4 key challenges for product management in India

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CompanyConfidential:ConfianzysConsultingPvt.Ltd November2010

www.confianzys.com Email:[email protected]

PRODUCTMANAGEMENTININDIA–FOURKEYCHALLENGES

ATHOUGHTPAPERBYTHECONFIANZYSCONSULTINGGROUP

TWOSPACES:PROBLEMSANDSOLUTIONS

Giventhatproductmanagementisarelativelynewdisciplineformanyorganizationsin

India, uncertainties exist in its concept as well as implementation. The fundamental

question remains: What is the core deliverable and value that product management

shouldbringtoanycompany?

Muchoftheconfusionsurroundingproductmanagementanditspracticeisclarifiedif

we first understand that all activities in any technology product firm fall into two

spaces:theproblemspaceandthesolutionspace.

Whatproblemsexistinthemarket,whichoftheseareappropriateforthecompanyto

solve andwhy– thesebelong to theproblem space.The solution space, on theother

hand, addresses the challenge of ‘How’ to solve the chosen problems. The role of

Product Management lies squarely in the problem space and that is where its core

deliverablesemerge.

TobetterunderstandthematurityoftheproductmanagementfunctioninIndiaandthe

challenges faced in practice, we at Confianzys spoke to product management

practitioners in a number of companies – small and large,multinational and regional

companies and Executive as well as managerial level employees. Further, the many

interventions in this space thatwe have been involvedwith have contributed to our

learningoftheon‐groundchallengesthatcompaniesface.

This thought paper discusses those challenges and likely evolution of the product

managementfunctionasthevalueitbringstothetablegetsmoreclearlyrecognized.

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FOURKEYCHALLENGESINPRACTICE

Someofthekeychallengesthatpractitionersfaceintheirworkarehighlightedbelow.

Many of these have direct implications on the value that companies bring to their

customers,aswewillsee.

DerailmentintoSolutions:Oneofthekeychallengesthatwecameacrossinthisstudy

and inourownwork, is themobilizingofproductmanagers’ timeandeffort into the

solutionsspace.Infact,somestatedthat70%oftheirtimewentinto“cobblingtogether

solutions”or“projectmanagement”.

The challenge with this ‘all hands on deck’ approach was highlighted by one of our

respondents who felt that it prevented product managers from really looking at the

problems thatexist in themarket.Further,given thatmanyof the ‘obvious’ customer

problems inanymarket arealreadybeingaddressed,productmanagersneed to look

morecloselytoidentifynichesthattheircompaniescanown.

Productmanagerswhosetimeisoccupiedwithsolutiondevelopment lackthetimeto

identify and evaluate such problems and markets. This is a big opportunity loss for

companies and of course, has a direct impact on their innovation and differentiation

efforts.Moreover, aproductmanagerwhoseefforts aredirectedelsewheremayeven

misscustomerproblemsthatarequiteevident.

Asideeffectofthederailmentintosolutionswasthatproductmanagersalsogotcalled

upon to deal with post‐deployment issueswhich the engineering and support teams

wouldbebetterqualifiedtodealwith.

Defining market requirements: A second challenge that product management

practitionersfacedwastheabsenceofaprocessorreliableframeworktodefinemarket

requirements. In somecases,while the roleof theproductmanagerwas theoretically

defined as bridging corporate strategy and business strategy to product strategy, in

practice,itwasstillbeingcobbledtogether.

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Especiallyinsmallercompaniesorcompaniesthatwerejustmovingoutofthestart‐up

phase, someproductmanagers felt that theydidnot have the skills needed todefine

market requirements in an actionable manner, especially when it came to

understanding buyer needs as against user needs. In some cases, it was felt that

productswereputtogetherbasedon‘gutfeel’andmarketrequirementsworkedinpost

facto,sincecustomervisitsandadvocacywererarelyincludedattheproduct ideation

stage.Whilesomefeltthattheexigenciesofthesituationdemandedsuchaction,clearly,

there was also some unease that as the company grew larger, such trial and error

methodscouldproverisky.

Another side effect mentioned was that without a clear understanding of market

requirements,teamssometimesgotinvolvedina‘featureoverload’modeandfocused

onsales‐drivenCustomerrequirements,wherethesoleaimofdevelopmentteamswas

tomaximizethenumberoffeaturesatagivencost.

Product management for global products: Especially in the high‐tech product

industry in India, there are fewer and fewer barriers to globalization, and many

companies desire to scale up globally. In this context, many product managers

understood clearly that their role was to understand a dynamic, global market and

interpretitforthebenefitofothersinthecompany.

However,productmanagers in start‐ups felt that theywere inadequatelyprepared to

understandalargeandvariedglobalmarket.Forthoseinlargercompanies,theinter‐

personal dynamics involved in aligning with product management and other teams

acrosslocationswasabiggerfactor.

Interestingly,transitioningbetweenproductplanningandproductmarketingroleswas

notfelttobeasbigachallenge,though,productmarketingtosomedidposeaproblem

whenonaglobalscale.

LowCEOMindspaceforProductManagement:Oneotherfactormentionedwasthat

ProductManagementwas not yet seen as a critical/distinct function by the CEO and

other topmanagement. Thiswas especially a challenge in companies that had grown

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from a start‐up mode and where the founding team still ran the business. In such

companies, perhaps the aversion to creating a clear space for product management

stemsfromfounders’inabilitytodelegatesuchrolestoothers.Thiscreatesasituation

where the productmanagement function exists in theory, but the role is not defined

strategically–instead,Founders/CXOsperformtheroleinanadhocmanner.

Fortheorganization,thishasimplicationsintermsofopportunityidentificationbeing

limited to the small founding group. It is also possible that as the Founder‐CEO gets

involved in many other issues, his or her involvement with customers reduces;

empowering the product management team and giving them a strategic role is

importantforthecompanytostaymarket‐centric.

This also led to concerns on the lack of a clear career path for productmanagement

practitioners and doubts as to whether PMs were seen as future corporate leaders.

Other challenges revolved around the difficulties in a nodal role requiring successful

interaction/negotiationwithmanydifferentteams.

PRODUCTMANAGEMENTININDIA:LOOKINGFORWARD

While some of the issues faced by product managers in India stemmed from their

working in start‐upmode companies, clearly, these issues are not restricted to start‐

ups.Thefewerresourcesthatsmallercompanieshaveonlymagnifyproblemsfacedby

mostplayersintheindustry.

Going forward, role definition, market‐driven approach and product management

trainingarethekeyinitiativesthatweseetheindustryneeding.

Role definition for product management while clear enough in theory is difficult to

implement. Many smaller companies especially face a shortage of resources and few

employeescanavoidmulti‐tasking.However,ascompaniesmoveoutoftheearlystart‐

up stage, it is important for such role definition to begin. In the early stages, the

founding team or engineering/development team may have been responsible for

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productplanning.Goingforward,itisessentialtoallocateplanningresponsibilitiestoat

leastoneperson,whocanfocusonunderstandingmarketandcustomerrequirements.

In larger companies, where resource availability is better, it is senior management’s

responsibility to ensure that productmanagers do not end up defining solutions and

ignoringproblems.Thisawarenessisnowalreadypresentinsomeofthecompanieswe

haveinteractedwith.

Adoptingamarket‐centricapproachiseventougherbecauseitgoesrighttotheheartof

company culture. A company that has begun with a technology‐driven culture (“We

makethebestproducts,weknowcustomerswillbuythem)requiresacommitmentfrom

topmanagementtooverhaulthismodeofthinking.Thereisenoughevidencetoshow

that amarket‐centric approach gives companies a better chance of getting customer

buy‐in; inourview,however,despite theevidence, itwill takesome time in India for

technologyproduct company leaders andowners tomoveaway from the tech‐driven

approach.

Finally, the issue of training for productmanagement professionals has already been

acknowledgedbyleaders,andmanyoftheindustryleadersweinteractwithhavebegun

takingstepstonarrowtheskillgap.

Inthisscenario,whilechallengesabound,wecansummarizethatIndianindustryisina

nascentbuthopefulstageasfarasthematurityoftheproductmanagementfunctionis

concerned. The next 5 years, according to us, is going to be an exciting time for the

industry–withmoreproductsemerging fromthemarketandgreater interestamong

technologyprofessionalsinthediscipline,wecanexpectquiteadifferentoutlookpost

thisperiod.

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AboutConfianzysConsulting:

ConfianzysConsulting isa first‐of‐its‐kindconsultingentity in Indiawithamission to

helpconceivemarket‐drivenbreakthroughproductsandachieveglobalscale.

We are focused on helping technology product companies by providing consulting,

training,coachingandoperationalinterventionsintheProductManagement,Customer

ManagementandMarketingManagementareas.

Formoreinformation,pleasevisithttp://www.confianzys.com.

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4 key challenges for product management in India