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752009The ProductManagement TriadUpdating thePragmatic MarketingFrameworkTop 10 Toolsto Measure UserExperienceThe StrategicProduct Managerand the CFO
The ProductManagement TriadBy Steve JohnsonSome product managers have a natural affinity for working with Development,others for Sales and Marketing Communications, and others prefer to work onbusiness issues. Finding these three orientations in one person is an almost impossibletask. Instead of finding one person with all the skills, perhaps we should find threedifferent people with more specialized skills and have them work as a ionPricingWin/LossAnalysisDistributionStrategyBuy, Buildor sProcessPresentations& sEventSupportReferrals AssessmentTechnical 14 The Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7, Issue 5, 2009MarketingTACTICALSTRATEGICStrategy
How do you organize product managementwhen there are multiple people involved withvarying skill sets? How any product managersdo you need? What are their roles in thecompany? Is product management a supportrole or a strategic one? How do you use thevarious product management titles such asproduct manager, product marketing manager,program manager, or product owner?Titles are poorly understood and defineddifferently by many organizations. Every year,participants in Pragmatic Marketing’s AnnualProduct Management and Marketing Surveyidentify hundreds of different titles for thoseconducting product management activities.An ideal solution for many companies is the“product management triad.”Some product managers have a naturalaffinity for working with Development,others for Sales and Marketing, and someprefer to work on business issues. Findingthese three orientations in one person isvery difficult. Instead, perhaps we shouldfind three different people who each possessone or more of these skills and have themwork as a team.The product management triad includes astrategist, a technologist, and a marketer.Start with a business-oriented senior productmanager responsible for product strategy.Make this person a director of productsor product line manager (PLM). Now adda technology-oriented technical productmanager (TPM) and a marketing orientedproduct marketing manager (PMM).Let’s look at an example of how applyingthe triad had success for a company ofnine product managers and nine products,one product manager per product. Thesalespeople disliked some of the productmanagers and loved others. The ones thesalespeople loved were hated by developers.Applying the triad, they created threeproduct lines with a PLM for each andthen assigned a TPM and PMM to eachproduct line. Now, for each product line,one person concentrates on product strategyand the business of the product line,while another works with Development tobuild the best product, and another takesthe product message to the channel byworking with Marketing Communicationsand the sales team.Warning: Some companies attempt toput these three people in three differentdepartments. They put the PLM into Sales todo business development; they put the TPMin Development and the PMM in MarketingCommunications. This always fails. To workas a team, they must actually be a team.Having the TPM and PMM report to thesame person, the PLM, minimizes conflictand overlap, giving the team a commonobjective. It has the added benefit of giving anew director the chance to learn to be a goodmanager of two people before getting five orten people to manage.Product management teams provide careerpaths from entry-level positions to director,all within the product line.Execution vs. ownershipAs shown in the graphic on the previouspage, these three positions overlap. Thisis deliberate. Execution of these tasks mustbe collaborative in order to succeed. Forexample, Win/Loss Analysis is an excellentdata source for Positioning and the BuyingProcess. Your PLM and PMM ought toperform win/loss visits together to ensure yougain the most value.But do not confuse execution withownership. Ownership of a task equates toaccountability. As the executive leader of ateam structured this way, the PLM is heldaccountable for win/loss analysis even whenthe TPM and PMM gather the win/loss data.Does this model make sense for you? The Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7, Issue 5, 2009 15
The Product Management TriadDirector, Product StrategyTechnical Product ManagerThe director of product strategyhas a business-orientation and isresponsible for the developmentand implementation of the strategic plan fora specific product family. They maintain closerelationships with the market (customers,evaluators, and potentials) for awarenessof market needs. This includes identificationof appropriate markets and development ofeffective marketing strategies and tactics forreaching them. This person is involved throughall stages of a product family’s lifecycle.The technical product manageris responsible for definingmarket requirements andpackaging the features into product releases.This position involves close interaction withdevelopment leads, product architects, andkey customers. A strong technical backgroundis required. Job duties include gatheringrequirements from existing and potentialcustomers as well as recent evaluators, writingmarket requirements documents or Agile productbacklogs, and monitoring the implementationof each product project.The director of product strategy must:The technical product manager must: Discover and validate market problems Conduct technology assessments(both existing and future customers) Seek new market opportunities by leveragingthe company’s distinctive competence Analyze the competitive landscape Maintain the product portfolio roadmap Define and size market segments Monitor and incorporate industry innovations Conduct win/loss analysis Define user personas for individual products Determine the optimum distribution strategy Write product requirements and use scenarios Provide oversight of strategy, technical, Maintain a status dashboard for alland marketing aspects of all productsin the portfolio Analyze product profitability and sales success Create and maintain the business planincluding pricing Determine buy/build/partner decisions Position the product for all marketsand all buyer types Document the typical buying process Approve final marketing andgo-to-market plans 16 The Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7, Issue 5, 2009portfolio products
The Product Management TriadProduct Marketing ManagerThe product marketing managerprovides product line supportfor program strategy, operationalreadiness and on-going sales support.This position requires close interactionwith Marketing Communications and salesmanagement. Strong communication skills area must. Duties include converting technicalpositioning into key market messages andlaunching new products into market.The product marketing manager must: Define buyer personas and determinemarket messages Create the marketing plan including methodsHow you implement the productmanagement triad depends on yourorganization and the skills of your team.Also consider having a role for your basetechnology or architecture for issues thatspan product lines. The “architecture”product manager can own acquisitions,third-party partnerships, and common toolsneeded across all product lines.Take inventory of the skills of each of theproduct managers. Create an organizationchart of one triad per product line withno names assigned. Now try to move thebusiness-oriented staff (usually your seniorproduct managers) to the PLM positions,development-oriented product managers toTPM and sales-oriented ones to PMM. Theremaining holes in your organization chartrepresent your new hiring profiles.for customer acquisition as well ascustomer retention Measure effectiveness of productmarketing programs Maintain product launch plans Deliver thought-leading content via events,blogs, e-books, and other outlets Identify best opportunities for lead generation Create standard presentations and demo scripts Identify product references for industry andcustomer referrals Align sales tools and the ideal sales processto the typical buying process Facilitate channel training includingcompetitive threats and related industry newsSteve Johnson is a recognized thoughtleader on the strategic role of productmanagement and marketing. Broadlypublished and a frequent keynotespeaker, Steve has been a PragmaticMarketing instructor for more than 10 years and haspersonally trained thousands of product managersand hundreds of company senior executive teams onstrategies for creating products people want to buy.Steve is the author of the Product Marketing blog.Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.comThe Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7, Issue 5, 2009 17
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Pragmatic Marketing Framework. 14 . participants in Pragmatic Marketing’s Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey identify hundreds of different titles for those conducting product managemen
