The Need for a Product Vision

Throughout a development cycle, product management and R&D teams spend countless hours trying to figure out how to build and release products that will make a significant impact in the market and be loved by customers. In other words, the game changer. This elusive game changer often has people caught up in deciding which cool feature to add to the product, instead of focusing on a well-defined product vision and direction.  No matter what you might think, there is rarely a single magical feature that makes a product a success. Even worse is to think that Marketing will find the right twists on how to hype a product release once it has been developed.

The bottom line is that you need a clear vision for the product. Before you start investing all of your resources, it is imperative to put pen to paper and identify who your intended users are, what their needs are, and how your product will satisfy these needs. Most importantly, you need to ask what you want your product to represent and define the essence of what you will market. If this is not clear from the beginning, it’s likely that you will get bogged down in techno-babble specs and suffer from feature creep.

A Vision Needs to Start with a Direction

All too often, we associate a vision with something that will happen in the distant future. While somewhat true, a vision is really about capturing the true nature of the product you’re building and defining the direction on how to get there.

For example, our mission at Ryma is to be the leader in product management by developing tools that will enable our customers to develop better products. We want to touch the lives of every Product Manager out there. So what’s our product vision? We want to offer a solution that will not only be powerful but that is also simple to use and empowers each stakeholder in the product management process to be better at their job. We want to give them the tools that will make their lives easier and will allow them to focus on what’s important: making great products for their customers.

In order to achieve this product vision, we have set a clear direction for the product development team. We want each and every new feature of our product to make life easier for our customers, while giving them access to the power of our platform.  We will shortly announce new capabilities for FeaturePlan that will demonstrate this new focus on simplicity combined with power.

A Direction is a Path to Follow

When a company is building a new game changer, it’s important to stay focused on the intent and not to get lost on feature creep. Achieving a minimal viable product is very much about choosing the right features while making sure you still are on the right path for your product vision. Remember the first iPod? While it pales in comparison with today’s version, you can already understand the product vision and the path that Apple was about to embark on. Having the right product vision, and ultimately releasing a game changer, is very much about that. Again, taking Ryma as an example, our next release will be very much like the first iPod when it comes to a new component named Document Center that’s being added; but the direction will be both clear for our development and our customer and partners.

Clarity in a Product Vision Does Not Make it Easier for Competitors

Recently, many people have been left disappointed by Apple’s product releases. It’s not that they aren’t great or highly successful in the market, but rather that people are now envisioning product ideas ahead of the market and are assuming that Apple will be moving at the pace of their imagination. We often forget that the bad years for Apple were when people had no clue about what would be coming next in terms of their products. Today, we can all see their product vision and can easily guess some of the steps that are coming from them. But even so, it does not make it easier for competitors to beat Apple at that game. I am sure that there are a few manufacturers right now that are scrambling because of the recent release of the new iPad. Companies should not be afraid of having a clear product vision and direction. You should only worry if you can’t execute properly.

Bottom line, if you seek clarity with your product vision and direction, your business will only be better off – and if you execute well, you’ll leave your competitors in the dust.

The importance of becoming the CEO of your product

For many of us, we begin our product management career by doing what is basically feature management: defining what the development team will be working on. In its simplest form, all you need to do in this position is calculate the number of development cycles you have available for a given release and then try to jam as many features into the product as possible.

If you are lucky enough, you end up getting sufficient customer feedback (or complaints) that leads to some level of feature ranking and planning, based on what the market seems to require. This of course has its level of hit and miss. While customers are great at identifying problems, they are not always capable of defining the right kind of solutions they need.  Someone needs to step in and truly identify the right product to build.

After a while, you begin to wonder if there is any kind of best practice that would get you to be a “real” product manager. There are several groups that are offering different levels of training or framework (AIPMM, Blackblot, Pragmatic Marketing and 280 Group just to name a few). This definitively brings standardization and a common language to the world of product development.

But there is one aspect that most product managers forget to aim for: to become the CEO of their product. In my case, I was fortunate enough to have run my own company for several years before taking on true product management roles. While I had the inconvenience (and hard time) of having to adjust to the reality of working for someone else, I had the unique benefit of thinking like a CEO.

Managing a product is far more than just supervising which features are put in it. There are many important considerations to take in account: how big is the market opportunity? What are the financial metrics that will define the success of a product? What is the business rationale in a build vs. buy scenario?  What is the impact on the company’s P&L?  What kind of product can your sales channel successfully sell?

There are a lot questions that need answers. The better you understand what it means to be a CEO, the more effective you will be in managing your product. Key differentiators include your ability to build the right kind of business case – which leads to obtaining approval of new product plans and ultimately receiving more resources and budget, which are needed to drive your product portfolio forward.

So how do you become the CEO of your product? First step is to want it – seek opportunities that will allow you to learn from your own CEO and others around you. Spend time asking about their job and what are the usual challenges they face. Not only you will better understand what it means to be a CEO, you will also be better equipped to sell your product pitches going forward.

The hardest decisions are often to decide what NOT to do

In most companies, we usually talk about doing more, going faster, growing. This is all good as long as you are capable of doing this. Sometimes companies need to take a step back and really focus their energy, do less (but better) and take the time to succeed. So what are some of the reasons for stepping back?

Dear old burn rate

It is very hard to build a company without investing ahead of the curve, but there is such thing as investing too much. The lifeblood of a company is the cash you have on hand. Without any cash, nothing can be done. Companies need to have their finger on their pulse at every moment. Do you know how much cash you have? How long can this last (i.e. cash flow forecasting)? How long before you can get back to break/even? Most entrepreneurs that are afraid of losing control (the good old 51%+ ownership) don’t realize that as soon as you are running out of cash, you lost control – not matter how much you own of the company.

This is your third strategy in 8 months

If you are constantly reacting to market and customer demand, it might not be a good thing. Execution of a strategy takes time to deploy and measure. If you keep changing the direction (and focus), it is hard to everyone to make this a success. So if every quarterly offsite is a reason for a new direction – maybe it’s time to step back a little.

Sales funnel of one offs

If you sales team only brings in these one of a kind deals and can never find a way to repeat the same kind of sales, you have a big problem – this won’t ever scale and will make it impossible for you to grow the business. You need to get more leads of the same kind, with the same length of sales cycle.

Making hard decisions

Yes, this is only a few of the reasons that should force you to take a step back. Now it’s time to make the hard decisions: what NOT to do. This is as important as what you want to focus on. Many companies spend way too much time debating about specific projects (“should we be doing it or not”). You need to create an environment where it becomes easier to say NO on things that do not fit your plan – no matter how big an opportunity is. This is also called focus.

Sometimes you need to cut

Saying NO is also saying NO to losing money. There should never be any comfort in burning cash – no matter how big your project is. Ignorance about your real cash situation is borderline suicide. Just hoping that things will get better or that elusive deal (or funding) will come just in time to save the situation is quite a dangerous proposal. If you are running short on cash and don’t have visibility on when the bleeding will stop, you need to cut. It’s hard. It’s painful but someone has to do it – don’t wait for others to make the decision for you.

Be honest

The best trick when it comes to making hard decisions is to be honest. Saying no to a deal that is no longer good for you. Informing employees that you had to make hard decisions about staffing. Shelving a new product idea that was so promising. Honesty is usually the best tool to explain the situation. I remember once that I had to let go of some employees and while this hurt and was difficult; one employee actually thanked me. Not for being cut of course; but because I had been honest with him about the situation and why I had no choice but to let him go. It rarely happens like this but you will be far more respected if you tell the truth than to invent any bogus reason that is only designed to protect your own personal image.

Quick tips on user experience for your web site

For most companies, a web site is a fundamental tool of marketing and lead generation. It all began in having a site to showcase your products and services, and then you had to have an online store. Not to forget to ever-elusive blog page. And lately, you now must have a social media presence, from tweeting to liking pages on your site. But across all the must haves and checklists of things we must do, we often overlook user experience. What makes your site compelling to visit? Why should I come back? I am finding what I am looking for that will make me buy what you do? Online marketers should take a break from tracking unique visitors you are getting and measure instead measure the user experience. While this can sometimes be measured in terms of bounce rate, you can simply take a stroll on your site like if it was the first time. You might discover a few problems. Here is my quick list of usual suspects:

Target users

Who are you selling to? You better understand the buyer persona that you are trying to attract. For example: making a hip and snazzy looking site that is targeted at finance people might not be the right approach (they most likely will prefer a simple design with immediate access to stats and visual dashboards on ROI, etc).

Focus on message

What is your website saying? Visitors should get a good understanding of what you do and why you are relevant in a few lines (think of your cocktail pitch put on a web site…). Unless I am crystal clear on what you do and why I am here, you will need to educate me about your value proposition and competitive advantage.

Every page is a landing page

Don’t spend too much time just tuning the main page. While being the first page that many people will see, today’s search engines bring people directly to the relevant page as much as possible. Don’t assume that people will all start from the same place. Every page should have a meaning and an ability to quickly put the visitor in context.

Minimize navigation

Everybody hates searching on a web site for what they need, even more when you need to click a handful of time to just get started. Again, if you know you buyer persona, you should be able to place everything they needs within one or two clicks. While adding a search bar can be convenient, it is not the right way to fix a faulty and confusing web site.

What are you looking for?

If you are looking to capture leads or sell a product, make this an obvious and simple process. Many companies will ask you to fill a form in order to download something, make the process as enjoyable as possible. For example, don’t ask me to fill in something and then get someone in inside sales to review my request. People in today’s world expect downloads to be automated. Nothing more frustrating than to wait for a couple of days and then getting someone trying to sell me something before I am ready. There is nothing wrong in trying to convert business, just don’t make it annoying or painful.

Keep testing your site

Managers spend a great deal of time testing a brand new web site and then they go away. This should be an on-going process; to make sure that everything is running fine, that the user experience is not broken (don’t wait for someone to email you if something does not work, fix it before).  Getting regular focus groups is another good way of making sure you have not missed the mark. Even more when your site is your primary source of revenue generation; you can’t afford to have a bad user experience.

Cocktail 101: how to pitch your business

Tomorrow evening is the launch cocktail of Capital Innovation 2011 where I will be again an honored member of the advisory committee. Last year, I made myself available to help all the companies that entered the contest and I am very happy to say that last year’s winner, Artfox, did spend a lot of time with me in improving their business plan and overall pitch (full disclosure: since then I have invested in them as well as accepted the role of Executive Chairman). So while I have lots of excitement to see the companies that have registered so far, I have no choice to cringe on the idea of listening to badly delivered elevator pitches. So in hope of making this more enjoyable for everyone, here are my 8 tips on better cocktail pitching:

Introduction

Please take the time to introduce yourself but don’t get started for a mile long presentation. Say your name, role and company name (slowly and pronounce every bit properly). The follow with a SHORT one liner about what you do (WITHOUT acronyms or industry specific words). This is not yet your elevator pitch; it’s an introduction on the matter.

Get to know the other person

Nothing worse than to hear someone rapidly pitching what he or she is doing even before they even know whom they are talking to. Take a few moments to find interest in the person you are in front of: what are they doing here? What are they looking for? What kind of businesses interests them? By knowing more about them you will be better at giving them a proper pitch.

What is the problem you are solving?

Never assume that people understand and get your field of expertise. Take a few seconds to put your business in the context of the problem you are solving. Try to find an example that can be highly visual and simple for anyone to get his or her head around.

What kind of solution do you have?

Once the problem is understood on the receiving end that you can take a few seconds to explain what is the solution that you have (plan to have in the near future). Again, make this as simple as possible (think of explaining this to your aunt that has no understanding of technology – never assume that anyone will get it).

What makes you different?

It’s one thing to have a solution; it’s a completely different one to be unique (i.e. to have a competitive advantage). You need to detail here what will differentiate yourself, what will make you win the war against the others. This also does not need to be uniquely technology related. Having a specific go-to-market, pricing strategy, distribution channel, etc. all count as differentiators.

Why do you believe you will succeed?

Almost closing time on your cocktail pitch. What makes you say that you will make it? Why would I think that you are a company to follow and feel that you have the right stuff? Here the challenge is to stay within the boundaries of being pragmatic and not look like a Looney bin.

What do you need?

Ok, you are obviously there for a reason. So what do you need to make your business a success? Do you need money? Senior leadership? New partners? All of the above?

Make it short

This entire cocktail pitch should have lasted only a couple of minutes. Now if the other party is interested, it may last longer but don’t try to hog on someone too long. There are a lot of people to talk to … :-)

Looking forward to see all of you tomorrow evening and hopefully my little tips will help you polish your cocktail tips.

 

My Presentation Tips & Tricks

Here is a follow-up on my latest post regarding the content of an investor presentation. Beyond the information that needs to be put into each slide, here is my top 10 list of tips when it comes to doing a presentation.

Simplify the content

Making presentation is an art form where less is better. Try to make each of your slides and clean and simple as possible. Try to extract the essence of what you are trying to say in each and every slide.

Use words that are easy to pronounce

Sounds silly but in a Province where English is most likely not your first language, try to pick words that are easy to pronounce. Be careful about words that might have a different meaning when badly pronounced (for example, saying “fuck us” when wanting to say focus). Of course, some words cannot be replaced so you just need to practice your pronunciation.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

You never rehearse enough; don’t just try to wing it. Even the pros practice a lot their speeches and presentations. Practice your timing, practice the quality of your speech. You can do this by yourself but it is also quite valuable to practice in front of a mirror, in front of people that you are not as comfortable with, and ultimately record yourself with a camera.

Lead the presentation

Too many times, we start talking once we have flipped the slide. If you ever have noticed great speakers such as Steve Jobs, they will lead the slides; starting to talk about the content that will appear next – BEFORE the slides is displayed. This will create a better flow and prevents you from just reading what’s on each slide.

Tell a story

Presenting is very much about telling a story. Make your presentation compelling by focusing in getting your audience engaged and getting them thru a series of steps; up to the closing statement.

Take your time

By keeping the content short, you can make sure not to exceed any allocated time period. You can then make sure to take your time. Nothing worse than a rushed presentation because you have too much to say or are not sure on how long you will take.

Pause by taking a sip of water

One useful trick is to take a quick sip of water once in a while. This will allow you to take a second, make sure you are focused and composed (if you were starting to lose it). While this sip of water will feel like you have paused for a minute (or even feel like an hour), it creates just a small enough of a break to catch your breath.

No matter what happened, focus on closing strong

Even if you have fumbled plenty during the presentation, you always have a last chance upon closing. Take a deep breath and make sure you deliver a good and final message correctly. While always better to do a perfect presentation, a good finish can go a long way.

Be careful of your body language

How are you placing your hands? How is your body moving around can say a lot about your level of confidence and comfort. Make sure that you don’t do any twitching, dangling, or too many sidestepping moves. This is where recording your rehearsals with a camera can greatly help. Sometimes we are just not aware of all the things we do when we present.

Smile

Nothing worse than a presenter that is tense and looks like he is in a bad mood. If you can, remember to smile and have an upbeat attitude as you are presenting; even more when a presentation is recorded and then posted to a public website.

 

Looking for funding? Here is my presentation template in 15 slides

Raising funds is something that most startup hates doing – being very difficult (and sometimes next to impossible) as the primary reason. While not easy, getting investors on board is not as hard as you might expect. That is of course if you have taken the time to build the right business plan and have taken the time to sell your story. There are three basic rules that will make a round of funding happen. To begin is there a market (and a problem) that is big enough to invest into? Second question is do you have the right solution to that specific problem? Finally, to you have what it takes to succeed? Investors want to put their money into things that have a shot of succeeding. For any business plan they read or presentation they see, this is basically what they are trying to answer. If you succeed, you will get the funding you need. Missing anything and the road to money will be long and painful… Here is my top 15 slides that I believe need to be in any investor presentations:

Company Overview: make it short; explain where you come from and how you got to this point. What kind of experience do you have? Who are the key people in your team?

Distinctive Competences: Take a few moments to explain what makes you unique. What do you have or do that other companies would not or cannot do? This is extremely important. If you are just a “me too”, what confidence can I have that you are the right horse to bet on.

Market Problems: What are the problems that the industries you are serving have? How painful is that pain for them? Make sure to show that you are addressing a real pain, not just a nice to have.

Market Sizing: How big is that market opportunity? How many customers are there? How much would they be willing to spend? Try to have 3rd party references such as industry research and market analysis to support your hypothesis.

Solution to the problem: What kind of solution is needed to fix this problem? How complex this is? Will it take a few years or a decade in order to get there? This is as much as product agnostic as it needs to be. Focus on the solution rather than what you product does as of today.

Target Customers: The market is large and that is very good but you still need to focus. What will be the types of customers you will be targeting first? Types of customers can define this but having samples of customer names is always good.

Your product line: Ok now it’s time to put things into perspective. What is the solution you have (or plan to have) that matches best the market problems and the needs of the customers?

Product roadmap: You need to show that you know what to do for years to come. How can you demonstrate that what you have in your plans will align with the evolution of your target market?

Go to market strategy: How will you get your customers to notice you? What is your plan to get the meetings you need and the volume of business required to be financially viable? And please be specific. Just saying that you will use SEO, Adwords, Social Media and mailing list does not cut it …

Competitive landscape: Whom are you competing with? This can be a direct competitor to your products and solutions but this can also be the customers themselves (in-house development, status quo). How will you position yourself in order to have a competitive advantage?

Revenue Model: What is the pricing for your solution? Do you have plans for recurring revenues? Will you have a reseller channel? How will you monetize your web service? Sometimes a simple illustration can help visualize the flow of money and how it gets to you…

Financial Projections: How much money will you make in the coming years? How much will it cost you to get to profitability? What is the breakdown of spending per category (R&D, S&M, G&A)? Keep it simple but show numbers that fit within metrics found in your industry. For example, if you nearest competitor is running at 15% profit margins, don’t show margins at 40% (unless you have a major compelling reason that shows why you will be so different).

Exit strategy: This is not as much about selling the business as what will be the triggers that will allow the investors to get a return on their investment in the next foreseeable future.

Funds needed: How much do you need and what will you do with it? There is no problem is asking for more, just make sure that you can demonstrate how the proceeds will be spent. Money invested needs to be used to create value, not to sit in a bank account for 3 years.

Summary: Time to wrap up; this is your last chance to make a lasting first impression. What are the key take away points you want to investor to remember; no matter if they will be investing or not. People talk and you want to make sure you leave them with the right message.

I hope this will give startups looking for funding some insights into the key points that investors are looking for. Of course, I might have made it sound easier than it really is. If you need some help or just want to get some feedback, drop me a line and I would be more than happy to assist you in making a killer presentation that will help you get the funding you need.

When the fear of dilution (or desire to keep control) makes you a failure

Over the past two years, I have seen a numerous number of business plans, new startups and startups that have been startups for too many years. It is always surprising the see so many entrepreneurs concerned about majority control and the fear of being diluted in an upcoming round of funding. I actually believe that too many of them end up dying or selling too early for lack of proper financial support; mostly driven by this fear.

You lose control the second you need money – no matter how much

If you want to make sure you never lose control, you better have a business that never needs any form of bank loan or third party investment. No matter how little you need, you will virtually lose control of the business. Maybe not on paper, but as soon as your business will be in trouble, you will have to deal with your banker or group of investors. You want absolute control? You should never ask for money. Then again, your business better be highly profitable and cash strong to handle your growth, otherwise you will inevitably run out of money.

Keeping control, no matter how much you own

Instead of focusing on your ownership of the business and who has majority control of the business, concentrate your efforts in building a realistic business plan and spend your time on making it happen. No investors want to change a winning combination (well unless you have a serious personality clash with them – and that’s a whole other discussion). If your business is hitting the key milestones and is providing the value/ROI your investors are looking for, then you will be in charge and your Board and shareholders will let you do your job.

When was a very successful business been ever over capitalized?

It is funny to see so many discussions about the valuation of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and other companies lately. People are spending all their time wondering about what valuation multiples are being applied. The resulting effect is very much like the dot com bubble where people worry about valuation (and ultimately the dilution that would occur for a round of funding). Startups worry too much about what they are worth instead of looking at how much they really need for run the business. Focus on the money you can get and what it will give you. At the end, I don’t recall a company where the executive team does not get properly rewarded upon being highly successful.

Get as much money as you can and make your business grow

Entrepreneurs should not think about how little they need in order to un-dilute themselves. Think instead of what that extra million dollars would allow you to do. Could you accelerate your product development? Could you expand faster in international markets? Could you acquire other business that complements your solution? Again, I am more curious to see what Facebook will do with the latest 1.5B$ of funding. The game is about building a long term sustainable and growing business. No matter how much we talk about the price of gas, you would never drive for a long distance without doing a proper fill up of your gas tank. Who is in sane mind drives a car and fills up for a few gallons/liters every couple of miles/kilometers? Getting funding should not be different.

So if you are thinking about raising more funds, focus on creating value, don’t think about the valuation, how much you are getting diluted (well, just make sure you are not getting screwed…) and build the right plan to wisely spend that money. If you are truly successful as your business plan says, there will be plenty of money (and ROI) for everyone …

New year’s resolution: under promise and over deliver

As we are about to begin a new year, most of us get in the habit of making resolutions; things we want to achieve in the coming year, things to stop doing, or simply things that will make us a better person. It is usually a process that makes us highly optimistic where many of these resolutions will never happen and most of them rapidly forgotten only a few weeks later. So my suggestion as you make you list is quite simple: under promise and over deliver.

No matter what you pick, set yourself for success with simple goals and objectives; milestones you have a high degree of chances of achieving. Be realistic. If all of us pick items that can be done, it will be a fantastic year. You want to achieve a million dollar revenue year? Aim slightly lower but make sure you will deliver above expectation. You might still get the million dollar mark but if it comes as an over achievement, it will be even more rewarding.

In reality, under promising and over delivering should be all our first resolution; then any other ones you pick will be gravy on top. :-)

With that in mind, I want to wish all my readers a great 2011, enjoy the rest of the holidays and if you are drinking, do it in style with a fantastic bottle of wine …

Michel

 

The target customer

It’s a lot easier to build great technology than it is to properly identify your target customer and ideal market. Sure you may have found a market that has great potential. Once deployed, your solution will have a significant impact on the industry – or will it?

Who has the pain?

Before getting a chance of successfully selling a product, you need to have a very good idea of the target customer. This is the person that has the pain (or the need) that your product will solve (or satisfy). If there is not a well defined pain or need, there is limited chance that your solution has value; besides selling to a few people. Of course, the greater the pain, the bigger (and value) is the market opportunity.

Who has the money?

Without revenue, there is no business. One common problem of a lot of startups is a lack of strategy around getting money out of the hands of your customer (a.k.a. monetization). You need to draft a path from where the money will come from. The simplest form is the customer giving you a fat check. The more challenging one is indirectly making money from sponsors, adverts – that is if you have the right kind of volume.

When is your solution needed?

Even after finding a market and how you will monetize, you still need to know about time to market. As an example, tablet PC that came out 8 years ago are obviously not as popular as today’s iPad … It is so important to have a clear understanding on when the critical mass of your customers will be ready to buy your product. It is always better to delay than to simply burn money on a market that is yet not ready to purchase.

Are you too close to the problem?

While you may have been thinking about these things for a while, it is sometimes beneficial to have a little distance or fresh eyes in order to find the right answers. This is where someone like me comes in. You might be surprised on the outcome if you were to consider asking the advice of someone that has many years in developing product plans and go to market strategies. And while such consulting services are not cheap, there are certainly a lot less money than to ship a product to the wrong target customers or at a bad time to market; or even worse to have forgotten how to monetize. Sales and marketing activities are many folds more expensive than product planning and building the right kind of product marketing strategy.

I would be more than happy to provide you some guidance, just drop me a line at michelbesner (at) me (dot) com …

 

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