Product Management - not just about mobile. Presented at the Bridge Innovation Centre in Pembroke, West Wales

1. Product
Management
In mobile
By Martin Spicer
Programme Manager, CEMAS
t: 01443 65 4265 e: cemas@southwales.ac.uk
www.cemas.mobi
@cemas_usw

3. Synergy is the interaction of multiple elements
in a system to produce an effect different from
or greater than the sum of their individual
effects.
The term synergy comes from
the Greek word synergia συνέργια from syner
gos, συνεργός, meaning "working together".

4. Synergy –
The early days

5. 1957

6. Today’s Talk
The app is not the product
• Case Study – Twitter / Angry Birds
The Customer
• Case Study – Cauldron Caters
Roadmapping
• Case Study - Comixology

7. Your app is the not
THE product

8. Mobile is one (successful) channel
Other channels
3rd party
Web (desktop)
Smart TV
And more

9. http://allthingsd.com/20120711/twitters-pitch-deck-for-big-advertisers-slides/

10. Angry Birds – December 2009

11. Angry Birds – March 2014

12. “With all our games, we’re going for all the
screens: Smartphones, tablets, TVs, the web,
so we really want to bring Space to all the
screens as well. As always, we have limited
resources, so we can only do iOS, Android, PC
and Mac for the launch, but the other
platforms will follow shortly after.”
Peter Vesterbacka – Mighty Eagle Angry Birds

13. The Customer

16. Case Study – Cauldron Caters

17. Case Study – Cauldron Caters – The business

18. Case Study – Cauldron Caters – the Question
How can children and
families eat more
healthy?
(And therefore buy more fruit and
veg)

19. Case Study – Cauldron Caters – the Product

20. “Synergy in action”
Case Study – Cauldron Caters – the App

21. Roadmapping

22. What’s the Plan?

23. What is a Product Roadmap?
“A high level vision of the future
evolution of the product”
Include:
• Functionality
• Effort Required (staff pipeline)
• Release Dates
• Market http://www.slideshare.net/intechnica/product-roadmaps

24. Case Study –
Comixology Acquisition by Amazon and its affect on the
Product Road Map

26. Amazon Acquisition
“We’ve long admired the passion comiXology brings to
changing the way we buy and read comics and graphic
novels.
We look forward to investing in the business, growing the
team, and together, bringing comics and graphic novels to
even more readers.”
David Naggar – Amazon Vice President of Content Acquisition
April 11th 2014
“Amazon is the biggest seller of books, so this acquisition makes a lot of sense.
Given that Comics is one of the most profitable apps on the App Store,
I don’t expect much to change for iOS users thanks to this acquisition,
at least in the short term”
‘App Commentators’
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2014/04/
what-will-happen-to-the-comics-app-now-that-amazon-is-buying-comixology

27. 2 weeks later

28. “Amazon Avoids Apple’s Fees
With Reworked ComiXology
App”
CNET
Wall St Cheat Sheet
Computer Magazine
..and many others

29. Pros and Cons
Cons
• Risk of losing customers, due to inconvenience of ‘in app purchase’
• Call to action of a purchase has many more steps (buy from web, then synch device)
• Big impact on iPad users, but minimal for Google (Android) users
Pros
• Comixology was the highest grossing non game iPad app in 2012 and 2013 – massive
user base
• Immediate removal of a total 30% cost
• Ability to either increase profits or pass savings onto customer (though Comixology has
traditionally not competed on price for new releases with the traditional comic book
store)

30. In hindsight –
Not a surpise
This is the Kindle Model

31. Questions?