Dealing With Many Products
I’m currently dealing with numerous products. On any given day, while I’m not responsible for all of them, I’m trying to think across four lines (or “suites” if you prefer), with a total of 11 products. Isn’t it confusing?
Not really.
Well, I’m still in “ramp-up” mode — learning the technology that drives each product is quite a task, especially when the architects are super, wicked, incredibly smart. It makes my head spin a little bit sometimes, but I’m getting to the core; the concepts / foundations that drive each of the products.
So, how have I decided to step in to this newly created job in a small company and attempt to “productize” and “manage” these products? By breaking them down. And…realizing that the majority of them don’t have a huge feature set. Some do, but there are several people at the company picking up slack, because they know the technical inner workings like I never will.
There’s trade-offs in fast productization in a small company. At least from what I’ve found. Do we need full product-by-product competitive analysis? Not yet, really. Complete brand-friendly 3-5 page positioning statements? Not from what I’ve seen.
Much of my attention is being focused on core activities. Making sure we have the right docs, data sheets that explain features & benefits, technical docs (since the majority of our products require technical know-how on the client side), and sales proposal copy.
I want to make sure Sales knows our product suites, the tech stack, and how our products can benefit prospects. Aside from knowing how much to charge, all the other things (positioning, pain point explanation, product demographics, etc…) will fall into place when they are needed.
I suppose the moral here is, when working quickly, make sure you know what you need to work on and why prior to starting the task.
I Love Monday Mornings
Most people can’t wait until the impending Friday afternoon when a week begins. I remember being that way all throughout High School, but when I started working full time, I gained a really odd love for Monday mornings.
When I worked right in downtown Toronto, I would always love stepping off the commuter train into the city, and walking outside and get that sense of business starting for the week, and being fresh and new for another five days to come.
Yes, I get tired by the end of the week like everyone else, and I do enjoy my two “vacation” days called Saturday and Sunday. However, writing my week-end reports on Sunday night always brings a smile knowing that I’ll be going in to work the next day and help build a company wherever and however I can.
Yes, I’m weird; and yes, I love my job.
Company-Wide Philosophy
Each day I work at a small start-up, I really have a stronger notion towards making sure everyone can put on their product management “hats” in different, and unique, situations.
Because the entire organization is driving towards getting products / services to market, and everyone wants them to be as successful as possible, it’s important that certain product management activities get shared with different people in the company.
For example, say you are working with 5-10 clients in parallel and a client comes forward with an enhancement request. Would you arrange a call with your product analyst? Probably not. You want to be in a scenario where your account team knows how to gather requirements the way your development team likes to get them. Beyond that, they should also be knowledgeable about the process of taking those requirements through to release.
Requirements gathering may be a broad example but the concept can also apply to positioning, documentation, and in essence, driving products forward, which should be a major goal for everyone. The whole business should want to make sure what is being sold continues to move ahead, be innovative, and easy to communicate.
Killer Tool
I have demo’d Feature Plan before, and been very impressed.
My major feeling is that Ryma (the company that builds the app) has a crystal clear understanding of what they want to accomplish. My demo was done via phone — I believe I had trial software, but am not 100% sure. I went back to their site as I thought about writing this post to see if I could find a trial or something so I could include screenshots, but alas, it was either not availalble or I failed to locate it.
There is something I’m saying, I think. Take my example — I’m evaluating how other products out there stack up to my homegrown spreadsheet / doc tools. Now, were I able to find a downloadable demo on the Ryma site, I’d have a much clearer view. Instead, if I want to check out the product, I can either get a candy-like 5 minute Flash-based demo (which is fine), or contact a Sales person, which not so fun. The last thing I want to do is answer questions such as, “why are you interested?” and “what did you like and not like?” and all that stuff. Blech.
I just want to check the product out again, see if it’s changed at all since I saw it over a year and a half ago. I’d reckon to think that others feel the same way, but can’t be 100% sure. If anyone from Ryma reads this blog, is that a metric involved in determining the success of the cross-channel sales strategy?
I have nothing against Ryma — they are a fanstastic group. I’ve met their VP of Marketing at a TPMA event and even had some contact with one of their product managers; these guys are on the ball, no question.
One thing I do remember from the demo was how stuffed the user interface was when I first saw it — option and function happy a litlle. Maybe it’s not in their target definition to go after smaller orgs, but I’d look at it much more carefully if there was a stripped-down, low-cost version that I could grow into my companies day-to-day product management and program management activities.
Anyone out there that’s gone through a similar reality check on what they are using for an ongoing product management tool? If so, any interesting findings?
Scoble Heading to Podtech
Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft and headed for PodTech.net. This is just broke tonight across several blogs. Amazing, this inter-connected World we have here.
I don’t know Robert personally, but I have to say he seems very cool and down-to-earth. I wish him nothing but the absolute best of luck, and know he’ll keep on delivering the same oustanding content he has for many years.
I always love to see exciting and cool things happen to those with nothing but class and a true passion for what they do.
Congrats, Robert!
