A Pragmatic Marketing Publication productmarketingmediafiles.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/...You can’t reach multiple audiences with a generic message. 11 Role of

productmarketing.comT h e M a r ke t i n g J o u r n a l f o r H i g h - Te c h P r o d u c t M a n a g e r s . A P r a g m a t i c M a r ke t i n g ® P u b l i c a t i o n

Vo l u m e 1 I s s u e 2 J u n e 2 0 0 3

How to Interview your Customers

There’s a Reason No One is Listening

Building Tomorrow’sProducts Requires

Listening to the Market

ListeningMarket

to the

™

1 / productmarketing.com

Since the bubble burst two years ago, we’ve seen a huge transition in the perception oftechnology marketing. As belt tightening sets in, senior management must reevaluate the value provided by each department. Without

hard evidence that marketing is a contributor, CEOs begin to ask, “So who needs marketing, anyway?”

Part of the reason that technology marketers find themselvesin this dilemma can be attributed to their infatuation withtactical activities. Focusing on closing one more deal,living the role of sales support, and general product firefighting can be a rewarding, low-risk job. Tactical productmanagement is a job that is easy to replicate bysomeone else in the company. Hello pink slip.

Marketing people become invaluable to the companywhen they become experts on the prospective customer.Virtually nobody in the company (including sales)makes proactive calls into the market purelyfor the purpose of understanding theirunresolved problems. Combine that set ofquantified problems with your company’s uniqueability to solve these problems, and you have a winningproduct, and the essence of marketing.

On the Pragmatic Marketing Process (pages 15-16) we list“Market Problems” on the far left, or strategic, side of thechart. Understanding these problems is the most important“box” on the entire chart since the information we collect in this phase, drives the rest of the more tactical activities.This issue of productmarketing.com focuses on specifictechniques about how you can get in touch with yourprospective customers and become the “Market Expert”in your company.

Craig StullPresident and CEO

Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

Why Do We Even Have a Marketing Department?

Inside this issue:productmarketing.com

16035 N. 80th Street, Suite FScottsdale, AZ 85260

President and CEOCraig Stull

Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

Managing EditorKristyn Marathas

Contributing WritersLes Jickling

Steve JohnsonBarbara NelsonAdele Revella

Kristin Zhivago

No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanicalphotocopying, recording or otherwise, withoutthe prior written permission of the publisher.

productmarketing.com™ is available free of charge to qualified subscribers. Forsubscription inquiries call (480) 515-1411; or visit http://www.productmarketing.com

For advertising rates, please call (480) 515-1411.

Other product and/or company namesmentioned in this journal may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respectivecompanies and are the sole property of theirrespective owners.

productmarketing.com is a trademark ofPragmatic Marketing, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.All rights reserved.

About Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, PragmaticMarketing, Inc. was formed in 1993 to provideproduct marketing training and consulting tohigh-tech firms by focusing on strategic, market-driven techniques. Pragmatic's training coursesemphasize business-oriented definition of marketproblems, resulting in reduced risk and fasterproduct delivery and adoption. Since itsinception, Pragmatic Marketing has successfullygraduated over 20,000 product managers andmarketing professionals, and was named one ofthe Inc 500 fastest-growing companies of 2000.For more information about PragmaticMarketing and its courses, please visit thewebsite at http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com or call 480-515-1411.

™

productmarketing.com / 2

Special Features Vo l um e 1 I s s u e 2

3 How to Interview Your CustomersYour personal success depends on talking to your customers. Here’s ten points to help you do just that.

9 There’s a Reason No One is ListeningYou can’t reach multiple audiences with a generic message.

11 Role of Product ManagementAn effective product manager is not just support, they are the critical linkto the customer.

13 The Product Management TriadDefining product management can be a complicated issue for manycompanies, the "triad" may be an ideal solution.

17 I Am Customer, Hear Me Roar A product manager’s irreverent look at how technology companies listen to their customers—or fail to.

21 Part 1 of 3 Part Series

Building Tomorrow’s Products Requires Listening to the MarketBecoming a market expert can be the most valuable of all activities you can do as a product manager.

In This Issue

1 Why Do We Even Have a Marketing Department?

15 The Pragmatic Marketing Process

• Product Definition • Positioning • Sales Process

20 Tools and TipsSee notes on your laptop display while showing PowerPoint®slides on the data projector.

27 Book ReviewsRead a good book lately? We’ve got a couple to share with you from our “top seller” list for product managers.

27 Ask the Expert

28 Case StudiesRyma Technology Solutions Inc. helps IT companies to streamline product management complexities of the higher education marketplace

32 Calendar of 2003 Pragmatic Marketing Seminars


By Kristin ZhivagoHow to interview


Well, get over it. You simplycan’t be successful in marketingif you’re not talking to customers.There is no other source ofpolitical power. None. If youdon’t talk to customers, youcan’t win any internal argumentsabout your strategy, campaigns,and budgets; you can’t representthe customer to all of thepeople in the company whohave a product-centric orcompany-centric point of view;you can’t create campaigns thatwill resonate with customers;you can’t make the right productdecisions; and you sure as heckaren’t going to get promoted.In other words, your personalsuccess—your professionalstanding, your mortgage, yourretirement, your kid’s collegeeducation—depends onmaking these calls.

This article will help you makethese calls. The advice comesfrom someone who has madethousands of calls to customers,and knows exactly how youfeel before making a call.

1. Don’t think of these calls as“cold calls.” You’re not sellinganything. You’re askingsomeone, politely andrespectfully, what theythink. You’re letting themtalk and listening attentively.As long as you don’t startselling or defending yourself(this is very important),the customer won’t getbored and will spend

anywhere from twentyminutes to an hour and a half on the phone withyou. Call enough customers,and you’ll start to realizethat these are the “warmest”calls you’ve ever made.

2. When you call to interview,you can keep calling untilyou get through (one CEOwhose company makes 2million cold calls a yearsays it takes 13 tries, onaverage, before you reachsomeone at their desk). Or,you can leave a message.But don’t ask them to callyou back. Tell them theydon’t need to call you back(leave your number anyway)and you’ll call them againthe next day, and then doso. Some people will callyou back the first time.Others will appreciate thefact that you didn’t askthem to call you back, andwill be friendly when youreach them. Others willblow you off no matterwhat you do. When you call

the secondtime, leave amessage, andthis time askthem to callyou back. Try

several more times to reachthem at their desks (withoutleaving a message) and thengive up. There are alwaysother customers to call.

3. When you get through,introduce yourself again,tell them why you’recalling, and then ask forpermission to go ahead. Ifthey sound rushed, stop.

Say, “Gee, you soundrushed—should we do thisanother time?” If they aretrying to meet a deadline,they will appreciate yourcourtesy, and will be gladto set up an appointment.They may also say, “Well,I do have a meeting intwenty minutes. Can wedo it in that amount oftime?” Say yes, and thenkeep an eye on the clock.At the ten-minute mark,say, “We’ve got ten minutesleft.” Do it again at the 15-minute mark. At twentyminutes, say, “It’s beentwenty minutes. Do youneed to go to your meetingnow?” Sometimes they willsay, “Well, I can be late forthat one. What otherquestions do you want toask?” One woman evenmissed a plane on purposebecause she thought it wasso important that my clienthear what she had to say.Because you are respectfulof their time, theirappreciation will translateinto more time for you.

4. If they ask you, “How muchtime will this take?”—because they’re terrified ofthose 200-question surveys—just say, “Well, it’s up toyou, since I’m just going to be asking a few open-ended questions. Butnormally these calls takeabout twenty minutes.”This is true—if the personis a bit rushed, that’s howlong they take. But if theyenjoy the conversation,they’ll talk longer.

You know you should be

interviewing customers.

But you just never seem

to get it done. Why not?

There are deadlines,

sure, but the real reason

is that you just aren‘t

very comfortable making

“cold calls.” And you’re

not sure what you

should say.

your customers


5. Take copious notes as theytalk. Immediately after theconversation, go backthrough your notes and adddetails. Don’t wait to cleanup your notes; you’ll wantto capture the mood of thecall and phrases they use.If you record the call, tellthem up front and assurethem that their commentswill NOT be attached tothem. Keep your promise,even if someone in yourcompany asks you, “Whosaid that?”

6. Assume that they will testyou. They will say somethingnegative, and then wait foryour reaction. If you don’tdefend yourself, they willcontinue and tell you thewhole truth. Listen as afriend would, empathizingand staying engaged. Don’tcheck your email duringthe conversation; they’llsense that you’ve disengaged,will become insulted andbored, and will terminatethe conversation.

7. If they do bring up a problemyou know has been fixed,hear them out before youtell them. Then say, “Actually,that was fixed three monthsago. We sent out a note,but it’s obvious that wedidn’t do a good job ofcommunicating. Whatcould we have done tomake sure you got themessage?” If they bring upa problem that you can fixlater, tell them that you willtalk to others about it andkeep them up to date onyour progress.

8. Ask two types of questions:open-ended questions listedbelow and questions thathelp to draw them outduring the conversation,such as, “How long has thisbeen happening? What didyou do after that?” Open-ended questions include:How do you feel about our products…service…company? What’s yourtypical buying process forthis type of product? Whathappens—and who’sinvolved? If you were lookingfor this type of product again,what would you do? (If theysay they’d use a search engine,find out which terms they’duse). What do you thinkabout our website? Who do you consider ourcompetitors, and whatcould we learn from them?What trends do you see

in your market right now?What is your biggestproblem or challenge inyour job?

9. If they express doubt, drawthem out. They may answera question with a tentative-sounding “yes.” Pursue itcourteously. “You don’tsound too convinced. Wasthere another problem?”

10. At the end of the call,thank them enthusiasticallyand ask them if you cancall them back later withspecific questions aboutproducts or pricing. Overtime, you will “collect” an“advisory board” that willhelp you make betterdecisions and sell yourideas internally.

After you make one of thesecalls, you’ll wonder why youwere so hesitant to do it before.It will energize you. Next timeyou get into an argument withyour salesperson, who insiststhat the last person she calledon represents a market trend,you’ll be able to say, “Actually, Italked to sixteen customers thismonth, and they all said thatthey didn’t want us to do that,which is why I’m using thisother method.”

How to Interview Your Customers

You should be talking to

two customers a week.

That’s about 100

customers a year.

Kristin Zhivago beganher career as the firstwoman to sell machineshop tools for a Pratt &Whitney distributor in1969. She’s been on thebleeding edge of the tech

market ever since. She foundedZhivago Marketing Partners, Inc. inSilicon Valley in 1979. The companymoved to a waterfront location inRhode Island in 1996. Clients rangefrom thriving young start-ups to thosein the Fortune 500, including DowJones, IBM, and Navision (Microsoft).

She has a working knowledge ofhardware, networking, security,instrumentation, electromechanical,

microelectronic, and telecom systems; and all types of software, including programs used for application development,computer-aided design, contentmanagement, manufacturing,business processes (includingmarketing and sales automation),point-of-sale, and more.

Kristin is the editor of the RevenueJournal, a newsletter for CEOs, andMarketing Technology, an onlineezine for marketing leaders. She isalso a monthly columnist for Adweek’sTechnology Marketing magazine. Herarticles have appeared in numeroustrade and business journals.


Yes, you should be talking to twocustomers a week. That’s about100 customers a year. Eventhough you’ll be conducting in-depth interviews, you’ll still beable to gather statistical data fromthese calls. We have found thatyou can assume you haveidentified a trend if at least fivepeople in a given market feel the same way about something.They will even use the samephrase to describe something,even if they’ve never spoken toeach other. Make sure that youtalk to at least ten people in thatmarket just to be confident inyour findings. You will be able to track trends over time. Youwill spot buying trends longbefore they’re covered in thepress (sometimes as much as sixmonths to a year earlier).

Categorize the data by subjectmatter, so you can track trendsand present them to yourmanagers. If they do require thatyou conduct “check the box”surveys across a wider audience,use what you’ve learned in yourtelephone interviews to createthe surveys. The questions andthe answers will be far morerelevant than if you made up thequestions without interviewingcustomers first. You will findthat the results from the “checkthe box” surveys simply confirmwhat you’ve already learned inyour telephone interviews.

As you gather these data, youwill find new confidence andclarity. You will know what isreally important and what

doesn’t matter at all. You willknow what you should beprioritizing in your marketingmaterials—and we guarantee itisn’t what you thought.

Why do we recommend phoneinterviews? Because people speakmore freely on the phone thanthey do in person. They’re intheir own familiar environment.They aren’t influenced byanyone else, as they would be ina focus group, or nervous about“the people behind the mirror.”They aren’t trying to show offhow much more they know thanthe guy at the other end of thetable. They’re just talking, oneperson to another, telling youhow they feel.

pm.c

How to Interview Your Customers

Build market-driven products by

listening to the marketThe Practical Product Management course fully explores the role of technical

product management, providing tools and processes to help get products to

market more efficiently. This comprehensive course offers real-world product

management techniques—using software and hardware case studies from

enterprise-level to desktop products and services.

Product marketing activities are analyzed in detail with tips for how to be

effective at the strategic elements and how to manage multiple tactical

activities. This seminar is a challenging program that emphasizes strategic

product marketing and market-driven management. Every concept is

designed to be actionable as soon as you return to the office.

The third day of the course drills down into the often-difficult process

of articulating product requirements. Using concepts from the prior two

days, students learn a straightforward method for creating product plans

that product managers can write, developers readily embrace, and that

result in solutions that the market wants to buy.

Learn what

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High-Tech Product Marketing Training

Course designed for:Product managers or marketing managers and directors; marcom specialists

and product developers. You should attend if you manage or contribute to

aspects of product marketing and management.

Call (800) 816-7861or go to

www.PragmaticMarketing.comto register!

Practical Product Management™

Days 1 – 2I. Strategic Role of Product Management

• What is marketing?• Definition of the role of product management• Contrasting product management and product marketing• Assigning ownership of responsibilities• Identifying the “first steps” with gap analysis

II. Market Analysis• Distinctive competence• Market research• Market problems• Technology assessment• Competitive review

III. Quantitative Analysis• Market sizing• Sales analysis• Product profitability• Win/loss analysis

IV. Strategic Planning• Business case• Buy, build, or partner?• Pricing• Thought leaders• Innovation

V. Product Planning• Product definition• Positioning• Sales process• Roll-out process

VI. Case Study

VII. Delineating Responsibilities• Communicating market facts to Development,

Marcom, and Sales• Drawing the line between Product Management

and the other departments

Day 3 Requirements That Work™

(for those who write requirements)

VIII. Building the Market Requirements Document (MRD)• Writing requirements• Implementing use-case scenarios• Programming for the “persona”• Determining product feature sets• Creating the MRD

IX. Analyzing Business and Technology Drivers• Reviewing specifications• Prioritizing the product feature set• Creating the Business Case

X. Getting (and Keeping) Commitments• Product contract• Getting the product team in sync• Getting executive support• Communicating the plan in the company

and in the market

Still not sure

Practical Product Management

is for you?

Attend a FREE 1/2-day session.

See back cover for details.

The contentpublished on most

vendor websites andcollateral ranges from useless to

incomprehensible. If I had a dimefor every company that describes their

high-tech solution as flexible, scalable,and compatible, I could retire. It'sdifficult to tell what the company does,and impossible to differentiate onesolution or vendor from another.

Here's a data point for you. According toMalcolm Gladwell, author of The TippingPoint, the average American sees 254commercial messages each day. You canprobably double that number for yourprospects, given their responsibilities andthe number of vendors vying for theirattention. It is easy to see why you mustinstantly speak to the buyer's most urgentproblem. I know, your product does a lotof great stuff, but this volume of messagesensures that no one will read through alist looking for their pain point. Nor willthey be impressed that you are one ofmany companies selling a product in aspecific category. To get executives’attention and move them into the salespipeline, you need a sniper's precision,hitting the prospect at the specific pointof greatest pain.

If you think that marcom is the source of fluffy, empty, generic language, readon. Marcom has an important role as ittransfers the messages to various mediums,and granted, there is always room forimprovement. But marcom has no hopeof communicating the message if no oneknows— really knows— the people towhom they're talking.

The solution to the problem: productmanagers must have regular contact withpotential customers (not just customers).Just as Product Management reportsmarket info to Development in the form ofrequirements, Product Management mustreport the market problems and solutionsto Marcom in the form of positioningdocuments.

For your marketing programs to work,you must be on the lookout for the oneproblem that is most pervasive and urgentamong your prospects. When you buildthe positioning documents with yourproduct teams, everyone must understanda tightly focused, urgent problem and itssolution. Without this information, eventhe best marcom team will executeprograms that fail.


There’s a reason no one islistening

By Adele Revella


Product managers who hope to fulfill thisrole must clearly understand the businesscontext for their solution, which is usuallydifferent for each type of prospect theprograms will target. The product managermust understand the way that each ofthese buyers relates to the problem, andbuild positioning documents (yes, multipledocuments) that explain the solution inwords that prospect would use.

Each type of buyer in each market segmenthas a different way of articulating theirproblem. So why do most companies tryto “get by” with a single positioningdocument? Because the marketing teamhasn’t understood the need to buildmarketing materials that articulate theanswer to prospect problems. We’ve beentoo busy filling data sheets with vendor-speak to stop and find out what prospectsreally need to know before they chooseour solution.

Joe Costello, former CEO of CadenceDesign Systems, says it well. “High-techmarketing is atrocious— the materialsounds like plumbers’ journals.”

You can have a single message if you sellto only one buyer persona in one marketsegment. Otherwise, you don’t have a choice.You'll need positioning documents foreach buyer persona in each target marketsegment. Sure, it's a lot of work. But youcan’t reach multiple audiences witha generic message.

The high-tech industry is maturing andour marketing needs to catch up. It’simpossible to differentiate solutions onfeatures alone, and prospects are lesswilling than ever before to listen totechnology messages. Leading high-techcompanies are starting to recognize whatother industries have long understood:Success requires you to solve a marketproblem, and then clearly tell the marketwhy yours is a significantly better answerto that problem.

There's a reason no one is listening. Mostmarketing programs have nothing to say.

Adele Revella is an expert instrategic marketing programs, with over 20 years of experience in high-tech marketing. She is the instructor for PragmaticMarketing’s Effective MarketingPrograms™ class, built for productmarketing and marcom teams.

Contact her [email protected]

pm.c

To get executives’

attention and move

them into the sales

pipeline, you need

precision, hitting the

prospect at the specific

point of greatest pain.


Role of Product Management by Steve Johnson

Management often plays asupport role: supporting thechannel with demos and productinformation, supportingdevelopers with user requirementsand project scheduling, andsupporting marcom with screenshots and technical copywriting.Is this the correct role forProduct Management?

Product Management was createdin the 40s at Procter & Gamblefor managing the business of aspecific product. Through theyears, product managers (andbrand managers) have served as “president of the product”in consumer goods companies.Then along came technology.

Technology companies oftenstart with a single developerand a single product. As theproduct becomes popular, theyadd sales people. The sales peopleneed sales tools such as brochuresand demo disks, so we hiremarcom people. And all threegroups complain that they needadditional technical support.Then someone remembers thetitle of “product manager.”

In many technology companies,Product Management is a supportrole. And yet, we struggle tocreate successful new products;we struggle to direct the saleschannel to successful deals; westruggle to create sales tools thatsuccessfully speak to the buyer.

Referencing the consumer goodsmodel though, we realize thatthis is the tail wagging the dog.In consumer products, ProductManagement knows more aboutthe prospective customer thananyone in the company, andmore than the prospect knowshimself or herself. The problemwith the high-tech approach isthat a support function is allabout talking to the market, butwho is listening to the market?

Developers know technology.Sales people know about thedeals they’re working. Marcomknows how to communicate. Allneed market information fromProduct Management.

What is preventing the rest ofthe market from purchasing? Ifyour market share is 30% of thesegment, what’s preventing the70% from buying?

• Maybe the 70% doesn’t knowabout us. Instead of newfeatures, we need only attendnew shows, or direct mail toa new list. Wouldn’t you liketo know this?

• Maybe the 70% is slightlydifferent and needs one newfeature to make it fit. Wouldn’tyou like to know this?

• Maybe the 70% is verydifferent and needs substantialchanges to the product. Wemay have to add double-bytecharacter set support to moveinto Asia, or incorporate a majornew technical capability.Wouldn’t you like to know this?

• And maybe the 70% will neverbuy. Perhaps we have misdefinedthe market as “everyone withmoney” or “everyone with acomputer” yet the 30% thathave already purchased theproduct represents marketsaturation. Wouldn’t you liketo know this?

Wouldn’t you like to know aboutthe market before putting outanother release of the product?The solution: productmanagement should be theexpert on the market and the market problems.

This is the correct role ofProduct Management. Be inthe market, observe customerproblems that our companycan solve, and then tell theDevelopment organizationabout the problem.

Steve joined Pragmatic Marketing in 1996 after 18 years in

software and hardware. Steve’s background includes technical,

sales and marketing management positions at software companies.

His market-driven orientation allowed him to rise rapidly through

the ranks from product manager, where he launched 22 product

offerings, to vice president.

pm.c

As a Product Manager, you'reprobably overwhelmed by features,ideas, product requirements andmarket intelligence data that's spreadacross a number of databases,applications and/or spreadsheets.Keeping this information organizedand easily accessible can be anightmare.

FeaturePlan Collaborative Serveris the only product l i fe-cyclemanagement software designed tosupport Pragmatic Marketing®’’smethodo logy enabl ing you toe lec t ron ica l ly capture marketfeedback, and then track it through the product management process so you can create, plan and delivermarket driven releases of yourproducts.


The Product Management Triad by Steve Johnson

How many product managers do you need?What are their roles in the company? IsProduct Management a support role forSales or Marcom or Development? I’moften asked to contrast product management,product marketing, program managementand other titles in a high-tech company. Allare poorly understood and are defineddifferently everywhere I go.

An ideal solution for manycompanies is the “productmanagement triad.”

Some people have a natural affinity fordevelopment, others for sales and marcom,and others prefer to work on businessissues. Finding these three orientationsin one person is an almost impossibletask. Instead, perhaps we should find threedifferent people with these skills and havethem work as a team.

Start with a business-oriented, senior productmanager. Make this person a director ofbusiness development, or a product linemanager (PLM). Now add a development-oriented technical product manager (TPM)and a sales-oriented product marketingmanager (PMM). Have the TPM and thePMM report to the PLM.

One company had nine product managersand nine products, one product manager perproduct. Yet the Sales people liked some ofthe product managers but not others. Theones that the Sales people loved were dislikedby developers. So we created three productlines with a product line manager for each and then assigned a TPM and PMM to each product line.

Now for each product line, we have oneperson concentrating on product strategyand the business of the product line, whileanother works with Development to buildthe best product, and another takes theproduct message to the channel by workingwith Marcom and the Sales force.

Here are some job descriptions to consider:

Director, ProductManagement

Product Management teams provide careerpaths from entry-level positions to director,all within the product line. The director hasa business-orientation and is responsible forthe development and implementation of theproduct plan for a specific product family.Maintains close relationship with thecustomer/prospect for awareness of customerneeds and perspectives. This includesidentification of appropriate markets anddevelopment of effective marketing strategiesand tactics. This person is involved with theproduct through all stages of a product’slifecycle. Duties include:

• Articulating the company’s distinctivecompetence

• Initiating market research

• Documenting market problems

• Analyzing sales success

• Market sizing and product profitability

• Creating and maintaining the business case

• Determining buy/build/partner decisions

• Product pricing

• Serve as the product expert when dealingwith thought leaders and press

• Positioning the product for all marketsand all buyers

• Documenting the ideal sales process

• Approving final advertising and leadgeneration activities

Technical Product Manager

The technical product manager is responsiblefor defining market requirements andpackaging the features into product releases.The position involves close interaction withDevelopment leads and key customers. Astrong technical background is required. Jobduties include gathering requirements frompotential prospects, recent evaluators andexisting customers, writing marketingrequirements documents, and monitoringthe implementation of a product project.The TPM owns:

• Technology Assessment

• Competitive Review

• Win/Loss Analysis

• Monitoring industry innovations

• Company-wide product roll-out,facilitating training for all departments

• Product Contract with development teams

• Writing business requirements

• Monitoring the implementation of theproduct project


Product Marketing Manager

The product marketing manager providessales and marcom support such as corporatedemos, periodic proposal content review,technical verification of collateral, and fielddemo scripts. The PMM owns:

• Creating presentations and demo scripts

• Providing technical assistance for printedand electronic collateral

• Writing white papers and news flashes

• Documenting competitive threats andrelated industry news

• Supporting trade shows and company-sponsored seminars

• Providing technical support forcorporate visits

• Limited onsite channel support andphone assistance

Consider also a “product line”of your base technology orarchitecture with a Triad forissues that span product lines.The architecture triad can own acquisitions, third-partypartnerships, and common toolsneeded across all product lines.

Does this model make sense foryou? First take inventory of theskills of each of the productmanagers. Create an organizationchart of one triad per product linewith no names assigned. Now tryto move the business-oriented staff(usually your senior productmanagers) to the PLM positions,development-oriented productmanagers to TPM and sales-oriented ones to PMM. Whateverholes remain in your org chartrepresent your new hiring profiles.

DistinctiveCompetence

MarketResearch

MarketProblems

TechnologyAssessment

CompetitiveReview

Win/LossAnalysis Innovation Product

Contract

Requirements

ReleaseMilestones

Presentation

Demonstration

PrintedCollateral

ElectronicCollateral

White Papers

CostJustification

News Flash

CompetitiveWrite-up

"Special"Calls

Seminars &Tradeshows

CorporateVisit

PhoneSupport

MarketSizing

SalesAnalysis

ProductProfitability

Buy, Build,Partner

Pricing

ThoughtLeaders

Positioning

SalesProcess

Roll-outProcess

Press

SpeakingEngagements

BusinessCase

ProductDefinition Advertising

LeadGeneration

MarketAnalysis

QuantitativeAnalysis

StrategicPlanning

ProductPlanning

PromotionalCommunications

SalesTools

ChannelSupport

Stra

tegic Ta

ctical

© 1993-2003 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

Senior Product Manager/Director

Technical Product Manager

Product Marketing Manager

pm.c


Practical Product Management™ introduces a process that gives product managers the tools to deliver market-drivenproducts that people want to buy. It focuses on the practical aspects of juggling daily tactical demands of supporting thechannel with strategic activities necessary to become expert on the market.

Watch for future issues of productmarketing.com as we continue to highlight and further explore the process.

The Pragmatic Marketing® Process

© 1993-2003 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.

CompetitiveReview

TechnologyAssessment

MarketProblems

MarketAnalysis

QuantitativeAnalysis

MarketResearch

DistinctiveCompetence

MarketSizing

SalesAnalysis

ProductProfitability

Win/LossAnalysis

STR

ATE

GIC

Positioning – how wecommunicate with MarcomPositioning articulates precisely whatwe do for the market. We produce a simple statement that is used to create all communications. Marcomprofessionals are the primary recipientsof the positioning document (ordocuments).

Positioning seems to have changedtone in recent years: positioning nowappears to be about tricking the buyer.Positioning documents seem to say“all the products in this category arefundamentally the same so we’llposition ours differently.” Instead,positioning should focus on whatyour product can do for the targetmarket. What problems does it solve?What value does it provide? Whatabout your product is unique? InPractical Product Management, weteach a positioning method thatconsistently generates top-notchresults. There are books aboutpositioning, but they talk about thewhy of it rather than the how of it.

The positioning documents serve asthe “connection point” between inboundproduct management and outboundproduct marketing. We combine allthat we’ve learned about the buyersin a specific market— their problemsand our solutions. Product marketing,working with Marcom, definescommunications programs based on this messaging.

Product Definition–how we communicate with DevelopmentLook at the product from theperspective of the market and create a market requirements document.Understand what the product reallydoes, how people use it and whatcriteria they use to buy it.

There are two product definitionactivities of product planning. On the technical side, Requirementsaddress specific problems andproposed features. Product Definitionlooks at the product from a lesstechnical, more business-oriented view.Within a specific market segment,who are the buyers and users of theproduct? In most technical productcategories, users don’t buy the productand buyers don’t use it. What featuresshould be emphasized? How robustlyshould those features be implemented?

Product definition comes fromcombining the individual requirements,use cases, personas, and goals. Theresulting Market RequirementsDocument (MRD) is how productmanagement communicates marketdata to Development.


A model for successful product management

Sales Tools ChannelSupport

ElectronicCollateral

PrintedCollateral

Demonstration

Presentation

SpeakingEngagements

Press

Advertising

White Papers

PhoneSupport

CorporateVisit

Seminars &Tradeshows

“Special”Calls

CostJustification

News Flash

CompetitiveWrite-Up

TACTIC

AL

StrategicPlanning

ProductPlanning

PromotionalCommunications

Innovation

ThoughtLeaders

Pricing

Buy, Build,Partner

BusinessCase

Roll-OutProcess

LeadGeneration

ProductContract

ReleaseMilestones

Requirements

Positioning

ProductDefinition

Sales Process

Why do product managers spend somuch time supporting sales? Marcomis constantly barraged by the saleschannel to deliver ever more collateral.Yet, are they using the collateral thatwe’ve already produced?

Perhaps we have failed to deliver asales process document.

Imagine all the sales tools and collateralin the typical sales literature room.Where should this tool be used in thefunnel? And this one? And this one?Or should a new sales person sendone of each to all of their prospects?

What’s missing is a Sales Processdefinition. The sales process documentis a sales model for the channel to use,identifying the key steps of the cycle,defining how to use the materialsprovided by the company, and focusingon how to sell the product.

Using the language of your salesmethodology, define each step of thecycle: Who is the buyer? What is thefocus of this step? Which tools aredesigned to support this step?

The sales process document is howProduct Management communicateswith the sales channel. It becomes thebasis for sales training, and forces aninventory and reassessment of existingsales tools.

Sales Process–how we communicate with Sales

SalesTools

ChannelSupport


I am strong, I am invincible, I amyour customer…If you are a productdevelopment house, your customer’sneeds should sound the call of a lion’sroar. If not, you may soon be hearingquite another sound—the ring of thecreditor’s call. Ignore your customer’sneeds at your own peril. Currenteconomic imperatives dictate theneed to be “customer-centric” andlisten to the voice of your customer.If nothing else, your competitiveedge depends on it.

Recognizing this need, technologyexecutives have issued the companyedict to become more “customer-centric,” to listen to customers andbuild solutions that meet their needs.For in the evolution of technologycompanies we have all too often seenthe disastrous effects of technology-driven companies. Companies thathave produced a product based on“neat”, but often unnecessary,technology that developers dreamedup and then passed over to marketingto “find a market.” More recentlywe’ve witnessed the even moredaunting specter of the finance-driven company. The beast born inthat unfortunate era of superfluousVC money where “instant products”were thought to spawn from themixing of heavy funding, dubiousbusiness plans, ill-defined marketsand a great deal of alchemy. In thewake of widespread business failureswe’ve seen a lot of angry investorsasking who those mythical customerswere that were supposed to buy the technology.

Perhaps due to the mistakes of thepast (in some cases in spite of them)or intense pressure to developcompetitive advantages in fiercemarkets, technology companies arenow zealously looking at ways toclosely listen to their customers.To become that marketing-drivencompany that everyone has parroted

since time immemorial but neverbeen capable of implementing.By definition, marketing impliesdeveloping products or service inresponse to known market demands.To market, you need know yourcustomer’s demands.

Before touting marketing-drivencompanies as the technology savior,it is important to remember that too much customer attention is notwithout its pitfalls. Geoffrey A. Moore,in his seminal work “Crossing TheChasm” has repeatedly warned usabout falling into the trap ofdeveloping custom solutions. If weare to develop products that allow usto pass into the mainstream marketwhere the bulge of customers reside,we to need listen, not to the whimsof a few vocal customers, but to theneeds of a cross-section of informedusers. So how does one effectivelylisten to customer needs? How doesone rank and prioritize developmentresources? How does one sift throughthe “white noise” of feedback toestablish consistent needs across an entire market segment?

Over the years I’ve heard some prettycreative suggestions about how Imight collect customer feedback. Thesuggestions always seem to revolvearound things like, “Well just askthem, how hard could it be?” Butthe difficulties of this approachbecome more obvious when you digdown to the next level and considerthe logistics, the collection methodsand the sorting of data.

I remember once being told to “Geton your bicycle, put your ear to theground.” By “bicycle,” my boss clearlymeant “fly” all over the continentalU.S. and “ear to the ground” presumably

I Am Customer,By Les Jickling A Product Manager ’s Irreverent

“Get On Your Bicycle, PutYour Ear To The Ground”


Hear Me Roar:meant take notes. In Memphis, I remembervisiting a large company, being given amassive dump of information, taken out fora pork dinner, plied with alcohol (to pushtheir special requirements up the listfaster) and sent off to Graceland with everyvariety of heartburn imaginable. Much ofthe rest of the trip followed in the same vein.Needless to say the system was not veryefficient. When I returned home, it was no small job trying to sort and come awaywith actionables from the jumble of notes I had taken. This is an approach all toocommon with product managers. Apart fromthis approach being inefficient, it is next toimpossible to validate what each of thosecompanies wanted against all the othercompanies’ needs. The obvious goal is tocome up with a set of needs common tomost, if not all, the customers. This wouldlead me to get the biggest bang for mydevelopment buck. Getting qualified,empirical data from a large number ofcustomers about what product features orenhancements they need has always beenthe bane of a Product Manager’s existence.

Typical Approaches toListening to Customers

Research on customer needs is nothing new;consumer-product manufacturers have beenspending hundreds of millions of dollars oncustomer research for years, mainly throughtime-intensive and costly focus groups andsurveys. Unfortunately for productmanagers, these aren’t viable alternatives as, typical in technology companies, shortdevelopment cycles and limited resourcesare insurmountable challenges.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)solutions have often been, mistakenly, thoughtof as a way to get customer information intoproduct development. However, CRM merelyprovides historical data such as recency,frequency and monetary value to helppredict future trends. CRM is not designedfor a product manager to engage customersto gather, manage and prioritize input forproduct development.

The Emergence of CustomerVoice Management (CVM)Software

You can imagine my delight when I heardthat there might be a way out of thisthicket. I first heard about Customer VoiceManagement (CVM) software a year agowhen a fellow product manager beganimplementing customer input software thatutilized internet technology. At the time Iremember thinking it was surprising I hadnever heard of such software before andeven more disappointing that I hadn’t thoughtof it myself. From a product manager’sstandpoint I immediately understood the“pain” it would cure and as a simple andeffective solution, CVM seemed intuitiveand perhaps even obvious. But hindsight is often like that. You know you’ve arrivedwhen you hear people announce “I can’tbelieve they stole my idea…”

Unlike CRM, CVM allows a productmanager to capture customer intentions,motivations and special requirements. Muchlike Robert Kennedy’s famous quote “Somepeople look at things as they are and ask,why? I think of things that never were andask, why not?” CVM gives your customerthe voice to tell you things they would liketo see as well as the things they liked ordisliked about your product. Therefore,CVM provides a much needed complementto CRM solutions. Knowing the voice ofthe customer helps companies deliver valueby developing to their customer’s uniqueneeds and giving them the tools to effectivelycommunicate that value in language thattheir customers understand.

Benefits of CVM

In a nutshell, CVM software is simply a customer’s pipeline into the productdevelopment cycle. It allows the customeran efficient way to take part in thedevelopment process by providing real-timefeedback on much needed features,functionality and product suggestions. Byallowing customers to visit a simple web

page for product feedback it is possible for product managers to reduce, if noteliminate those cross-country treks wherethey are told to “get on home and make thestuff work”. CVM gives product managersan efficient way to gather empirical data on customer needs. This data can then beused to help define the scope of a product,ultimately, leading to the development of aproduct that gives customers what they need.

CVM Vendors

There are many types of companies operatingunder the umbrella of CVM each onecatering to a slightly different niche; somemore complex and costly than others. Thereare companies such as CustomerSat andSatMetrix that primarily focus on softwareto capture customer satisfaction. ProductManagers in technology small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be interestedin ProductScope Software, a companyproviding a cost-effective solution designedspecifically for the needs of ProductManagement teams in these types ofcompanies. Other firms such as BetaSphereand Informative focus on the needs ofFortune 1000 companies.

A Hero’s Welcome

To Product Management the emergence ofCVM software is heralded as the beginningof a new era of product development that istruly customer-centric. CVM allows thecustomer to finally give voice to the lion’sroar they deserve.

Les Jickling is a freelance technologycontributor and a former productmanager with a software developmentcompany. He has worked for the lasteight years in the technology sectorprimarily in the area of softwareapplications, e-commerce and theInternet. He welcomes feedback at:[email protected]

Look At How Technology Companies Listen To Their Customers — or Fail To.

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Course designed for:Those responsible for market analysis,quantitative analysis, strategic planningand business aspects of high-techproducts.

I. Building Business Cases• Why write business cases?

• Understanding the perspective of senior management

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• Effective primary and secondaryresearch tools

• Essential competitor informationand where to get it

III. Opportunity Validation• Target market segmenting

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• Market Adoption Cycle™

assessment

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• Building the pricing plan• Creating tactical plans• Building the financial model,

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• International considerations

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2. Presentation SettingsLoad a PowerPoint presentation and go to “Set Up Show...”on the Slide Show menu.

If you have your external monitor connected correctly, youcan click on the second monitor under the “Show On:”drop-down. This will now show the presentation slides onthe secondary monitor instead of the primary monitor. Yourprimary monitor can display whatever you want. Someinstructors have their PowerPoint notes plus an on-screenclock, and perhaps a browser window. If you want to showthe rest of your group something on the web, just move thewindow from the laptop display to the external monitor.

On-screen Notes with PowerPoint®

Tools and Tips

Some Pragmatic Marketing instructors use a cool feature of Microsoft® Windows and PowerPoint to see notes on our laptop displaywhile showing the slides on the data projector. This feature is available on most laptops under all versions of Microsoft Windows.You need to update some Windows display settings plus specify the monitor to use in your PowerPoint presentation settings. Here’show to do it:

1. Windows SettingsIn the control panel, go to“Display Properties” andclick on the Settings tab.

If your hardware and driversalready have this capability,you’ll see two squares (labeled1 and 2) that represent yourtwo monitors.

With your data projectorconnected, click on the 2ndmonitor (the square with the“2” in it) and then check“Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor.” You may also need to change the screen resolution of the secondary monitor to 800x600(or lower) as many older data projectors cannot display the higherresolutions. Click OK and you are done with the Windows settings.

You now have the ability to move the mouse from monitor 1 to monitor2, as if you have a very wide monitor. You can drag windows from onedisplay to the other, which is handy for having email in one windowand a browser in the other, or for having your presentation notes on onedisplay with the slide presentation on the other.

If your Display Settings dialogdoesn’t have two monitors, thedialog box will only show onewindow, as shown in this DisplaySettings dialog.

If so, you either don’t have thehardware or your PC’s displaydrivers don’t support dual video.You can try updating yourdevice drivers by working withyour tech support organizationor going to the PC vendor’ssupport site.

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This is the first part of a three part

series exploring how we listen to

the market to become experts in

what they need.The first article shows

how product managers should listen

to potential customers, the inactive

members of our market who have

not bought our products or our

competitors’ products (and are not

looking). The second article discusses

finding and listening to evaluators.

The third article covers on-going

communication with our existing

customers. By listening to all three

types, product managers become

“experts on the market.”

Building Tomorrow’s


Although product knowledge isimportant, spending time listeningto the market is where the reallearning takes place, and thequicker you become acclimated,the more value you add.

What is your comfort zone as a product manager? Is it theproduct? The technology? Thecompetition? The customer?When you first became productmanager, how did you get up tospeed on the job? Unfortunately,many new product managersgravitate towards their comfortzone: the product. They learnabout “the product” by readingthe user guides and brochures,going through the tutorial,attending formal training,surfing the web, and sittingthrough product demonstrationson sales calls.

Although it is important for a product manager to learn theproduct, it is imperative for youto get out into the market assoon as possible to learn what’sgoing on there. Your objective in listening to the market is to become a market expert. This

series of three articles will focuson how to become a marketexpert by listening to threeconstituents in your market:customers, evaluators, andpotential customers. Let’s definethe three groups within our market:

Customers — At some pointin time, members of this grouprealized they had a problemto solve and bought yourproduct to solve the problem.

Evaluators — This grouprecognizes they have aproblem to solve and areactively looking to solve aproblem with your productor your competitors’ products.This is where your saleschannel spends its timeduring the sales cycle.

Potentials — This group is within your identifiedmarket segment but theyhave not bought your typeof product (from you or yourcompetitors) and are notcurrently looking at thesetypes of products.

Most companies think they listento the market. What they typicallydo is listen to the noisy 20% ofthe customers and “listen” toevaluators during sales calls.(Actually, they are busy “talking”most of the time, not really“listening.”) They rarely (ornever) listen to the third group,potentials: those who have notbought the product and are notlooking. The danger in onlylistening to noisy customers andactive sales leads is that youmight build products that onlyappeal to noisy customers andactive sales leads. You might havesome initial success, but eventually,the size of the market you have“created” is not enough to supportyour business. The future of yourproduct (and your company) liesin also understanding the quiet80% of your customers, knowingwhy evaluators buy from you orwhy they bought the competitor’sproduct (through win/lossanalysis), and learning why“inactive” potentials aren’t lookingand haven’t bought anything.

For each group we must learn:

1. Who are they and how dowe find them?

2. What are we trying to learn?

3. When do we listen?

4. Where do we listen?

5. How do we listen?

It is important to balance yourvisits with all three groups in themarket to get a good perspectiveon the market and where yourcompany fits. We need to use adifferent process to listen to eachgroup to get the information we need.

In the first part of this series, weare going to focus on listening topotentials because this group ismost neglected.

Products Requires Listening to the Marketby Barbara Nelson


What are we trying to learn?

This is qualitative marketresearch. Essentially, you aretrying to learn how they aresurviving without yourtechnology. Why haven’t theybought your product or yourcompetitors’ products? Is itbecause:

• They don’t know about you?

• They have a slightlydifferent problem?

• They have a dramaticallydifferent problem (whereyou need to re-architect the product)?

• They don’t have the problem?

Until you know why theyhaven’t bought, you won’t comeup with the right solution toget them to buy in the future.

Once you get the appointment,learn about the key players. Forcomplex business-to-businesssolutions, there is usually adecision maker, key user, andtechnical reviewer. It is importantto listen to each of these players.

Decision Maker— whatkeeps him or her up atnight (not just in context of what you do). You arecompeting not only withyour competitors, but alsofor mind share and resourcesagainst everything else thedecision maker has to dealwith. If the final decisionmaker is the CEO, youare competing with bothinternal and external forcesover which you have nocontrol. The CEO candecide to spend money on internal infrastructuresystems, more personnel,benefits, office space,security, sales, marketing,development, services, (andthe list goes on…). Whyshould he/she buy yourproduct? What kind ofROI is he/she lookingfor? If you focus yourbusiness on solving criticalproblems, your productwill be more likely to berecession-proof.

Key User— what problemsdoes he or she face everyday? This is the person forwhom you will be buildingthe solution. But keep inmind; the problems mightnot be large enough thatthe decision maker will payto solve them.

Building Tomorrow’s Products Requires Listening to the Market

List

How you find them...Talk to your direct marketing group and ask, “If you were to send a direct mail piece to our market segment, what list would youuse?” This is the list you would start with. Then, remove customersand anybody in the sales pipeline (evaluators). What you have left is potentials.

How to engage them...Call them—“I am a product manager for XYZ company. I amresearching how to deploy our development resources over the nextyear.” If you have domain expertise, say, “I used to do what you do.I am trying to learn what has changed since I was a [job title].”

Trade Show

How you find them...Trade shows are usually targeted to a market segment (such asconstruction), a technical platform (such as Linux or Microsoft®

Windows), or a type of problem to solve (Customer RelationshipManagement or CRM). As a product manager, you might already besigned up to attend the trade show. Talk to the trade show coordinatorand make sure you will have time at the show outside of the booth.

How to engage them...In the booth—ask qualifying questions. Sort visitors into customers,evaluators (these are the “hot” leads we give to sales), and potentials(they might be tire kicking or just want the tchatchke). Contact thepotentials when you get home (“You stopped by our booth. I knowyou aren’t currently looking but I am a product manager…[similarscript as above]).

Work the show—go to the pretzel or coffee stand. Start up aconversation with other attendees. “I am a product manager…”

Who are potentials and how do we find them?

Sales sometimes call hot leads “prospects.” The group we call potentials arethose in our market who have not bought one of our types of productsand are not currently looking. Think of them as inactive prospects.

Your first objective is to find potentials and setup an appointment to visit them. If you have additional resources to assist you in getting theappointment, use them. But don’t outsource the appointment itself.

Getting Outside Your Comfort ZoneConference

How you find them...Speaking engagement—collect business cards

Go to sessions. Listen to the questions from the audience.

How to engage them...Contact people who came to your session. “Remember me? I’m theone that gave the speech at XYZ conference. Can we meet…?”

After the session, “That was an interesting question you asked.I’d like to learn more…”

Trade Association

How you find them...Join the local trade association for your market segment (usuallyvendors can join as associate members). Go to the meetings.

How to engage them...At the meeting, get to know the members. Make sure they knowyou are not a salesperson, but that you are a product manager tryingto learn more about your market.

Executive Introductions

How you find them...Ask your executives to introduce you to executives at othercompanies in your market.

How to engage them...These are the decision makers. Don’t abuse the introduction bytaking too much time.

Friends & Family

How you find them...Ask your friends and family if they know anybody in the marketsyou serve. You might find a friend of a friend who is the perfectcandidate. Ask for an introduction.

Get to know people at your kid’s soccer games, at cocktail parties,anywhere groups of people meet.

How to engage them...People you meet personally or through a mutual friend are usuallythe easiest to engage. This is the method many sales people haveused for years to “cold call” prospective customers.


Technical Reviewer —This person can veto thedecision if it doesn’t meetthe technical expectations,but generally this personisn’t choosing which solutionto buy. If the solution is athreat to his/her job, theycould cause a roadblock,however. Understand howto get on his or her side.Also, learn what “cool”products they have seenlately. You might becomeaware of new technologiesearlier than you wouldhave on your own.

Other things youare trying to learn:

• Do they know you? Whatis their level of awarenessor perception of yourcompany?

• Where do they buy productslike yours, what process do they go through, whatchannels would beacceptable (direct,distributors, VARs, web,catalog), what kind ofpricing constraints mightthere be?

• Who is your competitionand what do they think of them?

• Who do they go to foradvice about products suchas yours?

When do we listen?

Becoming an expert on yourmarket is not a one-time project.It should be an ongoing process.When you first begin, immerseyourself in this activity. Spendone month visiting 10-12 sitesto give you a jump-start. Then,on an ongoing basis, visit onepotential a month so you canstay in touch with what is goingon in your market. In high-technology, things can changerelatively quickly, and if youdon’t stay in touch, you mightmiss a new trend or shift in technology.

Use every opportunity you haveto visit potentials. You mightalready be traveling to a tradeshow or conference. Meetpotentials there. When you doa speaking engagement be sureto collect business cards andmake an appointment later inthe day or the next morning. Ifyour travel budget is constrained(and whose isn’t?), don’t overlookpotentials that might be inyour own neighborhood.

Don’t forget to stay in touchwith those you are able toengage. When you need anoutside view, call them to testideas, positioning, names, andfeature possibilities. However,be careful not to skew yourresults by only listening to the same few.


Building Tomorrow’s Products Requires Listening to the Market

Where do we listen?

Visiting potentials, onsite, is by farthe best scenario. Viewing themin their “natural habitat” is whereyou will learn the most and havethe best context of their situation.But if you are not able to alwaysdo this, it’s all right to also listento them at the trade show orconference, or on the telephone.If you have usability labs at youroffice, observe non-customersusing your products and thenlisten to them one-on-oneafterwards to get moreinformation.

How do we listen?

Don’t outsource this part of theprocess! Own it! This is wherethe market-expertise lies. Anddon’t take Sales with you. This isnot a lead generation or sellingactivity. It is a market researchfunction and a listening exercise,not a talking exercise. Yourobjective is not to drum up newbusiness by talking about howgreat your products are, but tolearn about the problems in themarket and how your productsfit in the landscape. Here are 10tips on listening to potentials:

1. Observe them doing theirjob in their natural habitat.

2. Spend a “day in the life” withthe potential. Follow him orher around doing the job.

3. Ask questions —“Why didyou do that? Who needs that information and why?What purpose does thatfunction serve?”

4. Keep the questions open-ended. This kind of marketresearch is qualitative, notquantitative and should not beconducted like a formal survey.

5. Don’t interrupt—let the subjectfinish a thought. You mightbe thinking, “Our productwill solve their problems!”Save that for later. You willprobably still learn somethingby letting them talk.

6. Don’t talk about your product.At the very end of theinterview, if it turns out thatyour product is a perfect fit,you might say, “We actuallyhave a product that might fityour needs. Are you interestedin learning more?” If theperson says, “No,” you needto respect that. The problem

is probably not urgentenough if this is theanswer (which tells you a lot).

7. Get the tour. Many companiesoffer a formal tour of theirfacilities. If so, take it. It canbe very enlightening abouttheir business, about whatthey are proud of, about howthey do things.

8. Go with a buddy. Wheneverpossible, do these interviewsin pairs. What you don’t see,your partner might. Oneperson can take notes whilethe other observes and asksquestions. Perhaps you shouldpair up a senior productmanager with a less expe-rienced one, a product managerwith marketing manager, orthe product manager with adevelopment lead.

9. Document the interview in a call report right away. Youwon’t remember details fromone visit to another unlessyou do. This will become a body of knowledge youcan share with others onyour team.

10. Debrief with someone onyour team right after yourinterview. This helps youremember, analyze, and share the information youhave learned.

This activity takes self-disciplineto make it a part of your everydayroutine. It is so easy to slide backinto tactical, urgent activities,but becoming expert on themarket is very strategic, and thefuture of your company dependson it. It helps you figure outwhat you need to build 12-18months from now.

Out of the three groups you shouldlisten to in your market, potentialsare the hardest to engage. Why?Because it require you to getoutside your comfort zone.

However, becoming a potentialexpert can be the most valuableof all activities you can do as aproduct manager. Only you canmake it happen!

Stay tuned for Part 2 about Listening to Evaluators.

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Barbara Nelson is an instructor for Pragmatic Marketing. She has 21years in the software industry, including vice president of productmarketing for a leading provider of business and accounting applicationsfor the middle market. Before her decade of product marketingexperience, she worked closely with customers in several capacities,which taught her the importance of listening to the customer and tosolving critical business issues.

Create executable Market Requirements Documents that result inproduct solutions your prospects wantRequirements That Work™ is an intensive one-day course that introduces a straightforward, repeatable method for creating easy to understand product plans that win.

This course teaches product managers how to write a Market Requirements Document thatdevelopers will read, understand and readily embrace. The result? Feature/benefits solutionsyour market will want to buy.

This training establishes clear roles for team members, teaches a process that creates anexecutable plan–and delivers solutions that sell.

Course designed for:Product managers and lead product developers. Attend if you are responsible for definingand delivering high-tech products. Product Managers get more from this course whentrained simultaneously with their counterparts in product development.

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II. Gathering Input• Channels of input to product planning• Organizing product ideas• Quantifying market needs

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IV. Analyzing Business and Technology Drivers• Reviewing specifications• Prioritizing the product feature set• Creating the Business Case

V. Getting (and Keeping) Commitments• Product contract• Getting the product team in sync• Getting executive support• Communicating the plan in the company

and in the market

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Product Marketing TrainingHigh-TechRequirements That Work™

Course designed for:Product managers and lead productdevelopers. You should attend if you areresponsible for defining and deliveringhigh-tech products. Product managers getmore from this course when trainedsimultaneously with their counterparts in Product Development.

I. Defining Roles and Methodology• Understand the source of

conflict between Developmentand Marketing

• Define clear roles andresponsibilities

• Introduce a product planning methodology

II. Gathering Input• Channels of input to

product planning• Organizing product ideas• Quantifying market needs

III. Building the Market Requirements Document

• Writing requirements• Implementing use-case scenarios• Programming for the “persona”• Determining product feature sets• Creating the Market Requirements

Document (MRD)

IV. Analyzing Business andTechnology Drivers

• Reviewing specifications• Prioritizing the product feature set• Creating the Business Case

V. Getting (and Keeping)Commitments

• Product contract• Getting the product team in sync• Getting executive support• Communicating the plan in the

company and in the market

Createexecutable

MarketRequirements

Documents thatresult in product

solutions yourpotentials want

Requirements That Work is an intensive one-day course that introduces a straight

forward, repeatable method for creating easy to understand product plans that win.

This course teaches product managers how to write a Market Requirements Document that

developers will read, understand and readily embrace.The result? Feature/benefits solutions your

market will want to buy.

This training establishes clear roles for team members, teaches a process that creates an

executable plan–and delivers solutions that sell.


About getting market information byphone, there are really two answers toyour question: “No,” and “I supposephone is better than nothing.”

Onsite visits are the best way to learnabout your market—in your prospects’and customers’ natural habitats. Makethis happen by combining this with otherout-of-town activities such as sales calls,trade shows and conferences.That said,phone interviews are better than nothing.

Try something like this: “Hello, [Ms.Smith]. My name is [your name] andI’m a product manager from [yourcompany]. We help companies in [industrythey are in] to do [what you help themdo]. I am setting up a research project

to learn more about what [job title youare calling] in [industry they are in] arefacing in today’s economy. I have a fewquestions — can we set up a phoneinterview of about 10-15 minutes at atime convenient for you?” Start with open-ended questions. This is all about listening— it isn’t the time to try to sell themanything. You’re trying to get them toarticulate issues, objections, concerns,problems—listen, listen, listen. Don’t tryto talk them out of anything they say,or talk them into anything yourcompany sells.

At the end of the call:

“Thank you so much for your time andthoughts. This has been very helpful.

Would you mind if I called you againsometime in the future to learn moreabout your situation?” (This opens thedoor for future conversations, and perhapsan onsite visit when you’re in their town.)

Finally, start with some existing customersto build your confidence. They are usuallyeager to talk to product managers. Onceyou’ve visited a few customers, you’llfind interviewing the rest of the marketis a breeze.

I am a new product manager and I’m trying to learn about my market. Iknow I’m supposed to go on onsite customer and prospect visits but my scheduleis filling up with product meetings and demos. Instead of doing onsite visits,can I do phone interviews?

The Deadline By Tom DeMarcos

What a fun book! It’s a delightfulnovel about Product Managementand a massive project. Our hero,Mr. Thomkins, is kidnapped by thedespot of a new country who wants tocreate a thriving software industry.(The benevolent despot soundsremarkably like a guy we know fromRedmond—he wants to be the firstentrepreneur to take a countrypublic.) After getting over the initialshock of being drugged and kidnapped,he takes on the project as a challenge tocreate the perfect software project.

As the plot thickens, the project is facedwith familiar obstacles. Thomkins writes ajournal about what works and what doesn’twork and we learn techniques and rules foreffective product and project management.Unlike most business books, this instructivenovel is both entertaining and humorous.

If you’ve ever been told to “just addresources”, or “work harder, on nightsand weekends”, or “skip design—wedon’t have time” to meet an impossibledeadline, read The Deadline and send acopy to management. Even if it doesn’t

change anything, at least you’ll beentertained.

Software ProductManagement Essentials

by Alyssa Dver

Software Product ManagementEssentials is a hands-on guide to help

new product managers sift through thenumerous tasks and responsibilities involvedin this pinnacle job. The book is loadedwith tips and example best practices to help even experienced product managersoptimize their time and effectiveness. Basedon proven methods and state-of-the-artprocesses, the book helps product managersprioritize the many tasks and issues thatthey confront.

High Stakes, No PrisonersA Winner’s Tale of Greed andGlory in the Internet Warsby Charles H. Ferguson

High Stakes, No Prisoners tells the storyof FrontPage, its creation, growth, andultimately, sale to Microsoft. It serves as anexcellent history of the internet boom,exploring the startup company’s decisionsand mistakes with great candor, sometimes

too much candor. Anyoneconsidering venturing outon their own should readthis cautionary tale ofinterference by venturecapitalists and misdeedsby potential partners,despite the technicalexcellence by the peoplewho do the work.

Book Reviews

Ask the Expert

27 / productmarketing.com email your questions to [email protected]

Barbara Nelson is aninstructor for PragmaticMarketing. She has 21years in the software

industry, including vice president ofproduct marketing for a leadingprovider of business and accountingapplications for the middle market.Before her decade of product marketingexperience, she worked closely withcustomers in several capacities, whichtaught her the importance of listeningto the customer and to solving criticalbusiness issues.


Case Study

A team of Canadian entrepreneurs hasbeen listening to the software developmentmarket for years, and their experiencetold them that product managers arebogged down by routine tasks that arelaborious, time consuming, and oftencounter-productive. Caught betweentheir primary tasks of designing productsand communicating with customers,Sales, R&D, Marketing, and seniormanagement, product managersinevitably face major distractions asthey plod through the entire productdevelopment cycle. With these issues inmind, the entrepreneurs formed RymaTechnology Solutions Inc., spentconsiderable time researching themarket, and built FeaturePlan™,a powerful software solution that helps IT companies streamline product management.

According to Andre Levesque, Presidentof Ryma, “Our research showed thatit’s becoming more and more difficultfor product managers to work in anenvironment where they are swampedwith tactical issues. And the demandson their time are phenomenal. Facedwith deep budget cuts, they often mustmanage multiple products. They haveto bring products out faster and bettermeet market requirements. Gatheringand managing information is one oftheir biggest challenges. Most productmanagers are using Microsoft® Exceland PowerPoint® to manage and reportrequirements. And they just can’t do itanymore. The organization and sharingof information is nearly impossible.Simply put, the product managementworkload has outstripped the ability of the tools to keep pace.”

That’s where FeaturePlan comes in.FeaturePlan automates the productmanager’s most tedious tasks—collecting, organizing, tracking and

distributing detailed product planningdocuments. With FeaturePlan, productmanagers can more easily determineproduct features based on marketdemand, competitive positioning,customer impact, and requireddevelopment time and effort. At aglance, they can also see the status of all projects—including features,planned delivery date, and deviationfrom plan—and instantly generate theMarket Requirements Document (MRD).

Built by Product Managersfor Product Managers

How does the team at Ryma know somuch about the challenges that high-tech product managers face? They’vedone the job themselves. In the courseof their careers, they went in search oftechniques and tools to support andstrengthen product management. Mostof the methodologies they found weregeared toward manufacturers of hardgoods, as opposed to software. Thenthey discovered Pragmatic Marketing®,which offers product managementseminars designed specifically for high-tech.

“While working for a software company,we attended Pragmatic’s PracticalProduct Management™ class in orderto obtain the industry’s leading productmanagement blueprint and learn bestpractices,” says Robin Lowry, ProductManager at Ryma. “We found Pragmaticpresented a sound methodology forstreamlining our product managementprocesses, making better use of ourpeople, and understanding andevaluating market requirements.”

Levesque agrees, “Pragmatic offers adown-to-earth approach to strategicmarketing that gets straight to thepoint. The years of experience of the

Ryma Technology Automates ProductManagement Process

DATA DATA

DATA

FORMS TEMPLATES

“FeaturePlan is freeing up product

managers to actually think and

analyze and weigh the decisions

that need to be made.”

-Robin Lowry


To feature the product management success at your company, contact [email protected]

instructors really comes across.Plus Pragmatic’s methodologyis geared specifically for thesoftware industry. In a veryshort time, you can master theirteachings and begin to see thevalue. It took me only about aweek to empower my productmanagers to use the methodology.Then everybody was in sync. Itjust makes perfect sense.”

But Levesque realized there wassomething that could add evenmore value to this practicalmethodology for productmanagement: a softwaresolution with which toimplement the process. “At theend of the class, I asked aboutavailable tools to automateeverything we had learnedabout strategic marketing,” heremembers. “Turns out, therewas nothing viable on themarket. So we founded Rymaand set out to automate thePragmatic Marketing processes—what would become FeaturePlan.And we never looked back.”

Using FeaturePlanto Build FeaturePlan

The Ryma team realized thePragmatic methodology wasbuilt on years of experience andbest practices, so they followedthe teachings to ensure that theproduct they were building wasgrounded in actual marketrequirements. With the Pragmaticcourse as the foundation, Rymadesigned a product interfaceand coded a prototype. Then

they set to work using the earlyversion of FeaturePlan to testand build the solution itself.First stop: the Pragmaticinstructors.

“They’ve been product managersthemselves and worked withhundreds more,” says Lowry.“Their insights and adviceabout the product have beeninvaluable. Next, we tookFeaturePlan to product managersin the field, using it to test themarket, find out what theyliked, what they wanted in a product to simplify andstrengthen their ability to do their jobs.”

“The first release we came outwith was an exercise in themethodology,” says Levesque.“We used FeaturePlan toconduct our own informationgathering, organize marketdemands, and plan desiredfeatures. We used thoserequirements to revamp thesolution. And we recentlyreleased FeaturePlan 2.0—apowerful Windows applicationwith intuitive navigation andloads of forms—with tenmonths of market feedbackrolled into the product.”

The CompleteSolution for ProductManagement

Today, product managers attendthe Pragmatic seminars to learnthe best way to enable strategicproduct marketing, enhancetheir jobs, and communicatewith target market segments inorder to address high-valueprospect problems. Then they

can go back to the office anddeploy an easy-to-use tool thatwas developed to help themimplement that methodology—quickly and efficiently.

“FeaturePlan reinforces andadds value to a customer’sinvestment in PragmaticMarketing training,” emphasizesLowry. “After you take a classand come back with all thesegreat ideas, you can actuallyapply them immediately withthe software. The seminar andsoftware work hand in hand,one optimizing the other. Nowproduct managers have boththe methodology and theimplementation tools to makebest practices pervasivethroughout their organization.”

“Our customers like having atool to help gather input, createmarket driven requirements, androadmap releases,” she notes.“They like the reports they cancreate at a touch of a button,especially the MRD. They likethe traceability from inputthrough to problem statementsto requirements. They like thecalendar function that lets themsee all of the products they areresponsible for at a glance, withmilestones and target dates. Byautomating the manual tasks ofcollecting and managing data,FeaturePlan is freeing up productmanagers to actually think andanalyze and weigh the decisionsthat need to be made.”

Levesque adds, “Without toolssuch as this, product managersend up being very tactical. Theysimply can’t find time to do thestrategic work, like analyzing

volumes of data in order todesign strong products that meetreal market requirements. Withthe Pragmatic methodology andFeaturePlan, product managershave everything they need tomake better decisions that arebased on market facts, notopinions. They can create reportsthat demonstrate market demandand ROI in black and white.”

What’s Next?

Ryma has recently developedtools to make sharing informationbetween product managers andcollaborators even easier. A newserver version of the productenables various departmentswithin a company to providefeedback, gain access to vitalmarket data, and see the statusof projects. At the same time,Ryma is working to integrateFeaturePlan with market-leading software developmentand requirements definitiontools to make the hand-off to developers seamless.

Most importantly, Rymacontinues to work closely withPragmatic to ensure that itssoftware solution implementsall facets of Pragmatic’steachings—from productmanagement to launching andmarketing a product. ConcludesLevesque, “We are big believersin the Pragmatic approach toproduct management. And we successfully used thatmethodology to build andexpand our own business.”

Case Study

pm.c


Product Marketing TrainingHigh-TechEffective Marketing Programs™

Course designed for:Product managers, marketing managersand directors, industry marketingmanagers, and marcom managers. Youshould attend if you are responsible formarketing strategy or the programs thatdrive revenue, customer retention, andbrand awareness.

I. Roles and Responsibilities• A structure for effective programs

• Balance needs of the sales channel

• Accountability for revenue andother goals

II. Prospect Profiles• Why prospects don’t hear you

• Attributes of successful messages

• What the sales channel really needs

III. Program Strategy• Strategy is science, not art

• Eliminate the “list” of activities

• Optimize program assets

• Achieve results stakeholders truly value

IV. The Marketing Plan • A business case for programs

• Correlate budget to measurableresults

• Build consistent managementsupport

V. High-ROI Sales Tools• Create a strategic website

• Move leads through sales pipeline

• Manage endless requests for new tools

• Objective measures of effectiveness

VI. Measurable Program Execution• Generate leads that produce

revenue

• Best practices for customerprograms

• Gain perspective on awarenessprograms

• Measure program results without CRM

Createmeasurable

growth inrevenue,

awareness,and customer

retentionEffective Marketing Programs is an

intensive two-day course that illustrates best practices for programs that have a

quantifiable impact on revenue, marketawareness and customer retention.

Through real-life case studies, you will see how companies of all sizes get their

message heard in markets both large andsmall. Take away skills and ideas that

immediately impact your results, and thenpay dividends throughout your career.

July

Call (800) 816-7861 or go towww.PragmaticMarketing.com to register!

August

September

October

Calendar of 2003 Pragmatic Marketing Seminars

16035 N. 80th Street, Suite FScottsdale, AZ 85260

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDPHOENIX, AZPERMIT 995

productmarketing.com™

* Requirements, Day 3

Practical Product ManagementTM

July 14 – 15 ..........................San Francisco, CAJuly 21 – 22 ..........................Boston, MAJuly 28 – 30* ........................Toronto, Ontario, CanadaAugust 4 – 6* ......................San Francisco, CAAugust 12 – 14* ....................Fairfax, VAAugust 18 – 20* ....................Boston, MAAugust 25 – 26 ....................San Francisco, CASeptember 15 – 17* ..............San Francisco, CASeptember 22 – 23................Atlanta, GASeptember 29 – 30 ..............Pittsburgh, PAOctober 6 – 8* ....................Boston, MAOctober 14 – 15 ....................San Francisco, CA

* Requirements That Work, Day 3

Requirements That WorkTM

July 30..................................Toronto, Ontario, CanadaAugust 6 ..............................San Francisco, CAAugust 14..............................Fairfax, VAAugust 20 ............................Boston, MASeptember 17 ........................San Francisco, CAOctober 8 ............................Boston, MA

Analyzing Market OpportunitiesTM

August 6 – 7 ........................San Francisco, CAOctober 8 – 9 ......................Boston, MA

Effective Marketing ProgramsTM

July 16 – 17 ..........................San Francisco, CASeptember 24 – 25 ..............Atlanta, GAOctober 8 – 9 ......................Boston, MAOctober 16 – 17 ....................San Francisco, CA

Strategic Role of Product MarketingTM

September 5 ........................Vienna, VASeptember 12 ........................Santa Clara, CA8:00 am – 12:00 pm

• As a high-techexecutive, are youunclear about thestrategic role ofproduct management?

• Does the role of productmanager in your companyneed to be defined to the CEO so support can be given to strategic activities?

• As a product manager, do you striveto lead the organization rather thanreact to it?

This half-day session introduces the industry standard for high-techmarketing, the Pragmatic MarketingProcess. Refined over ten years andimplemented by hundreds of technologycompanies, this process shows howProduct Management and Marketingpersonnel can move from tacticalactivities to quantifiable, strategicactions that deliver tremendous valueto the company.

This session includes immediateactionable ideas about how to bestestablish the role of ProductMarketing/Management and definemarket-driven products that makecustomers want to buy.

The seminar is open to anyonecurrently employed in high-tech

marketing including seniormanagement, product marketingmanagers, and product managers.

There is no fee to attend,but registration is required

via our website:www.PragmaticMarketing.com

Seats are limited, so earlyregistration is recommended.

See available dates on calendar.

*

seminar The Strategic Role ofProduct Management

Free

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