoon, Technical Product Manager
“Good social media focuses on what can be provided beyond the core product.
It’s about giving something back to others. Engaging and inspiring your fans and
customers, your partners and suppliers and fellow producers” Jared Gulian,
Founder
Download the white paper to read the full case studies.
Visit www.brainmates.com.au or email info@brainmates.com.au 18

19. BRAINMATES MODEL
Applying social media in
product management 19

20. Supporting the product management process
Effective product management requires practitioners to solve
lucrative customer problems that drive significant value for
businesses over a period of time.
The brainmates Product Delivery
Cycle provides a structure that
outlines the activities and
deliverables used in creating
profitable products.
Social media can be used at
multiple stages to support the
definition, development,
deployment and maintenance
of products 20

21. Stage 1 - Idea
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Ideation and innovation workshops
• Interviews and discussions with customers
• Market analysis including foreign markets
• Market opportunity discussion report
Social media opportunities
• Listen out for customer demands
• Investigate market problems
• Ask market for feedback on ideas and concepts
Social media challenges
• Most vocal customers may not be
representative of your audience
• Finding pertinent content amongst high volume
of conversation data
• Balancing espoused market requirements with
commercial constraints
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22. Stage 2 – Product Strategy
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Investigate concept and contrast market
problems against organisational capabilities and
competitive threats
• Conduct due diligence to determine feasibility
• Develop competitive analysis, product
comparisons and business case
Social media opportunities
• Incorporate internal and external input and
feedback on ideas
• Develop more rigid business case and platform
pre-testing
Social media challenges
• Opening up to market presents competitive risks
• Challenging established processes and politics
can distract stakeholders
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23. Stage 3 – Product Planning
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Identity and understand customers and
articulate market problem
• Develop market segmentation and targeting,
personas, use cases and requirements documents
Social media opportunities
• Validate assumptions and unearth new facets
about market problems
• Develop more realistic personas
• Tap into customers, community, partners and
others for early-stage feedback
Social media challenges
• Involving more stakeholders adds time and cost
pressures
• Can create expectations that all proposed ideas
will end up in final product leading to potential
let-downs

24. Stage 4 – Product Definition
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Articulate solution that will solve market
problem and satisfy needs/wants
• Provide product requirements for development
and other teams to build and deliver prototype
and solution
Social media opportunities
• Validate features and benefits via internal and
external stakeholder reviews
• Prioritise elements on product roadmap
• Provide guidance for internal colleagues who
work on subsequent stages
Social media challenges
• Additional inputs can impact timeframe and cost
of product definition and development
• Focusing on ‘moving targets’ can distract team
• Finding balance between market requirements
and commercial feasibility

25. Stage 5 – Launch Planning
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Prepare customer facing messaging and ready
teams for launch and ongoing support
• Develop value proposition, sales collateral,
marketing launch plans
Social media opportunities
• Test marketing messages and ideas with
evangelists and fans
• Compare with competitive offerings and position
your product on its strongest points
• Develop pre-awareness and excitement in market
Social media challenges
• Getting messages to your target audience via the
right social media channel(s) can be complex
• Pre-awareness can provide competitors with
insight to your product and plans

26. Stage 6 - Launch
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Coordinate internal and external teams
• Manage product launch, maintain velocity and
act on feedback quickly
Social media opportunities
• Maximise awareness within target audience and
create buzz
• Tap into tools to spread word via conversations
and engagement with customers
• Immediately capture and act upon feedback
Social media challenges
• Overly ‘selling’ a product via social media
channels can lead to backlash
• Not sticking to promises or assumptions by
customers can lead to disappointment
• Products that fail to meet customer
requirements will be mercilessly grilled

27. Stage 7 – Day-to-Day Product Management
Key stage actions & deliverables
• Continue to refine and improve product
• Assist marketing, support, sales and other teams
• Provide in-life product reports, updates to
roadmap and relevant collateral
Social media opportunities
• Engage customers and transform them into
evangelists
• Alert customers of new features
• Listen to what people say about your product
and take necessary action
Social media challenges
• Additional time and effort required to stay
across social media
• In certain segments or industries, customers
may still not be that ‘connected’ into social media
• More responsibility and pressure for busy
product management teams 27

28. There are thousands of
social media tools 28

29. Choosing your tools
Focus on what you’re trying to do first. Then select the appropriate
tools.
Gather feedback
Monitor & Listen Share & promote
Collaborate
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30. Starting your social
media journey
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31. Social media action plan
Product managers should follow this model to integrate social
media within their existing job functions and responsibilities
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32. Watch & Learn
Find the spaces where your
customers, competitors, partners,
fans and critics are talking. Listen to
these conversations.
Set up monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, RSS Feeds and
Collecta to monitor references about your product and
market
Allocate time each day to learn more about how social media
tools work and think how they can relate back to your
strategic and tactical product management responsibilities
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33. Talk & Listen
Try out relevant social media tools.
Be cautious and quiet until you feel
confident. Consider using tools
personally before professionally.
Join the conversation by registering with relevant tools and
communities. Provide comments when you can add value to
the conversation. Don’t ‘sell’ your product.
Activate your professional accounts and provide useful
information. Feel free to let the world know you’re learning
as you go. Honesty is greatly appreciated.
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34. Share & Engage
Start engaging others on a
regular basis. Answer questions
when asked. Share ideas,
opinions and comments across
all relevant social media tools.
Ask customers for their opinion. Invite them to share openly
and honestly with you. Accept what they say and act on it.
Apply more functional goals such as testing concepts,
announcing product updates and providing additional useful
resources.
Introduce other members of your team and organisation to
these tools and help to educate them. 34

35. Facilitate & Encourage
Develop thought leadership around
your product or service
Go out of your way to provide value
to customers and the broader
community.
Look for internal and external opportunities to use social
media in other business functions such as customer service,
operations, crisis management and community engagement.
Share and help others grow. You’ll learn more and feel good
too!
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36. Remember – it’s not about
tools and technology
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37. It’s about listening,
connecting and sharing
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38. Conclusions
The collaborative conversations of social media bring new
opportunities for product managers to enhance customer
knowledge and create more compelling products.
The changing nature of buyer-seller relationships means customers
are more empowered and interact with each other using a range of
tools.
Product managers must join online conversations to remain aware
of evolving customer problems, needs and wants and to continue
to define, develop, deploy and maintain products that satisfy
customers.
38

39. Request the white paper
The full white paper is available for
free.
• Visit www.brainmates.com.au
• Email info@brainmates.com.au

40. Product innovation and design.
brainmates leads companies to define, develop and
deploy customer-centric products and services.
Web: www.brainmates.com.au
Email: info@brainmates.com.au
Twitter: http://twitter.com/brainmates Page no.
Phone: +61 (0)2 9232 8147