Reactive Product Decisions - Avoiding The #1 Culprit

by John Mansour |04.29.2009

Thesingle biggest reason product decisions are reactive is the absence of acohesive top-down strategy that articulates where you're going, how you'll getthere and why you'll succeed - as a company - with product direction akey component.

Inmany organizations, a strategy is nothing more than a revenue goal combinedwith operational plans and a few product deliverables. This approachusually results in a top priority for each functional area but no top priorityfor the company as a whole. Conflict is imminent when this occurs becausethe myriad of top priorities aren't aligned to an overall plan, a.k.a. thestrategy. Hence, sales, services, marketing, customer support, executivesand others can easily justify product decisions from any single perspective.

Thelack of an overarching strategy not only drives reactive product decisions, italso forces the entire organization into reactive mode, making it tougher tomeet revenue, growth and profitability goals.

Avoid this dilemma by answering three simple questions.
1. Where are we going?
2. How will we get there?
3. Why will we succeed?

Answers to these three questions encompass all the critical elements of astrategy and align every part of the organization to a common purpose.

1. Where are we going?
The answer to this question should articulate the company vision, target marketpriorities and quantifiable goals for the next 3-5 years that if met, bring theorganization closer to realizing its vision.

If your vision includes phrases like global market leader, leading provider orthe like - start over. Examples to follow: Disney - to make people happy;Google - to organize the world's information and make it universally accessibleand useful.

2. How will we get there?
A combination of a strategic product/solutions roadmap, key partnerships andalliances along with marketing, sales and service strategy shouldsuffice.

Sinceeverything takes its cue from the product, consider a solutions roadmap foreach target market segment and let the solution definitions drive new productsand features. The solutions with high relevance across multiple marketsegments make product development priorities more obvious. Market drivensolutions are more fruitful for everyone, including your customers.

3. Why will we succeed?
This is your execution roadmap in the form of a to-do list for each operationalarea and contains key initiatives necessary to execute the strategy, e.g.,replace ABC skill sets with XYZ skill sets to grow market share in namedmarkets, restructure pricing from transaction based to user-based to stealmarket share from competitor X, increase brand awareness in the 18-29 year-oldsegment with stronger presence in social media, etc.

If your strategy isn't much more than a revenue goal, everyone's idea forachieving that goal is arguably "the best strategy." To get everyoneon the same page, consider a strategy that encompasses the three-dimensions of where,how and why. This approach brings objectivity to the plan and is moreconducive to executing in a divide and conquer fashion. Thisapproach also pays huge dividends in terms of productivity and bottom-lineresults by giving the organization clear goals that support a common purposeand vision.

Ifyour product decisions aren't connected to an overall strategy that alignscompany vision with the dynamics of the market, sign up for a Market Assessment and Strategic Planning workshop or contact us for a private on-site session. You'll be amazed at how simple it is to grow revenue and market share when the pathforward is crystal clear.

Noone makes it easier to connect company strategy and product decisions than ZIGZAGMarketing.

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Last Updated ( 08.02.2010 )

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