The Hiddens Skills of Product Development

Is B2B product development a skill or an art?


It's a little bit of both but in this short article I'm going to show you how to make it more skill than art. Here's a couple of things you need to perfect as you move your product from concept to launch.


First Things First - Develop a Project Plan

Here's a good place to start because the best product development project can become derailed quickly if you don't know how to properly plan. My motto is THINK, PLAN, DO. Follow this and you will never go wrong. Over the years I've personally witnessed companies that have jumped to DO bypassing the other two steps and have found themselves unable to react during the development and incubation stages.


If you are familiar with any of the popular project software, like Microsoft Project, feel free to use it. Don't be intimidated though if you are not familiar with any of these. You don't need sophisticated software to prepare a project plan. Remember, it's not the equipment, it's the player.


OK, so you know the devil is in the details so be as specific as possible. It's OK if you miss steps but every project plan should cover processes (steps), people, and time required. The more plans you write the better you will get at it; promise.


Prepare a Budget

I'm often asked, within what margin should the budget be. It may take a while to get a feel for this so be patient and pay attention to what it costs to build your products. Whether you have to use an outside company for development or are being cross charged from an internal department, know your products, the components, and make sure you stick to your plan. Remember my motto, Think, Plan, Do. I guarantee you will overrun your budget if you go straight to DO.

The next question is should you account for the people time. Some of my larger clients who have mature product development departments are capable of allocating full time resources so it is easy to account for the cost of their time. Otherwise, these are sunk costs and trying to account for time other than x% is not worth the effort.


Translating Needs into Requirements

I use a proprietary approach I developed that allows product development teams to quickly identify the stakeholders and map to their needs. Once you know the needs of your target base it's easy to figure out what features need to be built that the customer wants, will keep you within budget, and can be launched within your time frame. Remember, you don't have to build everything in the first phase. I'm a big believer in launching the basic requirements and phasing in new features in future releases that can be publicized. The key is getting the first set right. Too many companies release products that do to much and end up confusing the target market and can't be priced correctly. My Marketing Optimization Grids ensures this never happens.


The Battle for Customers' Minds (Value Prop)
I want to spend just a second talking about value proposition. Here's my definition. I want the customer to do something different than what they do today at a cost (lower, the same or more) that will provide some added utility versus their current product or process. So you see if you add in a lot of features it makes it hard for the customer to understand how this may fit into their current process. The customer may be open to new solutions but if you make the comparison too hard it inertia takes over. And, as I always say, "you can never underestimate the power of inertia".

I'd love to know your product development stories. Write me here or visit me at Stages of Innovation.

Rob Goldberg 2009

Getting prospects to call you back

No matter how persuasive, compelling or brilliant you may be, it's difficult to build a relationship with a prospect if you can't get them to call you back.…

When prospects don't call back ask yourself these two questions.

1) Are you talking to the right person?

2) Did you say the right thing?

I developed this methodology to help my clients remember to focus on stakeholder needs. Want to find the right person and say the right thing. Work through the first 2 grids.

Here's some helpful pointers.

Stakeholders can be users, influencers and decision makers. They often overlap and they definitely all have different sets of needs. Know who you are speaking to.

Needs typically come from deficiencies in the workflow. This is not the easiest thing to do. So start with the features of your product or service and think about why you developed them. What were the requirements from the customer?

Requirements is a fncy name for features. Features drive benefits that satisfy needs for your stakeholders.

Follow this process and you will always find the right person and say the right thing.

For more information visit my web site at http://www.stagesofinnovation.com/

Rob Goldberg 2009