What’s the status of your product management team? It’s likely some team members have formal training; others don’t. Some have years of experience; some have just started. They’ve probably got some tools they’ve used in the past and maybe some templates from a training class.
How do you adapt these to your business and products? What company-specific knowledge do new product managers need? Is there a standard template for positioning or for a business case? Where is it? Once it’s filled it out, where is it stored and how is it shared? And with whom?
It’s time to get your team on the same page. They need a common language, a basic set of tools and templates, and standard methods for developing and delivering products.
“Make it stick”
What you need is a product playbook, a collection of tools, templates, and training customized to your organization. And a “train the trainer” approach with an in-house expert on each method so the technique sticks.
We’ll work together to create company-specific versions of the necessary planning templates and methods, including “institutional knowledge” such as where templates can be found and stored online, the key contacts in each business area, the standard distribution techniques such as distribution lists and discussion forums.
The Product Playbook is a customized set of tools and training adapted specifically to your organization. We identify your top areas of concern and work with you or your designated product leader to create training and tools for:
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Roles and responsibilities
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Titles and job descriptions
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Product planning process
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Portfolio roadmapping
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Customer profiles
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Product backlog
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Promotional backlog
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Product scorecard
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Profitability retrospective
We deliver the playbook by combining onsite workshops and phone consultation over the span of a few months. We leverage our experience with hundreds of companies to meet the special needs of your business and create in-house experts for each of your critical product management methods.
EDITORS’ NOTE: This blog proved to be the springboard for a continuing, in-depth series on the Product Playbook. For your convenience, here are the links to the blogs in that series:
Part 1: Product Playbooks: Why You Need One
Part 2: How to Build a Product Roadmap
Part 3: How to Build a Customer Journey Map
Part 4: Supercharge Your Product RoadMap with an Opportunity Backlog