The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a fundamental concept in Marketing that defines specific characteristics of products and markets at various points in their evolution.   Less common is the discussion of the company evolution and characteristics at different stages, also known as the Organizational Life Cycle (OLC).   This article discusses the stages of the OLC and specifically how it relates to high tech product development and delivery organizations, from start-up through mature companies.

The Executive Viewpoint

There have been plenty of discussions about how to measure and demonstrate the value of Product Management within companies.    From posts on other sites:

• VP of Engineering has a mandate. You need one too.
• Product Management Metrics (part 1)
• Proiduct Management Metrics (part 2)

and from a recent roundtable at the October Seattle ProductCamp, there’s an obvious challenge for the profession.

I decided to follow the prescribed Product Management protocol – I went out and talked to my customers. Here’s the feedback from some senior executives running technology companies to the following questions:

Establishing Credibility & Building Relationships

The PM roles (Product Manager, Program Manager, and Project Manager) all need to lead cross-functional product efforts without having direct control of resources.   A common phrase heard is “I have all the responsibility but no authority”.   Last month at the Seattle ProductCamp, brainstormed in a session titled “Responsibility without Authority” to get ideas on how to establish credibility and influence your organization.   Here’s a quick discussion of those notes generated from about 25 attendees.   It includes identifying the major stakeholders, the roadblocks to influence, and suggestions for gaining credibility and the ability to influence. 

And Are You Delegating Your Company's Future?

Where do you find most product management teams organizationally within companies or divisions? The two most likely scenarios are within the Development organization reporting to the CTO or VP of Development, or in the Marketing organization reporting to the CMO or VP of Marketing.

The question is: Is this the right place in your company for this function?

The Importance of Organizational Environment

In a previous guest post at OnProductManagement, we interviewed executives about product management and asked whether product managers met executive’s expectations. We got a resounding SOMETIMES.    Executives expected product managers to deliver against current business objectives but also acknowledged that the environment has a great deal to do with product manager success.   We’ll explore this environmental issue in more depth, specifically what do execs and product managers need to be doing to make the role successful. This discussion applies equally to other “PM” roles, including project and program managers.