Product Management in B2B Companies

• Product management is a key process for high tech B2B companies
• It involves most company departments
• Four key areas define the product management arena
• Insight creation involves understanding the market, ecosystems, and driving forces
• Product strategy is the guide for product value delivery over the product lifecycle
• Product planning ensures the right product is offered
• Product marketing enables the product to reach its potential

Product Management Arena: Inner Loop

• An ecosystem concept is needed where actors interact with multiple interdependencies
• Product managers identify and leverage market opportunities in the ecosystem
• Solutions solve multi-dimensional user problems
• Products are often integrated and used with other components

Product Strategy

• Connects selling with development and aligns with corporate direction and goals
• The corporate strategy can be developed by this
• Product strategy should be used in both product planning and marketing
• Insights are crucial to create a successful product strategy

Product Management Arena: Outer Loop

• Product Managers are sometimes stuck with operational support duties, reducing their ability to deliver the core of Product Management
• Business forecasting is an important dimension
• Product Management builds the basis for scaling up the business
• Product Managers must provide factual input and perform crucial reality checks
• Corporate management expects product managers to empower sales and marketing
• Increased sales empowerment increases the role of Product Management

Three Pillars of Product Management

• Product Planning
• Product Strategy
• Product Marketing
• Product Strategy aligns Product Planning and Product Marketing
• Insights generate product strategy and tie Product Mmanagement together
• Problems often lie in product planning or product marketing, but also strategy and insights

Key Interfaces of Product Management

• Corporate management
• Development
• Operations
• Sales and marketing

Management

• Product management delivers "product investment proposals" and receives "project budgets" in return
• There should be continuous alignment of corporate and product strategies
• New insights and opportunities often originate from the PM team

Development

• A key responsibility of product management is to define product requirements
• They should also convey an understanding of context and domain expertise

Delivery Organization

• Sales forecasts come from different sales regions and channels

• Product managers may need to check or approve consolidated sales or production forecasts

• Product managers may participate in allocation decisions if sales are above forecasts

• Product management may need to be involved in delivery work in critical situations

• Product Management should actively participate in service intensive organizations

• Process design and competence build up

• The process and competence build up should be treated as a part of the product

Sales & Marketing

• The Product Brief is a consolidated marketing presentation, defining the product's USPs and value
• Sales should provide market and customer insights in return

Real Customers in the Market

• Sales departments filter information and focus on acquiring customers
• Product management aims to create sustainable business and cannot rely solely on sales for market information
• Direct customer contact provides true insights

Product Management Maturity Model

• Product management allows career advancement without formal position changes
• Progressing from being reactive to driving the business
• It is not only confined to the skills and competences also to the product management process
• Requires acceptance and support from corporate management, Sales and R&D

Product Planning

• Product managers collect requirements from stakeholders and hand over to development at the basic level
• At the highest level, they inform about context, give direction, and enable individual developers

Product Marketing

• A basic product manager produces the marketing items on the checklist
• A high-performing product manager identifies target applications, customer pains, and gains
• The high-performing product manager build a journey focused on our customers' success

Product Strategy

• Implementing strategies in products and product management work can be tricker than just creating the strategies
• The tools they use are directly connected to the strategy
• Requires prioritizing requirements, selecting customer user studies, and deciding the product launch order