The critical role of the product manager is in the process of changing significantly, and both companies and product managers need to adapt. While product management is among the most critical roles in any company, it’s a role whose importance is under-heralded in most organizations. The extent and nature of the changes to the role mean that those that fail to re-invent themselves—or don’t try—are likely to find themselves displaced

1. Re-Inventing
Product Management
with
By Bruce LaFetra
The critical role of the product manager is in the process of changing significantly, and both
companies and product managers need to adapt. While product management is among the
most critical roles in any company, it’s a role whose importance is under-heralded in most
organizations. The extent and nature of the changes to the role mean that those that fail
to re-invent themselves—or don’t try—are likely to find themselves displaced.
1
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2. Change or die direct customer meetings create The key in the new environment is
a truly bi-directional relationship interacting with consumers rather
Two major forces are driving of the type that is needed going than transacting with them. Product
the need for change in product forward. These transactional type managers and marketers currently
management. First, the nature activities are controlled and shaped lack a model for understanding
of the competitive landscape is by the company. Non-transactional how to interact with consumers as
changing with the emergence over interactions occur between peers. the company - customer relationship
the past 15 years of low-cost, off- The need for interactions rather than evolves through different stages.
shore manufacturing that quickly transactions changes the methods (Newsflash: not all consumers are
clones successful products. Merely employed by the product manager the same.) This represents a huge
manufacturing a quality product that (the “how”) every bit as much as the change for marketing managers
people want has become a profit- need to accelerate innovation and as they must stop trying to bribe
challenged commodity business. introduce solutions (the “what”). and manipulate people to get
Earning the types of profits investors consumers to do what they want.
expect from American technology To date, nearly all attention has This is transactional behavior that
firms now requires rapid and focused on the “what,” although the doesn’t encourage your company—
continuous innovation and a move “how” is no less a challenge. Since or the consumer—to seek new
toward difficult-to-copy solutions customer interaction is growing forms of value.
rather than products. Apple’s success in importance, a big part of the
with the iPod and iTunes represents “how” is the manner in which your Product managers have a lot
near perfect execution. Often company interacts with consumers. at stake as well. More than
a solution may span companies This is a huge and visible change marketers (perhaps), product
or involve active partnering with for the marketing function. To non- managers understand that customer
users. Crowdsourcing and mash-ups product managers, the change is less relationships evolve. However, most
are examples. visible for product management, but lack any sort of model to understand
no less important for success. this evolution and use it to their
The key to success is being open benefit. Even fewer use—or even
to new forms of value. Some of Technology makes it easier than ever recognize the enormous power
the new forms of value may be for product managers to listen in of—a model that is shared across
unfamiliar: consumer products or interact directly with customers, all parts of your company.
companies offering their “products” adding new tools to the product
as components to third-parties manager’s kit such as crowdsourcing
building unique solutions or even and co-creation. Technology is Why the World Needs LOVE
entirely new products. Turning one’s an enabler, but doesn’t tell the
customers loose is an excellent way The Lifetime Opportunity Value
product manager when and how to
to drive lots of innovation. iRobot Equation (LOVE model)1 departs
engage customers, or to understand
allowed its Roomba robot vacuum from the buying funnel by viewing
how customers vary in their
cleaner to become an open platform consumer relationships as an
relationship needs.
resulting in a nearly limitless variety evolving set of bi-directional
of upgrades and modifications interactions. These relationships
available from third-parties. Many We need a new model grow from an introductory stage
of the resulting devices are not where neither party knows much
even vacuums. To deal with the changes in how about the other all the way to
customers interact with companies, co-creation. In a co-creative
With so many more inputs, the role a new model for customer relationship, you and your customers
of the product manager is becoming relationships is needed. Product share a common vision and align
less about coming up with great management (and marketing) needs interests. The benefits of co-creation
ideas and more about enabling, to lead the way in understanding are huge, and reach into every
gathering, and coordinating inputs how to engage and leverage corner of your company and are
as a sort of “traffic manager” or hub. customer relationships in the reflected in both top line revenue
age of two-way media. and bottom line costs. Deeply
The second force is the manner engaged customers buy from your
in which companies interact Most organizations—probably yours, company not merely because they
with their customers. Gone are too—define customer relationships like the product or service, but
the days when companies could in terms of a linear path that allows because they genuinely want your
broadcast a controlled message to deterministic modeling, such as the business to be successful.
consumers. Two-way media such buying funnel process: awareness,
as blogs, user reviews, and social consideration, and purchase. The
media mean consumers can talk buying funnel is predicated on your
company controlling the message, [1] The LOVE Model is built on concepts originally
back—and to each other—without
the company having any say in but this no longer works in an developed by Harry Max at Rubicon Consulting.
the matter. Don’t fool yourself into environment dominated by two-way Harry also came up with the LOVE model name.
thinking focus groups or even and unstructured communications.
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3. The LOVE model explained
Co-Creation Co-Creation
The LOVE model can be applied
to any online relationship, not Commitment Commitment
just to customer acquisition and
purchase. Likewise, the benefits Stability Stability
of the LOVE model extend far Power Struggle Power Struggle
beyond social media and marketing
campaigns making it of particular Romance Romance
value to product managers seeking
to drive change throughout their
organizations. The LOVE model Romance Power Struggle
drives long-term value in areas Getting introduced Maintaining interest
as diverse as customer support,
product development, and You can’t build a relationship Where Romance is about generating
thought leadership. with someone you don’t know, interest and opening the door to
so the initial phase of the exciting possibilities, the second
consumer–company relationship phase, Power Struggle, is about
Product managers will experience
is Romance. Romance is about spending time together and getting
an epiphany as they realize how
introductions and learning and to know each other. In the world of
to engage customers at each phase
trying things. People don’t want commerce, this is about working to
of an evolving relationship. By
to think about big commitments maintain the consumer’s attention.
understanding more about how to
when they’re still trying to decide The power struggle isn’t adversarial,
interact with customers, you can
if they even want to get to but is a mutual effort to learn how
tailor your interactions to be more
know you better. both parties in the relationship are
productive. Because the interactions
going to fit together. After all, there
are vibrantly bi-directional, your
There are serious pitfalls in skipping needs to be balance if a relationship
company and consumers grow
the romance phase and moving too is going to last for the long term.
in alignment as the relationship
grows deeper. quickly from social to transactional
interactions. Once the parties to a If you don’t provide an engaging
relationship define it in terms of experience that fulfills the
While a company’s relationship
an exchange it is very difficult to consumer’s need for credible
with individual consumers falls
redefine it as something broader. information, you will struggle to
into a specific phase, the company
A properly developed romance keep them from clicking somewhere
can be at different relationship
defines the long term relationship else. You lose the consumer’s
phases with different consumers,
as something other than primarily a attention and, with it, your ability
so a company is not limited
monetary exchange or a transaction. to drive the relationship narrative.
to a single relationship phase.
By contrast, too many companies
The descriptions below include
today insist on a kiss at the
companies that do a particularly Dell’s IdeaStorm allows Dell “to gauge
beginning of the first date.
good job at understanding specific which ideas are most important and
types of relationships. The phase most relevant” by engaging the public
names are both descriptive Twitter and other social networking
in online discussion. Users are able to
and instructive. applications are good at letting people
add articles, promote them, demote
explore and set their own pace of
them and comment on them. By
discovery and use.
giving users the power to drive what is
discussed, Dell maintains engagement
while accomplishing its own goals of
Co-Creation understanding what people care about
and want to see.
Commitment
Stability
Power Struggle
Romance
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4. Re-Inventing Product Management with LOVE
Co-Creation Co-Creation Co-Creation
Commitment Commitment Commitment
Stability Stability Stability
Power Struggle Power Struggle Power Struggle
Romance Romance Romance
Stability Commitment Co-Creation
Finding balance Discovering shared outcomes Co-owning a vision
At the point where no major Commitment comes when the The final and ultimate phase
mis-match of status between relationship advances from stability is Co-Creation. At this level the
the parties exists, a relationship to a shared outcome. While relationship is about co-creating
enters the third phase, Stability. loyalty in a predominantly one- value and co-ownership of a
A stable relationship is one where way, transactional exchange is common vision rather than merely
you provide a reasonable value fragile, commitment in a stable, sharing in the outcome. With this
proposition for filling latent bi-directional relationship is far more type of relationship, the consumer
consumer needs. You have stability robust and makes consumers more is no longer merely making
when both of the following are true: likely to stay in relationship through a purchase, but is supporting a
the ups and downs the market preferred business. The benefits of
1. The consumer is willing to go inevitably deals. co-creation are huge, and reach into
through the process of sorting every corner of a business and are
through the criteria for making There are lots of ways to show reflected in both top line revenue
a decision, and commitment. Preferred customer and bottom line costs.
programs are one form of
2. You are willing to transparently commitment, although many As mentioned on page 17, iRobot,
make available the information such programs are based on a makers of the Roomba robot vacuum
needed to satisfy the consumer’s transactional quid pro quo rather
cleaner, support an entire ecosystem
criteria. than true commitment.
of customers and partners. Many have
hacked Roombas to add capabilities or
Amazon.com is a company that McAfee formed a strong bond of
create entirely new devices, in effect,
understands this extremely well. The commitment with the hundreds of
turning the Roomba into a platform.
Amazon site is a virtual cornucopia “McAfee Maniacs” that handle much of
By listening to its customers and
of information on all manner of McAfee’s technical support via the Web.
recognizing them as trusted partners,
consumer products. Not only are there Some post thousands of responses in
iRobot is able to embrace a class of user
user reviews, but the reviews gain McAfee forums—as of this writing the
that exceeds what we typically think of
additional credibility because users can top contributor has made more than
as a customer. As a result, the Roomba
comment on the reviewers. Amazon 31,000 posts. Except for some modest
has become more than just a vacuum
provides an enormous quantity and peer recognition, the Maniacs are
and its users are much more valuable to
variety of information with the implicit uncompensated, and yet the shared
iRobot than merely customers on the
expectation that, if and when the outcome of helping people navigate
other end of a monetary exchange.
consumer makes a purchase decision, McAfee’s software motivates some
Amazon is most likely to be the amazing commitment.
purchase vehicle.
Amazon benefits from a stable
relationship because consumers have
little reason to leave the Amazon site The LOVE model drives long-term value
to gather additional information. Both in areas as diverse as customer support, product
parties feel their needs are being met
in a balanced way. As a consumer, you development, and thought leadership.
are always free to leave the Amazon site,
but why would you?
The­Pragmatic­Marketer­ •­ Volume­8,­Issue­1,­2010­ •­ 19

5. Re-Inventing Product Management with LOVE
New products
Process
improvements
n
tio
New ways to
ea
message & market
- Cr
Cos
es
sin
Bu
LOVE for the entire company 3. New ways to message and market become apparent as
soon as you start engaging with consumers in a
Each of the five phases—Romance, Power Struggle, genuine dialog. They’ll help you sell their bosses and
Stability, Commitment, and Co-Creation—represents they teach you how to market more effectively to their
a different flavor of relationship and a different way neighbors. If your new product name is an undesirable
of thinking for product managers. Some consumers slang term in a foreign language, they’ll tell you rather
will want to align their interests with your company’s than letting you blast it to the world.
because it makes their lives easier, such as frequent
customers who want the sales process to run 4. Business co-creation is the Holy Grail of relationship.
smoother. The motivation of other consumers may be It happens when your customers are emotionally
less direct—perhaps visionary customers who see a invested in the success of your business. They make
better way or an interesting combination of products referrals to friends, family, and colleagues because it
or services. The Co-Creation process manifests itself creates intrinsic joy for them. Having a customer who
in four distinct types of value: wants you to be successful is much more powerful
than a customer you’ve bought with a loyalty program.
1. New products and services are the most visible way you It is important to remember that co-creators may exist
can engage with and learn from your customers. A in forms and places that are invisible to companies.
genuine dialog with consumer always makes the You need to support these advocates, even when you
development process better, but in many cases it don’t know exactly who they are.
also makes it simpler as feature sets can be better
validated and it is easier to identify components To a limited degree, the LOVE model can be
that add little value. implemented by a single discipline within a company,
but as the above examples point out, the real value
2. Process improvements are an area where many consumers is in infusing its effects throughout the organization.
have strong feelings, but few companies bother to ask. The LOVE model thus provides product managers
Still far fewer take the view that consumers should be (and marketing) a vehicle for offering leadership to
empowered to help design the processes. The key is the entire company.
interests that are aligned in a deep and holistic way.
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6. How LOVE changes product management
Stay current with
The LOVE model gives product managers a relevant
and actionable framework for generating valuable
industry best practices
interaction with consumers. These bi-directional
interactions provide a source of product, process,
and business improvement and innovation that
enables your company to co-create new forms
of value with customers.
Both forces discussed in this article require significant
changes in product management. First, the need
for greater innovation and new types of solutions
means that product managers are less makers and
more organizers. The second force—the need to
find a more workable model of consumer—company
relationships, pushes product managers to interact
with consumers in a truly bi-directional manner
where consumers are peers rather than objects
to the company.
With changes to both the “what” and the “how,”
the C-suite needs to re-think what they expect Visit the online community at
from product management. Instead of being product
champions, product managers need to be customer
PragmaticMarketing.com
or market champions with a broad view of how
their company’s expertise and technology can • Review 10 years of Annual Product
contribute to customer solutions. They need to Management and Marketing Survey results
understand ecosystems rather than just product
applications. They need to enable customers to help • Attend a webinar by one of today’s industry
co-create all aspects of their business (not just the thought-leaders
products) as this is how they will create sustainable
differentiation. This will likely lead to changes in • Read hundreds of articles on product
how the product management function is organized management, marketing and leadership
and managed. strategies
For the first time, companies have a holistic model
to guide them in developing more valuable and • Read blogs from Pragmatic Marketing
actionable relationships with customers across all thought-leaders and other industry experts
parts of the company. Embracing the LOVE model
embarks an organization on a journey of discovery • Stay connected with your industry peers
which leads to quantifiable results, long-term value, by joining a local Product Management
and enhanced competitiveness. Association
• Read profiles of companies who have
achieved success using the Pragmatic
Marketing Framework™
• Participate in online networking with
Bruce La Fetra is a Business Strategist for Rubicon
LinkedIn and Facebook groups
Consulting, Inc. With insights gained from more
than 20 years experience in product management,
• View a list of recommended books and
marketing, and strategy consulting, he guides
clients in market definition and visioning work software tools for product managers
to define their mission and growth strategies. He writes and marketers
and speaks on business models, consumer experience, and
pricing & licensing. Prior to consulting, Bruce held product
management, business development, and product & service
marketing roles for leading software, hardware, and
financial services companies. Contact Bruce with thoughts
on the LOVE model at bruce@rubiconconsulting.com