MPCS 51240: Lecture 01

September 29, 2021

Product Management

Unpublished work Copyright (c) 2018, Vas Vasiliadis. All rights reserved. Used/adapted with permission.

Objectives and structure

❖ Objective: understanding what it takes to deliver software

products under real- world constraints
❖ Selected topics with some focus on real-world examples
❖ Combination of functional lectures, case studies, in-class
activities, homework research

Expectations

❖ Success depends on your continued engagement

❖ Active participation is required
❖ Expect to be challenged
❖ Challenge your peers (and me!) …respectfully, of course
❖ Provide rationale/context for your questions

❖ Stop me and ask me to elaborate; some concepts are a bit

abstract, will try to use examples to make them more real

Homework assignments

❖ Reading/writing/research/thinking/presentation
❖ No coding. Despite what the course listing said, UNIX not required 😀

❖ Posted on Canvas; usually due within a week

❖ Some assignments have tighter timeframes, usually because there’s
peer review or two sequential parts.

❖ Include all references; at minimum, URL(s) you consulted

❖ All work completed on time
❖ Communicate proactively about issues

Academic Honesty

You are expected to adhere to University’s policy on

academic honesty:
studentmanual.sites.uchicago.edu/Policies#Honesty
Cite and disclose all your sources.
Always, always ask if unsure!
Project work must show individual contribution

Introduction to Software
Product Management

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What is product management?

❖ Mapping market needs to product capabilities …in the

face of changing requirements
❖ Managing the product roadmap …in the face of changing
business priorities
❖ “Owning” the product release process …in the face of
limited development resources and time

Ultimately, it’s about managing tradeoffs

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What is a product manager?

FEASIBILITY

USABILITY

VALUE

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 What does a product
manager do?
or …What makes a good
product manager?

 What does a Product Manager do?

Courtesy of: Shreyas Doshi, http://shreyasdoshi.typepad.com, 2010

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Managing (healthy) tension

You, the
PM!

Engineering Sales

Marketing
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Our Product Management Themes

❖ Understanding technology adoption & product lifecycles

❖ Delivering a product that meets customer needs
❖ Understanding the value of iteration and “cheap learning”
❖ Trading off product vs. business needs
❖ Effectively managing product design/architecture
❖ Identifying a lack of product management

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What’s the difference between

project and product
management?

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Project vs. Product Management

Project Product

Timeframe Bounded Ongoing

Scope Fixed (relatively) Variable

Deliverables Well de ned Evolving

Process Schedule management Cat herding

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 Crossing the Chasm

Reference: “Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products

to Mainstream Customers,” by Geoffrey Moore (2013, 3rd ed.)

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A market is…

❖ …a set of actual or potential customers

❖ …for a given set of products or services
❖ …who have a common set of needs or wants, and
❖ …who reference each other when making a buying
decision

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 Classical Product Adoption Lifecycle

ne e
mo e w
y
ke her
ma is w
is
Th

Further reading: “Diffusion of Innovations” by Everett Rogers

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Product adoption is driven by…

❖ Advantages over alternatives

❖ Compatibility with existing products/services, and
customer values
❖ Simplicity and ease of use
❖ Ease of access for trial/experimentation
❖ Visible results

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Disruptive Technology Adoption Lifecycle

The “Chasm”

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Innovators - Enthusiasts

❖ Technologists excited about tech for tech’s sake

❖ Actively look for new products
❖ Often seek to buy before generally available
❖ Less concerned with deriving value from product
❖ Don’t care about state of the company

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Early Adopters - Visionaries

❖ Not technologists, but can map tech to their needs

❖ Can visualize how product will be of value
❖ Willing to buy based on their own analysis of bene ts vs.
concerns
❖ Identify with company founders/personalities

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Early Majority - Pragmatists

$$
❖ Relate to technology, like early adopters
❖ Recognize that many new products are just fads
❖ Wait to see how others are deriving value
❖ Expect to get solid references before buying
❖ Will examine company stability/risk

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Late Majority - Conservatives

$$$$
❖ Similar to early adopters but not comfortable with tech
❖ Will only buy when they see lots of support
❖ Mainly buy from established businesses

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Laggards - Skeptics

❖ Don’t want to know anything about new technology

❖ Will only buy when product is hidden within another…
❖ …or when older alternatives have been exhausted

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Understanding the chasm

❖ Early adopters (visionaries) see a “change agent”

❖ Use product to get ahead of the competition
❖ Willing to do things in a radically different way
❖ Willing to accept the cost of dealing with early product issues

❖ Early majority (pragmatists) see a “productivity boost”

❖ Expect the product to enhance what they’re already doing
❖ Expect the product to t into existing infrastructure
❖ Don’t want to debug your product

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 Crossing the Chasm

❖ Target the point of attack Market focus

❖ Assemble an invasion force The Whole Product

❖ De ne the battle (don’t let your competitors dictate)

❖ Launch the invasion (build sales and support team)

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Market Focus

❖ Select a niche and focus all resources on dominating it

❖ Identify the target customer …and the buyer!
❖ Describe a compelling reason to buy
❖ Envisage the whole product
❖ Understand the competition
❖ Develop secondary market factors: partners and allies,
distribution, pricing, positioning, next target customer
❖ Above all, be strategy-driven not sales-driven

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What’s the big deal about being strategy-driven?

❖ Very tempting to chase every deal,

especially big $$
❖ Most common in early startups: need the
revenue!
❖ Requires discipline to develop references
- referrals are critical for pragmatists
❖ Easier to market/position product in
narrow niche
❖ Easier to address issues from small,
homogeneous pool

❖ Pragmatists buy from market leaders

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The Whole Product

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 The Whole Product

Potential Product
Augmented Product
Expected Product
Generic Product

Further reading: “The Marketing Imagination” by Theodore Levitt

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Generic Product

What you get

in the box Generic Product

• Smartphone
• Charger
• Basic documentation (or a bunch of warning notices!)

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Expected Product

The minimum set of

things customers
expect in order to buy Expected Product

• SIM card
• Service plan from mobile carrier

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Augmented Product

The set of things that

maximizes the chance Augmented Product

customers will buy

• Core applications (browser, email, music player)

• Accessories (case, screen protector)

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Potential Product

Extensions that Potential Product

customers anticipate
will add value to the
product

• Third-party applications
• App development platform (APIs, SDKs)

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Importance of the whole product

- Innovators are often happy

to have just the generic
product
- Comfortable playing with
the pieces

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Importance of the whole product

- Early adopters want a more

complete offering
- Still expect to do some work
like integrating with existing
systems

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Importance of the whole product

- Early majority want the whole

product

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Simpli ed Whole Product Model

Whatever else is needed

to create a compelling
reason to buy

Generic
Product

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 Simpli ed Whole Product Model

Standards and Additional

Procedures Software

Change Additional
Management Generic
Hardware
Product

Training and Installation/

Support Con guration
System
Integration

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