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10 Steps to Implementing B2B Product Management 10 Steps to Implementing B2B Product Management The CEO Playbook by Jim Berardone This book was written in the spirit of expanding and improving the practice of product management – a body of knowledge for which I am indebted to many people. Accordingly, the work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). That means you are free to copy, share, adapt and build on this material, even commercially, provided you attribute it to me by name, by title of this work, and with a link to my website. In addition, you may share your use of this work under the same terms provided you identify any changes and do not suggest that I either endorse you or your adaptations. As long as you observe these terms, I cannot revoke these license provisions. 10 Steps to Implementing B2B Product Management: The CEO Playbook February 2016 Copyright © Jim Berardone. Book design by Brittney C. Norris, Illustrations by Hugo Teixeira Foreword Sooner or later, it happens in just about every growing business: somebody trusted by the company’s CEO takes him or her aside and earnestly suggests that it’s time they consider taking on a product manager and creating a formal Product Management function. It’s a suggestion that carries important consequences. But few CEOs are prepared to immediately recognize or prepare for those consequences. This book is designed to help the CEO understand the advice they’re getting and fgure out how best to respond. I think I can be of help. Over the years, I’ve helped to inaugurate this function for a number of employers and clients. I’ve also advised the CEOs of different sized early-stage and established technology businesses about why and how to form a Product Management function in their organizations. It takes more than simply hiring a product manager. Here’s what I’ve discovered: With very few exceptions, the company’s founder/CEO had done an excellent job of recognizing a business opportunity, creating a vision, building a team, raising money, generating revenue and growing their company. Many of them were quite innovative. Some were very proftable, enjoying high margins. Others grew exceptionally fast. 1 At the same time, though, there So how can they grow toward the were others that failed – some future, while maintaining focus on fast, some hard, some just by the present? How can the CEO step plodding along. That’s because the You need to devise an back from making product decisions early successes that CEOs had without the product losing its way? experienced were due, in large part, approach to product It’s a conundrum. As Ben Horowitz, to holding steadfast to a vision without a leading Silicon Valley technology losing sight of the myriad details management as unique investor put it: “The only thing that and decisions which relate to their will wreck a company faster than a product – strategy, development, as your company. CEO being highly engaged in the commercialization, delivery, and so product is the CEO disengaging on. After all, great execution is all from the product.” about mastering details – which is also, as traditional wisdom reminds That’s when it’s time for a CEO to us, where the devil resides. It is a combination of those hear their inner voice, their board’s dysfunctions which typically trigger voice, or their friend’s voices urging At some point, however, things the CEO’s moment of awakening: them to consider hiring a product would begin to change. The pace of a missed product release date, a manager. That’s also when I get value-creating innovation slows. The product launch that bombed, the their call to help. But, time and time CEO’s decisions about products and loss of a big sale opportunity, a again, what I fnd is that they’re customers become refexive and less key customer who switched to a ambiguous about what they need, informed. The CEO’s door becomes competitor, a technology having why they need it, what a product a bottleneck to product improvement. reached its limits, etc. These are the manager’s role and responsibilities The number of projects, products and moments when CEOs recognize the should be, what implications it would market initiatives started, and then need to scale their business for the have on their executive team, and later abandoned, multiply. Frustration future. But if the company’s product what impact it would realistically within the product team becomes and its CEO are inseparable, how have on their bottom line. palpable. can the CEO scale him or herself? They can’t. 2 Some take a minimalist view. They strong change management. It’s Apple’s approach or duplicate the think they only need someone to critical to get all of them right because job descriptions of other companies. create a product roadmap and keep it can be very expensive to get them You need to devise an approach to it current. Or they think they need wrong – both in direct costs and Product Management as unique as someone to write good product opportunity costs as well as in staff your company. requirements, or get product releases motivation. out faster, or get the CEO’s favorite That’s why I wrote this book. product ideas done. But they rarely At the same time, however, it can understand the magnitude of the be diffcult for CEOs to sort through decision they’re facing, the changes it the noise of conficting ideas and involves, or the leadership it requires. advice they get from their teams, To be successful, the introduction investors, peers, experts, bloggers, of product managers requires and so on. Particularly when Agile collateral changes in the way things product owners and UX designers are are done and who is responsible increasingly thrown into the mix, the for doing them. In essence, it confusion only multiplies. requires introducing a formal Product Management function into the Compounding that confusion is the company. fact that there’s lots of variation in the ways Product Management is From my own experience as well implemented; there is no single way as the experience of others, here’s to set it up, nor should there be. Every what’s needed to establish that sort of company’s situation is unique with Product Management function: First, its own business goals, strategies, having clearly defned business goals business models and customer and strategies. Second, establishing value propositions. Accordingly, clear roles and responsibilities for the every company requires a distinctive product manager, the product team Product Management solution. and the CEO. And fnally, having You can’t simply copy Google’s or 3 Table of Contents What’s the Point of Product Management? ....................................................... 6 Step 1: Define Your Goals and Strategy ............................................................. 9 Step 2: Pick a Posture ...........................................................................................11 Step 3: Allocate Your Product Development Investments ...............................14 Step 4: Determine Who Decides ..........................................................................17 Step 5: Establish Where Product Managers Should Report ............................ 22 Step 6: Decide Who Does What ........................................................................... 25 Step 7: Select Your Processes ............................................................................. 31“The goal of Product Step 8: Identify Great Product Manager Attributes ........................................ 35 Management is to Step 9: Installing Your Product Management Function ................................... 41maximize the value created by a product Step 10: Measure Your Progress .........................................................................49 for its customers, About the Author ....................................................................................................52 investors and employees across that life cycle.” What’'s the Point of Product Management? People tend to get confused about Product Management touches on product management. That’s probably essentially everything an organization because the term is frequently does, starting with the genesis of The goal of Product used – and often misused – in a an idea and continuing through to variety of ways. Here’s how I see it: managing the products or services it Management is to Product Management is a function spawns from cradle to grave. They which includes all the decisions, can begin even before the company maximize the value activities and interactions that is born. shape a product’s business results created by a product for throughout its life cycle. To achieve When a company is new, its founders this, Product Management touches on typically assume responsibility for its customers, investors a number of company departments, everything product-related. But as linking them to one another as well that company grows, its products and and employees across its as to external markets, as illustrated job specialties proliferate. People in Figure 1. Product managers are who work in design, engineering, life cycle. the professionals who guide that production, marketing, sales, service, function as it applies to specifc goods and business management as well or services within their company’s as in other roles, each assume portfolio, although many of the responsibility for different aspects of decisions and activities involved can the company’s Product Management. be assigned to individuals within the affected departments.
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