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Everything eventually ends up on the web, so you should be careful about what you claim as true.
Daya Baran wrote about false claims by Mint.com and Intuit's retort in Intuit Accuses Mint Of False Claims. Apparently, Mint claims that it has gone from 3,000 new users a day to 850,000 users in a matter of months. I particularly like this: after Baran challanged a senior exec with "presented information that was false," the exec said, "Well we are a startup you know..." as if that excused it.
Here's something fun. Your sales team has asked you for competitive positioning. And maybe you created an exhaustive point-by-point comparison of your product versus the competitor. Mint.com's competitive comparison is this:
That's all? Yup, that's all.
Mint.com is saying, "We're better because we say so. You know, just believe us. Really. (please)."
In years past, we had watchdog groups that would verify vendor claims. Often you'd see the industry analysts weighing in. Nowadays every blogger is a watch group. In IMDB's discussion groups, you'll see members calling out items obviously planted by PR firms. Items get reposted on Facebook with an editorial. Bloggers complain about--or laugh about--vendor claims on their sites. You can no longer assume that what you write for your sales people or for individual customers will stay "inside."
Assume that whatever you claim will be published. Can you back it up? Can your claim hold up under public scrutiny?
On Ramblings on Product Development, Elaine poses a simple idea for company organization. She writes, "Engineering and product management must be peers." Exactly. The product manager shouldn't be relegated to support for development and neither should a product manager say "just do it because I said so."
It's a fairly common statement that product managers should be "the president of the product." In fact, we make that very point in our Practical Product Management seminar on product management. But, with the idea of 'peers' in mind, a better metaphor is parent of the product. Eric Sink has a hilarious talk about parenting as a metaphor for product management. (A blog post on his thoughts is here.)
I had dinner with a colleague who apparently misunderstood the concept. She described product management as mother of the product (wait! product managers don't create a product but I digress). She then described "mother" badly. She said mothers should clean up after the children, make their beds, prepare their breakfast and a lunch for school. What? Is this a job description for a mom or a maid? A parent teaches her children to clean up their own messes; teaches them to make their own meals, do their own laundry, do their homework without being nagged about it, balance a checkbook, plan to a budget... a parent teaches a child to be a functioning adult. (Hmmm, with the number of "children" in their 20s and 30s living at home in the U.S., perhaps we haven't done a very good job of this kind of parenting.)
Product management is one parent of the product; Development is another. While developers can tell you a product CAN be created, product management decides whether it SHOULD be. While development worries about the product creation, product management worries about the strategy (business) of the product and the marketing (delivery) of the product.
"There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous."--Peter Drucker
Kevin is the world's worst sales person and he's the bane of Robin's existence. It seems he calls her every day with a new request: a new feature, a new piece of collateral, a new sales tool, new demo. Can you call my customer? Can you check on this feature? Can you tell me when the next version will ship? Can you show me the roadmap? Can you drop whatever you're doing to support me?
Robin thinks that Kevin is an idiot. He doesn't know the product or the market; how can he be an effective sales person?
Robin should think of Kevin as a distributor rather than a fellow employee.
Assume sales people have little or no product knowledge. If you do, you'll create different kinds of sales tools, tools that do more of the heavy lifting so that the sales people don't have to know everything about the product. Sales tools such as ebooks and white papers can educate the buyer on market problems; technology briefs can explain the product and its technology underpinnings; case studies and application notes explain how the product is used.
Honestly, many product managers expect too much from sales people. They expect sales guys to have deep product knowledge, great people skills, and a repeatable process for selling. That's asking an awful lot from one person, don't you think?
For most complex products, a better approach is a team of sales people: a negotiation expert and a configuration expert. The configuration expert, often called a sales engineer, determines the right product combinations to address the customer's unique needs. This often involves extensive requirements gathering beyond the skills of a typical sales person. What options are required? What installation "gotchas" exist? Being technical, the sales engineer can often learn more from the customer than a regular sales person ever could.
While the sales engineer defines the technical configuration, the business-oriented sales person can focus on the financial configuration. Understanding the purchasing process. Navigating the legal issues of both customer and vendor. Working out a pricing plan that works for the client.
Assume that your sales teams don't know the product as intimately as you do. It's true; they don't! Create sales tools that explain the product and its options so the sales team can focus on configuration and negotiation rather than product education.
If you build a product that sells itself, you can hire order takers. And if you create the right sales tools and have the right sales teams, you'll sell even more.
I just heard from my long-time
colleague Jim Geisman that he will be doing pricing workshops at various
events. Jim really understands what pricing is all about whether you are doing
traditional software products or cloud computing / on-demand / SaaS products.
If you want an example of Jim’s understanding of pricing, you may want to
listen to the webinar he did with Barb Nelson. Here’s a
description of the pricing workshops. (Jim is also offering a
discount for members of the Pragmatic Marketing community. Contact him for the discount code.)
I was asked recently about some new book recommendations. The old classics like Positioning and Crossing the Chasm are still great but here are some newer books for your reading list:
And don't forget to order World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories by David Meerman Scott, available March 3rd.
In The product owner and the product-shaped hole, Jeff Patton writes:
Product owners learn lots of agile process but scant product design and product management practice
In our work in Living in an Agile World, we've seen product managers struggle with the role of the product owner. Jeff does a good job of describing his view of the role. Call it product owner or product manager or technical product manager, it all comes to the same thing: vendor products need a market-based view of the product, not just a prioritized backlog.
Product management is a comprehensive role that covers strategy, technology, and marketing as defined by the Pragmatic Marketing Framework.
For an entire product management primer in a single post, read Product Plagiarism: Answers are There if You Know How to Spin It by Jon Gatrell.
And if you want more, you can always check out my ebook, The Strategic Role of Product Management.
My friend and colleague Stacey shared this with me. She writes:
Should you have a cross-functional team for your product? I mean, why wouldn't you? This group can provide valuable support and feedback for all its members. For Product Managers, the team provides considerable benefits. It helps us communicate more broadly, gain alignment more easily, and build better products (hardware, software, and/or services).
When I talk with product managers, and "their team" comes up, they often begin by thinking of their development team – those who actually build the product. The Product Manager enables the development team to succeed, by doing and documenting great market research and writing clear, prioritized requirements. The development team is (obviously) important, building amazing solutions that make people want to buy.
However, there is another team that we must consider. Today when I talk about the team, I'm referring to the "cross-functional team". It's a much broader concept than a development team, and rather than the pure technology that's built in Development, it's focused on the whole solution--technology, product marketing, sales, support, professional services, production, localization… any department who spends time helping our product succeed. A cross-functional team can be a powerful tool for the agile product manager.
The cross-functional team is a group of people who collectively represent the entire organization's interests in a specific product or product family. This team provides benefits for the individuals on the team, the product and its customers, and the organization at large.
For the individual, the team is a support group and cheering section. It's a place where the individual can easily get updated information for their department, and it's an environment where each individual is safe in bringing up issues or roadblocks that they're encountering. The group can help solve issues that are impacting any department. And, when there is positive news to share (e.g., reduction in call volume in tech support, increase in sales revenue, development milestones completed on time within budget), it's a group who will celebrate successes. All of this results in increased job satisfaction and motivation for team members.
The product and its customers will benefit from the cross-functional team as well, because it can inspire ongoing improvements in product quality. Team members provide input throughout the product life cycle, and also bring issues to the attention of the team for resolution. When the team is assembled appropriately, and meetings are run effectively, we see improvements in customer satisfaction due to increases in product quality and support.
A healthy team improves organizational alignment. Members are kept "in the know" regarding product status, including market research, customer feedback, product development progress, product-related financials, and promotional plans and events. Each member is held responsible for bringing that information back to their own department or team. In addition, they feed the team their own department or team's feedback. The cross-functional team allows us to get one representative group aligned; in turn, they exponentially increase organizational awareness and alignment.
Assembling a cross-functional team and leading with market facts is the domain of the Product Manager. A strong team results in increased job satisfaction and motivation for the individual, improvements in product quality (and therefore customer satisfaction), and elevated awareness and alignment for the organization.
Amazon announced the new Kindle 2 last week. It got me thinking about the impact a new model or version has on positioning.
The Amazon Kindle is a book-reader that seems targeted to early adopters--people who like new gadgets--yet the discussion boards reveal that regular people, not gadget guys, are buying the Kindle in droves. Using traditional "buzz" marketing, Amazon was able to get Oprah to rave about it so Kindle got quick exposure to regular people... or at least Oprah people.
So for a start, Kindle needs two positioning documents: one for technical "gadget people" and another for non-technical "voracious readers." It could conceivably have another positioning document for people who like large-print books since it can do large fonts for any book, helpful since large print often follows the first printing by at least a year.
But with the new release, Kindle needs a new set of positioning documents. I should say, an additional set. The original docs are still fine for the new buyer who wants to know "why should I buy?" But Kindle also needs a new position for "why should I upgrade?"
Original Kindle positioning: take your book library with you. New buyers will appreciate 1) Read Kindle anywhere you can read a print book, 2) Over 200,000 books available, and 3) with Whispernet you can start reading new books in under 60 seconds.
All 'n all, a very tight message.
New Kindle positioning: take your book library with you. Existing customers will appreciate 1) cleaner design, 2) longer battery life, and 3) more memory means more books.
Hmm, I think I want one... Yup. I do want one.
[Notice that Amazon uses the Pragmatic Marketing concept of marketecture with their Whispernet feature. It solves a specific problem (downloading new books effortlessly) without talking about the technology (an EVDO card accessing the Sprint network). And because it doesn't talk about technology, they can change from Sprint to another carrier without changing their message.]
So with the new release, the positioning doesn't change; the feature list does. That is, you emphasize one set of features for new buyers and a different set for upgraders.
A new product release usually doesn't require a change to the primary message for existing positioning; usually a little wordsmithing is called for but not a rewrite. But a new product release almost always requires a "why to upgrade" positioning. After all, you have a new persona with new problems: an existing customer's upgrade decision is different than a non-customer's buying decision.
Look at your current customer set. Do you have customers who haven't upgraded? Maybe they just need to have you explain--in buyer language--why upgrading is beneficial to them. Of course it's beneficial to YOU (it reduces your cost of support mostly) but why is it beneficial to THEM?
Write a positioning document for each persona, in each market segment, and explain how you can solve their problems. New releases mean new personas which means new positioning.
My pal David Meerman Scott is releasing his new book, World Wide Rave, on March 3. You can hear him discuss the book in a webinar with HubSpot today at noon ET and he'll have a featured article in next month's Pragmatic Marketer (sign up here).
Amazing what people can do with flash and too much time. Go to thisissand.com and just click on the screen. Hold the mouse down for a few moments and see what happens. You can waste a lot of time in this mindless activity. Something to keep you busy on your next conference call.
I recently bought a Toyota Camry. Nothing special. Nice car. Good stereo. Good mileage. Nothing bad happened in the buying cycle. The sales person insisted on getting my email address "for our records" and sure enough, I've gotten an email every month for new car specials. Low financing. Lots of inventory.
In effect,
if you still have any money, we want it. BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY.
Dang it, when will sales people learn that people don't want to be sold? Instead of thinking about selling me, they should be using their email access to support me.
Here's what I would respond to:
We've just gotten new GPS software. Come to us for your 10,000 checkup and get your GPS updated, all for only $99. [Just for fun, try to find GPS updates on any car website]
February is a slow month for us so we're offering oil changes for $35 instead of our regular price of $46.55. We're just as convenient as your local oil change shop. Let us prove it.
Winter is the hardest time on a car. It taxes your battery, your tires, and your gasoline consumption. Click here to read our ebook on getting the most from your car during the worst of winter.
Did you know that most drivers rarely check the air pressure in their tires? A recent survey showed that the average driver checks tire pressure only when the tire is visibly deflated. Click here for a video on how to check your tires. Or come into our shop for a free tire pressure check. We'll inflate any low tires and show you how to do it yourself.
In effect,
We'd like you to think of us first when you need to service your car (and when you buy your next one).
I abandoned my Lexus dealer without hesitation. After purchasing two cars from Lexus, I realized that they didn't offer a better buying experience or a better service experience. Lexus is just more expensive. So why not buy the same car from Toyota for half the price? Same car; different logo.
We buy a car every few years; we buy service every few months. Who will we return to? The new rules of selling: service what you sell and you'll sell more.
One of my most popular articles, Stop Perfuming the Pig, has been republished in India on the blog run by Subrata Majumdar. He writes the Confessions of a Digital Immigrant dealing mostly on subjects pertinent to Product Management.
My friend and colleague Stacey shared this with me. She writes,
This morning, I took my morning coffee to the front deck. It's finally spring here (Wisconsin), and winter was so long that it actually feels strange not to cringe when you step outside. Well, the winter is finally really gone, despite holding on as long as possible. The last of the snow melted from the northern hillsides last week, and the grass will soon be calling to be mowed.
So I was outside, enjoying some fresh ground, extra-strong-just-the-way-I-like-it Kona coffee, and I spotted a huge Red-Tailed Hawk. She was perched in a large White Oak at the edge of the lawn, very still. The only reason I saw her is because the sun was shining from behind, and her body was bulkier than the surrounding branches.
I was almost finished with my first cup when she dove. With a powerful swing of the wings, the hawk swooped down, pursuing some prey that I couldn't see from my vantage point.
She reached the ground, and was pretty obscured from my vision by the tall grass around her. After a few moments of getting situated, she took off with what appeared to be a mouse. Coffee for me, mouse tar tare for my red-tailed friend.
When a hawk is perching, one could believe that it's at rest. If you watched long enough, you might even begin to think it's lazy, just resting there surveying its surroundings.
It's neither resting nor lazy. The hawk seeks just the right location, with the best perspective on the land. If she was looking sideways, she'd never see that small mouse or rabbit because they'd be hidden by vegetation. She's got to get out of the fray, up to an elevation where she can see the whole landscape of possibility. The vantage point is crucial to the hawk's hunt.
Product Managers have to get out of the fray, too. All that stuff that happens in the office is the ground vegetation, obstructing our view of the market at large. No matter how your development team functions, which methods or processes or tools they employ, the most important thing you can do is to get OUT of the office. Rise up out of the tall grass, and find a good perspective from a vantage point IN the market, not IN the office!
Be the hawk of the market, and remember that you can't spot the next big opportunity if you're bogged down in the tall grass inside your company's four walls!
The Alternate Routes' new album is available for pre-order on Amazon. Order A Sucker's Dream now, if only to please the frustrated musician in me. If you don't know, my son is the bass player... the one with big hair. Oh, and if you like more, their 2007 album, Good and Reckless and True, and last summer's The Watershed EP are still available too.
How do I describe their music? It's alternative rock with melody, lyrics, and structure. No screaming, profanity, or distortion. Think Hootie and the Blowfish or like the Eagles before they sold out to WalMart. Or similar to Coldplay except that The Alternate Routes have songs that don't all sound exactly the same.
Following the new rules of marketing, they previewed the CD on the Rock Boat to a few thousand fans and influencers as well as delivered early copies to radios and bloggers. Build a little buzz, start a few conversations, and (if all goes well) you have a hit. Buy a copy of their CD and tell your friends.
If you're interested in building long-term, sustainable and profitable software businesses, then you should go to Business of Software 2009 on November 9th-11th, 2009 in San Francisco. For two and half days in November you'll hear Joel Spolsky, Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham and many others talk about to succeed in the business of software.
Watch the video to hear Joel Spolsky explain what Business of Software 2008 was all about. And hey! I'm in the video too, near the end. Don't blink or you'll miss it. :-)
I spoke at the conference the last two years. Lots of interesting speakers and great hallway conversations with business leaders in technology. See my 2008 presentation here and my 2007 presentation here. I plan to attend again this year. c u there!
Internet stats
If you need 'em, here are some amazing stats on the internet. Some of my favorites:
Read Internet 2008 in Numbers for more stats.
As for www.pragmaticmarketing.com and www.productmarketing.com, we have some good stats too:
For our customers, 25% use IE7; 20% use Firefox. So I guess we better make sure we support both browsers. But Windows 95 users are 0.03% of our customers so we don't have to worry too much about that operating system. Win95 machines probably work on our websites but we're not going to test it or work to ensure it.
Numbers are often difficult to acquire. Look for secondary research like this to help you make product decisions. Or check the stats of your own website.
Posted on February 05, 2009 at 08:01 AM in Industry News & Commentary, Market Research | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)