Product Management & Product Marketing Special Interest Group

Northface Ventures& ScotlandIS

Agenda • Very brief intros • Overview• Prioritise Topics • Agree frequency & style/purpose

of face to face meetings• Community Software for the

Group • Membership ?• Date of next meeting

Intros

• Name • Job Title• Company• What we do• Stage of company development• State of productisation• Key reason for joining the Group• Commitment to contribute

The Mantra

The Product and Channel have to be built around the market problemmarket problem and the the

way that the market wants way that the market wants to buyto buy

Structuring for sustained growth

CEO

AdminFinance

Ops

VP ofEngineering

VPMarketing

VPSales

MarketingComms

ProductManagement

ProductMarketing

Direct Sales

ChannelMarketing

ChannelManagement

CTO

I decide what we build

Why we do Product Management & Product Marketing (PM&M) & Channels

• PM&M formalises processes and gives them owners

• Without Product Management you’ll get the “wrong product”

• Without Product Marketing you will not exploit the value in your product

• Channels deliver scale and incremental capabilities

• Whole product development needs to be coordinated to ensure quality and punctuality

• A product needs to be packaged and promoted so it can be sold

Product Managers OWN this

Everyone is involved but…

Product Marketers OWN this

Profiling Channel Marketing

• Determine channel strategy– Per territory/vertical

• Profile target channel partners• Design channel engagement• Create partner value proposition• Adapt Product Marketing outputs to suit

channel requirements• Hand all this to Channel Management to

recruit, execute and manage

Profiling Product Manager 1

• Attributes– Technical but not an engineer– Knows and loves the process – Knows and uses the product

• And his competitors products– Is a diplomat not an evangelist– Keeps documents on everything– Where the product is poor, not where it’s

good.– Pessimist

Profiling Product Manager 2

• Activities– Collector and arbitrator

• Engineering to Field & Field to Engineering

– Company’s product authority • Features• Schedules

– Mediator/enforcer of schedules

Product Management Value

• Ensures relevant products – Delivered on time and with quality

• Produced efficiently– Consistent company view of product / schedules– Process provides accountability in change mgt– Documents reduce dependency on individual

• Partners and customers are more satisfied– Can plan with confidence

• “We don’t have the resources”• “Methodology is time consuming”• “Detailed technical descriptions

are enough”• “CEO/CTO/CMO has that job”• “We know what to build already”

Objections to Product Management

• Attributes– A strong and competent communicator– Naturally enthusiastic and energetic– Knows his market

• customers view and competitive landscape– Can manage budgets– Knows how to do complex/integrated

campaigns– Writes compelling business-oriented

material quickly

Profiling Product Marketing 1

• Actions– Lead generation

• Direct and with channel

– Public face of company• Company to field (& sales resource)• Company to partners/press/analysts

– Deliver the company positioning• Collateral & Communications

– Mediator/enforcer of positioning

Profiling Product Marketing 2

• Consistent, focused messaging • In line with market language/dynamics• Collaborative marketing with partners• Generates market awareness & interest

– For direct/indirect sales

Product Marketing Value

• “That’s sales’ job”• “We don’t have the resources”

– “Promotion is too expensive”• “We know the market already”• “Marketing never generates real leads”

Objections to Product Marketing

How PMkt relates to PMgtProduct management and Product marketing are two

different disciplines • That share the same objective – success in the

market• That share much of the same data – client and

market information and intelligence• Use many of the same sources of research and

verification – clients, firms, competitors and the market in general

• Contribute to each other as information and intelligence sources to help achieve the same objective.

Product Mgmt in the Organisation• Product Manager is the owner of the product on behalf of

Executive Management• Product Manager is the customer of Engineering• Product Manager uses Product- and Channel-Marketing to

create the value proposition, positioning, messaging and support required to effectively sell his product

• Product Manager uses channel (direct and indirect) to get his product to market

• Product Manager is responsible to Executive Management for life cycle decisions (birth, renewal and “death”) of product

• Product Manager has P&L responsibility for the product life cycle (multiple years)

APPENDIX

The following slides contain the feedback from the original survey we undertook when we first imagined the group existing.

ScotlandIS Product Managers Special Interest Group

Respondents: indigenous (9)Atlas InteractiveWolfson Microelectronics (2)BloxxAmor GroupPrismTech Group LimitedMoney DashboardUniversity Of Dundee (2 students)

Respondents: inward (6)AmazonNCRCisco Systems (2)Freescale Semiconductor (2)

Respondents: overseas (5)iTAC Software AG (Germany)Wittenstein High Integrity Systems (UK/Germany)LibreDigital, Inc.(US)IBM (2: US, Zambia)

Do you agree with the premise that a Product and Channel Community would be useful?

Have you any comments on the stated Objective or would you amend it in any way ?

Three Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are envisaged for the community - please would you rate them?

Should the community be pitched at operational manager level? (In small organizations and start-ups these roles may be fulfilled by senior managers, directors or even the CEO)

We believe we should be careful who joins the Product and Channel community – at least initially. People need to be really enthusiastic and have something to add – be willing to give something in (e.g. tools, opinions, case studies, etc) and willing to share their pain (i.e. problems they are looking to solve. Chatham House rules will apply. Do you agree?

Members should be predominantly, but not exclusively, from the tech sector as we may be able to learn from good practice in other sectors Do you agree?

Should we ask people to declare/classify themselves as Experienced or Aspiring/Novice on applying to join?

Which of the following types of company should be included to begin with?

Should companies wishing to “learn the trade”be able to apply to join the groups ?

Do you think non-ScotlandIS members who ask if they can join should be required to pay a fee?

As regards the online community please tell us what elements you think this should have

‘’

In addition to the online community should the Group have a facility to organise conference calls to allow continuing discussion and knowledge exchange?

Do you agree we should aim to hold occasional workshop meetings?

Possible Areas of Interest

Possible Areas of Interest

Other Ideas• • • • •

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