Tag: Product Management
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Portfolio Management – Strategic Product Management at Its Finest
If you ask 10 different product managers to describe strategic product management, you’ll probably get at least 10 answers, maybe more. Here’s the one thing they’ll all have in common though. Every description will be something related to the product manager’s job responsibilities, and that’s why the definition of strategic product management varies so widely […]
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The Simple Way To Marry Company Strategy and Product Strategy
Here’s the easiest way to marry company strategy and product strategy. The first order of business is to make a clear distinction between your company’s financial goals and strategic goals. They’re often conflated. Financial goals are just that. While meeting those goals is critical to your organization’s success, financial goals themselves aren’t the same as […]
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How to Set Customer Success Managers Up To Play Offense
In most B2B organizations, it’s more the exception than the rule that customer success managers inherit accounts where they’re in a position to play offense because the customer is thrilled with your products. Let’s dream for just a minute. It Starts With Product Management Product management consistently does discovery at a level that makes them […]
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The One Thing That Simplifies Sales Enablement Most
Nothing eludes the ripple effect of your product management model, and sales enablement is no exception. Sales enablement encompasses a lot, but there’s one thing that still matters more than anything else when you’re a salesperson in the throes of the sales process. It’s the conversations you’re having with buyers at all levels, from users […]
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Portfolio Positioning Is What Makes Your Product Positioning More Strategic
Here’s a simple example of portfolio positioning and how it makes your product positioning more strategic. Your accounts payable product improves the customer’s cash flow. It sounds strategic. What CFO doesn’t want a stronger balance sheet? Your accounts receivable product further enhances cash flow. Even more strategic when customers use both, right? There’s still something […]
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A Portfolio Roadmap Isn’t Just a Product Thing
Before we bring the portfolio roadmap into the picture, let’s set the stage with product roadmaps. For most people, the term roadmap conjures up a visual presentation of product features and delivery dates published by product management. While that definition doesn’t coincide with the purist view, let’s run with it since feature-date roadmaps are the […]
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Integrating Business Processes vs. Products
Let’s start this discussion of integrating business processes vs. products with the spotlight on pre-sales, sales, and customer on-boarding since they bear the brunt of the ripple effect. Here’s the scenario. You’re in the throes of the sales cycle and it’s product demo time. In addition to functionality, you’re highlighting the fact that all your […]
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Market Strategy vs. Product Strategy
Going all the way back to my practitioner days, it was apparent then that as product management goes, so goes the rest of the organization. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since everything revolves around the products. My goal is to highlight the strategic ripple effect across engineering, product marketing, sales, including presales, customer […]
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How To Use a Portfolio Vision to Lead Products
Here’s why a portfolio vision is so critical to the success of your products and how it elevates Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales and Customer Success teams to plan and execute more strategically. Think of your portfolio vision as the ultimate “strategic goal/outcome” your target customers want from your portfolio of products. Then think of the […]
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Bridging the Gap – Strategic vs Tactical Customer Discovery
Market and customer discovery is the single most foundational skill for success in product management and product marketing. There are two things to consider when it comes to being more strategic in your discovery. One of them is obvious and the other is rarely if ever discussed. Let’s start with the obvious one, understanding what’s […]