Looking on a typical vendor web site, one finds varying levels of product information. Ideally, your potential customers will find the information they need to make a decision—or at least start making a decision. The best web sites combine business results with supporting technical detail to meet the learning needs of different buyer personas. Often those sites also include customer testimonials and quotes but of course, everyone realizes that only the best quotes have been picked. I mean, really, what vendor would include lousy quotes in their web site?

However, those negative impressions generally exist somewhere on the web. Contrast the typical enterprise technology vendor with those for consumer products. A primary difference is that consumer products are more often sold through distribution—and not exclusively. Therefore the seller is more inclined to encourage unbiased commentary than the product vendor. Check out the product information on Amazon or Musicians Friend. These sites are for product distributors rather than product developers. They offer third-party comments from respectable sources and from regular people. I generally find the recommendations helpful—if 9 out of 10 are favorable, I’m inclined to buy. I can quickly dismiss the statistically irrelevant, either pro or con.

On Amazon, you’ll find book blurbs from the publisher followed by commentary and recommendations from customers. Check out the discussion on David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing including my favorable review plus a few others.

On Musicians Friend, hundreds of people report that they have bought and loved the Shure SM58 vocal microphone. Hmm, maybe I’ll get that one since people seem to like it.

Since it’s unlikely you’ll have this unbiased information on your website, where will your customers go to find it? Where are your products being discussed online. And what are they saying about your company and your product? Do a web search for your company and product name and you’ll find out.

Bob reminds us that saying no now means saying yes later. Why is focusing so hard?

Product manager: This product is designed for pharmacies in hospitals with more than 1000 beds.
Sales guy #1: I sold it to a radiology department
Sales guy #2: Oh, can I sell it to urgent care?
Sales guy #3: I have a customer with 500 beds.

Maybe that’s why 28% percent of product managers have the authority to reject contracts.

“But can’t you just say 'Yes' to everything?”

No.

United is now offering Red Carpet service at the airport. “Premier” customers go across the red carpet; “regular” customers don’t. Does this seem silly to anyone else? None of the premier customers think it’s special but it’s somewhat likely to offend the regular ones. And it’s so clearly an afterthought because there isn’t adequate room in the gate area for the special aisle.

This is why “user interface” is a phrase that usability experts despise. The implication is that you can slap a UI onto an existing product to make it user-friendly. Did some marketer at United say, "Our customer satisfaction will go up if we throw a red carpet on the floor." The red carpet doesn’t make a better experience and its clearly not integrated with the reality of the gate area.

While I’m on the subject, are your marketing programs in sync with your operational realities? How often does your marketing department have a great idea that can’t be implemented or that generate the wrong results? Do you generate leads even though sales people don't want them?

What’s so frustrating is the silo nature of the typical organization, the disconnect between development, marketing, sales, and others. As a product manager, you should step back from your daily grind at look at the whole product experience through the eyes of buyers and users. Is it integrated? Or merely a disconnected set of parts?

Our Boston Pragmatic Marketing Network event on June 4th is in conjunction with the Boston Product Management Association. We will be discussing Start with the Ending, how to earn credibility on the product team, how to assess the state of the product, and how to assess the state of you. Discuss what works and what doesn't when your role changes from tactical to strategic.

The BPMA has another event later in the month, on June 21st with Mara Krieps, who will be discussing Play Games With Your Customers to Build Better Products.

I was 20 when my wife & I got married and I used to play guitar for weddings to make a little extra cash. I did the first one for $40--an astronomical sum in those days, at least it was to us. And the bride didn't blink at the price. For the next wedding I changed $60 and the planners accepted immediately. At $80, still no hesitation, nor was there at $100. When I got to $125, I started getting some resistance and at $140, they balked. So I set my price at $125 and lost only a few deals.

It's really hard to ignore your costs in pricing but you should. What's the cost of a couple of hours on a Saturday? $20/hr seems more than enough! But $60+ dollars a hour was even better. My wedding planners weren't really paying for two hours on a Saturday-- they were paying for my ten years of experience that created a lifetime memory.

You don't pay a doctor by the hour, why should you pay by the hour for a musician... or a consultant? How many years of experience led to a breakthrough software or software product?

At Pragmatic Marketing, we accelerate product management. We help heads of marketing get their people up to speed quickly so they don't have to do it themselves. More important, we help you deliver products to market faster and with shorter time-to-profit! What's the value of better products faster? What's the value of having standardized business cases and market requirements? What's the value of crisp positioning? What's the value of a standard, repeatable approach to product management?

So what's the value of your offering to the client? That's the question one must answer when pricing a product.

In the next few days, we're going to reload my blog posts for the last year into our new blogging software... which means that you'll be getting a few hundred posts from me all at once in your reader. Skim them and delete them... there may be some that you missed. As NBC used to say, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you."

People say to me, "Steve, I completely agree with you about the strategic role of product management and being market-driven but... how do I convince my management?"

Those of us who are market-driven can’t see why others aren't; we're convinced they just don’t get it. And while it seems that every executive says that their company is market-driven, their actions often reveal otherwise--that they are cost-driven or sales-driven or (worst of all) competitor-driven. What does it mean to be market-driven?

Learn about The Secrets of Market-Driven Leaders ... and pass it along to your colleagues and executives.

My wife & I use a lawn service. They come once a week to mow and weed. And the last two weeks, they haven’t really done a very good job. But we figured, hey, it’s spring and demand is up. Today we found out why our service isn’t as good. Our “contract” was sold from our chosen vendor to another, like a bank selling your mortgage to another lender. And the thing is, nobody told us. We found out when the bill came. What a way to announce a change! by sending a bill in a different amount on a different letterhead.

Here’s what could have happened:

Greg, our old service guy, could have stopped by the house and said, “Hey, my business is booming. I have so much in fact that I’m having a hard time keeping up and delivering a quality product. So I’ve partnered with a company to do your weekly lawn care and I’ll still do your landscaping work in the spring and fall. I’m sure you’re gonna love the new guys. Here’s my card. Call me if you have any questions or problems. Most of all we want you to be satisfied."

Then the new guy could stop by the house a day or two later and say, “Hey, as Greg told you, I’m gonna be doing your lawn care. I think you’re going to be happy with the work that we do but if you have any problems, please call me. Here’s my card. Most of all we want you to be satisfied.”

What did happen?

Please remit $35 dollars before May 15.

Compare this to your customer interactions, after the sale and particularly after an acquisition. We’re looking for a new service. What will your customers do?

If you want to start an argument, offer your opinion about product and company names. One person loves the name “nuvi” and another hates it. Some folks love putting the company name in the product name; some don’t. The basic principles of naming apply to both products and companies. In general, business-to-business (B2B) names tend to be meaningful while business-to-consumer (B2C) names tend to be unique. Meaningful names tell us what the product or company does. Unique names can be trademarked. Ideally good product names are both meaningful and unique.

Some good names that are both meaningful and unique are WebSurveyor, NetBackup, Uninstaller, SalesForce.com, and Solution Selling. Each name explains what the product does and has the added benefit of being unique. The challenge of course is that so many meaningful names are already taken. That’s why unique-but-meaningless names are so popular. One of the great things about combination names is that at least some of those are still available. You’ll want to check WHOIS before you commit to any name to make sure you can get the URL.

The value of a meaningful name is that you don’t have to educate the buyer on the name. How much money was spent getting us to equate Seibel with sales force automation? Ideally, the product’s name is also its chief benefit or capability; the product’s name articulates its position. Do a search on Google for “sales force automation” and look at the sponsored links. Will you click on salesforce.com or NetSuite? Will you click on SalesLogix or Miles Technologies? A sales force automation product should surely have the word “sales” in the name, shouldn’t it?

Sadly, despite being one of my favorite “good” names, the WebSurveyor people have changed their name to Vovici—a unique name but not meaningful. And they probably paid big bucks to a naming service for it. Uninstaller was once a single product but is now a category; I forget who originally had the name but I guess they didn’t trademark it. Solution Selling is still going strong even though its creator, Mike Bosworth, has a new method called Customer Centric Selling. “Customer Centric Selling” is seven syllables versus Solution Selling’s five but it’s really not as descriptive, is it?

Unique-but-not-meaningful names are everywhere in B2C: Squidoo, Yahoo, Google, Nuvi, iPod, Apple, and the list goes on. Because the names themselves are meaningless, your marketing efforts become branding efforts as you attempt to educate customers on what the product is and how to say the name. Sony used to have a sidebar on their PC page explaining how to pronounce “vaio” (rhymes with “hi-ho.”)

Suites

A popular technique that creates unique and meaningful names is to use a product family name in conjunction with a product name. For example, Adobe Acrobat Reader combines company, family, and product names. Using this technique, you can use the full name (long family name and product name) the first time and the shortened name (product name only) for all subsequent uses. In effect, teach a nickname to your clients. In printed pieces, you could write, “Adobe Acrobat Reader lets your customers read formatted documents without the application that created them. Download Reader from our website.” The problem with the suite approach is that there are often too many names to remember. NetBackup is officially Veritas NetBackup from Symantec. Wow! TMI: Too Much Information. Three brands in one product. Each has three syllables so we’re likely to only remember one of them. Company, suite, and product. Which matters? Apparently, Adobe has found the family name confusing because its now just called Adobe Reader.

Short names and letter names

Good product names should be short or easily shortened. If you give your product a long name, your clients will give it a nickname. Federal Express became FedEx but Total Reconciliation became Total Rec ("wreck").

Tech companies continue to use letters rather than names. Letter name are always bad because the brain simply cannot retain letters. For instance, IBM isn't a good name but shows what you can do with a bad name when you spend billions of promotional dollars over a century.

Bad names are those with poor connotations ("Total Wreck"), hard to spell ("Vovici"), hard to pronounce ("Vaio"), or hard to remember ("IBM"). Bad names aren't fatal, they're just expensive. You have to waste your marketing emphasis on the name instead of on the product and its benefits.

Test your name

Got a name picked out? Here’s a trick: put your idea for the product name on a flip chart and leave it in the lunchroom. When you check back at the end of the day, you’ll find every possible way to misinterpret the name. Developers and sales people are quick to find the flaws in a name and won’t hesitate to scrawl comments on the flip chart. “Sales Time” becomes “Sales Slime.” “Nova” becomes “No-Va doesn’t go.” “Automated Sales System” becomes “ASS.” Better your colleagues tell you of a bad name than to learn it from the market after you’ve created all your collateral and your logo and your brochures.

Of course once you have a few names on a short list, test them on some customers to see if the name conveys what you intend.

Related Links

• Laura Reis discusses naming on The Origin of Brands blog
  
• Roger Cauvin offers his opinions about naming.
  
• Wikipedia has this article on naming.
  

The problem with “quick and dirty” is that dirty remains long after quick has been forgotten.--Steve McConnell

Reginald Braithwaite posted this to the Toronto PMA:

Try this experiment: go to an engineer, and say "I don't care, your
career is not on the line, it is more important that we have a
quality product and happy customers. Now: are we ready to ship? If
not, when do you think we will actually be ready?"

Now go to another engineer. Tell her that vacations and weekends are
cancelled until we ship. Tell her that hitting our ship date is the
only thing that matters, slipping dates is for losers. Explain that
we have made commitments in the press and that the President will be
embarrassed and angry is we miss our date. Now, ask her if we are
ready to ship.

Is quality a variable? As Reginald points out, quality is the variable when dates and features are fixed... and careers in jeopardy. Timeboxing is the only solution that I know of that consistently gets good results.

Time is so much less important than we generally believe; urgency is typically in the minds of the vendor rather than the market. So remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Ship less or ship late but don't ship poor.

Have you ever watched someone use your product? What you observe is rarely what you expected. What you see is not the same as what you heard. Your customers love the silly features and don’t use the cool ones. And in watching, you’ll see uses of your product that you never imagined.

Speaking of cool features, I’m always amazed how few people use Smart Playlists in iTunes. Instead of a literal list of songs, a smart playlist creates a list of songs from the metadata using variables. I have a song list of “25 songs I’ve never heard” which contains 25 songs that have never been played (playcount=0). And “The Beatles” with artist = John or Paul or George or Ringo or The Beatles or Album = ‘Concert for George.’

I found a clever use (or perhaps it’s silly) for the ipod this weekend: an ipod-based phrasebook called iSpeak. It’s a CD of roughly 1500 phrases that you load into your ipod. The phrases are organized into “books” with categories like conversation, travel, food, entertainment, and so on; each book has “chapters” (like introductions, occupations, and weather). Each “song” is a short audio of phrases like “Hola!” “Como estas?” and “Muy bien, gracias.” It’s remarkably easy to navigate to just the phrase you need. You can use iSpeak to learning tool or as a phrase book. Heck, you could just show the ipod to the person you’re talking to and let them read the phrase from the screen. I bought the Spanish and it’s also available for Italian, French, German, and (coming soon) Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese. 

I can’t imagine that anyone at Apple considered the ipod would be used as a language phrasebook (or any of the thousands of other clever uses) but I bet they’re surprised at how few of their customers use Smart playlists.

I had a similar epiphany years ago watching how people used my network management product. The customers thought displaying the network on a geographic map was cool (we, the vendor, thought it rather silly). It was sizzle but they loved it. The core capability of the system was its ability to assign network outages to an operator yet this feature was rarely used.

Next time you’re on the road, schedule a trip to a customer. Ask to see the people who use the product—not just the ones who buy it. Try to keep your mouth closed and your eyes open. And you’ll see what’s hot and what’s not.

One aspect of product management that we often neglect is presentations. We do lots of plodding slide-slide-slide presentations and this comprehensive set of slides approach may be right for selling and training. Yet for persuasive presentations, try this:

Another great presentation is Identity 2.0 with Dick Hardt, founder & CEO of Sxip Identity.

My mind seems to work in a funny way. A program’s quirk got me thinking about precision.

I tend to be overly organized. I use lots of folders to categorize: office, photos, movies, product management, presentations, humor, and so on. For a while I tried cross posting if you will, putting aliases or shortcuts in one folder pointing to the actual document in another. I think it is rather natural to try to categorize items. I know I should just throw everything in My Documents without any organization and let Google find them for me but I don’t. And invariably I end up with the same document stored in multiple places. I found a great tool for searching for duplicate files: zsDuplicateHunter, available for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux. I’m sure there are others but this is the one that I use. It’s amazing to me how often it finds duplicate files even when I think my computer is clean.

But here’s my point (finally). The program uses unnecessary precision. It tells me that the search has 47.6 seconds remaining. Why is the .6 relevant? For that matter, is 47 seconds relevant or even true? Isn’t “less than a minute” more accurate?

I learned about precision back in public school. 1 divided by 2 is 0.5. Period. In this instance, more decimals are not more accurate. Telling me 0.5000000000000 is both irrelevant and harmful, as it implies a level of precision that is not supported by the data.

I see this error of precision in estimating dates for roadmaps and requirements. A developer guesses a man-week of work, which someone translates to five days, and someone else translates to 40 hours. It shows up on a Gantt chart as 40.0 hours. But a week could be two days if the developer gets in the zone and doesn’t encounter any surprises, or it could be a month if the developer gets pulled into a dozen other problems.

I fear that we have an unrealistic expectation of precision from our project schedules. Compare the precision of development estimates to sales estimates. How precise are the numbers in your sales forecasts? What accounts will you close on what date for what revenue amount? No sales person could provide that information. Yet we somehow expect exactly that from the development schedule.

An old estimating joke is this: take the estimate, add one, and change the unit of measure. One week becomes two months; one month becomes two quarters.

A guess is a guess. Let's not attribute precision where none exists. If we track our history of guesses, we can assign a factor of accuracy. Take a look at estimates of the past to see how accurate they were and use this against your future planning. Don’t infer precision without the data to support it.

My car turns on the lights when I start the engine and turns them off when I turn the engine off. Shouldn't all cars do that? I'm shocked when I rent a car and learn they still make cars that leave the lights on when the key isn't in the ignition. Sure, it's not hard to turn off the lights. If you remember. If you don't, you'll come back to a dead battery. And somewhere in Detroit an engineer is saying "but what if someone wants to leave their lights on all the time?" How often, really, does that happen? Who is this 'someone' that you're referring to?

Computing is rather the same. Windows is great because you can configure it exactly the way you want. You can change every setting. And that's also its weakness. Maintaining a desktop computer isn't really that hard. But somehow my dad manages to move his toolbars from the top to the bottom of the screen. My brother gets a new computer and has no idea what his email settings are. And it's not really the desktop software and OS as much as the settings and the data. Happily, Joel Spolsky has simplified my tech support life with CoPilot. It allows me to connect to my family's computers and fix almost anything without going over there.

I find that I'm now recommending gmail as everyone's primary email client; for me, it's better than Outlook, it can find messages faster, and it creates contacts automatically. And my family members need only to remember their logon info. Everything else is on the server.

Perhaps this is why ARNnet reports that the Software as a Service model is becoming the dominant revenue model for software companies. In some ways, we're returning to the bad ole days of the mainframe; SaaS turns our PCs into clients and puts all the important stuff on the server. The vendor can focus on managing the tools so its customers can focus on using the tools. Sounds like a win-win.

Sometimes I pine for the simple days of a single, great product. The product managers I meet are usually in an enterprise, B2B software world with a single sales force selling hundreds of products, each with its own message and value proposition. Product managers spend a disproportionate time selling to their sales people and then supporting each sale. Their web sites are a morass of links and it is truly difficult to find anything.

In some book I read recently (probably Good to Great) the author proposed that 250 people as the largest a company could be and remain effective. Beyond that, companies become internally focused and spend too much time talking to one another instead of to the market.

What got me thinking about this single product orientation is The Coffee Fool. They have a single value proposition: fresh coffee is better than store-bought. Period. Actually, they're not a "one product" company: they sell 30+ flavors of coffee. But they have positioned themselves as one thing, one product, one message: fresh coffee. The web site is humorous, easy to navigate, easy to use, and makes it easy to buy. They caution you to not buy or be forever dissatisfied with any other coffee. I've ordered some and I'll let you know if they keep the promise.

Could an enterprise company use this approach? First we'd need to organize our products into logical families or suites and then promote each with a single message. Most of all, we'd need the courage to keep it simple. Contrast the Yahoo! home page with Google's. Can you imagine how many product managers want their product featured on the Google home page? Yet someone there has the conviction to say no.

Could you use these techniques in marketing your products?