Integrated product management – completing the puzzle

Have you ever worked long and hard on piecing together a jigsaw puzzle only to find out that you were missing an essential piece that would complete the picture? Or, maybe after a hard and long struggle you finally released your product to the marketplace and said to yourself: “there’s something missing here?” That was the conclusion I came to the day I stepped back to look at my job as a product manager. Just like the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle, I discovered there was a piece of the product management puzzle that was missing. A piece that would provide a clearer and more complete picture of what product management was all about.

When developing products for a business, whether you are headed down the application lifecycle management (ALM) path or the product lifecycle management (PLM) path, sound product management process is required. Many people understand product management to be the unification of the product marketing and product planning disciplines and both components have served product managers well in the past. In today’s economy where innovation is the key to growth (new products) and competitiveness (penetration of new markets), the product manager requires a third piece of the product management puzzle. A piece that will effectively pull together and integrate the disciplines of ALM and PLM product management.

Ideation is that missing piece. Ideation can be used to capture and grow ideas for new products, new capabilities, enhancements and new markets. Yet, in most cases, ideation is viewed as a silo discipline used by marketing departments to deal with the “fuzzy front-end” in providing ideas to product marketing. After using ideation to sift through the masses of ideas for those with high value for the organization to move forward with, the results are thrown over the proverbial “wall” to the product manager to do his or her magic. Then, the process of ideation gets left behind until needed for the next round of “what do we do next”. Ideation can be so much more robust than just managing ideas. When used properly, ideation adds value to the other disciplines of product marketing and product planning

Ideation can be used to optimize ALM and PLM product marketing by utilizing its ability to gain greater insight into what is truly important to both your customers and your business partners. Once an initial set of potential product ideas have been decided upon, smart product managers share them with a group of trusted advisors by providing a forum for dialogue and validation. Through this ideation process, the product manager quickly discovers whether he or she is headed down the right path, and at the same time secures quantifiable data supporting the decision to move forward or to backup.

Ideation should also be used to optimize ALM and PLM product planning. It can minimize the time spent developing product roadmaps while also allowing internal stakeholders, like the executive management team and other key players, to actively participate in the road mapping process.

ALM and PLM product management is all about optimization. When it comes down to the basics, a product manager’s value is based on how well he or she can optimize customer needs, company goals, and limited resources to consistently deliver competitive products to the marketplace that add value to both the company and the customer. The chances of succeeding at optimization are greatly increased by taking an integrated approach to ALM and PLM product management while leveraging ideation to optimize product marketing and product planning. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle.          

About Ryma
Ryma Technology Solutions Inc (Ryma) is an industry leader in developing and commercializing Product Management software and professional services. Ryma helps companies create innovative and competitive software products that increase revenue, sustain customer loyalty and reduce risk. Larry Boldt can be reached at +(001) 636-723-4406 or boldtl@rymatech.com.

About Larry Boldt
Larry Boldt is Director, Product Marketing-Innovation with Ryma Technology Solutions and has over 30 years experience in the high-tech industry. For the past 14 years Larry has been actively involved in designing and developing software tools to support ALM. Larry has an MSc in Organizational Management from Maryville University.