Author Archives: Timothy Bates

About Timothy Bates

Thinker, Questioner, Data miner, Technologist and student of life!

What If? How Can we? How many ways can you see this?

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Great Innovators can see things from multiple perspectives at once and know they need to think again. Yes without the paralysis of analysis innovators see through others eyes. There was once a top national company where we worked through the new tag line for months and never have I seen so much testing, then just before launch we showed it one more time to an internal group who changed one letter in a three word line changing the meaning 180 Degrees.

Today there are many schools of Product Management, I think I have studied and used them all. Last night at a great social for top tech leaders in Denver we ended up sitting on a patio of a local pub with great beer. One of the team is an author who wrote on using Agile principles. Like me he is a student of the manifesto not the expanded Process rule books so many have.

The parallel analogy for me is that when I learn my scales and practice technique I can play various forms of music and switch up mid-stream. Truly the reason I love Jazz and blues! Business Processes are the same, last night we made lists in categories of terms used in different business schools from Six Sigma, Lean, Agile, RUP64, WaterFall, and company specific derivatives.

Similar in intent and structure with minor refinements but clear themes. Each has a place in a project of stage of company growth. Each is a tool that a master can use and understands how to best apply to a given task. Not all can be dynamic, known and shared process is critical to moving the ball forward. Being able to CHOOSE when and how to adapt is a masters work.

Great masters touch all the elements of a creation and know when to adapt and when not to. They read the audience, the performers and look at things constantly from all angles, always asking What if? How can we? Last Christmas my wife and I went to see Porky and Bess in Times Square, sitting at the orchestra pit I got to witness the conductor and a few players interact during the intermission. This team had most likely done a thousand performances and was still talking about minor changes in sections. Innovation in the process itself is as important as innovation in design.

Completely Weighted Systems

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Building product models is an art, not talking about building prototypes but building financial models. Modeling is a product managers domain not the CFO. The finance guys are your best friends in this and have skills you do not need to command however you have functional knowledge they will never grasp.

How do you know costs cross functionally if you do not walk through every step from raw material sourcing through sales and support? There are a few things that are often missing from models: Development costs and Redevelopment costs! New features also will eventually lead to new platform requirements as will expansion.

Recently I was reviewing a services firm model and while there was cost inserted for new staff and ramp loss to productivity there was no cost expansion on services for that new staff. Not the payroll overhead but the support.

Productivity is critical in early stages of an offering, my base is model to 75% of productive not any higher. We all ebb and flow as reflected in output then there is change that stops it all. Once the service grows the economies of scale allow you to raise that to 85% or better but I suggest sand bagging you numbers.

Product managers excel when they learn not to fight change, modeling needs to embrace change. When you are building a lifecycle model and the curve is up then plat only you are not doing your work. Weighting a lifecycle model requires you to embrace change including all of the implied and embedded costs of new features, platforms. re designs that go with growing and sun setting your product.

Mining companies include closing and clean up then a few lawsuits. Are you that complete?

Go to market or come from market?

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So much focus is on go to market plans these days that it seems like it is the only term that marketers and Product Managers are judged by. When solid front end PM work is done identifying the opportunity, testing, modeling…. the GTM should flow out of this data.

Front end planning defines users, value, competition and more then adds information about where the target market lives, breaths, takes advice and cues. Segmentation work defines price point and distribution, estimates responses writes sales PPTs or channel materials.

Truly successful GTMs come from the market research and product testing sessions. I do not mean to reduce the value of the tactical elements or the value of planning and execution but here I am addressing the GTM Plan not GTM actions. The plan states we are going to drive to NY and use a four door sedan, stopping for gas every 150 miles, stopping in Chicago.

Once the road trip begins weather and road conditions will crop up and change things. You need to monitor the engine constantly then respond to the environmentals. From my perspective building a GTM is not as critical a skillset as running a GTM effort from launch through the product lifecycle including sunset.

Own the Sales Process and Customer Experience or Suffer..

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Ugh on the customer service side, here is to folks that just can’t connect the dots in anything! So a few weeks ago my wife and I set out to buy new deck furniture, yes they used to call it patio furniture but alas marketing has shown if you call it outside furniture you can charge at least 300% more for the same product.

Anyway so store number 567 which has two variations on what every other store had. This is not a PM post but a business flow and sales issue which product managers should watch, HELLO! PMs, bad sales process is your responsibility, Bad sales people not so much.

We walk into this mid upper range store and are finally greeted by Susie sales clerk with her new fancy iPad. So Susie needs a training course but again someone else can jump on that process gap. NOW PLEASE, it was embarrassing.

We sit down and go through the 50 variations and choices kind of like Starbucks, ending on the six pieces of furniture with the number 4 wicker and cushion fabric sunset on Moroccan desert in June from vendor number 3. Wow that was exhausting and I am happy it is over and all there in her fancy little iPad! BTW if you have choices and have to call stock on your little Johnny  Tech radio you have failed!

Ok back to the experience problem and where the company has a monumental FAIL! After we have all invested 90 minutes in the store and the store has invested money in a good iPad appI ask for the invoice and final pick list. (Now comes the sales training items) first learn to focus on customer not tool, secondly ASK FOR THE CLOSE!

The APP cannot take my card and complete the transaction or PRINT! Are you kidding me?

I can review a bill that totals 50% of price of my last car? Where are the candid cameras? No, this has to be a joke, You want me to wait while you now reenter all into the POS system? 15 min ONLY? The APP is not tied to your e-Commerce? The inventory on the APP is not dynamic and accurate?

I walked out and would not have taken the furniture if they gave it to me! EPIC FAIL! Be accountable for the sales experience and don’t let this happen to your products. I actually wanted those items and they were clearly in my eyes the best value after 567 some stores, the program of choices a little excessive but I felt ok after choosing that they would fit my home. The PM did a great job.

Their systems failed, Online On premise is here today. Forget the POS work through your e-Commerce site wake up. The point of sale terminal and device is the dead elephant in the room. Even if you have a sandwich shop. Use a swipe card reader not a POS terminal and an e-Commerce backend you may just be able to extend that outside the building!

Ok that Rant over it is out to the deck for a glass of wine and a great Boulder evening.