Post on 20-Mar-2017
Product Management for the Enterprise
/Productschool
@ProductSchool /ProductmanagementNY
Product Management for the Enterprise
Blair Reeves
@BlairReeves
Obligatory
Hi!
@BlairReeves
Principal Product Manager
o business model
What is a Product Manager?
• I like to think of the PM as a sheepdog (just don’t tell Development)
@BlairReeves
o size of the company
o maturity of the product
• Definitions and responsibilities of PM vary dramatically by:
Enterprise vs. Consumer
@BlairReeves
Enterprise software Consumer web
• Direct sales/subscription• Large, sales-negotiated deal sizes• SLAs• Legal & regulatory compliance• Policy whitepapers, documentation• Product & solution level marketing• Customers want very specific stuff
• Ad-supported or subscription• If sales, small amounts - LTV• “We’ll do the best we can”• No one reads User T&Cs• You have a blog• Brand marketing• Users want MOAR
Common user/customer distinctions in enterprise software:
● My user is not my customer● Build product for one, sell to another● Enterprise PM is all about learning these two groups, and
how they influence one another● Don’t listen to customers too closely
Customer-aligned PMs have two questions:- what does your customer value?- what will they pay for?
Non-customer-aligned PMs are quite different
Customer alignment
@BlairReeves
(Product Manager Collie)
● Basic market research: trade press, analyst reports, conferences, blogs
● Primary research: third party forums, customer support forums (google them!), social
○ Are you on twitter? If not… what are you doing
You need to be an expert.
Research and Intel
@BlairReeves
So become an expert!
● Talk to users and customers at every opportunity - including (/especially!) not your own
● Listen to competitors - both the party line and unofficial channels● Platform analytics are great, but...
● Be careful about “design”
● The “consumerization of enterprise software” is real, but
● Enterprise users care about the back end (many of them use it!)
● In general, functionality and bleeding-edge features trump design (but do both)
The role of design
@BlairReeves
● The best example of how PM is cross-functional
Protips:
● Insight from sales ops can be a secret weapon● Pricing is complicated
The “business” of PM
@BlairReeves
● The best PMs understand: ○ average deal sizes○ cost profiles○ chargeable parts○ how deals get done
Product Management is not the thing itself
The thing is knowing your market, your users, and what creates value
Some final thoughts
@BlairReeves
Things get complicated when you sell a lot of stuff. PMs should seek to produce simplicity.
JIRA, PMATs, PRDs, Agile/Scrum/Waterfall, Mythical Man-Month, etc etc - you’ll figure it out
Have fun and don’t stress out. If it isn’t for you, take up surfing or something!
Thanks!
@BlairReeves
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