We’re running a business, not a technology company (part 2)

I want to continue with the this topic a bit. In the part 1, I made a few points:

• Product management must focus on optimizing for business success not simply technological leadership.
• This must be done by addressing market needs better than other competitors.
• A lot of what we deliver to customers may not be considered truly innovative, but is needed to address the way they need to use the product.
• Technology can change much faster than people’s ability to accept that change.

I want to spend a bit more time exploring this, as it does raise some points of discussion.

Last week when I was in California, I rented a Toyota Prius at the airport. It was my first time driving the Prius, and I will admit that, it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to actually get the car in gear. First time I drove a car that had a power button in the dash.

Click image to enlarge

Once I figured that out, I drove the car for the duration of my trip and was amazed at how little gas it used. I’m pretty sure it averaged well over 50 mpg.

Now, the hybrid engine in the Prius is truly innovative. Toyota introduced the Prius 10 years ago (initially only in Japan). But the rest of the car is pretty standard: doors, windows, steering wheel, gas tank, mirrors, cup holders, radio etc. It’s not a perfect car, but it’s a pretty good 4 door sedan and it get excellent gas mileage. And given the price of gas these days (over $4 per gallon in California), it will likely have a great future.

Now compare the success of the Prius, with the the complete lack of success of a the Honda Insight. The Insight was actually the first hybrid car introduced in North America (1999). It preceded the Prius by about 6 months. It also had better gas mileage than the Prius, with an EPA rating of 70 mpg. But the Honda Insight sold only about 18,000 units total in the US. The Prius has sold over 1,000,000 units worldwide.

While there is no single reason for the lack of sales of the Insight, the styling of the Insight, the fact that it was only a 2 door hatchback (vs. a 4 door sedan for the Prius) are certainly a big factor. The Insight didn’t look like a “normal” car was something that was said of the vehicle.

The point here is that while one car, the Insight, was first to market and had what appeared to be technical superiority (much better gas mileage), the fact that it didn’t fit well with how people wanted to use the vehicle made it less successful than the Prius, which fit people’s vision of what they wanted in a car. It wasn’t simply the technological innovation of the hybrid engine (or high gas mileage) that was key, but all the other aspects of owning and driving a vehicle that they wanted.

Saeed

Why would you attend a Product Management conference?

Just wondering, what would you like to see in a Product Management/Product Marketing conference that would entice you to attend?

The organizers of the Software Marketing Perspectives conference, where I presented last week, asked the speakers for some input on how to grow the conference. Being a PM, while I have an opinion, it is largely irrelevant, given I attended.

So I’ll put the question out to you…

What would you need to see in a conference to commit to attending it?

Or put another way, why didn’t you attend this year?

Was it the cost, or lack of budget?

Was it the location in Santa Clara California?

Was it the content or the (heaven fordid) speakers?

Were you too busy at this time of year to attend?

Do you have a conference budget available for you to attend these kinds fo things?

Did you attend a different conference, such as AIPMM?

Some other reason?

Let me know, I’d like to hear from you.

Saeed

We’re running a business, not a technology company

One thing I always try to remind myself of, is that in the end, my job is to make the business successful. Product Management is a business optimization function. In short: get the most valuable products to market with a limited set of development resources to generate enough revenue to meet or exceed the business goals.

Now, given we work in technology, there is a lot of pressure to “innovate”, to create new technological differentiation against competitors, to develop the next “big thing”, or produce a new or novel offering that can be positioned uniquely in the market.

And, while there is nothing wrong with any of that, it is important to remember that although those things may be important, they are not paramount. The most important thing to do is address market needs more effectively than anyone else. This could mean doing the more mundane things like playing well in their existing environment, or providing platform support, or creating command line tools, or making sure the products are easy to use.

None of those things may seem all that exciting or novel, but they are important to customers who must use these products to meet their business objectives. There is no point creating a unique product showcasing great technology that few people want to buy.

Keep in mind that technology changes much faster than many people’s abilities to accept that change, and one of the best things you can do for customers is to actually help them mitigate that change where possible.

Case in point. Back in the early days of Java, I was product manager for a line of Java components. Java was growing and changing quickly and Sun was deprecating APIs regularly. One of the things we did was to provide consistent APIs to our customers so that as they moved from Java (1) to Java 2, they didn’t need worry about those changes from Sun. In short, we provided them a layer of insulation from the underlying technology changes. This was hugely valuable to customers and helped our business as well as our reputation as a company that delivered real value to them.

In the end, optimizing for the business success, and NOT simply technological leadership, should be the goal of every product manager.

Saeed

I found my voice, but I didn’t scream

An update on the case of the missing voice.

After spending all of Thursday being as silent as possible, feasting on virtually nothing but hot soup and udon, and using virtually every sort of non-prescription remedy to better my condition, I woke up Friday morning with a working, though far from normal voice. It was hoarse, raspy and about 1/4 of it’s normal strength, but it was functional.

So with that ability, I went to the conference and got miked up for my talk. The talk went over well I’m happy to say, and I got some good feedback from some attendees. “Very original” was probably the best comment that I feel I received

I do want to take this opportunity to give a sincere thank you to Michael Hopkin. Michael was a speaker at the conference (he gave a good talk on Leadership for Product Management) and is a reader of this blog. On Thursday, hearing of my predicament, he offered to be my voice if needed on Friday. I really appreciated his offer, as we had just met. That was plan B for me. It would have been interesting to try but I’m also glad my voice returned.

Saeed

I have no voice, and I must speak.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the conference. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m speaking at the Software Marketing Perspectives conference in Santa Clara this week. So, the funny thing, or perhaps the ironic thing, is that I lost my voice this week.

While it was rough earlier in the week, as I recovered from the flu, it got progressively worse, and today, the day before I’m scheduled to speak, my voice is completely gone. I can whisper, and articulate a few words with a really hoarse, raspy voice, but if I try for more than 30 seconds, I’m done.

So, this puts me in an interesting position. How can I give my talk without the ability to speak? I have a plan B, but I won’t tell you what it is right now.

Tomorrow, after the conference, I’ll let you know the plan and how it went down.

BTW, bragging rights go to the first person who can identify the obscure sci-fi reference in the title of this post.

Saeed