This is continuation of the previous post.
3. Manage a scope. Usually scope management is understood in a context of balancing the project’s budget, deadline and requirements. I would like to look at scope management in a context of program planning, rather than project management. Establishment of a linear and/or parallel set of projects delivering small sets of processes with limited functionality over short periods of time creates a more productive environment for the initiative to succeed.
It seems that the major difference between product management practices in the software business and the consumer electronics business lies in the perception of how, or even whether, a life cycle of a product can be managed after its release.
In software, alpha and beta testing by actual users are a common practice, that results in multiple releases based on actual user experiences learned or observed during these processes. In other words the product is actively managed throughout its life-cycle.
In contrast CE product management practices do not appear to be very pro-active after product launch, and are limited primarily to promotional functions. If a product is expected to have an 18-24 month life, focus groups are organized 12-14 months after product launch, to learn how to design and market its next generation. These exercises are very expensive in that they require a lot of effort to organize, and a lot of special skills to produce truly valuable results, hence they are often contracted to specialists.
Most intelligence a company can gain about its customers’ experiences is by listening to its customers, literally. While customer satisfaction surveys are valuable, they are typically post-dated from the original experience and only solicit feedback based on topics the company deems important.
There are multiple channels available for finding this data, and multiple technology offerings to process it into a meaningful source of business intelligence, however I am not aware of many processes that use this intelligence to pro-actively manage launched CE products profitability.
At Samsung, using reviews as a source of feedback “has changed some aspects of the way we work, primarily because of the speed with which information comes in”, says Kris Narayanan, Samsung’s director of marketing. “It helps us look at issues as they arise. If there is a malfunction or a problem, then we identify it very early.”
The company has used reviews in this way for less than a year, but Narayanan says Samsung has already changed products in response to the new kind of feedback. For instance, large flat-panel televisions were initially produced with speakers on the side. When customers pointed out in their reviews that the units were too wide to fit into conventional cabinets, Samsung put the speakers below the screen.
The example above is a very positive one, but keep in mind it only addresses the issue of the “next” product design – not how to improve profitability of the “current” product. However I suggest that it can be done and I would love to learn about people and companies who are already do, before starting to speculate how I would approach doing it myself.
As usual, your comments, opinions and experiences are greatly appreciated.
CRM Enterprise software initiatives are rightly considered to be the most challenging Enterprise Software undertaking by many people in business, yet many companies dip their proverbial ‘toes” into this dangerous “water”. The attraction is, that when these initiatives do succeed, the return on investment is very fast and spectacular. It is interesting to understand what the critical reasons for such volatility are. I will explore them in this post, based on my own experience as well as what I have learned from various discussions with other practitioners.
1. Clear definition of objectives. The objectives are often articulated in terms which are not specific or measurable – “Improve Customer satisfaction”, “Obtain 360 degree Customer visibility”, “Increase time available for Sales calls”, “Improve Sales efficiency by 13%” – are quite common and absolutely useless if not harmful.
First and foremost, we have to manage better communication….Project failure and success seem to depend on saying, “Are you able to accurately articulate and collect what the requirements are?” and “Are you able to express the right estimates?”…. Too many times, the collection process is weak, because the customer is not easily able to articulate [his needs] in language the people [on the project] understand. [S]oftware estimation is not a trivial exercise; it is still an art rather than a science.
JP Rangaswami is the Managing Director of Service Design at BT Design
There is either no measurable target or agreement on base line and measuring methodology. The agreement is the crucial word in this sentence because we deal with an open economic system which can be influenced by multiple market factors outside of the sphere and control of this initiative. So it is difficult to come up with clear metrics which would allow for measurement, i.e. accountability, and people are not often motivated to do difficult things without effective leadership. The result is a list of features and functions which are collected without asking a fundamental question – How this feature, function or process would affect the GOAL?
2. Effective leadership. The leadership is very often outsourced or delegated to IT after initial, very loud announcements:
In American culture, we tend to equate leadership with yapping. There is no correlation. Lead Well and Prosper, by Nick McCormick.
I would like to thank Michael Krigsman for posting these and some other excellent references and analysis in his ZDNet blog.
That is why effective leadership is critical – Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
It is much easier to be a critic, so I will try to be constructive for a change, ranting can get very tiresome. From my Best Practices notebook I can suggest the following targets as examples:
“Reduce selling cycle by 5% first year, and 7.5% during subsequent 2 years without decrease of average deal size, normalized to our industry market condition”;
“decrease deal discount rates by 10% from the current (pre-initiative go live) levels, normalized to industry market condition”.
These do not reflect the whole CRM footprint, but I found the SFA part is more challenging, that is why I have included these examples, but I hope it is illustrative enough to extrapolate to Marketing, Support, etc.
Oh, I would love to use this new SFA system!
It is business leadership which needs to step up to the plate and articulate WHAT do they want to achieve, and WHY these are the most critical targets to aim for. It is also very important that achieving agreed targets does not become an IT challenge, but remains a business challenge thru training, adoption, and compliance management. The IT is an enabler, not a deliverer of economic results.
I will continue later with the rest of the W’s
I have six honest serving men,
They taught me all I know.
Their names are Who and What and When,
Why and Where and How.
- Rudyard Kipling
A blog about experiences, curiosity and the never-ending search for ways to do better things better