The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers

Shifting focus from the how to the why by properly using a product roadmap. Got to Part 2 of Product Roadmaps. Got to Part 3 of Product Roadmaps. Part 1… My 12-year old son recently got a belt sander from his Opa. Opa is a German name for grandfather.  My son is making a bookshelf and has a lot of sanding to do. The belt sander will do the work quickly. It is the right tool for the job, but only if it is used properly. The powerful motor and rapidly moving belt also makes it a beast. If it is not properly handled, it can do a lot of damage to the person using it and anything around it. I showed my son how to use it correctly and we discussed what can happen if he doesn’t use it the way he should. Thankfully, he has been careful with it and the sanding is going well. That is the thing with powerful tools. Used properly they are a valuable aid. Used incorrectly, they can cause a lot of pain and turmoil. The same applies to a frequent tool product managers use — the product roadmap. The traditional use of a roadmap nearly guarantees that product managers will get damaged in some way, like mishandling a belt sander. Think about it. A roadmap requires you to keep your promise even after you have learned that the planned features are no longer needed. Well, at least you kept your promise, but you built the wrong thing. Or, you do the right thing and not add features, breaking your promise you made by putting them on the roadmap. While the roadmap is one of the most frequently used tools by product managers, it is also one of the most unsafe. But, the traditional way of using roadmaps doesn’t have to continue. To discuss how they should be used, the author of “Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty,” Bruce McCarthy joins us. The book has received high praise, including from Steve Blank, the grandfather of Lean Startup, who said, “It’s about time someone brought product roadmapping out of the dark ages of waterfall development and made it into the strategic communications tool it should be. McCarthy and team have cracked the code.” In the discussion, you’ll learn: * What is and is not a product roadmap. * Who it is for. * The inputs needed to properly construct a roadmap. * How to organize a roadmap. * Ways to prioritize product features. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [3:06] What is a product roadmap? It’s not a set of features and dates, which is what most people think, but that’s actually a release plan or a project plan. The product roadmap is really about the why — what’s the product vision and what’s the problem you’re trying to solve. It should inspire people to develop a release plan, but not include those details. [5:28] Who is the product roadmap for? It’s really for everyone in the organization, as well as customers and related partners. It’s the story you tell internally and externally of what the product is about and what you are trying to accomplish. It’s a great tool for customer conversations and validating what is or is not important to them. It should be developed collaboratively in addition to being shared across the organization. The more buy-in you receive early on, the more support you’ll have when it comes time to put that plan into action. [10:47] What are the pitfalls of a traditional roadmap? Traditional roadmaps overpromise on features and dates, so they’ve abandoned the practice entirely. As a result,

Cutting through product manager role confusion to create successful products My mission is to inspire and equip product managers to have greater influence in their organizations and over product. I call this helping product managers to become product masters, and that is what both this podcast and the training I provide are about. Helping you make that move from product manager to product master is explored in this episode by considering: Various perspectives on product management, Responsibilities of the role, and How Agile practices are impacting the role. Joining me for this discussion is Steve Johnson, who previously shared in episode 115 the 6 types of expertise product managers need. Steve has been working within the high-tech arena since 1979 with experience in technical, sales, and marketing positions at companies specializing in enterprise and desktop hardware and software. His market and technical savvy allowed him to rise through the ranks from Product Manager to Chief Marketing Officer. Before founding Under10, his product management consulting company, he was a Pragmatic Marketing lead instructor for more than 15 years.

Expanding on Episode 166 to cover the full Value Innovation process for product managers. The last interview, episode 166, was a panel discussion with innovators at companies using Value Innovation to discover what customers really want before building a product. The panel participants talked about a 10-step process they used. This discussion provides details for each step as well as where additional resources are found. To learn the 10 steps, I invited Dick Lee, the founder of Value Innovations and a long-time practitioner of the Value Innovation method, to talk with us. The 10 steps in Value Innovation are: * Define project mission and objectives, * Define value chain and identify the most important customer (MIC), * Develop “as is” and “best in class” value curves * Conduct contextual interviews to uncover unmet needs * Develop “to be” value curve, * Review “to be ” value curve with the MIC, * Modify “to be” value curve, * Define value proposition, * Determine how to deliver the “what,” and * Confirm with MIC that the “how” is compelling Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:47] Step 1: Define Project Mission and Objectives We assumed that teams would know what their project’s mission was, but found more and more that it wasn’t the case. This part of the process involves asking some very basic questions like what’s in scope, what’s out of scope, what’s the purpose of the project, and who is the project’s team leader. One example of this is a company called American Vanguard. They make pesticide products that were harming fish, but couldn’t develop a new formula because it would take too long to go through regulatory approvals. In this case, what’s in scope was creating a new delivery method rather than a completely new product. [6:35] Step 2: Identify Most Important Customer (MIC) In the B2B world, most people assume that the MICs are their direct customers, or the person that they sell their product to. We developed the Value Chain to help identify the MIC. It breaks down all of the transactions between you and the ultimate end user of your product. We ask three questions at each step of the way: Who is responsible for fixing a problem? Who loses the most money if there’s an issue? Who sees the value in your product? Many times we’ll find degrees of all three in each step of the process. [11:07] Step 3: Develop “As Is” and “Best in Class” Value Curve This is one that some companies are inclined to skip. A value curve breaks down a product or service into elements of performance, such as ease of use. Each element has its own attributes that are broken down even further. The value curve also helps prioritize which elements are worked on based on what’s most important to the MIC. You can only work on three or four within a reasonable time frame. You try to put yourself in the MIC’s shoes to develop the curve. This allows interviewers in the next step to connect what the interviewee is saying with the attributes in the value curve. [13:32] Step 4: Conduct Contextual Interviews to Discover Unmet Needs Contextual interviews take place in steps 4, 6, 7, and 10. Interviews take place with pairs of MICs so that you get varied perspectives.  Step 4 specifically involves interviews with 6 pairs of people. The most important question in the first interview is “What keeps you awake at night?” We only ask open-ended questions and have no idea where they’ll go. Another example is “What do you expect the biggest challenges to be in your field over the next five years?” It’s important to have the right interviewer to draw information out of people and get them ...

Using simple questions and a structured process to achieve new product success. As product managers, our natural inclination is to solve problems. The Value Innovation Process teaches us how you get to that solution is just as important as the solution itself. The 10-step process involves asking simple questions in a structured way to get to the heart of who your customers are and what problem you are looking to solve for them. Once those elements are in place, it’s much easier to determine what the solution will be and how you will deliver it. This episode has several guests who will share their experiences with the Value Innovation Process: * Dick Lee, who literally wrote the book on the Value Innovation Process. * Ed Wolf, a product manager at Caterpillar Trimble. * John Chattaway, a product manager at Bobcat Doosan. In the discussion you will learn: * What the Value Innovation Process is. * How it’s being used at Caterpillar Trimble and Bobcat. * How businesses and customers benefit from following the process. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:50] What is the Value Innovation Process and how did it come about? Dick Lee: Value Innovation is delivering exceptional value to the most important customer in the value chain. The concept is based on the book Blue Ocean Strategy. That was a great book, but it was missing the process for how to implement value innovation. That’s where we came in. [4:58] How do you determine your Most Important Customer (MIC)? Dick Lee: In the B2C world, the MIC is always the consumer. The B2B world is a little more complicated. There are three questions you can ask to help determine who it is: Who is responsible for fixing a problem? Who stands to lose the most financially? Who sees the value in the product? It’s rare to find someone who meets all three, but you’ll usually get two out of three. [11:06] How is the Value Innovation Process used at Caterpillar Trimble? Ed Wolf: As a product manager, I’m responsible for sensors and other products that can help improve the workflow and how the machines operate. A machine operator can work more autonomously, which improves efficiency and reduces cost. We are taking plans out of the office and into the machine. Value Innovation really drove home the idea that businesses exist to deliver value to customers. We came to understand that we deliver value by solving problems for our target customer group. Value Innovation taught us to ask the right questions about what problems those customers are facing and what other groups are out there who might benefit from our products or services. [16:47] Is there a specific project where the Value Innovation Process really made a difference? Ed Wolf: We recognized an opportunity for worldwide distribution for our dealers and wanted to understand the challenges that prevented them from doing so. We went through a process to document those challenges, develop a solution, and determine how to implement it. Most of the things we came up with were fairly obvious, but we would never have come up with them without going through the Value Innovation Process and doing the work. The discipline of the 10-step process really helped keep us on track. One of the challenges we heard about from dealers were faulty harnesses on machines. It was difficult for them to verify whether the harnesses were actually working without a lot of troubleshooting. We developed a harness testing kit that lets them verify it’s working before they go any further in their work. This was a simple problem with a simple solution, but solving it added a lot of value for our customers. [22:59] How has the Value Innovation Process changed your approach to working on a project? Ed Wolf: As a company of engineers and scientists,

Survey identifies growing pains as product management expands. The role of product manager formally dates back to the 1930s with its start at Procter & Gamble, but it has only been in the last few years that the role has become much better known. As the field has grown, a few annual surveys to were created to provide insight into the role. One that I follow is the Product Management Insights report, which was just published by Alpha. I interviewed the report’s co-author, Nis Frome, who is also co-founder and head of content at Alpha, a company that provides on-demand user insights platform for product teams. Nis is also the editor of Product Management Insider and co-producer of the This is Product Management podcast. We discuss: * how people move into the role of product manager, * the key activities product managers are involved in, * the responsibilities of the product management role, * where they get their ideas for product features, and * how they spend their time. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:50] Who did you collect data from for the 2018 Product Management Insights report? This is our fourth year doing the survey, and we try to collect data from as many previous recipients as we can who are still working in the field. We also advertise on social media, on our podcast, and in our newsletter. We want to cast a wide net so it’s not just people who are already subscribed to what we’re doing. Respondents are mostly in the U.S. and do not necessarily need to have the title of product manager, but they have to be responsible for building digital products. [4:30] Only 11 percent of people taking the survey indicated they started their careers as product managers. How did everyone else get into this field? People starting directly as product managers spiked a few years ago and is declining as companies shift toward rotation programs and valuing people coming into product management having served in other roles. The most common job someone has before starting in product management is a business analyst, followed by engineering, then marketing/sales/customer success. There’s a belief out there that you need to have a technical background to be a good product manager, but I think we’re starting to see empathy and knowledge of other teams trump technical knowledge. The level of technical knowledge needed really differs from role to role. [7:17] What does a digital product manager do? They set product roadmaps and write user stories. More product managers are talking to more customers than ever before. They are using technology to replace things like traditional focus groups so they can reach more of their customers in a way that’s efficient for everyone. A lot of product managers are still doing things like prototyping and managing development teams, which are not things they necessarily should be doing. [10:01] How can product managers set a roadmap? We’re advocates of creating thematic roadmaps that demonstrate what problems you’re going to solve, but we realize that sales teams might want something more concrete about what you’re going to build next quarter. A big theme in the report is learning to work within the constraints you have and make the most of a non-ideal situation. [13:18] What were some of the challenges that came up in the survey results? Stakeholders and internal politics have consistently topped the list. However, every year we ask about the biggest wish for the coming year and have seen some interesting trends emerge. In 2015, they said it was a better strategy and clear roadmap. In 2016, it was a salary increase. In 2017, it was more resources. In 2018, it’s back to a better strategy and a clear roadmap. This follows industry growth and in some ways we are now back at the beginning.

From Glamor Moms to a successful product launch with ethnography. One of my early product experiences began with user observations. I spent a week with customers, observing them in their environment, learning what they needed to accomplish and the obstacles they encountered. By the end of the week, I was walking in their shoes.  It was the start of what became a very successful product. The use of qualitative research, such as observing customers, is a powerful resource for product managers. It was used successfully by Hyundai to design the second-generation Santa Fe, a crossover SUV. The person who was responsible for consumer insights and product strategy for the Santa Fe at the time was Heather Kluter. She is an innovator and decision engineer working with large companies to help them think bigger. In the discussion, you will learn: * The benefits of ethnographic research * Why very small market segments are useful (only 10 people for the Santa Fe research) * Working with internal and external culture differences   Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers: [2:10] What lead Hyundai to take this approach for its Santa Fe SUV? The only people who were buying Hyundais were captive resentfuls — people who couldn’t afford to buy anything else but hated that they drove Hyundais. The chairman of the company issued a mandate that quality needed to be of the utmost importance. We also knew that whatever was designed would need to appeal to an American consumer, even though it was designed in Korea. The research being done was very standard and very quantitative, and we knew that wasn’t a winning strategy. The company was very siloed between research, product development, and marketing. Touch the Market came about to break down those silos. [5:52] What was your role in Touch the Market? My role was to tell everyone what prospective customers looked like how we could appeal to them. We identified a target called Glamor Mom that designers and product engineers could think about on a daily basis. We used an algorithm to find people who fit this role and brought them in for interviews to get to know them a little better. It took us more than 100 interviews to find 10 Glamor Moms that were really right. Glamor Mom needed the space and functionality of an SUV without compromising her sense of style with a boxy SUV or a mini van. The car should feel smooth and fun to drive, not like a truck. [8:50] How did taking such a small focus help you relate to the larger market? We already had the larger market defined and refined it along the way. We moved from designed target to media target to consumption target and each of them loosely defined. If you start too broad with designers and engineers, you end up with a product that tries to be everything to everyone and have everything in it. We started smaller to help them focus on a specific customer in mind and create something much more special. [11:22] How did the 10 Glamor Moms contribute to the project? One of our biggest challenges was convincing Korea to trust qualitative research, and the Glamor Moms helped us do that. Those ten women were with us for four years, and we got to know their lifestyles. We had a cross-functional team who went shopping with them, observed their morning routines, and following them on weekends. We shopped for everything from clothing to groceries and looked at how the moms used the space in the car to organize their purchases. We learned a lot about colors they prefer and how they organized things in their purse. We thought the center console of the car could look a lot like a purse with different compartments to organize things.  The team split up to travel with the moms and then come back and compare notes. [18:53] Did you consider other segments before deciding on Glamor Mom?

Product managers can separate needs from solutions by asking the right questions in the right way. One of the skills you need as a product master is customer and market research. We explored this earlier with Gerry Katz in episode 071. It was an episode several listeners really appreciated and I have invited Gerry back to share more of his expert experience with market research. Specifically, he discusses market research mistakes product managers too often make, including: * Confusing qualitative with quantitative research. * Talking to the wrong customers. * Asking customers what they want. * Not separating needs from solutions to needs. * Translating customer vernacular into company-speak. * Hearing only what you want to hear. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [0:50] How do product managers confuse qualitative research with quantitative research? Qualitative research is about words and feelings and things that needs to be said; quantitative research involves ratings and rankings. If your entire questionnaire is open-ended questions, it should be treated as qualitative research and done as an interview. That way, you can ask follow up questions and get clarification when needed. If you’re going to be asking questions that require a verbal response, it’s best to treat it as qualitative research. If you’re looking for ratings, that can be done as a questionnaire. If you’re doing quantitative research, you’ll want to pay attention to the laws of statistics and make sure your sample size is large enough to be representative. [5:22] What should a company consider when defining its customers? Customers are much more than the end users of your product. There are lots of people in between like influencers and financial decision-makers and people in the distribution chain. One of my colleagues was working with a financial service company who sold mutual funds and they only considered brokers to be their customers. A few years later, this colleague worked with another company that only talked to investors or people who bought their funds. Both of those groups are customers and product managers need to talk to all of them in order to have valid market research. [8:10] How do you make sure that you’re talking to the right people? This is not the place to talk only to your biggest or best customers. You need to think more broadly and include your competitors’ customers, your former customers, and even noncustomers. You’ll learn more from people who aren’t happy with what you have now. Once you’ve identified that customer group, don’t directly ask them what they want and need. Most customers aren’t creative to come up with new ideas or features, so they repeat things that are already in the marketplace. If you take their advice, you’re going to end up creating something that’s already been done. Instead, get them to tell you stories from their experiences and what they were trying to do. The real needs will come out of these conversations. [12:40] What’s the difference between a need and a solution to a need? We can use Henry Ford as an example. If he asked customers what they wanted, they would have said they wanted a faster horse. Their real need was to go faster. Ford understood that and came up with a better solution. The customers aren’t engineers or designers; their only job should be to clearly articulate what they need. You can then take that need and figure out what the solution should be, just like Ford did when he invented the automobile. [15:02] What’s the best way to identify those needs using market research?

Change your perspective to build better relationships and create stories that stick. When I ask product managers why they got involved with product management and what they want from the role, a frequent answer is to have more influence. This also ranks as most important out of all the reasons for being a product manager. Does that ring true for you as well? Product managers with more influence are able to accomplish more — creating better products for customers that they value. Product managers with less influence may be treated like gophers — asked to go do this or go do that. Such product managers are more reactive than proactive. If you are like me, there is little that sounds fun or rewarding about that. Indeed, we need influence. To help us get it, I invited Tom Henschel back. He joined us in episode 137 to share a tool for talking like a leader, which is part of increasing your influence. This time he shared a model for having more influence called the Five Influence Strategies. In the discussion, you’ll learn how to use the components of this strategy, which are: * Build credibility * Involve people actively * Frame ideas for them * Present compelling evidence * Customize your communication Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [3:38] How can product managers build credibility?  Credibility is made up of expertise and relationships, which are in conflict with each other. People who are stronger in one area tend to be weaker in another, but both are important when you are in a position where you need to influence people. If you are weaker on the relationship side, going out to lunch with other people in the company you don’t know can help you become more comfortable with people and forming new relationships. One the other side of the coin, you’re not going to get by on the strength of your relationships if you don’t have expertise to back it up so you may need to work on that. A good goal is to focus on growing five percent at a time. You can make incremental changes that will lead to long-term growth. [10:30] How can we involve others to increase influence? Influence is not the same as persuasion or convincing someone to do something. Trying to push others toward your point of view doesn’t work. One example of this happened during WWII, when the government was trying to convince women to use more organ meat as a way to help with food shortages. One group attended government seminars about the facts related to organ meat. Another group asked women how they would convince each other to do this, which made them actively involved in finding the solution. The second group was far more compliant because they were actively involved. We often go in ready to defeat objections and spout our point of view, rather than really listening to what others have to say. This ties back to the idea of relationships and getting to know others. [18:50] What does it mean to frame an idea for someone else? When you feel really strongly about something, you talk from your point of view, which doesn’t do much to help others come along with you. Putting yourself in the other person’s shoes can completely change the way you think about something. The arguments that make sense to you might not make sense to someone else, but you won’t know that until you fully consider their perspective. Product managers need to be able to put themselves in their customers’ shoes and our colleagues’ shoes to frame ideas from those perspectives. We all think that we’re already good at this, but there is always room for improvement through these role switching exercises. [24:40] How can someone present compelling evidence?

Giddy, Dawson's new venture, connects product managers and entrepreneurs to smash the status quo. Back in episode 110 we learned about FirstBuild, the innovation lab of GE Appliance. It allows them to test ideas and solve problems that would be considered too small or risky by GE Appliance. They have built a platform that is fueled by an open community of consumers and problem solvers. What would happen if that capability was used by other companies to tackle any type of product concept? That is what Taylor Dawson is discovering. When I talked with him in episode 110 he was the Product Evangelist for First Build. Now he is the CEO of Giddy, who is providing a First Build capability to any large company. That is like being able to create a successful innovation lab overnight without actually building one. This also means that Giddy will be deepening and rapidly increasing their own learning started at First Build. That makes them the leader for rest of us to learn from. Specifically, in this discussion you will discover: Why it's important but almost impossible for large organizations to innovate like a startup. The advantages of an open innovation lab. What makes the FirstBuild innovation lab a success — which are ideas to help your organization be more innovative. The benefits of leveraging Giddy for increasing product success.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just innovate around it. Fundamentally, product managers should be driving success for their organization. We do that by providing customers value. The source of that value may be, and perhaps should be, closer to our core capabilities than is often thought. The toy company LEGO found this to be true, only after being on the brink of bankruptcy. Other companies have also discovered this principle, which is something my guest calls innovating near the core. My guest this week, David Robertson, explored this in a book-long case study of LEGO, called Brick by Brick:  How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry. In his recent book, The Power of Little Ideas: A Low-Risk, High-Reward Approach to Innovation, he studies other companies who have won their market using a similar approach. David is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he teaches Innovation and Product Design. He is also the host of the weekly radio show on SiriusXM called “Innovation Navigation,” where he interviews world-renowned thought leaders about the management of innovation. In the discussion, you’ll learn: * Why almost all of LEGO’s product innovation efforts resulted in millions of dollars lost. * What action turned LEGO around and produced growth. * How companies have innovated close to their core to create market success. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers * [2:55] LEGO tried many different innovation approaches over the years, but none of them stuck. Why was that?  LEGO saw 14% annual growth for 15 years by making new boxes of bricks with different themes. Things started to change in the 1990s as video games came online. LEGO kept trying to put out more boxes of bricks throughout the 90s, but it only increased their costs and not their sales. At the same time, the idea of disruption was sweeping the business world and LEGO tried just about every way they could think of to disrupt themselves and failed at all of them. In the end, there’s a huge difference between sufficient and necessary. In LEGO’s case, it wasn’t sufficient to only sell boxes of bricks, but it was necessary and their business model couldn’t succeed without them. * [6:35] How did LEGO finally turn things around and what did they learn from it? Their success came when they started innovating games, stories, and events around the bricks. They began opening LEGO stores and indoor playgrounds where they could charge admission. They also realized that adding digital games don’t disrupt the bricks, they complement them. When kids play LEGO Star Wars or see a LEGO movie, they want to buy more boxes of bricks, not less. When they tried going purely digital, they turned customers away and created a major loss of revenue from LEGO’s main product, which is the plastic brick.   * [8:45] Was there a catalyst that helped LEGO realize that they needed to keep plastic bricks at the core of their business model? The only significant success from LEGO’s period of disruption was something called Bionicle, which was the first buildable action figure. It didn’t look like anything else LEGO had ever done. It was still a box of plastic pieces that you snapped together, but it came with a rich story of heroes and villains that changed from year to year with a new set of action figures. The combination of the story, the action figures, and the scarcity from the collectibles made it hugely popular. Not only did Bionicle save LEGO from bankruptcy, it taught them how powerful stories were to excite kids. They’ve been focused on telling stories ever since. They’ve learned that stories don’t disrupt demand, they increase it.  

What product managers at Pepsi got wrong but you won’t after listening to this. No one and no organization has a perfect record when it comes to releasing new products into the market. Failures are frequent — around 40% or so depending on the industry — and they happen at small companies, big companies, and experienced companies, including Pepsi. In this episode, you’ll learn a simple and profound concept that every product manager and product marketer must understand. And, this is an easy one to get wrong. Even Pepsi got this wrong when they created a new product called Crystal Pepsi. The simple part of the concept — don’t confuse your customer. The profound part — when introducing something new or making a change, give your customer a reason. My guest to explain this concept is Kyle B. Murray, the Vice Dean and Professor of Marketing at the Alberta School of Business. Kyle studies human judgment and decision making. His research uses the tools of experimental psychology and behavioral economics to better understand the choices that consumers make. He is a co-author of an article explaining the mistake Pepsi made with Crystal Pepsi. When I read the article I recognized how important the concept is to product managers and contacted with Kyle to tell us about it himself. In the discussion you will learn the: * Reason people didn’t purchase Crystal Pepsi. * Solution to the issue so you don’t make the same mistake. * Examples demonstrating the solution. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers * [2:30] You recently examined different types of innovations, such as sustaining vs. radical innovations. What caused you to research this? It all comes down to the consumer. We can describe it however we’d like when we are creating the products, but in the end, the consumer decides whether something is radical or something they already know.   * [3:31] For listeners unfamiliar with consumer packaged-goods, can you describe the business and the rate of product introduction? Essentially, this industry represents anything you find in the grocery store that comes in a package and is aimed at consumers. It’s a broad category that employs some of the best marketers in the world who develop some great products. One industry group estimates that there are about 33,000 new products created each month. Innovation happens very quickly ranges from incremental changes like adjusting a color or adding a new option, to things that are truly radical. Many of those products fail, and some are only indented to be around for a few months to build a buzz and then disappear. Segments like potato chips and soft drinks allow you to innovate fairly quickly and put a new flavor or new version of a product out and see what the market thinks.   * [8:25] Tell us about Crystal Pepsi and what makes it a useful example to learn from.  Pepsi launched a new version of the product it had always made — the same Pepsi, just without any coloring. This seemed reasonable, given that products like 7Up and Sprite were successful and people were starting question what value the dye for color brought to the product. This was not intended to be a short-time product or new flavor; Pepsi had a plan for turning it into a billion-dollar brand. The reaction was people questioning why they would want a clear Pepsi and what was wrong with the dye in regular Pepsi.   * [11:40] Why didn’t consumers purchase Crystal Pepsi? It was perceived to be really radical by the market, but it was really a superficial change to the product. This is a classic example of what drives product acceptance. If we see a new product being too different from what we expect to see, we go from being curious about them to feeling anxious about them.

Six steps to run a productive meeting and build a team that gets things done Every week I'm involved in virtual meetings and the same is true for many Everyday Innovators. If it's not yet true for you, virtual meetings are almost certainly in your future as more teams become virtual. Facilitating virtual meetings and making them productive takes specific skills that product managers should know. With these skills, you can run virtual meetings that don't waste people's time and that build trust and cohesion in the team. To learn the right skills, I have the perfect guest as his company is all about facilitating virtual meetings. He joins us to share his "Six How's of Great Meetings." His name is Dan Hoffman and he is founder and CEO of Circles, an online service that provides guided video peer groups to foster deeper conversations for impactful continued professional learning and personal growth. Dan is also a serial entrepreneur, previously the founder of M5, a pioneer in cloud communications, which ShoreTel purchased. He is regarded by colleagues as down to earth, completely approachable, and one of the brightest guys you will ever meet. In the discussion, you will learn the Six How's of Great Meetings, which are: Culture, Conversation, Presence, Participation, Agendas, and Facilitation

The right product begins with a validated user need and a market In this episode you'll learn about some of the big ideas in product management to help you make the move to product master, specifically: The difference between building the product right vs. building the right product, Challenges of working with development teams, How to assemble a roadmap, Release planning, and The benefits of first using divergent thinking followed by convergent thinking. My guest for addressing those topics is Suzanne Abate, a seasoned product coach who has developed hundreds of digital products for clients and helped dozens of startups go from idea to execution. She is the Co-Founder of The Development Factory, an LA-based product consultancy, and Chief Product Officer of 100 Product Managers, a free online resource and weekly podcast for new and aspiring product managers.

Test to understand where a product design fails and use parallel solution paths Several listeners have asked about medical device products and I searched for someone with deep experience in this area. I realize most of us are not involved with medical devices, but there is much any product manager can learn from the upcoming discussion. This ability to learn from product managers in different industries is one of the things I most enjoy about this podcast. We have a lot in common regardless of the industry we work in. The topic of this episode is pricing. It is a frequently asked about topic and I have a great guest to help us understand the components of a pricing strategy and how to price a product. My guest is Mike Lawless, who has over 25 years of experience in medical devices, starting as a mechanical engineer. For more than a decade he has been helping to create medical devices for a variety of organizations through his own company, Lawless Consulting. In the discussion you will learn the: * Challenges of creating a high-volume manufactured product, * Importance of prototyping and testing to failure, and * Benefits of using parallel problem-solving and development.   Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers * [2:38] What are the types of medical devices you have helped develop? I work on a wide range of medical devices, with several focused on drug delivery, such as insulin and IV pumps, as well as diagnostic devices.   * [3:27] How is the development of medical devices different from other products? There are a lot of similarities with other types of products. Most of my work has been in the development and management of high-volume manufactured products. Such products require attention to the functionality of the product as well as design for manufacturing, tooling, and production. Medical devices have an additional challenge to comply with FDA regulations. If the product uses disposable items (such as the tubing set for an IV pump), this introduces additional risks. Also, there is a great deal of innovation in medical devices and of course innovation introduces risk because we are attempting what has not been done before. The greater the innovation, the greater the potential for a technical risk or glitches in manufacturing.   * [4:48] What are the challenges of high volume products, like disposables? With disposables that may be manufactured in the millions to tens of millions a year, the tooling and automation becomes critical and can be complicated. A very small mistake is very costly. The core challenge with this type of product development is… you need to find the problems before they find you. * [8:21] How does encountering a problem impact medical devices given the regulation needs? It depends, as the FDA regulatory process has many steps including submission of the product for approval. Depending on when the problem is encountered, if the product must be resubmitted it could create months or years of delay. This is a difference between medical devices and other products as the development cycle is longer because the regulations must be met. It’s not uncommon for a medical device cycle to be 3 to 5 years.   * [10:05] What kind of challenges do you find with clients who are developing medical devices? The biggest challenge is that the culture is not aligned well with what is needed for product development. The norm is business operations and information that can be put on a Gantt chart. This effects how engineers approach development, with a focus on if something works or not instead of having deeper knowledge of the nuances of why something works. When a problem arises they are caught off guard. The solution to this is to gain a knowledge of failure conditions.

The 5 considerations that result in the best price for a product The topic of this episode is pricing. It is a frequently asked about topic. Determing the proper price for a product  impacts profit potential and sales volume expectations. I have a great guest to help us understand the components of a pricing strategy and how to price a product. He is Tim Smith, author of five books on pricing, Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Economics at DePaul University, and founder of Wiglaf Pricing. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers * [3:05] Why is pricing important? Getting pricing right matters to the longevity of the business and ability to serve the customer. We need to consider fixed cost, variable costs, units to sell, and price. A 1% improvement in price results in a 12% improvement in profit.   * [4:43] What is involved in getting prices for a product right? There are 5 key parts to that question. * Product strategy – who are competitors, who are the key customers (market segments), and what differentiates the product. * Pricing strategy – what is the basic structure of pricing, such as a purchase, lease, or other exchange of value. * Market pricing – what is list price, which is determined from the pricing strategy. * Price variance – this is the go-to-market price, consideration of discounts, and use of promotions. * Price execution – providing the correct price to customers.   * [8:06] How do we get the list price right? This requires market research to determine the customers’ willingness to pay for the value delivered by the product. Techniques include voice of the customer (VOC), economic value to the customer, conjoint analysis, and price elasticity methods. With these, we are trying to understand the value delivered to customers, the desired combination of product features, and alternatives the customer has.   * [22:10] Should promotional pricing be used? It’s an important consideration in a pricing strategy. As an example, consider the smartphone market. Apple uses no discounts and has 90% of profit share with 11% of market share while Samsung has 10% of the profit share with 22% of market share. Apple has been very successful generating higher profit with less market share.   * [27:38] What is a common mistake that is made with pricing? One is always pricing only on gross margin, only considering product costs and not considering value delivered to the customer.   Useful links: * Tim’s pricing group, Wiglaf Pricing   Innovation Quote “In an authentic world, failure is something you embrace. It’s almost a noble pursuit. I come from that world—it supported me in creating the punk aesthetic.” – Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols.   Thanks! Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.