Product Management in B2B

Ashish GuptaProduct Manager & Software Engineer

Some Background

6+ years of B2B product management

Two Different B2B Paradigms

Old (On-prem) New (SaaS)

What do product managers do?

Strategy Planning Execution Marketing

Inbound

Outbound

Strategy

1. Target user2. Value proposition3. Differentiation4. Customer acquisition5. Monetization6. KPIs

Strategy is iterative in nature.

Strategy

TARGET USER Server/Backup Admin

Ease of use

Features

Cost savings

IT Director

Risk mitigation

Cost savings

Visibility

CIO

Cloud transformation

M&A integration

ROI

Security & Compliance

1

Strategy

VALUE PROPOSITION

What we solve? How we solve?

Problem you are solving

Product Features

2Vs.

Strategy

DIFFERENTIATION

Product 10X better than other

alternatives

3

Strategy

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

4 Direct Sales Channel PartnerVs.

Distributor Reseller

Strategy

MONETIZATION

5 Perpetual Pay as you GoVs.

Per GB/monthPer User/month

Per Instance/month

Strategy

KPIs

D E A L E R

Demand Efficiency Acquisition Leverage Expansion Retention

# Leads# Meetings# OpportunitiesImpressionsWebsite TrafficPipeline

Cost Per LeadConversion RatiosOpportunities AgeUnit Economics

Quota Attainment6 ARPUChannelInternational

% Cross sell% Upsell

ChurnNPSCSAT

Marketing

Sales

Support

Planning

Requirement Definition

Wireframes

Mockups

Prototypes

Requirement Definition

MRD PRD Feature brief/ PRFAQ

On-prem SaaS

*MRD – Marketing Requirements Document, PRD – Product Requirements Document, PRFAQ – Press Release/ Frequently Asked Questions

User Experience

Afterthought Integral part

On-prem SaaS

Execution

On-prem SaaS

3-6 months 1-2 weeks

Marketing

TRADE SHOWS/ EVENTS

WEB MARKETING

SALES SUPPORT TOOLS

PUBLIC RELATIONS/ ANALYST/ PRESS

CHANNEL/ PARTNER MARKETING

e.g. TCO/ ROI Calculator

DIRECT MARKETING

Collaterals

Customer presentation

Sales Presentation

TekTalk

Solutions Brief

Datasheet

Green Zone

Door Opener

TCO/ROI Calculator

Whitepaper Whiteboard selling

Sales Guide

Pre-Sales Presentation

Design Guide

Customer References

Competitive Battlecard

Launch Webinar

Sales WebinarTraining Road

show

Lunch-n-Learn

Hands-on Lab

Channel Value Proposition

On-prem SaaS

Customer presentation

Competitive Battlecard

TCO/ROI Calculator

Sales Guide

Documentation Heavy Documentation Light

Customer References

Last Bit of Advice

Keep reinventing yourself every 5 years (for the better).

- Alok Kejriwal (Rodinhood)

References

• The Art of Product Management – Sachin Rekhi

• Rodinhood life lessons – Alok Kejriwal

Questions?