Contact the author through: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeroenvanrijn About this presentation: This presentation gives a brief overview of the product management process milestones. This document was created based on over 7 years of experience working in product management roles at both start-up companies and corporations.

1. The 12 Milestones of the
Product Management Process
Jeroen van Rijn
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March 4th, 2013

2. Introduction
• I have worked as a product manager and with other
product managers for over 7 years in start-ups and large
corporations.
• During this time I found the following product
management process to be a good generic description for
waterfall style development processes, especially for
consumer electronics.
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3. There Are 12 Milestones In
The Product Lifecycle
• P0 - start of planning
• P1 - roadmap complete
• P2 - product drivers approved
• P3 - product concept approved
• P4 - product development kick-off complete
• P5 - design & requirement freeze
• P6 - Go-to-market strategy approved
• P7 - Launch preparation complete
• P8 - Launch
• P9 - Ramp-up complete
• P10 - Mid-cycle update
• P11 - Ramp-down complete
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4. P0 - Start of Planning
• This milestone marks the beginning of the product
lifecycle rather than the completion of a deliverable.
• This milestone is usually initiated by the Head of Product
Management.
• This often happens in a cyclical fashion, like once a year,
with a scope of 2 to 3 years out.
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5. P1 - Roadmap Complete
• The roadmap maps out a draft product
portfolio with price points, timing and
estimated product volumes.
• Helps forecast future revenues.
• Key inputs:
• Financial growth targets from C-level
executives.
• Market share targets from C-level executives
• Engineering capacity.
• Market data (esp. price elasticity).
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2014 2015
$x
3M
$x
3.1M
$y
5M
$y
5.5M
Example roadmap

6. P2 - Product Drivers Approved
• This milestone happens for each individual product on
the roadmap.
• Goal is to understand what drives the development of
each product.
• Basis for the drivers are:
• The financial goals of the product (price & volume).
• Which consumer segments might deliver on the financial goals.
• What the product needs to represent to address the attractive
consumer segments (high-level features and design drivers).
• Competition in the price point and target consumer segment.
• Update the business case with your best estimate.
Highlight if there are unrealistic expectations.
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7. P3 - Product Concept Approved
• Between P2 and P3 you work with industrial designers,
user experience designers and other creatives to generate
multiple product concepts.
• If needed, test the concepts in focus groups. Various
agencies can help and will keep your brand name
anonymous.
• Analyze the concepts for cost and warranty implications.
Plug this into your business case to make sure the
concepts can meet the financial goals for the product.
• Recommend a concept to be developed.
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8. P4 - Product Development Kick-off Complete
• This is more an R&D milestone than a product
management milestone.
• For this milestone, the R&D program office has assigned
a program manager to the product.
• The program manager pulls together an R&D leadership
team for the program and delivers a resource allocation
plan to meet the schedule of the product.
• The product manager assists the program manager in
communicating to the R&D team what the product is
about.
• Be enthusiastic! Nobody wants to work on a product that the
leadership does not believe in.
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9. P5 -Design and Requirements Freeze
• At this point, the design and all requirements are
documented, analyzed and no longer subject to change.
• Requirements will require a negotiation with R&D. It
may be that some requirements cannot be delivered in
the schedule with current staffing levels.
• This is needed so R&D can commit to a schedule.
• Change is possible, but needs to go through a formal
change process, where impacts on schedule, quality and
cost are analyzed before the change is committed.
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10. P6 - Go-To-Market Strategy Approved
• Product Development is now underway. Time to plan
how you are going to sell the product.
• Work with sales and marketing to identify and prioritize
channels to market.
• Prioritization of channels may be necessary to deal with resource
constraints or manufacturing constraints.
• This does affect R&D, so make sure they are informed.
• Also create a project plans with marketing, sales, and
support for the completion of materials, trainings, and
marketing campaigns.
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11. P7 - Launch Preparation Complete
• The main goal here is that products leaving the factory have a place to go and are
supported by a marketing campaign.
• Marketing materials and ad campaigns need to be prepared and ready to go.
• Sales channels need to be prepared:
• Retails staff (if applicable) needs to be trained on the benefits of the product.
• Space needs to be allocated on store shelves.
• The logistics chain needs to have been set up.
• Support centers need to be prepared to deal with questions about the new
product.
• Warranty centers need to be ready to receive faulty products and repair or
replace them.
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12. P8 - Launch
• Best feeling in the world for a product manager.
• All hands on deck and solve issues that pop-up during
launch.
• Potential to be involved in press events.
• Make sure you have your media training done!
• Continued to work through your channel prioritization
plan.
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13. P9 - Ramp-Up Complete
• You are getting close to being able to breathe and sleep :-)
• All sales channels are now shipping the product.
• All marketing campaigns are firing on all cylinders.
• Products are leaving the factory and getting into
consumers’ hands.
• This is also a good time to measure performance in the
market:
• Actual sales vs forecast.
• Net Promoter Score.
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14. P10 - Mid-Cycle Update
• It is common for products that are available in the market
to get a mid-cycle update. These may be:
• Updated colors, materials.
• Software update.
• Different bundling of accessories.
• Major reasons for an update:
• Keep the product fresh in the consumers’ mind.
• Fix bugs.
• Reduce warranty and support costs.
• Mid-cycle updates need to be planned in a similar way as
the all the steps described until here, but are obviously
much smaller in scope.
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15. P11 - Ramp-Down Complete
• At the end of the product life-cycle, it is time to ramp it
down.
• Focus on stopping manufacturing early, so all channels
can sell out their inventory.
• Maintain some parts and replacement product inventory
for warranty for the last customers to buy your product.
• Ramp down marketing campaigns and recall marketing
materials.
• Very important process:
• Left-over inventory can kill your business case!
• Document learnings from consumers.
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16. The End
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Jeroen van Rijn can be contacted through:
•LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeroenvanrijn