The Product Management Methodology is a unique, holistic management 'workflow'/ 'framework' that pro-actively and efficiently guides the multidisciplinary team from 'Product Innovation' through 'Active LifeCycle' to 'Product Withdrawal' with repeatable precision.

• Once deployed, the workflow results in the professional and cohesive management of products throughout the business unit.

• Strategic Intent is delivered with confidence and transparency, risk assessed and nothing left to chance.

• Management traceability of strategic actions across all functional areas- leading to delivery, ownership and accountability.

Strategic Management (Directors and or Senior Management), Market Development and Product Managers must all work together in order to align business capabilities and to subsequently agree a common set of business goals / objectives (this is often an iterative process as stated above). Discussion and analysis will typically cover the following primary aspects;

• Overall vision and goals
• Market attractiveness
• Target market requirements ~ segmentation based
• Product portfolio requirements
• Competitor analysis
• Business core competence and alignment
• Critical success factors
• Finance ~ the availability of suitable funds
• Risk assessment / analysis
• Timeframes

Subsequent analysis will then be used to directly scope top level product portfolio requirements.  The specific need for individual products will be driven by; a) the type of product or service being offered, and b) whether the product itself provides a complete solution from a customer perspective. It is often the case that individual products do not (intentionally or otherwise) offer a complete ‘customer solution’ and as such have to be complemented by other products within the product portfolio (or sourced separately).

The resultant matrix is directly representative of how a specific target market will be addressed with a defined product portfolio. It should also be noted that several additional matrices may be required (cascaded) to comprehensively address all targeted opportunities by geographic, sector and segment as shown below.

Market segmentation and subsequent strategic planning activities are therefore critical to the business planning process which in turn becomes part of the tactical implementation plan. The knock on effect of poor or non existing planning at this stage will inevitably lead to expensive mistakes being made.

Taking the above principles into account ‘Market Development’ is a (prerequisite) complementary management discipline to that of ‘Product Management’ (appearing adjacent to Product Management on the Matrix). The primary role of ‘Market Development’ is to focus on ‘market solutions’ and manage resultant offerings in alignment with business objectives and market deviations. Idiosyncrasies of the target market are typically defined and understood within the ‘Market Development’ activity and potentially could lead to further primary and secondary Market Segmentation.

It is therefore of paramount importance for Market Development Managers to work closely with Product Managers during the ‘product definition phase’ if nuances are not to be missed and genuine ‘innovative features’ (with related benefits) are to be included.

Despite being adjacent disciplines on a matrix there are real similarities in the role of Product Management and Market Development. The business planning architecture and associated ‘elements’ (business process) do remain common and as such the PMM™ process can be extended to include the Market Development activity.

Portfolio Management

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