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1. PRODUCT MANAGING
“THOUGHT-WARE”?
YUP! Chris Aulbach
Session #115

2. ? 2
W HAT R EALLY
I S T H I S PR O D U C T
MANAG E M E N T T H I N G
ANYWAY ?

3. EXPERT VIEWS – DEFINING PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
3
Steve Johnson
VP of Product

4. LEADING MODELS FOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Solution/Offering
??
4

5. LEADING MODELS FOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
• Market Centric
• Business Focused
• Cover both Strategy and Execution
• Comprehensive
• Progressive (lifecycle oriented)
• Cross Functional (multi-disciplinary)
Solution/Offering
??
5

6. STRATEGIC BUSINESS CHALLENGE
6
Client demands are changing
• Clients seeking high quality, end-to-end value and
outcomes vs. just skills/services/capacity
• Clients seek faster “speed-to-value” and want
confidence (evidence) their investment will yield
the desired outcomes
Transition to Line-of-Business Buyers
• Influence of business buyer in IT decision making
has increased significantly
Many companies are winning with packaged
services and IP-based solutions
§ Leading competitors invested significantly in
pre-packaged solutions to accelerate growth
§ Major technology partners like AWS, Microsoft,
Salesforce working with competitors on co-
development and GTM of solutions
Inability to effectively communicate “what we sell”
• 1000+ skills in CRM; field teams can’t articulate;
No single sales asset repository to leverage
• Clients sited “We didn’t know you did that”
• No standard taxonomy, framework or methodology
for repeatable solution development
Revenue – mostly reactive capacity services
• Selling “capacity” rather than strategic outcomes
• No proactive GTM
High customization, minimal re-use
• Reactive, account-centric GTM
• RFPs required an army to respond effectively
Key strategic partners struggle
• Significant challenges to sell with and through
strategic partners
Business IssuesMarket Shifts

7. OBJECTIVE: SHIFT REVENUE MIX TO INCREASING LEVEL OF…
“Thoughtware” IP Asset-Based IP
§ Frameworks
§ Packaged
“know how”
§ Software tools (for
internal use)
§ Software accelerators
(customize for clients)
Skills
§ Staff
Augmentation
§ Capabilities
…Repeatability, Predictability, Scalability, Velocity
Products
§ Platform
BPaaS
§ Product
Licenses
§ Methodology
§ Process libraries
Highly malleable
and easy to adjust
Increasingly “hardened”
and difficult to change
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Often very “client-centric”
(N=1)
Much more “market-centric”
(N=many)

8. HYPOTHESIS…
Understanding
the market
What are the
pervasive
problems?
Define and build
compelling ‘solutions’
Target markets &
segments of
buyers/users
Repeatable
Strategic
Business
Value
Wouldn’t a [Solution / Offering / Portfolio] owner be responsible for…
forto yielding
8
…just like Product Managers would in a product company?

9. COMPARISONS TO PROJECT-BASED MODELS
Alignment / Focus
Strategy
Ownership
• Project budget, resources
• Client-success / outcomes
• Project specific value
• Short term focus
• Project resources, efficient
utilization / allocation / delivery
• Acts like Project COO
• Product + Market
• Within business-unit
• Customers, Trends
• Use cases, features
• Product Direction
• Product/feature release
management, roadmap
• Differentiation
• Acts like CEO of product
• Value-Chain + Industry
• Cross business-units
• Customers, Trends
• Long term macro focus
• Broad market needs and value
• End-to-end lifecycle
management
• Overall business outcomes
• Acts like Offering CEO
Scope
• Project Requirements
• Timeline, start + end dates
• Project planning
• Coordination of tasks
• Strategy & process flow
• Customer need analysis
• Product capabilities
• Features & functionality
• Dev/Design+ Ops
• Versions/Releases
• End-to-end value
• Comprehensive
• Permanence, sustainable
strategic advantage
• Offering evolution and maturity
over time
Project-based Product-based Offering-based
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10. PRINCIPLES OF OFFERING MANAGEMENT
Complete rethink of how value is provided to clients:
- A focus on serving categories, markets, and pervasive problem areas
- Increased responsiveness to changes in market dynamics
- With an integrated holistic point of view
- Differentiated from competitors
- From discovery to support to give iconic customers experience
- Creating repeatable, scalable and outcome driven solutions
10

11. 11
YES
CHALLENGESAND OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME

12. PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK
12

13. MARKET
Market Problems
• Discover problems in the market by interviewing
customers, recent evaluators and untapped potential
customers
• Validate urgent problems to showtheir
pervasiveness in themarket
Distinctive Competencies
• Articulate and leverage the organization’s unique
strengths and abilities to deliver compelling value
Competitive Landscape
• Identify competitive and alternativeofferings
• Correctly assess the frame of reference when choosing
the comparison universe (i.e., knowing what kind of
problem you’re really solving and what kind of product
you’re really offering)
• Assess competitive strengths andweaknesses
• Develop a strategy for winning against the
competition
Asset Assessment
• Inventory assets and determine ways that they can be
leveraged to accelerate solving a market problem
FOCUS
Market Definition
• Articulate segments using“problem-based
segmentation”
• Map needs with target markets and analyze the
market segments to activelypursue
• Ensure that the targeted segments are large enough
to support the current and future business goals
Distribution Strategy
• Determine which channels best align with your
markets’ buying preferences
• Research and understand how users want toreceive
the product and how they want to use the product
• Determine what the value or incentive is for
distributors and if you can still make a profit
Product Portfolio & Product Roadmap
• Integrate products, services and partners into a
coherent set (or portfolio) focused on solving a
problem for themarket
• Manage the portfolio like a product (business plan,
positioning, buying process, market requirementsand
marketing plan)
• Illustrate the vision and key phases ofdeliverables,
with the roadmap being a prediction,not a commitment
BUSINESS
Business Plan
• Perform an objective analysis of a potential market
opportunity to provide a basis for investment
• Articulate what you learned in the market and
quantify the risk, including a financial model
• Make go/no go recommendation based on the data
Pricing
• Establish a pricing model, schedules, guidelines,
procedures and other pricingparameters
Buy, Build or Partner
• Determine the most effective way to deliver a
complete solution to themarket
Product Profitability
• Monitor and analyze key performance indicators to
determine how well the product is performing in the
market, how it impacts the company operations and
how itultimately contributes toprofit
• For internal products or services, instead of revenue
or profit,determine success in improved usage or
adoption rates
Innovation
• Focus team creativity on solving market problems
by leveraging your organization’s distinctive
competencies
PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK – REVIEW (1/3)
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14. PLANNING
Positioning
• Formulate an in-depth understanding of problems by
segment and persona and its ability to solve market
problems
• Create positioning documents by segmentand
persona for use in externalmessaging
Buyer Experience
• Form an understanding ofthe barriers that buyers
encounter during their selectionprocess
• Create a buyer’s journey map
Buyer & User Personas
• Define the archetypical buyers involved inthe
purchase of company productsand services
• Create and share persona documents for each buyer
type
Requirements
• Articulate and prioritize problems thatsolutions
should be built for
Use Scenarios
• Illustrate market problems in a way that puts the
problem in context
• Create problem-based requirements
• Document and provide context on how the problem
shows up in a day in the life of the user
Stakeholder Communications
• Manage proactive communications with
relevant stakeholders from strategy
through execution
• Provide relevant, timely and easily consumable
updatesto all internal and externalaudiences
• Define key metrics and goals related to project
progress and success
• Measure and report on progress toward metrics and
goals
PROGRAMS
Marketing Plan:
• Articulate the strategies and programs that will
generate awareness and leads for the upcoming fiscal
period—including measurements and goals.
Launch
• Define and develop launch plans and supporting
documentation
• Track and communicate launchstatus
• Build and lead cross-functional team to ensure
readiness
Revenue Growth and Retention
• Define specific plans and budgets for selling products
and services to newcustomers
Awareness
• Create and deliver thoughtful information to
influence key market constituents; Influence key
audiences via strongcontent; Deliver
presentations tointernal and external audiences
Nurturing
• Develop a lead nurturing process to turn prospects
into satisfied customers and upsell or cross-sell
existing customers on new products andservices
Advocacy
• Identify customers who are willing to participate in
testimonials, case studies or referenceaccounts
• Capture and share stories ofcustomer success
• Utilize advocates in a variety of programs including
evemts and thought leadership
Measurement
• Measure and tune efforts to ensure alignment
with corporate goals
PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK – REVIEW (2/3)
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15. ENABLEMENT
Sales Alignment
• Align your organization’s selling process to the buying
process. Describe information needs for key personas at
each step in theprocess
• Align sales support content to various stages of the
sales process
Content
• Provide content for buyer personas focused on a
specific step of the buying process
• Curate content from users or solution teams that aligns
with stages of the buying process and drives
campaign objectives
Sales Tools
• Create tools for salespeople focused on a specific
step of the sellingprocess
Channel Training
• Design and deliver training programs to help the sales
channels focus on how to sell the product, not how to
use it
SUPPORT
Programs
• Provide market and solution information to support
internal and external marketingprograms
• Provide market understanding and positioning to
ensure programs align with corporategoals
Operations
• Provide needed market and solution information to
support the operationsgroup
Events
• Provide product and market expertise for events such as
conferences, tradeshows, webinars andseminars
Channels
• Provide ongoing support forthe sales channel.
• Look for opportunities to make support more
repeatable
PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK – REVIEW (3/3)
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16. SIRIUSDECISIONS MODEL
The SiriusDecisions
Product Marketing
and Management
Model
16

17. Offeringstrategyisanoutlineofhowcustomerneeds
andbusinessstrategywillbefulfilledthroughanoffering
• What market opportunities are we seeing?
• What is our offering and differentiated value proposition?
• Who is the economic buyer?
• What are our required investments to pursue?
• What go-to-market costs do we need to cover?
• What is the financial model and expected ROI?
• How can we ensure success after launch?
• What is field saying?
Discovery, Design and Alignment with market and users
are the key dimensions to building a successful strategy
SIRIUSDECISIONS – REVIEW (1/3 – STRATEGY)
17

18. “Agoodideawithgreatexecutioncanbeworth$200million.A
brilliantideawithmediocreexecutionisworthabout$20.”
Source:42RulesofProductManagement(Rule38),ByBrianLawley,GregCohen–280Group
• What assets and campaigns are needed to engage target
customers?
• How do we effectively enable (empower) field and sales teams?
• How do we influence the customer to make a purchase decision?
• What level of readiness exists for “try-buy” or trial (beta) projects?
• How are we training, educating and motivating our sales teams ?
• How do we ensure operational readiness?
Great execution trumps a great idea
SIRIUSDECISIONS – REVIEW (2/3 – EXECUTION)
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19. Increaseyourmarketshareandcreateabrandpreferencefor
yourcustomersinGrowthStage
• How do we maintain quality and add scope, enhancements
or additional services for the offering to increase value?
• How do maintain pricing yet increase demand?
• How do we now promote the offering to a wider audience?
• Can we create dashboards for analysis on success metrics?
• How can we effectively manage the offering lifecycle?
• What are new cross-sell-upsell opportunities?
• What are the best retention & expansio strategies?
SIRIUSDECISIONS – REVIEW (3/3 – GROWTH)
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20. Includes ecosystem, delivery and value components to deliver packaged services to the market
Engagement
Model
Delivery
Capacity
Business
Value
Solution /
Offering
• Implementation services
• Consulting services
• Managed services
• Support services
• Value Framework
• Ecosystems
• Pricing
• Route to market
• Digital components
• Direct Selling
• Consultative Selling
• Solution Delivery
• Partners
Is comprised of a single
product or service, or
combination of products
and services
• Marketing
• Value messaging
• “Demo”
• Value Justification Model
• TCO / NPV
COMPONENTS TO “PRODUCTIZING” SERVICES
20

21. The Solution/Offering Owner is envisioned as a focused General Manager role (supported by a team for delivery, SMEs and respective
ISL/POLs) required to manage the lifecycle of a Solution/Offering. This role owns end-to-end responsibility for the conceptualization,
funding, prototyping, development/elaboration, roadmap, GTM and P&L management of the solution.
Define and Plan Build and Validate Ready for Market Maintain and Evolve
• Define the problem
statement and opportunity
• Define the vision and target
end-state for the solution
• Define the scope and
high-level roadmap
• Own the funding process
• Develop & execute the
overall business plan –
“Own it” cross-functionally
• Develop and execute the
process of elaboration and
customer validation
• Work across the business
to ‘recruit’ the right team:
SMEs, Dev, Sales, etc.
• Lead cross-functional
collaboration across
business and functional
teams as required
• Guide the SMEs and build
teams in elaboration,
refinement, and validation
• Work with business CMOs
on marketing plan and
execution, market positioning
and demand generation.
• Work with Sales Enablement
and field teams on Account
penetration and growth
strategies
• Collaborate with legal,
finance to mitigate risk
• Own the P&L
• Participate in analyst
briefings and industry events
• Support the business
execution and operations
• Execute on planned solution
roadmap to launch to new
versions and create/maintain
all enablement collaterals for
the new versions
• Monitor field performance
and adjust accordingly
• Determine End-Of-Life for
the solution as appropriate
OWNER ROLE DEFINITIONS & KEY “PM”ACTIVITIES
21

22. Aligned / consistent when: Not-aligned / inconsistent when:
• Targeted, strategically important business problems that are
pervasive across many clients.
• Client-specific solutions custom built and delivered
• Little reuse or repeatability for future clients
• Specific, sizable, growing TAM; strong expectations of SAM;
• Impactful and worthy of including in the portfolio
• No clear targeted TAM or SAM
• Clear, identifiable set of Economic Buyers;
• Proactive engagement
• Heroic “relationship sale” to specific Account CxOs
• Non-repeatable sales processes
• Unique 1x RFPs
• Prescriptive, well-articulated, and repeatable value-prop
• Expected/proven outcomes that resonate across many
accounts
• Custom / bespoke client-specific solutions
• Client-specific outcomes unique to project / account.
• Transformative and strategically tied to company strategy
• Not transformative; not tied to “Digital transformation”.
• Legacy / historic staffing / augmentation services
• Named / identifiable differentiators drive competitiveness
• Greater sales win rate and reference-ability (case studies)
• Account specific advantages for that body of work only
• Higher cost of sale
• Strategic value built in (beyond the people doing the work)
• Above market profit margings
• Primarily ‘people’, ‘staff augmentation’ or ‘resumes for hire’
• Repeatable services, proprietary delivery
models/methodologies, rich tools, accelerators, IP, etc.
• Easy re-use across many accounts
• The work/deliverables are produced specifically and
uniquely for the client
• Standardized, packaged, field-ready GTM / enablement
materials
• Sales materials / content custom built for that client
opportunity, RFP response, etc.
• It is “productized/commercialized services” • It is “project-based work”
WHAT IS MEANS TO BE “PRODUCTIZED”
Focused Market Problems
Transformative & Digital
Clear Economic Buyers
Prescriptive Value-Prop
Identifiable Differentiators
Packaged & Field Ready
Repeatable Elements, IP
Strategic Value beyond FTEs
Strong Growth Market
Productized
MARKETDEFINITIONGTM
• Buyer / User Problems and Challenges are clearly targeted
• Can identify/name target Clients and Accounts
• Can identify/name target Roles/Titles (personas) within those
• Can prescribe expected Business Outcomes buyer should realize
• Can articulate how it is transformative to their business
• Can name clear identifiable differentiators – what’s unique about it/us?
• Can list what our IP and strategic value, beyond people, really is
• Can prescribe what components are repeatable, re-usable each time
• Can outline how and via who (skills) this is delivered, repeatably

23. FOUNDATIONS FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
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Foundational Building Blocks
Foundational portfolio of prescriptive,
packaged, differentiated and repeatable
solutions (“productized services”) for
identified target growth areas
• Horizontal Offerings – Productized
50+ offerings focused on growth areas
to support business strategies (from
baseline of 1000+ skills)
• Industry Solutions – Developing core
set of vertical-specific solutions using
horizontal offerings to support key
growth areas and market opportunities
• Roadmap: Outlined a journey of
increasing services maturity over time
Basic operating model, team and guidelines
for consistently developing and managing a
portfolio of “productized services”
• Core Team – “PM experts” to drive
standards, coach/enable owners and
drive consistent portfolio leadership
• Owner Teams – Small teams to manage
and build portfolio (i.e. “PMs/POs”)
• Cross-functional Interlocks: Pre-designed
connects with Sales, Marketing, Delivery,
Finance, Legal, Partners, etc.
• Portfolio Lifecycle Management
Framework – Standard methodology for
services commercialization, X-functional
governance, portfolio management, and
field team enablement
Infrastructure, tools and activities to drive
awareness, educate and empower field
teams to sell and deliver
• Portal – Centralized repository and
integrated platform for GTM and
enablement content
• Catalog/CRM – Portfolio dictionary
and tools for tracking performance
• Communications – Events, webinars
and promotions to drive education
• Portfolio Leadership Community (PLC)
– Community to build offer
management competency
Portfolio
Sales and Delivery
Enablement
Governance,
Standard Processes and Team
Corporate Strategy and company-wide GTM approach

24. • Common structure for early stage sales and consulting conversations
• Consistent 5 areas of content / narrative:
CONSISTENT SALES ENABLEMENT METHODOLOGY
24
Client Landscape
Business Drivers
Point of View
Value Proposition
Proof / Success Stories
• Even if the “product” isn’t a product, this narrative is critical (and universal) to
the B2B buying process

25. Service
Definition
BAU
& Performance
Management
Service
Assurance
Platform,
Tools,
Security &
Legal
People
Enablement
Delivery
Capabilities
Lifecycle
Management
Framework
3. Market Readiness Phase – Assess availability of
standard delivery artifacts and level of adoption by
pre-sales solution teams during the sales cycle
4. Market Readiness Phase – Assess
people enablement aspects in terms of
skill development and planning in place
for fulfilling the staffing requirements
5. Market Readiness Phase – Assess
the platform, tools readiness and
compliance from Security and Legal
teams.
6. Maintain & Evolve Phase – Assess plans in
place for tracking the performance in
execution and process in place for auditing
and benchmarking in continuous basis.
1. Define & Plan Phase – Assess Complexity,
Compliance needs, Experience & Reputability of the
productized services
2. Build & Pilot Phase – Asses availability of
service blue prints and if they are validated in client
engagement or internally
CONSISTENT DELIVERY READINESS FRAMEWORK
25

26. § By leveraging reusable Assets, Content, and Frameworks we can
accelerate both speed to sell and speed to deliver
§ Bundles help us avoid custom one-off responses that tend to be more
tactical in nature and more difficult to repeat across multiple clients,
thereby lowering overall margins
Solutions-first aligns with and
promotes company strategy
and key business objectives
Packaged solutions drive
reusability in areas of our
greatest strength
1
2
Better focus & intentional
prioritization on areas of
greatest market opportunity
where we can lead
3
§ Pre-packaged productized services promote broader, digitally focused
strategic business value for clients that encompass our strategy
§ Bundles better support predictable, repeatable business outcomes for our
clients and for the company over longer timeframes
§ By leveraging Standard Frameworks and Tools business teams
ensure their focus is on areas of greatest strength and aligned to the
best market opportunities to win repeatability and at scale
§ We increase competitiveness and better lead in key markets
Improved Field Enablement and
Alignment to Sales Approach
(sales execution)
§ This approach enables more consistent, repeatable success for sales
teams in leveraging bundled productized services to meet client needs,
vs. custom designing solutions each time
§ Also promotes company-wide standardization and improved efficiency
through leveraging centralized repository and better collaboration
across the company and portfolio
4
Shorten Sales
Cycle
Increase
Margins
Reduce Risk
Drive Quality
Revenue
THE VALUEAND BENEFIT OFAPMAPPROACH TO SERVICES
26

27. CLOSING THOUGHTS
27
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s
not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas.”
– Steve Jobs, Apple
- While somewhat different, absolutely should apply product management
principles and practices to “thought-ware” and services
- Focus on markets and pervasive problem areas
- Never lose sight of the business aspects of “the product”
- No matter what it is, differentiation and business value is key
- From sales to delivery to support, iconic customers experiences are crucial,
especially in services
- Repeatability, scalability, predictability, and velocity universally valued

28. THANK YOU
Chris Aulbach 860-538-6482
caulbach@me.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caulbach
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