3 Popular Theory Viewpoints

In previous articles, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the MP3 player market, and especially the success of the iPod.  (See Innovation Lessons from Apple – Parts 1-3)  An article recently came out from the Wharton School of Business titled “Pushing Zune: Is Microsoft Pushing an Uphill Battle?”.   Is it making progress; does it have a chance; should Microsoft continue investing?   This was too intriguing to pass up, so this article looks at the Zune strategy from 3 popular marketing theories to see how these questions might be answered.

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.

5 Activities for Successful Product Conceptualization

The early stages of product planning earned the nickname The Fuzzy Front End due to the unpredictable nature of initiating new product ideas and concepts within most companies.   The process, the timing, and the outcome are all often quite nebulous and mysterious.   This is in apparent stark contrast to the next phase, Product Development, which has clearly defined processes and deliverables.     This article dives into the murky waters of this front end phase and discusses five activities to help demystify the process.

When was the last time you really assessed your products and your organization’s ability to create and deliver them to the marketplace? If it’s been a while (maybe never?), here are 12 quick questions and scoring criteria to help you determine how well you’re doing and to identify potential areas of improvement.

A Discussion of Roadmap Planning

In a recent survey of product managers, the biggest challenge they faced was that of “Roadmap planning and commitment”. Figuring out where your products should be headed, in what timeframe and getting corporate support to commit resources to the plan can be daunting and frustrating. This article explores methods for improving the process of developing your plan and in getting organizational support. For reference, also see the article Your Product Management Poll Results.

4 Perspectives to Help You Shape Your Solution

Assessing new opportunities for a product or service is one of the top strategic activities that a Product Manager can do within a company. These opportunities can be in the form of entirely new products, or more likely, enhancements to existing products. They can come from external feature requests, internal stakeholders, or from “out of the blue”. Since the product manager is the “business owner” of the product, there are multiple perspectives he/she needs to assume to be able to make the best decisions for the market and the company regarding these opportunities.

Aligning Strategy to Resources

Managing the lifecycle of a product isn’t a clear cut or an easy task.   Managing the lifecycle of multiple products or product lines can be daunting.   How do you decide where to invest and where to hold? How do you decide the best use of your valuable resources?   This is the activity of Product Portfolio Management and the discussion for this article.