Tjene.net

In a majority of businesses there is no shortage of ideas regarding new product possibilities or how to improve existing products. However, not all these ideas are excellent and in most organizations there is a scarcity of engineering bandwidth to transform the great ideas into products. Therefore, it is extremely important for organizations to produce an efficient and effective mechanism for assessing new product possibilities and product functionality enhancements so that your company can prioritize new product development and current product enhancement activities in a manner that optimizes its usage of resources and makes the most of your company’s competitive advantage in the market place.

In order to be effective, a product opportunity assessment ought to be able to answer the following questions:

1. Value Proposition: What problem(s) will this product/new product functionality solve?
2. Target Demographic : Who does this product/new product functionality solve this issue for?
3. Market Size: How large is this new product opportunity? Or does this product functionality enhancement transform the size of the present product market? If so, what is the new product functionality enhancement’s incremental effect on the size of the market? 
4. Metrics/Revenue Strategy: What will determine the success of this product/new product functionality?  
5. Competitive Landscape: What substitute products currently exist in the market to help solve this problem?  
6. Product Distinction : What makes your organization’s product different from other products in this space? And why is this distinction important?
7. Market Window: Why is now the time to enter into this market or launch the new product functionality?
8. Go to Market Strategy: How do you plan to get this product to market or provide the new product functionality update?  
9. Solution Specifications: What factors are crucial for this product or product upgrade to be a success?

By pinpointing the answers to these concerns in the product discovery phase, your product and management teams will be forced to sustain a big picture view that will make certain that they produce a sensible comprehension of what the real value of the product opportunity or enhanced product functionality is for your organization and decrease the likelihood that your business gets side-tracked running after unnecessary product functionalities or market opportunities that do not exist. Awareness of these facts from the start will likewise boost the effectiveness and focus of product planning and development, which should permit the product team to design and develop a versatile product that meets its target client’s needs and is easy to use.

If you are serious about knowing a lot more about product management, you ought to read my previous blog post on designing and implementing a product scorecard. Similarly, if you are serious about knowing more about the product management process and organization management design, I highly propose reading Inspired by Marty Cagan or reading his company’s blog.

Brandon Hickie assists our expansion stage portfolio with research initiatives.