Fritz Mueller Prioritizing Features Director of Product Management

Fritz Mueller Prioritizing t What gets done w Gather Requirements w Prioritize w Write the Plan t How it gets done w Defending and selling the plan w If you cannot defend the plan, the priorities will get changed.

Fritz Mueller Prioritizing t The Ideal – Do all positive Net Present Value (NPV) projects. t Reality – What rules do you use to decide on the tradeoffs

Fritz Mueller Sources of Input Embattled Prod. Mngr. Customers Support Sales Engineering Competitors New Technology Cool Features Long Term Fixes

Fritz Mueller Rule #1 – Identify the Customer t Identify the customer or else: w You will only listen to the vocal customers w You will define too broad a group of customers w You will not solve anyone's problems or needs

Fritz Mueller Rule #2 - Categorize Easy Difficult Big PayoffLittle Payoff X Generates Momentum High Risk

Fritz Mueller Rule #3 - Balance t Frequent Customer Requests t Press t Competitive Response t Engineering Ideas t Long Term Architecture Issues t New Technologies t Support t Development Costs

Fritz Mueller Optimal Balance t You have to balance so what is the optimal balance? w Most common requests w Press Demo Features w Competitive Response t Lifecycle of Product t Target Market

Fritz Mueller Rule #4 – Disruptive Change t While you are refining the product some else is redefining the space. t Be the first to sound the alarm and state a response plan with a reasonable first step.

Fritz Mueller Customer Input Risks t What customers ask for and buy are different t Understand why do customers stay with you t Technical vocal minority vs. silent majority

Fritz Mueller Causes of Confusion t If you cannot decide on a plan then. w Too diverse a customer set or not sure who the customer is. w Not confident about defending the plan w Market is changing w You saturated the market

Fritz Mueller Handling Confusion t If you cannot decide on a plan then. w Too diverse a customer set. – split the line and segment the market or focus. w Not confident about defending the plan – talk to more customers w Market is changing – new product line needed or company must change w You saturated the market – expand the definition of the market you are in. t If you still cannot decide then the company may be in trouble and have no safe direction

Fritz Mueller Rule #5 –Don’t Forget the Basics t Who is the customer? t What do they value? t Is the product consistent with the marketing plan? t Is the product consistent with the corporate strategy? t Don’t go into a market half way. Do go in one step at a time. (Honda)

Fritz Mueller Implementing the Plan t The biggest problem is defending your plan because any plan you come up with will be questioned.

Fritz Mueller Rule #6 – Sell the Plan t You will never make everyone happy. t Since not everyone is happy you need to convince everyone that you have the best possible plan and any other plan would be worse.

Fritz Mueller Interested Parties Prod. Mngr. Senior Mngmt. Sales, Customers Eng.

Fritz Mueller Selling the Plan t Senior Management w Q: Why are we doing …? w A: Strategic answer t Sales w Q: When do we get…? w A: The most requested features are … and we are working on them. t Engineering w Statement: I am going to build… w Response: Customers don’t want it or they won’t pay for it or it will take too long to build. t Customer w Q: Why should I care about…? w A: It will solve a huge problem for you.

Fritz Mueller Senior Management t This is our customer… t This is why they buy… t This is where the market is going… t This is why we will win… t Therefore the product plan has these features…

Fritz Mueller From PM to CEO Customer Requests Product Strategy Corporate Strategy Successful corporate strategy is built from the bottom up.

Fritz Mueller Summary t #1 - Identify the Customer t #2 - Categorize t #3 - Balance t #4 - Watch Disruptive Change t #5 - Basics t #6 - Sell the Plan