The document summarizes updates made to the Pragmatic Marketing Framework. Some key changes include: 1) Market Problems was moved to the cornerstone of the Framework and Market Research was combined with it. Win/Loss Analysis was also added to the Market column. 2) Distribution Strategy was added to the Strategy column to reflect how technology solutions are distributed. Product Portfolio and Product Roadmap were also moved here. 3) The Planning column added an activity called Buying Process to align selling processes with how buyers actually buy. 4) Business Case was renamed to Business Plan to better reflect the planning involved. Product Performance and Operational Metrics were combined into Product Profitability. 5)

1. 7 5 2009
The Product
Management Triad
Top 10 Tools
Updating the to Measure User
Experience
Pragmatic Marketing
Framework The Strategic
Product Manager
and the CFO

2. Participate in the 10th Annual
Product Management and Marketing Survey
What is the difference between
product management and product marketing?
2008
Product Manager
Product Management VS. Product Marketing There’s an on-going
discussion in virtually every
company about titles and
responsibilities in product
Monitoring development projects management. This graph
Writing product requirements from our 2008 - 2009
Researching market needs survey (pragmaticmarketing.
com/survey) shows that, in
Preparing business case
practice, these titles have
Writing detailed specifications much overlap.
Visiting sites (without salespeople)
Creating sales presentations and demos Each year, Pragmatic
Creating promotional material Marketing conducts a
survey with product
Training salespeople
managers and marketing
Planning and managing marketing programs professionals. Our objective
Going on sales calls is to provide information
Performing win/loss analysis about compensation as
Measuring marketing programs well as the most common
responsibilities for product
Working with press or analysts
managers and other
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% marketing professionals.
Visit PragmaticMarketing.com to have your say!
Survey will be open November 2 - 24, 2009

3. The Pragmatic Marketer ™
8910 E. Raintree Drive
Inside this issue: Volume 7 Issue 5 • 2009
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.
Founder and CEO
5 Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™
Craig Stull By Jim Foxworthy and Steve Johnson
Editor-in-Chief Periodically—and very carefully—we update
Kristyn Benmoussa the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ to
align with current practices for marketing
Editor
technology solutions. Here is an
Linda Sowers
overview of changes to reflect today’s
————————————————— best practices in product management.
Interested in contributing an article?
Visit PragmaticMarketing.com/submit
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
For advertising rates, call (480) 515-1411.
Other product and/or company names mentioned
in this journal may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies and
are the sole property of their respective owners.
The Pragmatic Marketer, a Pragmatic Marketing
publication, shall not be liable regardless of the
14 The Product Management Triad
cause, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or By Steve Johnson
other defects in, or untimeliness or unauthenticity
of, the information contained within this magazine. Some product managers have
Pragmatic Marketing makes no representations,
warranties, or guarantees as to the results obtained a natural affinity for working with Development,
from the use of this information and shall not be others for Sales and Marketing Communications, and others prefer to
liable for any third-party claims or losses of any
kind, including lost profits, and punitive damages. work on business issues. Finding these three orientations in one person
The Pragmatic Marketer is a trademark of is an almost impossible task. Instead of finding one person with all
Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.
the skills, perhaps we should find three different people with more
Printed in the U.S.A.
specialized skills and have them work as a team.
All rights reserved.
ISSN 1938-9752 (Print)
ISSN 1938-9760 (Online) 19 Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience
By Giovanni Calabro
The one fundamental truth vital to web product development success
is to know the mind of the user. This article provides a three-staged
User Experience Measurement Hierarchy and also outlines a simple
About Pragmatic Marketing®
approach you can use to determine the best user experience
Creator of the world’s most popular product
management and marketing seminars, Pragmatic measurement tools and techniques for your web
Marketing has trained more than 60,000 technology product management needs.
product management and marketing professionals
at 5,000 companies in 21 countries. As the thought-
leader in the industry, the company produces blogs,
webinars, podcasts, and publications read by more
than 100,000 every year.
Pragmatic Marketing has been honored four times by
26 The Strategic Product Manager
Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private and the CFO
companies in America (2000, 2007, 2008, 2009), and
in 2008 named a Comerica Bank Arizona Company By Jon Gatrell and John Mecke
to Watch.
Visit PragmaticMarketing.com to learn more.
Give your CFO an opportunity to contribute,
participate in the day-to-day workings of your
product as a business, and you may just get a
business partner who can help you and your
product be more successful in the marketplace.
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 3

4. Pragmatic Roadmapping
™
Online or onsite at your company
Align your product strategy with the market
Do you need a practical and repeatable way to communicate
product plans, strategy and vision?
Recorded live, Pragmatic Roadmapping is a complete one-day seminar, presented in three parts you
can watch all at once or spread over several days. Each session includes instructor-led, hands-on exercises
to help you define, plan and complete your roadmap.
• Align and focus the organization around the market not just your products.
• Identify which projects to fund based on available resources and company strategy.
• Communicate the roadmap internally & externally with just the right detail for each audience.
Download a complete agenda and register at PragmaticMarketing.com/seminars
Call (800) 816-7861 to conduct this seminar at your office

5. By Jim Foxworthy and Steve Johnson
Updating the
Pragmatic
Marketing
Framework
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 5

6. Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Periodically—and very carefully—we update the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ to align with current practices for
marketing technology solutions. Having trained more than 60,000 product management and marketing professionals,
some of these changes are the result of our training efforts and some the evolution of the product management
discipline in 21st century technology businesses. Over time some things become more important, some less.
We’ve seen an escalation of the importance of buyer and user personas. Social media channels like Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter are key elements in today’s marketing efforts. And e-books have become the preferred method
of communicating thought leadership with a soft-sell orientation instead of traditional white papers and other
“selling-oriented” materials. Business
Positioning
MarketingPragmatic
Plan Plan
Marketing
So in June 2009, we revised the Pragmatic Marketing Framework—some items were moved, others renamed,
a Market
few added, or deleted—to reflect today’s best practices in product management.
Problems
Market
Definition
Pricing
Buying
Process
Customer
Acquisition
Framework ™
This article steps you through the new version of the Framework.
A Market-Driven Model for
Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer Managing and Marketing
Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention
Technology Products
Distinctive Product Product User Program
Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
MARKET STRATEGY BUSINESS PLANNING PROGRAMS READINESS SUPPORT
Improved workflow
Competitive Product
Innovation
Launch Sales Presentations
Requirementsabout that logical structure for a minute.
Think
Landscape Roadmap Plan Process
You spend time in the Market trying to uncover& Demos
The horizontal orientation of the Framework has unsolved market problems, right? You try to
not changed. The activities on the left side are still determine whether or not the problems you’ve
strategic; the activities on the right still tactical. It’s
Technology Use Thought “Special“
discovered are pervasive and urgent, and if people
been that way for more than 15 years. Collateral
Assessment Scenarios
are willing Leadership
to pay to solve them. And then you Calls
bring that inside the organization and start a
We’ve streamlined the categories of activities comparison to your existing Strategy. Is this a fit
(columns) to better flow from strategic to tactical. Status our strategic initiatives? With our portfolioEvent
with Lead Sales of
They now reflect the way many implement Dashboard
products? IsGeneration
this a business weTools to pursue at
want Support
the Framework, from market to strategy our company?
to business and planning, to market
programs and readiness, to on-going Once you get past that test, Business analysis
Referrals & Channel Channel
support. These sets of activities are References Training Support
begins. Is this a good investment for us? Do all the
(480) 515 -1411 I PragmaticMarketing.com Strategy,
now labeled Market, financial numbers associated with the investment
Business, Planning, work? Once you’ve cleared that hurdle, it’s© 1timePragmatic Marketing, Inc.
993-2009
to
Programs, Readiness begin the process of Planning the actual solution
and Support. you’re going to create. From there it’s all about
go-to-market, so we plan out our Programs,
Readiness, and on-going Support.
Let’s cover the Framework changes,
one column at a time.
6 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

7. Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Strategy column
Market Sizing was renamed Market
Definition. Defining the market is much
more than just counting the number of
opportunities in a segment; it’s about
understanding all the different details about
that segment and why you should pursue it.
Distribution Strategy is a new activity in
the Strategy column. It’s just as important to
understand how you’re going to market and
deliver to the people who are planning to buy
it, as it is to think about the product itself and
whether or not it’s a good investment for you.
The buyer may want to be sold differently
and receive solutions differently. Where once
technology companies determined distribution
based on their existing channels, it’s now
more important to understand how the buyer
wants to receive solutions. More and more,
product management is determining pricing
and packaging, on-premise versus hosted,
direct sales versus multi-tier versus web-
based sales. How technology solutions are
distributed is a part of the strategy, not an
afterthought or driven by history and habit.
We moved Product Portfolio and Product
Roadmap to this new Strategy column. This
is where you compare your new product
idea to your existing portfolio and current
Market column
roadmap to evaluate whether or
In the Market column we’ve always had an not this idea, in isolation, fits
activity called Market Problems, and as you with the overarching goals of
know if you’ve been to our seminars, that what you’re doing as
particular activity is the absolute preeminent an organization.
starting place. So we’ve moved it to the
cornerstone of the entire Framework. We
combined Market Research with Market
Problems since after all, that’s the reason
you do market research: to discover market
problems. Next to Market Problems is
Win/Loss Analysis; a form of discovery
research, specifically focused on those who
have recently evaluated your products.
This activity is becoming more and more
important, and Pragmatic Marketing’s 2008
Annual Product Management and Marketing
Survey shows 37% of product managers are
actively performing win/loss analysis. This
has increased significantly from 17% in 2000
when we began surveying product managers.
And remember that when you do win/loss
analysis, you learn at least as much about
the buying process as you learn about the
product people were trying to buy.
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 7

8. Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Planning column
Positioning and Use Scenarios are
still part of the Planning column—that
hasn’t changed.
There’s a new addition to the
Framework—the Buying Process.
Many marketing managers worry about
the sales process and the associated
sales tools, yet our research reveals
many sales processes are out of
alignment with the buying process.
Let’s change that now! Product
managers and product marketing
managers should understand the
way buyers buy and create tools
to instrument the selling process
accordingly.
What matters is not how you
want to sell but how they want
Business column to buy. And if you understand
how they want to buy, the steps
Once you pass the they go through, then you should
hurdles of your product mirror that with how you sell.
strategy, it’s time to run the numbers. In
the Business column, Business Case is For most vendors, buyers don’t use
now called Business Plan. It’s a small and users don’t buy. Buyer and user
change, but Business Case is just an personas have been cornerstones of our
artifact; planning is much more than that. seminars and webinars since 2000 and continue to be important
Business planning includes at least two for technology companies. A deep understanding of both Buyer
artifacts and a number of inputs. We have Personas and User Personas help companies build products
always covered these topics: now the activity buyers want to buy and users want to use. Buyer personas focus
is more aptly named. your marketing efforts because a product won’t succeed if you
can’t get people to buy it. Not only do you need to understand
Pricing, Innovation, and Buy, how they buy, you need to understand who the buyers are and
Build or Partner are still part of the why they buy. Equally important are user personas. Selling your
Business column. product doesn’t matter if people won’t use it—and recommend it
to their colleagues. User personas are critical to the development
We’ve always encouraged you to look at process of your product because they reveal how users differ from
Product Performance and Operational buyers—and also how they differ from your developers, your sales
Metrics and the reason, of course, is so people, and your own executives.
you can create a profitable product. We’ve
combined these into a single activity, Lastly, in this column, Release Milestones was renamed
Product Profitability, in the Business Status Dashboard. Release Milestones was focused on the
column. Product Profitability is the key development tasks to deliver products to distribution; Status
ultimate measure of a good business. Dashboard is something more. A status dashboard communicates
Development is accountable for functionality overall organizational readiness. Not only is the code or device
and schedules; Sales is accountable for ready, but the organization is ready to deliver it to customers.
revenue. Product management should obsess
about creating profitable products. It’s As the “single throat to choke” on product status, we encourage
vitally important that marketing managers product management to maintain the dashboard for their
understand their role in a “soft sense,” as products, whether on the intranet, a wiki or a periodic e-mail,
the president of the product. If you’re the showing the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and current
president of the product, the one thing project status.
you should be held accountable for is
product profitability.
8 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

9. Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Programs column
There are only three changes
to this column.
We added an activity called
Program Effectiveness.
You’ve probably heard
people say “you can’t
manage what you can’t
measure.” Should you
continue going to the big
trade shows and conferences?
Or should you start doing
more webinars, podcasts and
social media programs?
Should you do both?
Program Effectiveness
answers that. Once you
begin measuring, it’s easy
to see what programs
make sense and which
should be discontinued.
If you’ve attended our
Effective Product Marketing™
seminar, you may recall
the story about a young
marketing professional
who got promoted, ran
into his senior executive
in the hallway and got the
following advice. “Don’t focus Readiness column
on your efforts; focus on your results.” Meaning We moved Sales Process from the Product
that it really isn’t important how many leads Planning column to the Readiness column.
came from a particular marketing program, what The sales process should mirror the buying
matters in the end is how many leads produced process. Collateral, such as white papers
how many dollars of revenue. and e-books, are external documents that
your sales teams provide to the buyer
Thought Leaders was renamed Thought
persona; Sales Tools, such as competitive
Leadership. It seems like a small change in
write-ups and ROI calculators, are internal
words, but it reveals that you’re no longer just
documents your channel uses to be more
working with thought leaders; many of you now
effective in selling.
are the thought leaders. You’re providing thought
leadership directly to your markets with blogging
and other social media like LinkedIn, Facebook
and Twitter. With today’s new rules of marketing,
Support column
marketers don’t have to rely on the media and The Support column remains the same with
industry analysts to be the thought leaders to the exception of renaming Answer Desk to
tell their story; marketers can now tell their own the broader Channel Support.
stories directly to buyers.
The last activity in the Programs column is
Referrals & References. It replaces Success
Stories as a broader definition of how to
leverage customers in your selling process,
helping prospects evaluate your solution
with people who already have experience
with your organization.
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 9

10. Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Business
Positioning
Marketing Pragmatic
Plan Plan
Marketing
Market
Problems
Market
Definition
Pricing
Buying
Process
Customer
Acquisition
Framework ™
A Market-Driven Model for
Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer Managing and Marketing
Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention
Technology Products
So there it is: the
Pragmatic Marketing Distinctive Product Product User Program
Framework, updated for STRATEGIC Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness
TACTICAL
2010 and beyond, based
on enhancements that MARKET STRATEGY BUSINESS PLANNING PROGRAMS READINESS SUPPORT
came from the market
(you). We’ve tested this Competitive Product
Innovation Requirements
Launch Sales Presentations
revision with current Landscape Roadmap Plan Process & Demos
and potential customers,
and received great Technology Use Thought
Collateral
“Special“
Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls
responses. We know
you’ll find it aligns with
the reality of product Status Lead Sales Event
Dashboard Generation Tools Support
management in your
organization.
Referrals & Channel Channel
References Training Support
(480) 515 -1411 I PragmaticMarketing.com
If you’re new to us, ©1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.
come to one of our
seminars to learn how
you can use the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
as a systematic approach to define and deliver
products to market. To create products that people
want to buy.
If it’s been a few years since you attended a
Pragmatic Marketing seminar, come back for a
refresher (New slides, new tools, new stories!).
Want an updated copy of the Framework? Go to PragmaticMarketing.com to see the new Framework with
definitions for all the activities. Download a copy to use in your internal presentations. Buy the poster to hang
on your cubicle wall.
Jim Foxworthy is an industry Steve Johnson is a recognized thought-leader
veteran with more than 30 on the strategic role of product management
years in the computer industry. and marketing. Broadly published and a
Prior to joining Pragmatic frequent keynote speaker, Steve has been a
Marketing, Jim was president Pragmatic Marketing instructor for more than
of a consulting firm focused 10 years and has personally trained thousands
exclusively on implementations of the of product managers and hundreds of company senior
Pragmatic Marketing Framework. Contact executive teams on strategies for creating products people
Jim at jfoxworthy@pragmaticmarketing.com want to buy. Steve is the author of the Product Marketing
blog. Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.com
10 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

11. Job Interview? Use the Pragmatic Marketing Framework!
Here’s a great tip: when you’re part of a product management job interview, take along your Pragmatic Marketing
Framework. Whether you are a hiring manager or job candidate, referring to the Framework during the interview
process can be a highly effective way to structure the conversation.
Hiring Managers. One approach to an effective Candidates. It is always a great idea to have the
interview is to refer to the Pragmatic Marketing Pragmatic Marketing Framework with you when you
Framework and use it to explain the open position. interview for a new position. Convey to a hiring
manager that you use a structured process for your
Perhaps you used the activities in the Framework work, to show both competence and confidence.
to divide work amongst multiple job titles. Using If they know the framework, you’ll build instant
the Framework in an interview, you can identify the rapport; if they’ve never seen the framework, then
activities this candidate will perform, along with any you look even smarter.
hand-offs to other team members.
The laminated version of the Framework is also an
Or perhaps the ideal candidate needs to handle excellent tool to illustrate your view of a particular role
all 37 activities on the Framework. In that case, use in a company. For example, if you are interviewing for
the Framework to have the candidate talk about a position that will require you to be the “messenger
the various activities and identify their strengths of the market,” the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
and weaknesses. can be used to talk about how you would fulfill that
responsibility. Perhaps you’d point at Market Problems
or Win/Loss Analysis and illustrate with a prior set
of job experiences how you used data from market
interviews to drive product direction.
Summary: Don’t be afraid to use the Pragmatic Marketing Framework during the interview. If the person across the table
is also familiar with the model, you immediately have context for the balance of the interview. Maybe they will pull out
their copy, and it will work like a secret handshake!
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 11

12. Are your product management and marketing teams
overloaded with tactical activities, spending too much
time supporting Development and Sales rather than
focusing on strategic issues?
The Pragmatic Marketing Framework ™
Business Marketing
Positioning
Plan Plan
Market Market Buying Customer
Pricing
Problems Definition Process Acquisition
Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer
Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention
Distinctive Product Product User Program
Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
MARKET STRATEGY BUSINESS PLANNING PROGRAMS READINESS SUPPORT
Competitive Product Launch Sales Presentations
Innovation Requirements
Landscape Roadmap Plan Process & Demos
Technology Use Thought “Special“
Collateral
Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls
Status Lead Sales Event
Dashboard Generation Tools Support
Referrals & Channel Channel
References Training Support
© 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing
Visit PragmaticMarketing.com or call (800) 816-7861

13. Seminars
emin ar! Living in an Agile World™ Requirements That Work™
NEW S Strategies for product management
when Development goes agile.
Methods for creating straightforward product
plans that product managers can write and
developers embrace.
Practical Product Management®
Principles of the Pragmatic Marketing Framework, Effective Product Marketing™
the industry standard for managing and marketing Repeatable, go-to-market process to design,
technology products. execute, and measure high-impact marketing
programs.
Pragmatic Roadmapping™
Techniques to plan, consolidate and communicate New Rules of Marketing™
product strategy to multiple audiences. Reach buyers directly, with information they
want to read and search engines reward
with high rankings.
Product Launch Essentials™
ar!
Semin
Assess organizational readiness
NEW and define team responsibilities
Executive Briefings for a successful product launch.
Designed specifically for senior management,
Executive Briefings discuss how to organize
Product Management and Marketing
departments for optimal effectiveness
and accountability.
In addition to the extensive published schedule, training can be conducted
onsite at your office, saving travel time and costs for attendees, and allowing
a much more focused discussion on internal, critical issues.
Pragmatic Marketing’s seminars have been attended by more than
60,000 product management and marketing professionals.

14. The Product
Management Triad
By Steve Johnson
Some product managers have a natural affinity for working with Development,
others for Sales and Marketing Communications, and others prefer to work on
business issues. Finding these three orientations in one person is an almost impossible
task. Instead of finding one person with all the skills, perhaps we should find three
different people with more specialized skills and have them work as a team.
Strategy Business Marketing
Positioning
Plan Plan
Market Market Buying Customer
Pricing
Problems Definition Process Acquisition
Marketing
Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer
Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention
Distinctive Product Product User Program
Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
MARKET STRATEGY BUSINESS PLANNING PROGRAMS READINESS SUPPORT
Competitive Product Launch Sales Presentations
Innovation Requirements
Landscape Roadmap Plan Process & Demos
Technology Use Thought “Special“
Collateral
Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls
Technical Status
Dashboard
Lead
Generation
Sales
Tools
Event
Support
Referrals & Channel Channel
References Training Support
14 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

15. How do you organize product management product line. Now, for each product line,
when there are multiple people involved with one person concentrates on product strategy
varying skill sets? How any product managers and the business of the product line,
do you need? What are their roles in the while another works with Development to
company? Is product management a support build the best product, and another takes
role or a strategic one? How do you use the the product message to the channel by
various product management titles such as working with Marketing Communications
product manager, product marketing manager, and the sales team.
program manager, or product owner?
Warning: Some companies attempt to
Titles are poorly understood and defined put these three people in three different
differently by many organizations. Every year, departments. They put the PLM into Sales to
participants in Pragmatic Marketing’s Annual do business development; they put the TPM
Product Management and Marketing Survey in Development and the PMM in Marketing
identify hundreds of different titles for those Communications. This always fails. To work
conducting product management activities. as a team, they must actually be a team.
An ideal solution for many companies is the Having the TPM and PMM report to the
“product management triad.” same person, the PLM, minimizes conflict
and overlap, giving the team a common
Some product managers have a natural objective. It has the added benefit of giving a
affinity for working with Development, new director the chance to learn to be a good
others for Sales and Marketing, and some manager of two people before getting five or
prefer to work on business issues. Finding ten people to manage.
these three orientations in one person is
very difficult. Instead, perhaps we should Product management teams provide career
find three different people who each possess paths from entry-level positions to director,
one or more of these skills and have them all within the product line.
work as a team.
The product management triad includes a Execution vs. ownership
strategist, a technologist, and a marketer. As shown in the graphic on the previous
Start with a business-oriented senior product page, these three positions overlap. This
manager responsible for product strategy. is deliberate. Execution of these tasks must
Make this person a director of products be collaborative in order to succeed. For
or product line manager (PLM). Now add example, Win/Loss Analysis is an excellent
a technology-oriented technical product data source for Positioning and the Buying
manager (TPM) and a marketing oriented Process. Your PLM and PMM ought to
product marketing manager (PMM). perform win/loss visits together to ensure you
gain the most value.
Let’s look at an example of how applying
the triad had success for a company of But do not confuse execution with
nine product managers and nine products, ownership. Ownership of a task equates to
one product manager per product. The accountability. As the executive leader of a
salespeople disliked some of the product team structured this way, the PLM is held
managers and loved others. The ones the accountable for win/loss analysis even when
salespeople loved were hated by developers. the TPM and PMM gather the win/loss data.
Applying the triad, they created three
product lines with a PLM for each and
then assigned a TPM and PMM to each Does this model make sense for you?
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 15

16. The Product Management Triad
Director, Product Strategy Technical Product Manager
The technical product manager
The director of product strategy is responsible for defining
has a business-orientation and is market requirements and
responsible for the development packaging the features into product releases.
and implementation of the strategic plan for This position involves close interaction with
a specific product family. They maintain close development leads, product architects, and
relationships with the market (customers, key customers. A strong technical background
evaluators, and potentials) for awareness is required. Job duties include gathering
of market needs. This includes identification requirements from existing and potential
of appropriate markets and development of customers as well as recent evaluators, writing
effective marketing strategies and tactics for market requirements documents or Agile product
reaching them. This person is involved through backlogs, and monitoring the implementation
all stages of a product family’s lifecycle. of each product project.
The director of product strategy must: The technical product manager must:
• Discover and validate market problems • Conduct technology assessments
(both existing and future customers)
• Analyze the competitive landscape
• Seek new market opportunities by leveraging
the company’s distinctive competence • Maintain the product portfolio roadmap
• Define and size market segments • Monitor and incorporate industry innovations
• Conduct win/loss analysis • Define user personas for individual products
• Determine the optimum distribution strategy • Write product requirements and use scenarios
• Provide oversight of strategy, technical, • Maintain a status dashboard for all
and marketing aspects of all products portfolio products
in the portfolio
• Analyze product profitability and sales success
• Create and maintain the business plan
including pricing
• Determine buy/build/partner decisions
• Position the product for all markets
and all buyer types
• Document the typical buying process
• Approve final marketing and
go-to-market plans
16 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

17. The Product Management Triad
How you implement the product
management triad depends on your
Product Marketing Manager organization and the skills of your team.
Also consider having a role for your base
The product marketing manager technology or architecture for issues that
provides product line support span product lines. The “architecture”
for program strategy, operational product manager can own acquisitions,
readiness and on-going sales support. third-party partnerships, and common tools
This position requires close interaction needed across all product lines.
with Marketing Communications and sales
management. Strong communication skills are Take inventory of the skills of each of the
a must. Duties include converting technical product managers. Create an organization
positioning into key market messages and chart of one triad per product line with
launching new products into market. no names assigned. Now try to move the
business-oriented staff (usually your senior
The product marketing manager must: product managers) to the PLM positions,
development-oriented product managers to
• Define buyer personas and determine
TPM and sales-oriented ones to PMM. The
market messages remaining holes in your organization chart
• Create the marketing plan including methods represent your new hiring profiles.
for customer acquisition as well as
customer retention
• Measure effectiveness of product
marketing programs
• Maintain product launch plans
• Deliver thought-leading content via events,
blogs, e-books, and other outlets
• Identify best opportunities for lead generation
• Create standard presentations and demo scripts
• Identify product references for industry and
customer referrals Steve Johnson is a recognized thought-
leader on the strategic role of product
• Align sales tools and the ideal sales process management and marketing. Broadly
to the typical buying process
published and a frequent keynote
• Facilitate channel training including speaker, Steve has been a Pragmatic
competitive threats and related industry news Marketing instructor for more than 10 years and has
personally trained thousands of product managers
and hundreds of company senior executive teams on
strategies for creating products people want to buy.
Steve is the author of the Product Marketing blog.
Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.com
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 17

18. Living in an Agile World ™
The strategic role of product management
when Development goes agile
How can you ensure an agile development team remains
aligned to company strategy and market needs?
No matter how agile your developers are, you’ll never build a successful product
if the work being done isn’t focused on creating products people want to buy.
• Create user stories grounded in market data, not just the opinion of team members,
so product features are focused on solving real problems.
• Create a backlog prioritized with market evidence because how else will you build
a product that the market wants to buy?
• Determine when a product should ship to align with market rhythms rather than
when a certain number of features have been completed.
The Stra
tegic Role of Pro
duct Managem
ent When
Developm
By Steve John ent Go es
son, Luke Hohm Agile
ann and Rich
Mironov
...the best
job to date
and yang of of describin
APO (Agile g the
APM (Agile Product Own yin
Product Man er) and
authors are ager). Mor
exp eover, the
product man erts in the field of soft
agement so ware
knowledge they speak
and credibili with
ty from the
PM role.
Dean Leffingwell
/ Scaling Softw
are Agility
Get a free e-book at
PragmaticMarketing.com/agile
Download a complete agenda and register at PragmaticMarketing.com/seminars
Call (800) 816-7861 to conduct this seminar at your office

19. TOP 10 TOOLS TO
easure User
Experience By Giovanni Calabro
The one fundamental truth vital to
web product development success
is to know the mind of the user.
Why?
Because there is What’s more, when
determining whether
a direct correlation between
techniques used to measure an a website or web-based
online customer’s experience and the ability application is meeting the needs of its audience(s),
to persuade him or her to act. As more of our it’s important to separate aesthetics from function.
daily activities, both personal and professional, For example, your product may be very well-
are managed online, most organizations are designed and visually appealing to your users but
responsible for multiple websites and web-based at the same time, can be functionally “unusable.”
tools that serve a broad range of audiences:
customers, prospects, employees, channel partners, We’ve all experienced unusable sites and
regulatory agencies, etc. That means online applications. Whether it’s the online help site
success depends on the ability to accurately provided by your cable or satellite provider, or
measure a website or web the online banking system you use to pay bills.
application’s performance Beautiful design can be painfully frustrating
for unique target audiences for users. Alternatively, poorly designed sites
on multiple levels across and applications may be quite functional, but
multiple dimensions. fall far short in reinforcing the brand. Finding
the appropriate balance between aesthetics and
However, relying on function is a difficult task. Understanding and
assumptions drawn measuring the user experience is the first step to
from rudimentary achieving that balance. To remain competitive and
measurements of retain customers, product managers need tools to
user-centered design optimize both aesthetics and function.
can’t provide sufficient
data to tailor a website This article provides a three-staged User
or web application to Experience Measurement Hierarchy and also
your users’ unique needs. outlines a simple approach you can use to
determine the best user experience measurement
tools and techniques for your web product
management needs.
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 19

20. Top 10 Tools To Measure User Experience
Stages Need Recommended tools Ideally suited for…
Stage Provides a basic 1. Heuristics Getting a big
One sense of site or picture sense of
web application 2. Expert Review performance and
General
Knowledge performance 3. Web Hits/Usage Analysis major weaknesses
Stage Identify what users 4. User Testing Documenting
Two are doing and where user behavior and
problems exist 5. Session Analysis understanding
Understand
User Behavior 6. Online Surveys why users are not
completing tasks
7. A/B and Multivariate Testing
8. Eye Tracking
Stage Determine whether Measuring user
Three a website or 9. Emotion/Trust Measurement thinking to compel
Influence application is and persuade
compelling 10. Neuro-Marketing users to act
Your Users
User Experience Measurement Hierarchy
The majority of organizations sit at the bottom of the
pyramid, having only achieved Stage One: General
Knowledge of their users’ online experience. Due
to the perceived cost and complexity of measuring
user engagement, the widespread availability of
user-centered design best practices, and significant
cost pressures, this basic level is understandable.
However, leading organizations in industries such
as insurance, manufacturing, healthcare, travel/
hospitality and financial services, have made the
migration to Stage Two: Understand User Behavior,
and are seeing significant return on investment
by way of increased revenue, reduced support
costs and improved customer satisfaction. Even
rarer are firms that have achieved Stage Three:
Influence Your Users. While we’ve yet to see these
tools widely adopted, they represent the future of
user experience measurement.
20 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

21. Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience
Stage One 2. Expert Review 3. Web Hits/Usage Analysis
General Knowledge An expert review is a rapid survey Web hits/usage analysis uses tools
of a website/application from like Google Analytics, Omniture
A basic sense of site or web specialists in user-centered design. and WebTrends to study the hit
application performance Expert reviews can take you to pattern of your site or application.
the next level of user experience They can give you a sense of
The first stage of user experience measurement by systematically the number of pages visited and
measurement involves very little rating the performance of viewed, the typical navigation
measurement at all. At Stage One, your product on several flow, and key drop-off locations.
organizations are typically working relevant dimensions: navigation You can also track statistics such
with “heuristic analyses” or best effectiveness, content selection, as bounce rates and conversion
practices to create assumptions visual presentation, branding, and metrics. When combined with
about users. Whether performed interaction simplicity. An expert customer relationship management
by an internal usability expert or review can often be done with a data, web hits/usage analysis can
a usability consultant, the result short turnaround and can be used be highly effective in mapping and
is an “informed guess” as to to develop a measure of all your understanding user behavior.
what users need. web assets as well as identify areas
that need the most attention. It’s important to remember, web
Tools to find out general analytics/usage metrics rely on
knowledge about the user include: assumptions about user behavior
and how those assumptions
1 Heuristics
. correspond to your web goals.
So while these tools can help you
Heuristics are de facto web determine the relative “success” of
standards and research from your website in meeting business
the cognitive sciences that goals, it’s difficult to know whether
reveal a number of best you are truly capturing the needs
practices in interaction styles, of your key target audience(s).
page layout, and visual design. The knowledge you gain through
Usability problems found web analytics tools may be too
through a heuristic evaluation general to understand individual
are typically linked to aspects user’s thinking and ultimately
of the interface that are persuade them to act or change
reasonably easy to demonstrate. their online behavior.
For example, use of colors,
layout and information structure,
consistency of the terminology, The clear advantages of Stage One
or consistency of the interaction user experience measures are they
mechanism. are inexpensive, easy-to-use,
can be quickly deployed and
applied to many sites and
applications.
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 21

22. Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience
Stage Two The best tools for understanding The advantage of user testing is you
Understand User Behavior user behavior include: learn what the target audience can
and can’t accomplish, understand
4. User Testing why users are having trouble, how
Identify what users are doing to correct it, and receive direct
and where problems exist User testing is highly effective in feedback. The disadvantages are
The user-centered behavior metrics designing for specific user groups. obvious: it can be more expensive
of Stage Two can provide an User testing can be done in person, to test individuals, especially
in-depth analysis of obstacles to in a lab or focus group or even when you’re dealing with multiple
accomplishing tasks on your site(s) remotely online, and involves user types and a large number
and applications. interviewing individuals of test participants. In addition to
who are representative of a testing facility and moderator
your target audience. By asking costs, there are also costs to recruit
In order to truly understand what them to accomplish specific, and compensate test participants.
your target audience is doing representative tasks to determine Participants typically receive a
online, you need to study a ease of use and recommend small stipend and refreshments.
representative sample of individual improvements, you can gather first- Remote testing can serve as a more
users first hand. In-depth analysis hand information about how users cost-effective alternative; however,
typically is accomplished through are behaving and what they additional web conferencing
user (usability) test sessions are saying about your site or costs apply.
performed remotely or in person. application. User testing is often
These sessions will reveal much most effective when it’s done
more about how users are 5. Session Analysis
early in the design process, before
anticipating the site or how the development and visual design. Session Analysis involves studying
application works and what design multiple single-user transactions,
issues might stop a user from live or replayed based on certain
accomplishing key tasks. criteria (e.g., error message present,
drop-off at buy button). They can
reveal a great deal of information
about the user’s path and how to
correct flow problems. Session
analysis tools like TeaLeaf® are
good tools for transactional sites
and web applications.
These tools provide detailed
naturalistic web session analysis,
monitoring and replaying
individual sessions and
capturing the user experience
either live or replayed for
specific individuals. Error
messages, broken links, or
users clearly deviating from the
expected path reveals critical
system weaknesses. The ability
to produce a recording of an
individual user’s sessions—
including the page sequence,
form inputs, button selections and
actual HTML page served to the
customer’s browser—can help find
and correlate an individual user’s
behavior to application errors.
22 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
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23. Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience
6. Online Surveys 7 A/B and Multivariate Testing
. managed through a marketing
automation tool such as SiteSpect
Collecting larger population samples A/B and Multivariate Testing allows or OnDialog, it can also be easily
through online surveys is a quick alternative designs to be tested and scaled and deployed with no
and inexpensive way to capture measured with a small segment of regard to internal technology
likes and dislikes, most common users. Nearly all high-transactional infrastructure, a significant benefit
feature requests, and summary sites, such as, Yahoo, Google and for organizations with complex or
information about a user persona. Amazon.com, use this methodology legacy infrastructure issues.
It is important to collect larger which enables a comparison
population samples to ensure that between the existing site and
in-depth studies are representative the prototype site for conversion Stage Two User Experience
of the target audience. optimization. Tools like SiteSpect Measurement tools such as User
and OnDialog are just a few of Testing, Session Analysis, Online
Surveys and A/B and Multivariate
Companies like ForeSee Results the options available.
Testing are ideal for understanding
provide a variety of intercept survey what users are doing and where
options integrating best practices The beauty of A/B and Multivariate they are experiencing difficulty.
from web analytics, market research Testing is they offer the ability to Each has its own advantages
and other tools, such as the isolate and assess the performance and disadvantages. While all can
University of Michigan’s American of virtually every element of be used, each solves a unique
Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a web site, landing page, or problem for marketers and product
to help companies convert application. From page layout, managers. Fortunately for product
satisfaction data into user-driven to headline text, to complete managers, each of these tools is
web development strategies. color palette variations, A/B also widely available at varying
and Multivariate Testing can be price points that can be customized
highly effective in identifying what to meet your specific requirements.
works and what doesn’t from a
user’s perspective. Plus, when
The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
, • 23

24. Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience
Stage Three audience, product managers can The critical feature of these
Influence Your Users gain powerful insight into critical technologies is to measure the
data unavailable through any experience of your target audience
other means: and understand what they find
Determine whether a website compelling and appealing. Using
or application is compelling these techniques, you can also
• What first captures readers’
It has never been enough to “put attention when visiting the page identify which messages are most
something out there” that basically effective and what dictates trust
works. In order to influence • How often readers see the and positive emotion from your
users, you must directly measure diversity of news and content website or web application.
what users think. Websites and the publication offers
applications must be compelling The disadvantages of these “higher
• Where readers are looking
to the users both to be successful level” measurement techniques
versus where they actually click are many. They require more
and for key influencers to spread
the word about their positive equipment and analysis. Given
experience. Increasingly, sites are 9. Emotion/Trust Measurement their lack of widespread adoption,
ranked on their persuasiveness it can be difficult to achieve buy-
Several early prototypes are using in within your organization to
and influence on user thinking
various measurements (e.g., skin pursue such an initiative. Finally,
rather than just the ability to
conductance, heart rate, facial due to the higher expense, product
accomplish a goal.
emotion detection, mood survey) managers are cautioned to develop
to determine how users feel a realistic return on investment
The following tools are ideal for while using sites and tools. There
understanding user experience model before diving in.
is an increasing consensus that
and satisfaction: both explicit (survey) and implicit
(emotion detection) tools are
8. Eye Tracking needed to really understand user
Measuring and
motivations and experience.
Eye tracking is a well-established managing experience
vision science technology that can
be readily applied to user testing. 10. Neuro-marketing Although time and cost limitations
exist in measuring user experience,
It can record where users are While only a few tools there is a clear progression in
looking first, what is capturing have made their way from user experience measurement
their attention, and what they are neuroscience laboratories, sophistication: from general
choosing to act on. Eye tracking there are some applications of knowledge to influencing user
goes beyond measuring overt Electroencephalograms (EEG) behavior. No matter what level
behavior and provides a window technology and functional of sophistication you choose,
into the user’s thinking. Magnetic Resonance Imaging knowing as much information
(fMRI) which are being used in about your users as possible helps
Eye tracking studies are the commercial arena to measure craft a compelling experience
particularly effective when engagement and emotional for your highest use sites and
applied in an online publishing response to user experience. applications.
environment; for example, These tools provide a window
news and entertainment sites. into user satisfaction.
By testing a subset of a target
Giovanni Calabro has more than 10 years of experience leading interactive research and design
efforts for a wide range of business sectors. Giovanni currently serves as Vice President of User
Experience at Siteworx, a Reston, Virginia-based interactive agency and Web strategy consultancy.
Giovanni is an avid writer and presenter on all topics related to the business aspects of user
experience and user interface design. Contact Giovanni at giovanni@siteworx.com, or visit
the Siteworx blog www.siteworx.com/blog for deeper insights into user experience design and
measurement techniques.
24 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 5, 2009
,

25. Product Launch Essentials ™
Plan and execute a successful product launch
Are your product launch efforts focused on deliverables rather than results?
Launching a product is more than following a simple checklist. A successful product launch is the
culmination of many, carefully planned steps by a focused, coordinated team. Even good products can
fail because of organizational issues, misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities, and a lack of a
strategic approach to guide efforts.
• Learn a repeatable product launch process to shorten the launch planning cycle, get the resources
needed, and know what to expect at every step.
• Understand the seven product launch strategies your team can use to maximize sales velocity.
• Measure product launch progress with indicators that identify unforeseen issues before they become
big problems.
Download a complete agenda and register at PragmaticMarketing.com/seminars
Call (800) 816-7861 to conduct this seminar at your office