This document provides lessons learned from over 15 years of experience in product management and solution marketing for enterprise software. It covers two main areas: market/customer facing lessons and internal/company facing lessons. Some of the key lessons include understanding customers deeply, focusing on strategic value over features, executing effectively on roadmaps and requirements, and leveraging data and relationships to influence others within the company. The document emphasizes balancing both business and customer perspectives to successfully manage products.

1. Lessons in B2B Product
Management & Solution
Marketing for Enterprise
Software Solutions
Chris Aulbach
ProductCampCT
Oct 2015

2. Quick background…
• 15+ yrs Product/Solutions Management
• 10+ yrs in Solutions Marketing
• 100% in Enterprise B2B software
• Multiple Start-ups/hyper-growth/VC-backed co’s
• Multiple Publicly traded global corporations
• Big proponent of Process to drive Execution,
and focus on Strategic Value over ‘features’
• Passionate about
• My profession
• My industry
• Work/life balance

3. Segmenting my Lessons and Experiences: 2 buckets
A. Market/Customer Facing
• Understanding Customers/Prospects
• NIHITO?
• Stakeholders & Buying process
• Your place in the Value Chain
• Buying vs. Liking
• Advocates & Promoters
• Customer Experiences
B. Internal/Company Facing
• Features vs. Strategic Value
• Iterative Innovation / New Products
• Roadmaps & Requirements
• Shiny Balls
• Execution vs. Strategy
• Processes & Tools
• Relationships
• Influence / Convincing others
• Working with Sales and Marketing

4. What is Product Management?
• IME, a highly misunderstood profession, especially in technology/software
• Several definitions and variations in roles, responsibilities, titles, accountabilities
• Clear lines/intersections with other related teams (marketing, sales/GTM, engineering, etc)
are CRITICALLY important
Hint:
It’s a balance of
ALL of this!

5. What is Product Management?
• Business Management of “Products”
(i.e. Solutions/Market offerings)
• How does “It” generate revenue and make
money?
• How do you “win”?
• Outside-in: WHAT & WHY
(Design/Engineering figures out HOW)
• What “problems” are you solving, or
added value are you creating?
• Put finished Solutions ON the shelf
(so Sales/Marketing can take them OFF)

6. Market /Client Facing Lessons
Part A

7. A1 – Understand your customers/prospects…deeply
• Many dimensions to this
• Buyers vs. Users and the differences of each
• Product Management’s role/purpose:
• Messenger of the market to the rest of the company: Promote the collective voice
• Futurist: See things they don’t see on their own
• NIHITO?
• How about a MOTHITO? (Many other things happen in the office)

8. A2 – Understand the Buying Process and Key Stakeholders
• CxOs, VITOs: Make sure you know who they are for your solution(s)…
• Key Buyers and Influencers, and the titles they carry
• Technical Buyer, Economic Buyer, Influencer(s)
• Top-down vs. Bottoms-up approach?
• Pains, Issues, Challenges, Problems, Opportunities
• Expected Capabilities + “Wow!s”
• Progressing them through the funnel
• Buying Style, Risk Tolerance
• Personal Win(s)

9. A3 – Understand the Value Chain that you play in
• Your solution’s position/role in the full
ecosystem/value-chain
• What’s Upstream & Downstream?
• What parts do you OWN completely?
• Focus on maximizing your Strengths
• Unique Assets/IP
• Core Capabilities
“A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific
industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the
market. The concept comes from business management and was first
described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller,
Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”

10. A4 – Know the difference between Liking and Buying…
Liking your Product/Service
• Too many people leverage “likes” as
their most important feedback
mechanism for what to do with/put
into their products
• Problem: No exchange of value; No
revenue associated with likes!
• Opinions are like…
Buying your Product/Service
• Harder to obtain than a “like”
• Quantified exchange of value
• Importance of modeled/proven ROI
• Hard variables vs. soft variables
• Defensible, self-explanatory
• Price based on Strategic Value, not
costs plus

11. A5 – Understand the Value of Advocates and Promoters
• Brand Promise & Reputation: Requires that you deliver, repeatably
• Keep your promises…or don’t make them in the first place if you can’t deliver on them
• CAUTION: Big pushy ($$s) customers
Advocates
Loyalists
Fans, Followers

12. A6 – Don’t forget about Whole Customer Experience
• Example from Healthcare IT Industry
• Market Success is about so much more than the “Features & Functionality” of your
product(s)/solution. Don’t lose the forest from the trees.
HolisticBuyingCriteria

13. Internal / Company Facing Lessons
Part B

14. B1 – It’s about way more than Features & Functionality
• Feature/Functionality battle is expensive. Race to “Bloatware”.
• Someone will always have more/different features
• Will come down to “user preference”
• Feature Selling = selling to Users, not Buyers
> For Senior Buyers, Strategic Value ALWAYS trumps “More Features”

15. (TEST)
Minimize
time through
the loop
B2 – Innovation and New Product Development is incremental
• Don’t try to boil the ocean before going to market
• Don’t let GREAT be the enemy of “Good enough”.
• MVCs (Concepts/Ideas) first. Fuzzy front-end with lots of uncertainty
• MVPs, Clickable prototypes, Mock-ups, Storyboards to incrementally improve
• In Parallel: Something in front of both USERS and BUYERS
• Important to have structures/follow process as you do this
(Learn)
BIG

16. B3 – Don’t let Roadmaps & Requirements be dirty words…
• Executing on this is HARD. It’s a balancing act across many dimensions/stakeholders
• Can’t (Won’t) please all the people all the time. Know that going in.
• Iterations & Collaboration with stakeholders is paramount. What are the VITAL FEW?
• No hiding behind “Agile fences” – Must project “intent” & “direction” for enterprise buyers
• Use Themes; lower degrees of certainty over time

17. B4 – Watch out for “Shiny Balls”…they can be very destructive!
• IME, more common with less experienced founders, but can come from anywhere
• Key Questions to address
• How does that [XX] fit into the overall vision?
• How does that [XX] align with or improve our strategy?
• What impact will [XX] have on our business goals?
• Thoughtful analysis required
• Potential value of [XX] in future revenues / TAM
• Quantity of Effort/team/skills to realize potential of [XX]
• Fit in portfolio relative to positioning, messaging, market needs
capacity to deliver, etc.
[XX]

18. B5 – Execution eats Strategy for breakfast!
• Both are essential. However…
• A great [product/solution] strategy doesn’t produce $$s…
…only great presentations
• Value is created from solving the HARD STUFF, and getting
the entire organization aligned around delivering their
contribution towards that value proposition. That’s execution.

19. B6 – Following Processes and using Tools increase velocity…
• Agile for SDLC; Stage-Gate/PDLC for
cross-functional governance
• Story points; 2-week sprints; Open demos
• Must do planning for series of sprints in
advance to map out target “releases”
• Highly recommend using tools –but vital to
have alignment/training around use of tools
before “jumping in”. Standardize on process/
tool taxonomies up front
• Alpha, Beta, and GA – be crystal clear on each!

20. B7 – Don’t underestimate the importance of Relationships
Internal Partners / Teams
• Senior Executives, Founders
• Engineering, QA, Tech Writers/Docs
• Sales, Marketing, GTM teams
• Services/Delivery Teams
• Support
External Stakeholders
• Clients / Customers
• Competitors / Advocates of Competitors
• Analysts / Reviewers
• Partners / Suppliers

21. B8 – The best way to influence is with DATA
• Market Size
• Competitor data
• Reasonable comparables
• Validated ROI model
• Customer/prospect interviews
or survey results
• Always aggregated data vs.
“one opinion” (anecdotal)
• Partner with Marketing!
- W. Edwards Deming
“In God we trust.
All others must
bring data.”

22. B9 – Educate others…you’ll sleep better!
Sales Team Marketing Team
• Value Proposition
• Differentiators
Boundaries
• Test and Validate

23. Thank you
Chris Aulbach
caulbach@me.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caulbach