Lessons in B2B Product Management & Solution Marketing for Enterprise Software Solutions

Chris Aulbach

ProductCampCT

Oct 2015

Quick background…

• 15+ yrs Product/Solutions Management

• 10+ yrs in Solutions Marketing

• 100% in Enterprise B2B software

• Multiple Start-ups/hyper-growth/VC-backed co’s

• Multiple Publicly traded global corporations

• Big proponent of Process to drive Execution,

and focus on Strategic Value over ‘features’

• Passionate about

• My profession

• My industry

• Work/life balance

Segmenting my Lessons and Experiences: 2 buckets

A. Market/Customer Facing

• Understanding Customers/Prospects

• NIHITO?

• Stakeholders & Buying process

• Your place in the Value Chain

• Buying vs. Liking

• Advocates & Promoters

• Customer Experiences

B. Internal/Company Facing

• Features vs. Strategic Value

• Iterative Innovation / New Products

• Roadmaps & Requirements

• Shiny Balls

• Execution vs. Strategy

• Processes & Tools

• Relationships

• Influence / Convincing others

• Working with Sales and Marketing

What is Product Management?

• IME, a highly misunderstood profession, especially in technology/software

• Several definitions and variations in roles, responsibilities, titles, accountabilities

• Clear lines/intersections with other related teams (marketing, sales/GTM, engineering, etc) are CRITICALLY important

Hint:

It’s a balance of

ALL of this!

What is Product Management?

• Business Management of “Products” (i.e. Solutions/Market offerings)

• How does “It” generate revenue and make money?

• How do you “win”?

• Outside-in: WHAT & WHY(Design/Engineering figures out HOW)

• What “problems” are you solving, or added value are you creating?

• Put finished Solutions ON the shelf (so Sales/Marketing can take them OFF)

Market /Client Facing Lessons

Part A

A1 – Understand your customers/prospects…deeply

• Many dimensions to this

• Buyers vs. Users and the differences of each

• Product Management’s role/purpose:

• Messenger of the market to the rest of the company: Promote the collective voice

• Futurist: See things they don’t see on their own

• NIHITO?

• How about a MOTHITO? (Many other things happen in the office)

A2 – Understand the Buying Process and Key Stakeholders

• CxOs, VITOs: Make sure you know who they are for your solution(s)…

• Key Buyers and Influencers, and the titles they carry

• Technical Buyer, Economic Buyer, Influencer(s)

• Top-down vs. Bottoms-up approach?

• Pains, Issues, Challenges, Problems, Opportunities

• Expected Capabilities + “Wow!s”

• Progressing them through the funnel

• Buying Style, Risk Tolerance

• Personal Win(s)

A3 – Understand the Value Chain that you play in

• Your solution’s position/role in the full ecosystem/value-chain

• What’s Upstream & Downstream?

• What parts do you OWN completely?

• Focus on maximizing your Strengths

• Unique Assets/IP

• Core Capabilities

“A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific

industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the

market. The concept comes from business management and was first

described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller,

Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance”

A4 – Know the difference between Liking and Buying…

Liking your Product/Service

• Too many people leverage “likes” as their most important feedback mechanism for what to do with/put into their products

• Problem: No exchange of value; No revenue associated with likes!

• Opinions are like…

Buying your Product/Service

• Harder to obtain than a “like”

• Quantified exchange of value

• Importance of modeled/proven ROI

• Hard variables vs. soft variables

• Defensible, self-explanatory

• Price based on Strategic Value, not costs plus

A5 – Understand the Value of Advocates and Promoters

• Brand Promise & Reputation: Requires that you deliver, repeatably

• Keep your promises…or don’t make them in the first place if you can’t deliver on them

• CAUTION: Big pushy ($$s) customers

Advocates

Loyalists

Fans, Followers

A6 – Don’t forget about Whole Customer Experience

• Example from Healthcare IT Industry

• Market Success is about so much more than the “Features & Functionality” of your product(s)/solution. Don’t lose the forest from the trees.

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Internal / Company Facing Lessons

Part B

B1 – It’s about way more than Features & Functionality

• Feature/Functionality battle is expensive. Race to “Bloatware”.

• Someone will always have more/different features

• Will come down to “user preference”

• Feature Selling = selling to Users, not Buyers

> For Senior Buyers, Strategic Value ALWAYS trumps “More Features”

(TEST)

Minimize

time through

the loop

B2 – Innovation and New Product Development is incremental

• Don’t try to boil the ocean before going to market

• Don’t let GREAT be the enemy of “Good enough”.

• MVCs (Concepts/Ideas) first. Fuzzy front-end with lots of uncertainty

• MVPs, Clickable prototypes, Mock-ups, Storyboards to incrementally improve

• In Parallel: Something in front of both USERS and BUYERS

• Important to have structures/follow process as you do this

(Learn)

BIG

B3 – Don’t let Roadmaps & Requirements be dirty words…

• Executing on this is HARD. It’s a balancing act across many dimensions/stakeholders

• Can’t (Won’t) please all the people all the time. Know that going in.

• Iterations & Collaboration with stakeholders is paramount. What are the VITAL FEW?

• No hiding behind “Agile fences” – Must project “intent” & “direction” for enterprise buyers

• Use Themes; lower degrees of certainty over time

B4 – Watch out for “Shiny Balls”…they can be very destructive!

• IME, more common with less experienced founders, but can come from anywhere

• Key Questions to address

• How does that [XX] fit into the overall vision?

• How does that [XX] align with or improve our strategy?

• What impact will [XX] have on our business goals?

• Thoughtful analysis required

• Potential value of [XX] in future revenues / TAM

• Quantity of Effort/team/skills to realize potential of [XX]

• Fit in portfolio relative to positioning, messaging, market needscapacity to deliver, etc.

[XX]

B5 – Execution eats Strategy for breakfast!

• Both are essential. However…

• A great [product/solution] strategy doesn’t produce $$s……only great presentations

• Value is created from solving the HARD STUFF, and getting the entire organization aligned around delivering their contribution towards that value proposition. That’s execution.

B6 – Following Processes and using Tools increase velocity…

• Agile for SDLC; Stage-Gate/PDLC for cross-functional governance

• Story points; 2-week sprints; Open demos

• Must do planning for series of sprints in advance to map out target “releases”

• Highly recommend using tools –but vital to have alignment/training around use of tools before “jumping in”. Standardize on process/ tool taxonomies up front

• Alpha, Beta, and GA – be crystal clear on each!

B7 – Don’t underestimate the importance of Relationships

Internal Partners / Teams

• Senior Executives, Founders

• Engineering, QA, Tech Writers/Docs

• Sales, Marketing, GTM teams

• Services/Delivery Teams

• Support

External Stakeholders

• Clients / Customers

• Competitors / Advocates of Competitors

• Analysts / Reviewers

• Partners / Suppliers

B8 – The best way to influence is with DATA

• Market Size

• Competitor data

• Reasonable comparables

• Validated ROI model

• Customer/prospect interviews or survey results

• Always aggregated data vs. “one opinion” (anecdotal)

• Partner with Marketing!

- W. Edwards Deming

“In God we trust. All others must bring data.”

B9 – Educate others…you’ll sleep better!

Sales Team Marketing Team

• Value Proposition• Differentiators

Boundaries

• Test and Validate

Thank you

Chris Aulbach

caulbach@me.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/caulbach