Kevolve - Product Management 101

Question 1

The work of product management

Answer 1

Manage the full lifecycle of products/services to…

• Create exceptional customer value
• Generate long-term competitive advantage
• Deliver year-after-year profitability

Question 2

Why analyze competition?

Answer 2

• Anticipate market shifts
• Improve your product or service
• Craft counter-attack strategies
• Optimize pricing

Question 3

How to Identifying and prioritizing competition?

Answer 3

Question 4

What are some criteria to analyze the competition?

Answer 4

1. Market share and trends
2. Strategy and Investments
3. Target Markets
4. Strenght
5. Weakness
6. Pricing
7. Technology Position
8. Channel Strategy
9. Reaction Pattern

Question 5

What are customer needs?

Answer 5

Customers (or potential customers) are trying to solve an issue, or realize an opportunity. They are trying to satisfy their needs.

Question 6

Why should you care about Customer needs?

Answer 6

A deep understanding of customer needs guides strategy, new product development, growth plans, pricing and sales efforts – leading to competitive differentiation and long-term profitability.

Question 7

What is Kano model?

Answer 7

**Focusing on a single customer segment, the Kano model can help separate customer needs into…
–Basic needs - what you have to do, i.e. table stakes to play in this market
–Performance needs - the areas that you typically compete on, like service quality, response time, pricing, etc.
–Attractive needs - the extra needs that customers can’t articulate, but love when you deliver on them, e.g. getting upgraded to 1st class on an airplane**

Question 8

What is Market Analysis?

Answer 8

Needs-based segmentation

Question 9

What is Market segmentation?

Answer 9

Process of dividing a broad market into groups of customers with similar needs (needs-based segmentation

Question 10

What should you segment the market?

Answer 10

1. Evaluate, compare and select market segments to enter
2. Target specific customers

–design products to specifically meet their needs
–focus your marketing & sales efforts

Question 11

How to perform Needs-based segmentation?

Answer 11

1. Identify the segments
–Cluster customers into groups with very similar needs
–Use market research, customer data, key opinion leaders and deep market understanding
2. Profile the segments
–Describe
–Size

Question 12

What to include in market size analysis?

Answer 12

1. Market size
2. Annual growth
3. Competitive intensity
4. Your market share and trend

Question 13

What are product roadmaps?

Answer 13

Roadmaps are time-based charts showing the planned evolution of a product or service

Question 14

Why do roadmaps? or Purpose of Roadmaps?

Answer 14

1. Prioritized technology investments
2. Breakthrough, market-leading products
3. Long-term, sustained competitive advantages

Question 15

Roadmapping in context

Answer 15

Question 16

Explain Roadmapping, step by step

Answer 16

• *1.Establish a roadmap team: Small team of senior product managers and R&D staff
  2. Review your market intelligence (market growth, customer trends, competitive analysis), strategy, technology assessment and innovation ideas.
  3. Sketch a preliminary roadmap, discuss and iterate
  4. Develop a final version
  5. Use the roadmaps to plan resources (people and money) and start new product development. All new products & services should demonstrate a place on the roadmap.
  6. Review, update and evolve every 3-6 months**

Question 17

Example of Structure of a roadmap

Answer 17

Question 18

What is a strategy?

Answer 18

A central, integrated, externally-oriented concept of how a business will achieve its objectives

Question 19

What is Product manager’s role in creating strategy?

Answer 19

• Mission and objectives (corporate/business unit)
• Strategy (corporate or business unit, supported by product management)
• Product group strategy (led by product management)

Question 20

Strategy diamonds (from the work of Hambrick and Fredrickson)

Answer 20

Question 21

SEE IMAGE

Answer 21

SEE IMAGE

Question 22

What is The importance of an impactful launch

Answer 22

Well-planned and executed new product launches can drive earlier sales, and can lead to a higher long-term run-rate

Question 23

Establishing a launch priority

Answer 23

New products and services typically don’t have the same level of importance to a company, and it is useful to categorize your launches, and scale your launch efforts accordingly.

1. Major Strategic Value

High company focus and investment

2.Supporting Launch

Replacements,new features, line extensions

3. Maintainance Launch

Bug fixes,quality enhancements,cost reductions

Question 24

What is the idea stack - Josh Wexler

Answer 24

Problem

Problem Statement 1-2 sentences that describe an issue (need) that a person or group has.

Inspiration

Other systems that attempt to solve the problem or inspire with their design or functionality

Goal

Goals A desired result the product should achieve once built

Customer

Customer Definition Groups of people who might be using the solution. These are the primary customers (i.e., early adopters) and are the people who feel the pain of our problem the most.

Personas

Personas Characters created to represent the different user types within the targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use the solution.

Narratives

A narrative about how one of the personas would use and interact with the solution in the world. Narratives are different than features, but they can contain features.

Paper Prototype

A hand drawn version of a persona narrative that gives a visual to the story.

Question 25

Five Questions to Build a Strategy - Roger Martin

( Playing to Win)

Answer 25

• What are our broad aspirations for our organization & the concrete goals against which we can measure our progress?
• Across the potential field available to us, where will we choose to play and not play?
• In our chosen place to play, how will we choose to win against the competitors there?
• What capabilities are necessary to build and maintain to win in our chosen manner?
• What management systems are necessary to operate to build and maintain the key capabilities?

Question 26

What are the 5 forces that shape competition for profitability and attractiveness​ evaluation?

Michael Porter

Answer 26

1. Competition in the industry;

2. Potential of new entrants into the industry;

3. Power of suppliers;

4. Power of customers;

5. Threat of substitute products.

Question 27

What is the VRIN Framework?

Answer 27

VRIN framework can determine if a resource is a source of sustainable competitive advantage. To serve as a basis for sustainable competitive advantage, resources must be –

valuable – meaning that they must be a source of greater value, in terms of relative costs and benefits, than similar resources in competing firms

rare – rareness implies that the resource must be rare in the sense that it is scarce relative to demand for its use or what it produces

inimitable – it is difficult to imitate

nonsubstitutable – other different types of resources cannot be functional substitutes

The criteria of the VRIN Framework clearly rules out best practices as a source of competitive advantage. If other firms can easily understand and copy a capability, it is not a source of advantage.