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Presented to the Oregon Chapter of the PDMA on May 21, 2009
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Product Managementin Tough Times
Ryan McMahonDirector Product ManagementRNA networks Inc.
About RNA
•Early stage - 3 year old company,
•IT product – memory virtualization
•Markets – Financial services, Oil & Gas, Cloud Computing, High Performance Computing
•Customers – Several customers, significant opportunity funnel
Impacts on Startups
•Hard to build a reputation
•Harder to find customers
•Deliver more product with less resources
•Must get more from customers
•Harder to recover from mistakes
Forces Focus!
Customers’ Mindset
•More conservative
•Must get more from existing investment
•Decisions are clearcut
•Still must look forward
Customers’ Mindset
•Financial Services – still buying but need clear ROI
•Oil & Gas – decreasing oil prices drives investment in research and exploration
•HPC – commodity HW horsepower is driving adoption of HPC in other verticals
•Cloud Computing – emerging, requires agility, improvements in utilization
What We’re Trying
•Finding customers – innovators & early adopters
•Focus on “must-have” products / solutions
•Drive to decisions fast – yes or no
•Intimately understand the customer and their problems
•Understanding economic benefits
Understanding the Customer Means
7
Customertechnical problems
Customerdifferentiatio
n
Alternatives considered
Customer business models
???
Org chart
Their IT budgets
Indirect product benefits
ITenvironment
Direct product benefits
Customerbusiness problems
How they purchase
Reaching Customers
•Creative outreach▫Interest groups – join, create, participate▫LinkedIn, Facebook▫SEO – searching is up!
•Proof of Concept engagements▫Prove the value▫Drive to purchase decisions
•Brute force ▫Traditional marketing▫Networking
Opportunity
•Little new competition
▫No new entrants
▫Few expeditionary products from existing players
•Customer willing tolook harder for value
•Window to establish newproducts / new companies
