A Cool Way to Gather Market Data
While working late this weekend, I came up with a neat way to gather market data when you just aren’t sure about specific decisions that need to be made.
I’m by no means saying I came up with this concept - it’s probably been around longer than I’ve been alive, but I thought I’d share it.
We’re at a point in product planning where we are starting to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. In short: we need customers to help start driving product-related decision making. I got a taste of it while at CES, but now we need to start tightening the belt on some of our leads and being winning and losing deals to see what prospects really need.
We have our CEO and lead BizDev guy headed over to France for another conference in our space this week. This is a great opportunity to get some fact finding completed, as is the other show coming up at the end of the month.
So, I’ll be providing the high-level points / features that we have come up with (we = me and the CTO and other key stakeholder’s) for the current iteration of the roadmap so they can start gauging interest for them in the market.
Do we know what’s going to stick? Nope. But we’re starting to arrive (very quickly) at the point where driving decision making based on opinion is going to eventually lead us astray.
Now, does that mean I’m saying there aren’t innovations out there that prospects and customers haven’t even thought of yet that we shouldn’t make because no one is asking for them? No way.
All I’m saying is, when you aren’t sure, get out in to the market and ask. If that means equipping folks on the front lines with knowledge about what you are at least thinking of doing, then do that.
Same goes for pricing. We are having a little trouble coming up with effective pricing. So, I’m hoping a strategy of saying, “ok, - here are the components we KNOW we want to have, and here are some controlling variables. Based on x, y, z here are some rough estimates / ranges for each of those components - let’s see what works.”
To me, this is a lot better, and still fits within the realm of focus, than just sitting on your hands trying to extract things that the market may have a hard time coming up with without some guidance / gentle pushing.
Get the stuff out there, share your ideas, and see what happens. At the end of the day, everyone (vendors, clients, etc…) all want the same thing: to make money. So long as your product is offering them ways to do that, and you aren’t too far ahead of your time, you’re on the right track.
Welcome: Good Product Manager
Welcome to How To Be A Good Product Manager! Thanks for the link!
I really like the articles on this blog, and am going to be digging through (and keeping up to date with) all of the moving forward. They are all really well written and articulated.
Great job, Jeff! Keep up the awesome and insightful work!
Some Bad UI
So, I busted my Blackberry holster today. Damn.
Not a problem; I’ve bought some great stuff in the past from the Blackberry store. Except, they have now changed it. Looks kinda pretty, I guess.
I get on there, select my device (8703e) and proceed. I find the holster I want - nothing stylish or pink. Just a plain, old, default black swivel holster. Like the one that comes with the device.
I put it into the cart and proceed to checkout. I enter in all my data, but whoops. Someone forgot something:
Notice how I indicate that I’m in Canada. The from actually knows that I’m in Canada - the error message says so. However, I can’t select any province from the drop-down form like it’s telling me to. I can only select US states.
Like I said: oops. Looks like there was some test case along the way that didn’t get QA’d properly before release. Will I buy from the Blackberry store again? I guess. If I can’t get my holster down at my local Verizon store…
CES Closeout
Well, all in all, CES was a very good show. There were a ton of super-cool people that made it over to our booth. Short of the annoying Slingbox demos that were happening right behind us every 1/2 hour on the dot with some actor, it was amazing. I’m still trying to figure out who the hell that guy was — I went looking for him at the end of the last day, but he was nowhere to be found; I had some MusicIP mints to give him and congratulate him on not actually dying after giving the same schtick for the 1,234th time.
I’m glad we are home though. It was quite a journey.
OK, not back to regularly scheduled product mgmt blogging…I swear.
Five Things You Don’t Know About Me
Thanks to Rachel for tagging me!
One
I wanted to be a rock star from about 12 years old until around 16 — I even went as far as to record my own 12-song album where I wrote all the songs and played all the instruments.
No, you can’t hear it. I’m not even sure Rachel has heard the entire thing…
Two
I bite my nails like crazy. As a result, I get sore fingers…which totally suck.
Three
I played a lot of sports as a kid / teenager, but stopped when I got really started into business.
I had / have to overcome the “fear” of not having a University degree, and accordingly, I read a ton of business books. I hate the thought police, but am learning to deal with that stuff.
Four
I learn most effectively when starting with advanced concepts and then progressively moving back to simple ones and the fundamentals. I work a lot on instinct, and question (constantly) those with many years of experience when unsure to make sure my instincts are correct.
Five
The large majority of my happiest memories from teenage-hood involve my now Wife, and I couldn’t be happier about that. We’ve been together since I was in grade 12 (when I went through high school in Canada, we went to grade 13), and she was in grade 11.
We met on a school trip to Europe and I absolutely love the way she tells our story. Whenever it comes up, I just look to her and listen — it’s awesome.
