What Lean Brings to Product
Marketing Management
by Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
Global Product Management Talk
Startup Product
March 25, 2014
© Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
•Host, Global Product Management Talk
•Founder, Startup Product movement for product excellence
•Contributing author: ProdBOK, Product Management And Marketing Body of
Knowledge and 42 Rules Product Marketing #13 Emulate Twitter
•20 years of web development, services, consulting & software product
marketing and management at Apple, Vadem, NetObjects and start-ups in
Silicon Valley.
www.linkedin.com/in/cfsolomon/
© Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
www.synerzip.com
1. What is Lean Product Marketing?
2. Distinctions between Product Marketing
Management And Product Management
3. How is Product Marketing Management currently
handled?
4. Move from Strategic View to Tactical implementation
5. Example of Lean Content Marketing Implementation
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The Living Company
The ability to learn faster than
your competitors may be the
only sustainable competitive
advantage.
Arie de Geus
http://amzn.to/1hUX4fd
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What is Running Lean?
•Speed, learning & focus
•Testing a vision by measuring how
customers behave
•Engaging customers throughout the
development process
•Product and market validation done
in parallel using short iterations
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Lean Principles
http://bit.ly/1ptVrI8
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Value at every step
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View of Product
Customer
smells
something
grey
Support
Sales
UX
QA
Dev
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Marketing
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Goal of Product Marketing
The goal and focus for any Product
Marketing team is to conceive,
develop, deliver, penetrate and endof-life the most successful product(s)
within its niche with successful repeat
performances again and again.
-Peter Buscemi
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Strategic Product Marketing
Product marketing management plays a
critical role in successfully driving products
into the marketplace by understanding the
current market environment and developing
strategy to drive customer awareness of the
benefits of adopting products and solutions.
- Cindy F. Solomon
Product Marketing Management Manifest 2010
http://bit.ly/1jnqEPK
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http://bit.ly/1oWyvml
© Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
www.synerzip.com
Product Marketing Activities
• Strategic
– Market problems, win/loss analysis, distinctive competence , market definition,
distribution, product portfolio, business plan, pricing, buy/build/partner, product
profitability
• Technical
– Competitive landscape, technology assessment, product roadmap, innovation, user
personas, requirements, use scenarios, status dashboard
• Marketing
– Positioning, buying process, buyer persona, marketing plan, customer acquisition,
customer retention, program effectiveness, launch plan, thought leadership, lead
generation, referrals & references
• Sales
– Sales enablement, sales tools, sales process, collateral, channel training, presentations &
demos, special calls, event support, channel support
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Cross Functional View
Focusing on where the product is in its
lifecycle enables a conversation that
brings us all together on what will serve
the product most to arrive at
product/market fit, sustain growth and
generate revenue streams.
Startup Product
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Defining Product
http://bit.ly/1guBJg0
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Donald Norman mapped
lifecycle of products
why good products can fail…
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Lifecycle of Products
“In its early days, a technology cannot meet all the needs
of its customers.
Early adopters need the technology and they are willing to
suffer inconvenience to get it.
With time, the technology matures, offering better
performance and higher reliability.
When the technology exceeds the basic needs of most of its
customers, there is a major change in customer behavior.
Emotional reaction, pride of ownership, and pleasurability all
can become major selling points.”
Donald Norman
The Invisible Computer
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Product Growth Cycle
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Product Management Lifecycle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Conceive
Plan
Develop
Qualify
Launch
Deliver
Retire
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AIPMM Product Management Framework
Product Management
+ Product Marketing
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Product Management
Product Marketing
Product Management
+ Product Marketing
Source: AIPMM © 1998-2014, All Rights Reserved.
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1. CONCEIVE
•
•
•
•
To Answer – What is missing?
Is there a market? Opportunity? Need?
People buy products to get jobs done
Important to understand trends & needs
better than competitors
• Identify ubiquitous pains & unmet necessities
© Cindy F. Solomon
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There is a lifecycle that every
product, startup, idea and
project passes through to be
realized that parallels the
“creative process.”
Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
© Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
www.synerzip.com
http://bit.ly/1h2dMLA
© Cindy F. Solomon
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2. Plan
To justify: Why Build it?
• Market Requirements Doc (MRD)
• Product Canvas / Business Model Canvas
• One Page Overviews
To justify: What to build?
• Product Requirements Doc (PRD)
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Positioning Statement
Template
To:
(One Target/Persona Type)
is the one
(Product/Company Name)
that
(Category)
unlike
.
(Key Customer Benefit)
(Differentiator)
http://amzn.to/1mr6Ew5
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Lean Canvas
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3. Product Development
“Product development is a
process by which an
organization transforms data on
marketing opportunities and
technical possibilities into
information assets for
commercial production.”
- Kim B. Clark and Takahiro Fujimoto
Product Development Performance
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MVP
Minimal Viable Product
“An MVP is about delivering real value to customers
for the purposes of maximizing validated learning.”
- Shardul Mehta
“It requires judgment to figure out, for any given
context, what MVP makes sense.”
- Eric Ries
http://bit.ly/1djE0tP
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3. Develop
Create & Communicate Roadmaps for
stakeholders
To showcase: What is being Built Aligned with
business goals
• Feature and schedule tradeoffs
• Technical feasibility assessments
• Slippage and risks
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© Cindy F. Solomon
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4. Qualify
• Continuous iteration
• Beta testing for real world usage & interest
level
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5. Launch
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Product Marketing Drives Product Narrative
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http://bit.ly/OSXWs1
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6. Deliver = Market
Contribute value
in every
interaction
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© Cindy F. Solomon
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www.synerzip.com
Develop Lean Content
•
•
•
•
•
Write less and say more
Curate
Analyze Data
Create fast feedback loops
Provide on-demand messaging
across platforms
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http://bit.ly/1jy1RnN
© Cindy F. Solomon
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http://bit.ly/1gvmpzz
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Lean Content Marketing
1. Develop strategies based on dynamics of online search, content
marketing (brand journalism) and social media
2. Create great content that helps answer your target audience’s
questions and solve their problems
3. Publish content on the web and across social media channels
4. Promote content using search engine optimization, permission based
e-marketing and social media
5. Manage, maintain, review, update and archive content on an ongoing
basis
6. Collect, measure and analyze marketing data to assess
engagement, conversion rates, leads and sales
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Exploit
Visual
Content
http://bit.ly/1gT1MYg
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Twitter
• Twitter Is the Leanest Communication
Vehicle
• Twitter is a broadcast medium with no
barrier to entry - anyone who is tuning
into Twitter can pick up anyone else's
signal.
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Why Twitter
“The qualities that make
Twitter seem inane and halfbaked are what make it so
powerful.”
Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard
Law professor, Internet
Expert, Author
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Global Product Management Talk
Tweeted: “Let’s have a twitter chat for product managers!”
Tweet traveled 7400 miles
Designed Socratic Twitter Chat format
Discovered Difficult to tweet & discuss complex issues
Recorded thought leaders via Skype
Became top 10 business podcast on BlogTalkRadio
3 years >100 podcasts >35k listeners/episode
Community: >2000 SF members, >16 locations
Conference: Startup Product Summit (2X SF)
Unconference: Startup Product Open
Trainings: Startup Product Academy
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Power of Twitter Chats
• Enables a parallel threaded discussion
where many people can talk at once
• Every voice is heard and documented
• Watch the conversation
• Identify & reach out to target
market/customers/interests
• Respond to a tweet/conversation on
demand
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www.synerzip.com
Benefits of Twitter Chats
• network
• share knowledge
• increase influence
• showcase thought leadership
• contribute value
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cfsolomon@gmail.com
www.synerzip.com
Recommended Tweet Format
“Please Retweet: [article
name] [by @author]
[shortened URL] [optional
comment] [#hashtag]”.
© Cindy F. Solomon
cfsolomon@gmail.com
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Anatomy of a Tweet
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Twitter Chat Best Practices
1.Strategize
2.Plan
3.Promote
4.Produce
5.Lean Content Marketing
http://bit.ly/11ZuMfZ
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Twitter Chat Format
Socratic Method
• background content available prior to event
• pre-posted questions provided by speaker for participants
to answer
• participants may answer on their social platform of choice
• time boxed for live discussion
• twitter conversation occurs before, during and after
• enables capturing of educational material with
conversation for on-demand viewing and consumption post
event
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Twitter Chat Best Practices
Post Event
Following Each Twitter Chat
1. Capture tweets on storify http://storify.com/prodmgmttalk/
2. Post transcript to slideshare
3. Post and repackage content across mediums
beyond Twitter scoop.it
4. Blog
5. Reach out to local participants & meetup!
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Daily Content Promotion Tools
1. storify http://storify.com/prodmgmttalk/
2. slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/CFSolomon/
3. scoop.it http://www.scoop.it/u/startup-product
4. Bufferapp
5. Blog Medium, Tumblr, Wordpress, blogspot
6. Prlog http://startupproduct.com/broadcast-news/
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Special
Discount for
participants!
$75 off code
leanpmm
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Key Takeaway #1
Contribute
Value
in every interaction
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Key Takeaway #2
ASK
QUESTIONS
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Key Takeaway #3
LISTEN
to what IS & what is NOT
being communicated
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Key Takeaway #4
STRATEGIZE
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Content Starts With
Who?
Why?
What?
How?
© Cindy F. Solomon
© Cindy F. Solomon
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Thank you for sharing your precious time!
Please connect!
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Startup Product, movement for product excellence
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Global Product Management Talk, weekly broadcast
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Questions?
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Hemant Elhence
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Synerzip in a Nut-shell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized technology
companies
Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically
venture-backed companies in growth phase
By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing,
deployment
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for each client
Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
Stable teams with very low turn-over
NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking offshore team
captive – aka “BOT” option
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Our Clients
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Thanks!
Call Us for a Free Consultation!
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