Chaos Does Not A Successful Product Make

Chaos Does Not A Successful Product Make

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In the tech world the mantra oftentimes in companies is that they need to be fast and nimble. Plans change
quickly, both in terms of products and marketing. Executives, board members, sales people, customers and team
members come up with great new ideas and there is a sense of urgency that everyone should drop everything and
respond. Oftentimes one meeting or one idea can change plans overnight. I call this the chaos strategy.

There is definitely some merit in running your company this way, particularly if you are a startup. For example, you may have no choice but to completely change plans in order to land a deal that will bring in enough revenue to keep the company going. Or you may have a new competitor show up that will steal your market if you dont respond. Or your board may simple tell you that you are going to change your plans whether you like it or not, period.

That said, the reality is that the chaos strategy is far more prevalent and destructive than it need be, and the results
can oftentimes be what makes a product (or an entire company) fail or suffer poor results in the marketplace. The
damage from constantly shifting priorities and demands will inevitably show up. Ship dates for products slip, or theyare released with poor quality. Product launches and marketing programs end up being ineffective and dont
generate the revenue they could. Teams become frustrated with each other, burned out and play group politics rather than working towards the common goal of winning.

There is a better way. By doing some basic planning and making it clear who owns what and what will be delivered when a company can ship better products, increase their revenues AND deliver better product more reliably.

So what is the secret? Implementing and leveraging some of the product management and marketing best practices
that have evolved over the past few decades.

Every week we speak with one or more companies that either have no product management, no product process or
no clarity in terms of roles and responsibilities. They have no method for capturing and prioritizing features requests from customers, sales, technical support and the team itself. They have no wellthoughtout product roadmap or
they are launching a product without a solid plan in place and they are unrealistic about the budget, resources and
time to do it right. One client that we worked with was in just this situation. They had been very successful, had
grown to over 70 people, had many customers and by all accounts were doing well. Because they had been
successful their philosophy was that they didnt need to think about improvements or a different way of doing things. But the reality was that the founder was calling all of the shots. Commitments were being made to customers by
sales and technical support without any formal approval. Products were slipping and quality was suffering because
features were added at the last minute without adequate time to think them through or test them thoroughly. And
worse, the marketing team could never plan and execute effectively because there were no reliable dates and they
had no idea what would actually be in the product until just before it actually shipped.

The teams were frustrated. The products were suffering. And the company was leaving a significant amount of
money on the table.

For this client we helped them to begin capturing and prioritizing requirements in a methodical way. We built a roadmap for them and assigned engineering estimates that showed that they were completely overcommitted. We helped to clarify roles and responsibilities. And we put some basic process into place so that people had to sign off on what was going to be delivered when, and if anyone wanted to request a change in the plans it needed to get approval
before they could promise anything.

The result? First, they used the roadmap to determine where to draw the line and which products and projects to cut. This gave them a prioritized list of where the engineering efforts were focused to ensure that engineers were
working on the most critical things for the company. Second, since there was now a wellknown and understood
process for requesting features (with justification necessary for why the feature should be considered), everyone
began to felt like their ideas were being heard and were given a fair shot at being implemented. Third, with more reliable release schedules and an earlier idea of what each product release would include, the marketing department was able to create dramatically more effective campaigns to drive extra revenue at launch.

No company wants to have to implement a bulky and painful process, but with just a little bit of effort a company
can work much more as a team and have a greater chance of success. Who wouldnt want to build products that are more customerfocused and that bring in significantly more revenue? And if you can reduce the stress level and
increase your employees job satisfaction it is even more worth it.

About the Author:
Brian Lawley is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group (www.280group.com), and has shipped more than fifty successful products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is the author of the best-selling books, Expert Product Management and The Phenomenal Product Manager.



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