Larry Concannon discusses product marketing and management lessons from his 20 years of experience in software, using volleyball as a metaphor. He emphasizes the importance of balancing sales, marketing, and development to meet market needs and avoid pitfalls, such as developing features solely to compete. The document also highlights strategic decision-making in product development, market research, and customer engagement as essential for achieving business success.

1. Larry Concannon

2.  Volleyball as a metaphor for product
marketing/product management
 Lessons learned from 20 years in software
product management/product marketing
 Larry Concannon
◦ Spike Product Marketing
◦ 170 Systems (Kofax), Workscape (ADP), Kronos,
Allaire (Macromedia), Aimtech (SumTotal)
◦ Northeastern Engineering, Harvard MBA

3.  Dig  Set  Spike
◦ Programmers ◦ Prod. Mgmt ◦ Sales
◦ QA ◦ Prod. Mktg. ◦ Bus dev
◦ Doc ◦ Marcom, PR, ◦ Partners
◦ Tech Support programs ◦ Execs
◦ Services ◦ Press
◦ Training ◦ Analysts
Greek Norwegian

4. Strong
Potential Winning
(acquisition)
Product
(Dig)
Stumbling
Colossal Fail along
Weak
Weak Strong
Marketing
(Set)

5.  Non-balance leads to problems
 If Sales rules
◦ Chasing deals, develop what last customer wanted,
job shop, not a sustainable business…
 If Marketing rules
◦ Awareness, pr, adv, parties, leads, etc... Revenue
will not meet expectations…
 If Development rules
◦ Develop “cool” products, products miss the market,
market too small..

6.  Dig  Set
◦ Programmers ◦ Prod. Mgmt
◦ QA ◦ Prod. Mktg.
◦ Doc ◦ Marcom, PR,
◦ Tech Support programs
 PRD/MRD/Spec ◦ Services
◦ Training
 Product roadmap
 Build/buy decisions
 Team meetings
 Volunteer: test, read doc, etc.
 Milestone rewards
 Feedback
 Protect from distractions

7.  Set Spike
 Sales meetings ◦ Prod. Mgmt

◦ Sales
 Sale training (record) ◦ Prod. Mktg. ◦ Bus dev
◦ Marcom, PR, ◦ Partners
 Sales tools in use programs ◦ Execs
◦ Press
 Sales engineers ◦ Analysts
 Online meetings/demos
 On site meetings
 Push info to Sales
 Contests
 Syndicate success

8.  Sales is obsessed with competitors
 Analyst and the press want to put your
company in a box with other competitors
 VCs: “no competitor, no market”
 Challenge the need for a feature if the only
reason is that competitor X has it
 Focus on what the prospective customers
need (known and unknown)
 Competitive battlecard to hit the highlights
 Win/loss analysis is key

9.  In market research, the question can skew the
results
 Ex. Phillips and remote controls
 Ex. HR management software and monopoly

10.  Prospects have pre-existing buying criteria
◦ Ex. 4WD vs. AWD
 Your installed base has using criteria
◦ Do not rely just on existing customers for research
 Validate buying criteria
 Educate customer on using criteria
◦ Ex. Sears vacuum

11.  Ex. Allaire
◦ Product discussion forums (open to public)
◦ Beta forums (any user)
◦ 1997
 Ex. Planet PTC
 Overall executive level advisory board
◦ Kronos’ Marquis,170 Systems’ Catalyst…
◦ Give: discounts on products, services….
◦ Get: input, advocacy (PR, case study, webinar,
conference, etc.)
 Product/market specific customer advisory
board

12.  Sales reps sell for you and to you
 Sales’ input should not drive roadmap
 Ex: Aimtech vs. Macromedia (mid-1990s)
◦ Multimedia authoring tools ($3500 to $5000/user)
◦ CBT, kiosks, CDROMs
◦ Macromedia: Mac; added Windows
◦ Aimtech: Windows; needed to add Mac
◦ Dilemma: limited dev resources
 Strategic: add Mac
 Tactical: add Unix (Sun, HP, DEC, SGI…)
◦ Result: Chased the $$$, believed Unix vendors, failed

13.  Dev discounts value if feature is easy to create
 Dev overstates value of labor intensive work
 Ex. Allaire HomeSite and WYSIWYG
 Ex. 170 Systems and SAP
 “Table Stakes”
 Corporate Visions’ “Power Position”
◦ Valued by the customer
◦ Differentiate somehow
 Only your solution has it
 Proof that your solution is superior.

14.  Map product features to the user
◦ “What’s in it for me?”
◦ Knowledge is power
 Execs want actionable information
◦ BI, analytics, reports, dashboards, scorecards
 Ex. 170 Systems AP automation software
◦ Business Process Automation (workflow)
◦ Execs: Business Process Performance Management
 “Advisor”: overview of invoices, $$$, and people
 Ex. HiSoftware compliance management
◦ Compliance with Section 508, HIPAA, other regulations
 “Insight”: overview of people and groups compliance perf.

15.  Fast: update a spreadsheet
 Powerful: changes target markets, perception
 Dangerous: revenue, margins, profits
 Ex. Aimtech IconAuthor
◦ $4995/user vs. Macromedia’s $3,500/user
◦ “IconAuthor Select” at $995
◦ Disaster: limited market size + experimental cust.
 Ex. Allaire ColdFusion app server
◦ $1,295 vs. free .ASP and expensive J2EE
◦ “CF Pro” at $995; “CF Enterprise” at $3495/server
◦ Expected 75%/25% mix; got 25%/75% mix; revenue soared

16.  Software
◦ Your software (the product)
◦ Other software required
◦ Complementary software available
 Hardware required
 Services
◦ Implementation, training and tech support
◦ Hosting
◦ SAAS
 Expertise
◦ Domain experience: product, people

17. You Prospect
- Solution - Increase revenue
- Decrease costs
- Mitigate risk
 How far is it from your solution to the prospect’s
core goals?
 How convoluted is the path? How easy is it to
understand?
 Apply the “so what” test and drive positioning
and messaging to business value.

18.  Q&A?
 Other lessons learned?
 Larry Concannon
◦ www.linkedin.com/in/larryconcannon
◦ larryconcannon@hotmail.com