Product management thinking, P2: “Bad things happen” This is a funny example of when everything you planned can go wrong. In 2017-2018, we supplied dozens of thousands of lead acid batteries for one of the largest telecom operators. As it was already evident, the market is starting to look to Lithium solutions, so we begin proposing these solutions. The customer was very price-sensitive, so the price was one of the significant factors. After deep market/competitive research, our team created a complex TCO model with lithium batteries that was acceptable to the customer, had a better price, and had numerous additional advantages. We won the bidding and signed a new agreement; all was good, but something happened…. Regional managers responsible for product procurement didn’t want to buy the product. And you know the reason: - Lead acid batteries should be utilized when considered “dead” in that country. - Our customer didn’t have a centralized utilization procedure, so it all was given to regional managers, who just wrote off old batteries. - When you utilize batteries, you don’t need to pay; you get money from the utilization company. - So, regional specialists utilize batteries and receive cash bonuses for this operation. Overall, people in these places get about 30-40% salary cash bonuses every few months. Guess what? They didn’t want lithium batteries that would ruin their money flow. In the end, customers gradually shift to LFP solutions, but this is an excellent example of when you can have an unexpected surprise. The end!
Sergey Syrvachev’s Post
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This is the major key of product management Product management of a new product involves the strategic planning, development, and launch of a product that meets the needs and desires of the target market. This process involves several key steps, including market research, product design, pricing, promotion, distribution, and customer support. Some key aspects of product management for a new product include: Market Research: Conducting thorough market research to identify the target market, understand their needs and preferences, and assess the potential demand for the product. Product Design: Developing a product that aligns with market needs and preferences, is innovative, and provides a unique value proposition to customers. Pricing: Setting an appropriate pricing strategy that reflects the value of the product and meets the financial goals of the company. Promotion: Creating a marketing strategy to raise awareness of the product, generate interest, and drive sales. Distribution: Determining the best channels for distributing the product to reach the target market effectively and efficiently. Customer Support: Providing excellent customer support to address any issues or questions that customers may have and ensure their satisfaction with the product
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Do You Need to Be a Salesperson to Be a Good Product Manager? In the dynamic world of product management, one question often arises: Do you need to be a salesperson to excel as a product manager? While the roles of a salesperson and a product manager are distinct, there are several overlapping skills and attributes that can significantly enhance a product manager's effectiveness. -Understanding Customer Needs At the heart of both sales and product management is a deep understanding of customer needs. Salespeople excel at identifying and addressing customer pain points, a skill that is equally crucial for product managers. By understanding what customers truly want, product managers can develop products that meet market demands and drive customer satisfaction. Communication and Persuasion -Salespeople are masters of communication and persuasion, skills that are invaluable for product managers. Whether it's convincing stakeholders of a product's value, negotiating with vendors, or rallying a team around a common goal, the ability to communicate effectively and persuade others is essential. Product managers who can articulate their vision clearly and persuasively are more likely to gain the support needed to bring their products to market successfully. -Building Relationships Building and maintaining relationships is another area where sales skills come into play. Product managers must collaborate with various teams, including engineering, marketing, and customer support. Strong relationship-building skills help product managers navigate these interactions smoothly, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives. -Market Awareness Salespeople are often on the front lines, gaining firsthand insights into market trends and customer feedback. This market awareness is invaluable for product managers, who need to stay informed about industry developments and competitor activities. By leveraging sales insights, product managers can make more informed decisions and adapt their strategies to stay ahead of the competition. -Closing Thoughts While you don't need to be a salesperson to be a good product manager, possessing sales-related skills can certainly enhance your effectiveness in the role. Understanding customer needs, communicating persuasively, building strong relationships, and maintaining market awareness are all critical components of successful product management. By integrating these skills into your toolkit, you can navigate the complexities of product management with greater confidence and success.
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In the competitive landscape of today’s marketplace, effective product management is crucial for success. Whether you’re dealing with composite products, raw materials, or a variety of product variations, managing these efficiently can be a daunting task. https://lnkd.in/d-XgBy3P
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Product development strategy is what a company does to plan what products they will have and what the pricing should be. It also includes what skills you need for production, how much inventory you should keep on hand, what materials you should use in production, and where your team makes the product. Companies must design their own product development strategy or work with someone who has experience in this area so that they can stay competitive. What is product development? Product development refers to the process of introducing new products to the market. This includes not only creating a product but also taking it through all stages of its life cycle. It is the process of creating a product that will meet your company’s specific goals. What is meant by product development in business? Product development in business refers to the strategies, processes, and systems that are used to create a product or service. The process must be efficient enough for a company to ... Read the full post: - https://lnkd.in/eCvWsXBr Written By George Petropoulos at Inorigin. - #ProductEngineering
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How #ProductManagement plays pivotal role in company's direction, growth , geographical expansion, competition analysis, products promotion, upgradation and value enhancement ? 1. Product Management is an independent function , which brings customers expectations , preferences, needs ( stated and implied ) , etc for product development and upgradation , etc A brilliant case of division of management on an issue of input power design for a sector and decision was kept on hold for long, but product manager found out with his Electricity board friends and clarified the issue of ethics , the decision was taken quickly and results were great. Later it was a great success in many states and also in neighbouring countries. 2. Any new product development is evaluated based on the product position on product life cycle curve and then efforts , results and timeline are designed. In many cases , when products are developed simply basis on popularity , especially dominated by few players , it is a big pain in minds of Sales , however it becomes very difficult to compete incase of products in last leg because it is long dominance and fixed cost / capital cost is bare minimum. I have seen many cases with huge losses and more importantly waste of efforts and loss of opportunities by same resources during same time, when product management is not utilised. 3. Product Value enhancement This is a very important aspect which not only enhances topline and bottomline of company but also enhances brand strategic advantage It is simply customer centricity , which plays an important role. I have seen in such endeauvers, lot of resistances from supplychain, Engineering and even Sales also but once such cases are builtup and benefits are presented in right perspective to customers, Contractors or consultants, they simply found the solutions for their problems. Here, am not talking about pricing, packaging , promotions, etc. taken care by product management function. would you like to add any perspective ?
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My biggest takeaway is that if you are scaling product management, you need to include a path to operationalizing the practice. A small investment in ProdOps can have a massive impact.
Board Member | CEO | CEO Advisor | Author | Product Management Expert | Instructor | Designing product organizations for scalability.
A big question we get about Product Operations is why PMs or PM leaders shouldn’t handle this work themselves. Product operations is the backbone of a successful product management function at scale. It provides the essential inputs and infrastructure needed to set strategy, prioritize initiatives, and streamline ways of working. By pulling information from across the organization into a cross-functional view, product operations helps leaders and product managers make strategic decisions that align the entire organization around common goals. Traditionally, Product Managers or PM leaders had to take on product operations activities themselves, but this is not ideal for several reasons. First, many of these activities distract from the strategic responsibilities of PMs and PM leaders. For example, trying to track down the data in complex systems or getting buy in to implement data tracking holistically are important activities. By delegating these tasks to a dedicated product operations team, PMs can stay focused on innovation, customer needs, and driving product strategy. Secondly, product operations manages and analyzes data, insights, and processes at scale. This specialized team provides a holistic view, enabling product managers to focus on core responsibilities and drive better business outcomes through improved decision-making. In the past, product managers and leaders had to juggle operational tasks, distracting them from strategic planning and visioning. They'd get bogged down in data gathering and tracking, which are important but not the core focus. By having a team that's all about product operations, product managers can stay laser-focused on coming up with great ideas, understanding what customers want, and shaping the product's future. Also, when individual product managers handle operational tasks themselves, they tend to implement ad-hoc solutions rather than creating scalable systems, leading to inefficiencies. A dedicated product operations team ensures consistent data management practices across the organization, enabling better alignment and leveraging insights to drive product improvements. Some people see this grunt work as a right of passage for IC PMs but that just doesn’t scale. We need to get out of this mentality. Investing in a dedicated Product Ops team leads to data-driven decision-making, increased efficiency, and better overall business outcomes. It's a game-changer for making smart, strategic choices based on deep customer understanding and best practices. What are your thoughts on the potential drawbacks of PMs or PM leaders taking on these responsibilities themselves? I'm curious to hear your insights on the benefits of having a dedicated product operations team. Let's discuss! Explore the ins and outs of product operations and its impact on business success. Dive into these key concepts in my new book, "Product Operations," co-authored by Denise Tilles. Find it here: https://a.co/d/8biyITB
Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale
amazon.com
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Product Management + Listen to the Customer + Focus on solving the Customer Problem + Ask the Customer to define the Problem not the Solution + Mindful of the what the competitor are doing; capitalize that source of information and value +Be aware of the emotional and spiritual impact to the Customer +Be obsessed with the Customer +Take Action and not delay
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🔍 Explore the art of managing products at the module level in our latest blog! From production coordination to quality assurance and timely delivery, it's a strategic journey you don't want to miss. Dive in now! #ModuleLevel #Manufacturing #ProductManagement #ProductDevelopment #ProductRoadmap #Strategy #Innovation #Gocious https://hubs.ly/Q02x3Bfy0
How Module-Level Product Management Strengthens Product Strategy
blog.gocious.com
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Product Management is not about products, it’s about repeatability. Product Managers get to know customers so they can discover common problems and routes to market, so a repeatable sales and marketing process can be built. Product Managers solve these problems in way that customers love, that also work for the business. One way it needs to work for the business is that delivery is repeatable and scalable - ideally via software. A Product Company is one that emphasises repeatability - selling the same thing (which could be a product or a service or a combination) in the same way, delivered in the same way, over and over again. A Product Company can allow for customisation. Ideally this is in a repeatable way - menus of options, or product variations, configurations, add-ons and modularity. Finding this repeatable customisation is what Product Managers do. Going further, it can be accompanied by a service organisation or even an ecosystem of partners who do the non-repeatable stuff - frequently essential in for complex customers like enterprises. Product management is about taking the repeatable parts and turning them into an asset, around which this unrepeatable work can be done. At heart, building a product is about repeatability, and in that sense, Product Managers are the anti-Tailors. Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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This is a product management post, I promise. A salesperson meets with a potential customer. The customer seems interested and the salesperson comes back thinking a deal is almost done. But often, no sale happened. Why? Because the salesperson heard what they wanted to hear — they had "happy ears" — and didn't dig deeper into what the customer really needed and whether they're willing and able to pay to solve their problem. I used to see this all the time. Product managers are guilty of the same thing. They come up with a new product or feature idea, do some quick research, and get excited whenever they hear positive feedback. They get "happy ears." Yay, let's build it! As a manager, it's your job to spot when your team is too quick to take positive feedback as a sure sign of success. Guide your PMs to ask more questions and really understand if there's a need for what they're proposing — a need so strong that customers would happily pay to have it solved. For a product or feature to be worth pursuing, it should: - Solve a big enough problem that enough customers are delighted to pay for a solution. - Be something your company is well-suited to provide. - Be producible and deliverable for meaningfully less than what customers are willing to pay. That's all good and well if you are building a product to sell. How should we judge feature ideas when the product is free? Let me know your thoughts in the chat.
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Product Leader | Agile Transformations | B2B, B2C, SaaS | Driving Product-Led Growth
9moa nice case of corruption, it seems :)