Who’s Driving This Thing!?
Keeping Services and Manufactured Consumer Goods on Track with Product Management
Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don't much care where.”
The Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.”
Louis Carol, Alice in Wonderland
A few years ago, we took a cross-country camping trip to our new home. We researched, talked with our kids, mapped out our route, and made plans. If we already knew our destination, why spend time planning? Why not just get moving and take life as it comes? Skipping planning for a 2,000-mile trip doesn't make sense. Yet, we often start entrepreneurial journeys without considering factors like why we're taking the trip, where we want to go, how we'll get there, and what to do if we encounter unexpected detours.
Jumping into the car and heading out in the general direction of our destination without consulting your passengers on what they want along the way, hoping you’ll end up at your destination with a car full of happy kids, will probably get you lost and frustrated.
Similarly, launching any business or product without a clear purpose, understanding of your customers, and building a roadmap is unlikely to achieve what you hoped, especially if your navigator and their map are only focused on getting out of the driveway and on the road with no one responsible to manage the rest of the journey.
Just as every organization needs a leader with a vision, they also need someone to study the lay of the land, identify opportunities and obstacles, and leverage the resources throughout the organization to create the solutions to customer needs and make that vision a reality. This navigator is not just focused on getting products to market but also on ensuring we continue to stay on course, identify deviations, and adapt to changing conditions to get us to our planned destination while being flexible enough to take advantage of opportunities along the way.
This keeper of the roadmap is the product manager.
Product managers get to know the customer and learn where their pain points, hopes, and desires are. They then create and guide the strategy to solve or meet them. To do this, they must understand the market, customer, and business factors. The product manager is therefore the information and strategy hub for product development, support, and lifecycle management. The role of product manager is common and well-developed in the tech world but less so in consumer, services, and durable goods.
Because software and technology are constantly evolving, a dedicated product manager is essential to manage these changes. Continuous updates and new features ensure the product meets evolving user needs. However, this requires a roadmap to manage the new products, updates, and the release cycle. The product manager keeps everything on track and helps to avoid distractions.
On the other hand, because the designs and specifications of durable goods are less changing, the role of a product manager in that sector focuses much more on the long-term product lifecycle while still developing new solutions.
The slower development and improvement cycle of physical products is due to the need and expense of fabricating tooling and prototypes. As a result, while computer-aided design and additive manufacturing are changing the landscape, new products still take longer to reach the market and are updated less frequently. Therefore, successful managers of these products focus more on the long-term health of the product and the portfolio while still seeking innovations and improvements. This may include letting non-critical bugs and issues accumulate until it makes fiscal sense to address them all at once.
However, the long view is not just for managers of physical products. Tech managers can also benefit from taking a cradle-to-grave view of their products and portfolios. Product managers not only innovate new solutions, but they also keep the current ones current. This applies to all products – technology, consumer, manufactured, and services. They all live on the product lifecycle.
Discovering customer needs and creating solutions are just the beginning. Your product's lifecycle also involves several stages including early adoption, growth, maturity, and decline.
You must understand how changing customer needs, demand, and competition impact product design, updates, sales, marketing, and your long-term roadmap. Since the product is the lifeblood of any business, it's crucial to develop what the customer wants and ensure it stays relevant.
Too often, we launch a product and are surprised when sales decline after a few years of growth. This can be due to competition, changes in technology, or shifts in consumer preferences. A product manager monitors these factors and acts on them to address changes before they become critical issues.
As additive manufacturing, AI-driven market research, and global copycats grow, manufactured durable goods will become more like tech products. Innovations and improvements are becoming easier to make, speeding up obsolescence. An effective product manager keeps your product current and ahead of the competition. They are essential not only in agile software companies but also in innovative consumer goods manufacturers.
At Customer-Led Innovations Consulting, we help you make the best of your journey with training and product management support. We have expertise in both technology and durable goods products. Go to www.customerledinnovations.com and sign up for a free one-hour consultation.
