May 2018
 

The mantra of every product, marketing and sales professional starts and ends with finding and solving customer problems. But identifying the problems that are most critical to your target customers is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Our feature article this month focuses on an easier way to identify what's most important to your target customers. Problems aren't the headline.

Enjoy our May issue.






In This Issue
  • Stop Looking for Customer Problems
  • The Ultimate Vision: Writing Customer Success Stories Before You Build the Solution
  • Product Backlog vs. Sprint Backlog
  • Product Feature ROI: A Fool's Errand?
     
Stop Looking for Customer Problems!
There's Something More Important to Your Target Customers
There's an old saying in sports - winning cures everything. The same could be said for B2B organizations that consistently meet their strategic goals. When organizations are winning, many of their so-called problems fade into the background. Which brings me to an important point that every product management team should consider: If your organization is on a crusade to find and solve customer problems, STOP! Instead, just focus on helping them "win" more.

Writing Customer Success Stories Before You Build the Solution
The  Ultimate Vision

The greatest athletes in every sport have one thing in common - the innate ability to see plays before they happen. If you're a product manager, imagine how great it would be to envision the ultimate customer success stories before you build the product.

If you aspire to be the Michael Jordan, Serena Williams or Wayne Gretzky of product managers, you just have to step outside the metaphorical product box and see the game through the eyes of the customer. No small feat for anyone who lives, breathes, eats and sleeps products!

It's Like Turn-by-Turn Directions for Meeting Your Growth Goals!

The starting point (where you are today) and the destination (your strategic goals) are the easy part. Choosing the best route option (product, marketing and sales strategy) and staying the course (execution) is the difficult part. Product Management University gives you turn-by-turn directions for getting from where you are today to your ultimate destination.
  1. Answer 6 Questions About Your Markets & Customers
  2. Use That Information to Create Prioritized Plans
  3. Build and Deliver Solutions That Make Customers Better at What They Do
  4. Market & Sell the Strategic Value of Existing Solutions
  5. Adopt a "Trusted Advisor" Approach to Sales Presentations & Demos
Schedule your personalized onsite workshop and learn the market's simplest Product Management Framework for growth.
In the Trenches!

Product Backlog vs. Sprint Backlog

What's the difference between a product backlog and sprint backlog?
The Playbook
Product Feature ROI: A Fool's Errand?

If you've ever been asked to produce a product feature ROI, you know what a mind numbing exercise it is. In most cases it's a fool's errand. Here's the deal: most products and features are usually integrated and target the same markets and same customers. If that's the case, think about how much additional revenue you can generate in each market segment by increasing the business value via additional features. While it's easy enough to estimate the cost of building features, there's simply no practical way to determine the revenue impact at that level of granularity.  The Playbook: Go macro on your feature ROI: 
Proficientz, Inc. | 864-516-7527 | http://www.proficientz.com
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