{"id":4893,"date":"2019-05-22T05:03:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T10:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=4893"},"modified":"2020-12-20T22:09:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T03:09:18","slug":"when-competition-starts-with-an-s-step-up-using-the-strong-form-product-management-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/when-competition-starts-with-an-s-step-up-using-the-strong-form-product-management-model\/","title":{"rendered":"When Competition Starts with an S: Step-up Using the Strong-form Product Management Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most Product Managers have relatively narrow roles and decision rights on product portfolios are fragmented on various functions. This creates incoherence between a company\u2019s product and its overall Corporate Strategy<\/a>.\"\"<\/p>\n

What is needed is more accountable decision rights that align responsibility for results to one person who also has cross-functional decision-making authority. This realignment is at the core of Strong-form Product Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is Product Management<\/h2>\n

Product Management<\/a> is an organizational lifecycle function within a company. Product Management deals with the planning, forecasting, production, and marketing of the product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle.<\/p>\n

The Product Life Cycle (PLM)<\/a> Management integrates people, data, processes, and business systems. It provides product information for companies and their extended supply chain enterprise. One of the ultimate goals of Product Management is to optimize the business at the product, product line or product portfolio level over the lifecycle of the products.<\/p>\n

Taking a Cautionary Case in Point: Understanding What Happened to Research in Motion (RIM)<\/h2>\n

In April 2007, Research in Motion (RIM)<\/a> was flying high. The Blackberry creator was coming off its best year ever. RIM was experiencing record revenues, record earnings per share, and record shipments. And there was a new reason to be optimistic: Apple had just introduced the iPhone and RIM executives took it for granted that their product\u2014a runaway hit in the business world\u2014would grab a huge share of the burgeoning consumer market as well.<\/p>\n

However, the confidence proved to be ill-founded. The iPhone reversed the historical pattern of computer technologies flowing from the enterprise to the consumer market.<\/p>\n

RIM is compelling as a cautionary tale but it is not unique. Many companies falter in the face of discontinuous change. Their failure usually stems from their inability to keep up with technological shifts or the complexity of their product lines. Though often seen as a breakdown at the enterprise level, this starts at a much more granular level, with ineffective Product Management.<\/p>\n

A Strong-form Model could have kept RIM stay ahead of change and remain competitive.<\/p>\n

The Strong-form Product Management Model<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 5 steps to Strong-form Product Management will keep competition at bay.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hire Product Managers with Proper Skills<\/strong>
    \nWe need to understand that intrinsic abilities are required by Product Managers. These are the abilities to make a judgment to understand trade-offs, anticipate market changes, and make savvy business decisions.<\/li>\n
  2. Create Financial Transparency to the Product Level<\/strong>
    \nCompanies must realize that a given product may be siphoning revenue from more profitable products. Increase in costs from suppliers that are managed by another function may cause hidden opportunity costs or out-and-out profit surprises. The creation of Financial Transparency down to the product level can address these concerns.<\/li>\n
  3. Implement Product-first Decision-making Processes<\/strong>
    \nThere is a need to broaden decision rights and increasing accountability of Product Managers for performance and results. Product Managers have a \u201cfirst among equals\u201d status.<\/li>\n
  4. Develop Strong Customer Relations<\/strong>
    \nProduct Manager must translate customer insights into product improvement and new products.<\/li>\n
  5. Encourage Cross-functional Collaboration<\/strong>
    \nStrong-form Product Management is inherently cross-functional. Communication is essential in developing the relationships between marketing and product management.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In all these steps, the Strong-form Product Manager must be the center of knowledge. However, Product Managers must also realize that the adoption of a Strong-form Product Management Approach requires taking Change Management<\/a> initiatives.<\/p>\n

    Undertaking a Change Management initiative can take years to implement. Success can be achieved when anchored on basic principles of Change Management. However, once this is put in place, significant opportunities arise as companies move from strategy to execution.<\/p>\n

    Interested in gaining more understanding of the Strong-form Product Management Model<\/a>? You can learn more and download an editable PowerPoint about Strong-form Product Management Model<\/strong> here<\/a>\u00a0on the Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

    You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library<\/a>. FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:<\/p>\n

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    “FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”<\/p>\n

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    “Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients’ benefits.”<\/p>\n

    \u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Most Product Managers have relatively narrow roles and decision rights on product portfolios are fragmented on various functions. This creates incoherence between a company\u2019s product and its overall Corporate Strategy. What is needed is more accountable decision rights that align responsibility for results to one person who also has cross-functional decision-making authority. This realignment is… When Competition Starts with an S: Step-up Using the Strong-form Product Management Model<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":4919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1602],"class_list":["post-4893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy","tag-product-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4893"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8137,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4893\/revisions\/8137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}