At Product Camp Boston this past weekend I offered a presentation on Personas. In this presentation, the differences between market segmentation and personas was discussed. It bears repeating here.

Simply put, a market segment is defined by physical characteristics – like demographics, things that can be easily extracted from a database and sliced into various views. Personas, on the other hand, are behavior-based characteristics, they’re tougher to extract, harder to measure and much more valuable because understanding user and buyer’s goals, attitudes and behaviors leads to better designed products, more targeted marketing efforts and ultimately, more sales.

Sometime the user’s and buyer’s behaviors are not easily categorized, or even rational, but to understand how the market will react to your new product (or feature) is to overcome potential barriers to the identification of the product’s value, and to the sale. You can often put these behaviors into groups or categories, but if you can put them into a database and slice the data, you probably have segmentation data.

Often some demographic data wanders its way into the persona description – leading to confusion among first time persona “gatherers”. (I was tempted to put persona “writers”, but these personas are not fictional works). Looking in from the outside, it is fine to include the demographic data as a way to set the persona stage; but, the value of personas is in the goals, attitudes and behaviors.

I’m going to let you in on a pet peeve of mine. I have a great network of people, many in business, some in technical, a few in engineering, some in their own work…you get the mix. For the past 15 years, I’ve taken a lot of ribbing about being in marketing-related roles. My non-business network tease me about not “really doing anything that you can count.”  They profess that it’s more about “fluff” and “art”, and there isn’t a lot of science to it.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! 

The marketing world has a lot of science to it. The easiest rebuttal is all the demographic data; but, they counter that the technical side of the business does that.

Still wrong.

Marketers are constantly wondering what metrics they should track to measure their success and progress.  Others question the value of spending time measuring success. Based on speaking with a number of peers and customers, my experience in marketing for… well, for at least the 15 years I’ve referenced, and also after talking with the gurus, here are some ideas for the metrics you should track when launching a product or managing existing products. To help you explain to your non-marketing network that there IS science behind the art.

1. Traction: Is the rate of new customers trying the product increasing?
2. Forecast accuracy: How are we doing compared to the sales forecast? Are their bottlenecks, backorders or inventory constraints?
3. Return rates: It is hard to please 100% of your customers, but I try!
4. Lead conversion rates: Are the leads of good quality? Is sales closing the deal?
5. Profitability: Are we hitting margin targets?

Of course there are many more things you could track, this list is really the very tip of the iceberg, but the goal of this list is to point out that there should be 5 things that you should measure on a monthly basis to see a high level or executive view of your business.  If these 5 aren’t the right items, choose the 5 for you. But, do them regularly.
One final note, make sure to measure these metrics as a trend, keeping track of how they change over time.  The real value is not just in knowing where you stand, but also knowing if you are moving forward or backward.

There are several ways to accomplish these measurements ranging to the good old pencil and paper, to using a spreadsheet or software that is designed for the task.

What do you measure for your business?  Are there any particular detailed metrics you would like to see discussed?  Looking from the outside in, if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count. And, how would you even know if you are successful. In the end, numbers don’t lie.

I was having a conversation with an old friend the other night. She is now running a software company. Since I am looking at new opportunities, I asked her what she thought of her product management/marketing – did she have them? Was she happy with results?

As I half-expected, her response was “I wish we had either here. But, I can’t make the investment right now.” I wanted to reach the phone, grab her neck, and shake her silly. Why not? “We don’t have the discipline set up to see the benefits.” You can only imagine how hard I would shake her if I could. Time to wake up!

As a thread in Twitter discussed, the need for product management, to discover the market problems, and product marketing, to understand and communicate with that market, is critical for success. Even more so when a company is in early stages in their development or entry into a market.

A strong product management and product marketing discipline will only help you acheive success faster. Every professional in these fields can spend hours and days sharing the stories of failure when you have not prepared properly.

The rule is simple – know the market, learn their problems, build a solution to solve their problems, speak with them back in a way that lets them know you understand, help them see why your product solves their problems, guide them to why your solution is the best available. And, it helps if you price it a point that makes them want to pay.

Looking in from the outside, you can’t say it more simply than that. If you don’t make the investment up front, be prepared for the clean-up on the back-end. And, last I checked, rework always takes more time, more effort and is more expensive than getting the information nailed the first time.

I’m heading to the Boston ProductCamp on Saturday, November 7th. I’m very excited to meet and network with other product management and marketing folk, who share the same passion for this field as I do.

And, this also means it’s time to “pitch” my presentation proposal. I’m pulling together an “introduction to personas,” that is, how do you get started with them when you’ve never done them before. It’s dedicated to the persona newbie, and I pledge to make it useful and practical for this audience. (I had this idea since I only wish that someone had done this for me before my first one years ago!)

Will I see you there?

Last week I was speaking with a colleague who asked me for a copy of my product launch checklist. Somewhere in that request he used the word “essential”. I’m not averse to checklists and have no ill will toward them. I just have a problem when people use them as a crutch. The same guy probably asked his college roommate for an English Literature paper – - to save time writing his own.

Goals in a product launch are essential. Having a sound strategy is essential. But, a launch checklist? Checklists work great for chores and tiny, trivial tactics. Make your bed. Pay the bills. Do the laundry. Don’t forget the phone charger. Not so much for my product launches. Each one is different.

I understand that it is important to cover all of your bases and not to miss opportunities, but shouldn’t your checklist of tactics come from your product strategy? Shouldn’t they be uniquely aligned to your personnas and your new product?

My launch checklists are purposely disposable. I don’t do formula launches. I put thought into them. My checklist is unique to the new product.

Even within my launch checklists, the items are usually internally focused. Are the data sheet translations back from MarCom? Is the product on the price list? Is there a bin in the warehouse ready?

Do you put general items on the checklist? Call the newspaper/magazine/blog editor. Contact the trinkets supplier. Sign up for the trade show. Figure out my social media strategy. Or, do your launch activities get customized to each product, depending on things like budget, audience, timing and get specific.

From the outside looking in, you need to choose the best launch strategy to maximize the goals for each product. Then build your product launch checklist to focus on the unique deliverables and specific activities needed to achieve your launch goals.

There was a webinar today entitled “Is Doman Expertise Critical to be a successful Product Manager?” sponsored by Product Management View (part of Ryma Techonology’s community.) This was an interesting event, where both sides of the argument were presented, by credible product management professionals. And, if the twitter conversation was any indication, passion still exists when it comes to the discussion. (You can review the twitter feed using the #pmv hashtag.)

Several months ago I wrote a blog on this subject. In the blog, and still today, I advocate that for technology companies, having the right product management/marketing skills is more important than having the industry skills.

Why? Having the right skills lends to learning. A key, necessary and critical element of being a product management/marketing professional is an unending desire to learn. Professionals in these roles need to constantly be on a quest to solve the market problems – from how to identify the right feature to solve how a user interacts with a product to understanding how the buyer views their problem and why your product will solve it for them. The best product management/marketing are about learning, and listening.

Engineers and developers are about designing solutions. They have the skills to take the requirement that have been identified and go about solving those problems by creating a solution. Can they listen? Of course. (I would never say they can’t.) But, do they listen the same way? No. As a designer listens to a problem, they are already solving the problem. A product management/marketing professional is listening to uncover what the problem IS, not how to solve it. Then, once a solution is designed, they re-share it and watch the interactions. At this time they are listening for does it and how it solves the problems. If the product doesn’t work – the first round of listening was not done right.

So, what do you do? True, you can hire someone from a competitor how has domain and product management/marketing skills. But, unless this competitors is better and a market leader, why would this be a positive step? Too often hiring managers want the experience and direct their recruiters to go seek professionals from the competition. But, when the person starts, the mistakes they made with the competitors are simply transferred. And, why would you do this? Is it simply because hiring managers don’t want to invest in the training and time? Is time a reason, or simple an excuse?

Why hire from outside the domain? Simple – a new product professional to your company comes without industry bias. They can listen new, learn new, and share the learnings without the filter of x number of years before them. It doesn’t mean that the product person can walk into a market meeting cold – they have to understand the basics of the industry, the vernacular and processes. But, they don’t have to know it all before they start. There needs to be a foundation, but not a structure already built that you try to fit someone into.

Looking in from the outside, I would advocate that you hire for what works for your company. If you can find the right combination of skills and knowledge – kudos to you. You are in truly a unique place. But, if you have to choose, like most people are these days, go for the product management/marketing skills. There are enough other people in the business who do have domain knowledge and can help the product management/marketing professional learn the basics (if they don’t go out on their own, which true professionals will do) well enough to talk to the market. Successful products are built from developing and marketing to solve a problem – a need that is understood only by active listening and uncovering to the problems.

Uncovering problems without interjecting your own bias based on your domain knowledge is even harder. Finding solutions are easy – uncovering the real problems are hard.

Almost two months ago I wrote a blog about the Playoffs approaching, and getting ready to get in the game. In that post, I mentioned how you had to have the team ready to compete when the time was right. The baseball playoffs have now started and your favorite team, like mine, stumbled on the first game. This is common not only in baseball but in our product launches.

Maybe the collateral didn’t come back from the translator in time and you were sending mixed signals to the sales team who had no reference to go back and look. Maybe the product didn’t get out of QA testing with the thresholds you expected and planned. Maybe you just didn’t expect the competition to bring in all those extra features and you didn’t prepare your strategy well enough.

Does this mean the series is lost? Absolutely not! Products often stumble when they come out of the gate. With everything product management and marketing professionals are expected to do, something will not be perfect. (I know I’m speaking the evil truth here now, but it is the truth. We make mistakes.)

It’s okay. The series goes on. You are fighting a long battle with your product. You are looking for a great start to the launch, but the battle is won in market adoption and revenue, not solely by the first game of momentum. Some baseball teams have been down 3-1 in series only to win the final three games and take the series from their competitors. It can happen. (Yes, this is the subtle refernce to the amazing comeback that a team performed in 2004.)

If you stumble in the first game, go back. Look at your strategy; look at your plans. See what worked and didn’t. Look at what shifted in the market from the time you began to prepare to the time you launched. Adjust what you might need to – like messaging, collateral, training – and move on. Go back and look at your personas. Go back and talk to more personas in your market if needed. Do what it takes to learn and adjust.

Looking in from the outside, while it may be frustrating – and even a bit heartbreaking to give up a run now and then, it doesn’t mean you lose the game. You will make more mistakes (I guarantee that,) but if you take a lesson from the best baseball managers and adjust your strategy to respond, the mistakes don’t have to cost you the series.

Trying to capitalize on the momentum, the MN PCamp planning committee scheduled our second meeting only two weeks after the first. Yep, we’re serious about this event…and serious about bringing it to us in the Upper Midwest. Once again, the planning committee cannot be applauded enough for their stellar efforts!

We went around the table for our updates, and here we go:

1. We have a venue, and a date. But, the commitment for the venue means we have to order food there. Of course, the food costs are higher than if we did it on our own. This led to a discussion about whether we felt we could get the sponsoroship money to meet the higher cost. The overwhelming feeling (6-0) of the committee was that the venue was worth it, so we would have to raise the money. The venue contracts are being reviewed as I type this and we should shortly be able to announce the finalized and secured date & location.
2. Our sponsorship plan rocks! The initial draft is “borrowed” from the compilation of other PCamp plans. We are planning to have three levels of sponsorship, and offer great exposure to all sponsors, regardless of their level. We have an aggressive goal, to meet the food costs, so we have to nail this. I have no doubt our sponsorhip lead will do so with gusto and zest!
3. Our marketing guy is really a guru. Yep, we’re lucky. He came in with not only a list of ideas and activities we need to undertake; but, knowing we are all in product management, he presented a positioning document first. Seriously. He gave us this doc which features who our targets are; why these targets are validated; how the event will meet the target needs based on their attributes; how the targets will benefit, and why the event is unique. It really is quite the positioning. All of our speaking points are clearly articulated. Now, that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have a discussion about them; but, when we left, we all knew what to say, why and how. And, that was before we talked about how to generate the buzz in the market up here to spur attendance.
4. We thought there wasn’t much for our programming chair to bring back. We were wrong! She went through and combed the previous sites, compiled the most common schedules and presented us with options. She put all the best practices about the programming structure in a clear document which we reviewed and discussed and agreed on how to move forward. It was simply amazing.
5. Then our tech guy went. You would think at this point in the meeting we would have been exhausted, but everytime someone spoke about what they had learned and what they recommended, the energy level rose. Mr. Tech talked about the options for creating our own site, how he could easily maintain and grow it, keeping it linked with others and integrating options. We will have a draft site before the end of this month, and plan to launch it before this time next.

The group simply amazes me. It’s not that I ever doubted anyone would have the skills or abilities – seriously, we’re all in product management and marketing, this stuff does have some second nature elements to us all. But, how well we work together, collaborate and discuss is incredible. We are on the same page.

Now, for other PCamp efforts out there, you may be laughing at us. We know that these events are “somewhat loose” and we need to be flexible; but, our planning committe is somewhat compulsive about organization. Not just one – all of us. We are documenting our plans (more than can fit on one Twitter) and hope to make this even easier to replicate in the future.

And, finally, to help our cause, I am going to the Boston PCamp on Sat. Nov. 7th. I thought that it would make a lot of sense for me to see one of these events “live” before trying to run one here. Are you going? Want to meet up?

Minnesota may be late to the game, but we’re getting in it! The intial planning meeting was held last night for our own Product Camp here in the land of the frozen tundra.

For the past couple of months I have been trying to gage whether there was enough interest in holding a “pcamp” here. Why here? Simple – there isn’t another that has been hosted close enough to us for our product management community to attend.

We had 6 dedicated product leaders attend this first meeting. Before the meeting, research was done. We spoke with the organizers of other product camps to learn how they did it, what their project plan encompassed, and what suggestions they could offer. Thanks are offered to the teams from Boston, Austin, Seattle, and Atlanta. Also a thank you goes out to the the numerous individuals who have offered personal guidance (including Jim Holland and Val Workman) and this includes the Pragmatic Marketing  article by John Milburn and Paul Young on best practices.

We now have one person working on a sponsor plan, one focused on the programming structure, one working on marketing and communication, a dedicated technical lead, a great logistics individual and a project manager to keep things moving. We even have set our second meeting to happen in just two weeks.

While we are waiting to hear about our preferred choice of venue, we did agree on one thing – we have a logo! Something we can share now, to help market our efforts. Announcing …. 

It may be hard to tell – but the letter o in the product is a hockey puck, and the letter t are hockey sticks. The planning committe felt that the sport of hockey represents us well here since we are known as the “State of Hockey.” We also are intentionally calling it pcamp MN, since we welcome all product folk from the midwest, not any particular city here. (And, we didn’t want to get into the Minneapolis vs. St. Paul fight.)

And, as our planning continues, I will blog about the efforts and lessons learned. You can also follow us on twitter using the #pcampmn tag.

No longer will Minnesota be on the outside looking in. We’re joining the pcamp family frenzy!

Last Friday Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing presented a great webinar, “The Role of Strategic Product Management.” (If you didn’t have a chance to attend, view it online here.)

While the webinar was occurring, the #prodmgmt community on Twitter was all a flutter with discussion. At one point during the webinar, Steve spent time discussing the role of personas, and there was a great post that encapsulated the overriding message by @barsmith, who tweeted “Create product marketing for buyer personas; develop product for user personas. Important differentiation!”

I wrote a post last week about Personas (Are You Putting Personas on a Shelf?) I have passion around personas and the benefit that they deliver in product management and marketing. So, you can imagine that Steve’s mention followed by @barsmith’s tweet had my interest.

But, then, I realized, that when we look at personas we have been overlooking one important audience. Product managers are taught to look at personas as a way to understand the development needs – find what the problems are by the market, develop the personas so you can use them to help design your build. (I know it’s a basic, in-a-nutshell definition here, but this isn’t the point.) Product marketing looks at personas as a way to understand their buyers and their process – understand their process well enough you can anticipate their needs as they move through the buying cycle reaching the obvious conclusion that they want, no need, your product – and buy it.

But, are we overlooking another dimension to the personas? I think we all might be.

What about the end-user who doesn’t get a voice? The one who is hiding.

Several years ago I was in a company building a product for the recruiting market in HR. We, as a team, talked with HR professionals of all levels and talked with the buyers, at all levels. But, when the product was installed at the clients’ sites, we often found a quiet group of users – lurking behind the cube walls in the corners – who had not been consulted. This group was very dangerous to find at this point in the game. Why? Because they could literally sabotage the success of the product at the client site. If this group didn’t use the product as they were trained or, if they didn’t use it all; they could prove that the product was a failure.

Why wouldn’t they use it? It answered all their problems! Well, in a way. Yes, the product was designed to help them, but they were not included in the discussions. While they were represented as a voice in the development, so we could look at what features were important; we didn’t look at their usage. They felt using the product actually threatened their jobs. So, while we were talking to the buyers who understand everything, this quiet group sat in the background and when the time came – simply didn’t change their methods in how they did their job. The product was doomed to fail.

(I’d like to say that because of our skills we caught this problem in time, but it was sheer luck that brought it to our attention in time. We corrected our materials and approach and had the success we had planned.)

But, it makes me wonder, looking in from the outside – do you really include ALL the end users when you look at the personas you are developing? Personas need to represent everyone that interacts with the product, even when they may not speak up to be found.  Don’t overlook the corners! Find those who are hiding and take the masks off!