I read Chris Anderson’s book, “The Long Tail” (which is an awesome read if you haven't done so yet, and I highly recommend his blog) and it opened my eyes to the huge potential out there for new products and services that small businesses can target. However, as the economy continues to shrivel budgets and companies struggle, Product Management is a discipline that smaller companies will not be able to staff. Yet I believe so strongly in the value of Product Management to a company that I spend time on this blog trying to provide tools, tips and techniques that can help anyone improve their products and help solve their customer’s problems. These small companies are in the long tail. For these companies, no one is assigned to close the Value Knowledge Gap (an earlier post).
There are many powerful Product Management tools out there (the 280 Group offers a great analysis), but I am focusing on a simple tool that could help someone systematically think through the problem they are solving, and the solution that they are offering.
For my next few posts I will be walking through a tool I use which I call the Product Management Workbook (get a copy here from my Google Site). The PM Workbook helps me do a quick assessment of where I stand in terms of closing this gap, by giving me a quick assessment of each of the three steps (Explain Problem, Quantify Opportunity and Offer Solution) to establishing the value of my solution. Below is an image of Sheet 1 - "The Overview" This summarizes the information you have collected so far. The simple goal: to go from Red to Green.
Execution of these three steps is the foundation of any successful organization, and more specifically any successful product launch (there is a great blog, "Launch Clinic" dedicated to this topic). Each step has a worksheet with questions that can help an organization develop an honest assessment of their progress in that step.
