Sausages!
Product management - we're just making sausages
What? Sausage making and product management? That's correct. In my various product management roles I found that a lot of time was spent trying to explain what we did, how we fit in to the organisation - and importantly what value we really bought to the table. As always, a fairly simple analogy will suffice. I know it's not perfect but it stretches quite a way to explaining at least the broad areas of what we do.
Also, it gives me the chance to talk about sausage making in general, which is surprisingly straightforward and rewarding if you plan properly!
STAGE 1 - ELABORATION
What sausages are we going to make? What recipes shall we use? What ingredients do we need? What equipment do we need? How much will all this cost? When shall we make them? How will we store and consume them?
So in real world terms this is the point where you evaluate carefully the market needs of your product - technical and commercial. Identify the biggest risks and how to mitigate or retire them before moving on. Create a set of requirements - business and technical. Review!
Getting ready to make sausages........
STAGE 2 - CONSTRUCTION
Shop carefully for the freshest, best quality ingredients. Get the workplace ready - the hardware we need, the ingredients, and the right music on to inspire us. Prepare the different mixtures. Test cook and taste the various sausage fillings to confirm requirements met. Once happy then get cracking and stuff those sausages!
Now we need to make and test the product - do we have the resources we need? Do they have access to the relevant tools? What are our quality/feature/schedule requirements? Basically, get your production plant running as smoothly as possible and get building. Make sure you test and check development at suitable time steps
Ready to construct...or stuff. Sausage filling deluxe.
STAGE 3 - COMMERCIALISATION
The sausages are ready for consumption. Probably best to test them first in small batches - identify favourites for future use. Try different cooking techniques to confirm best method. Throw a big party and treat everyone to your fantastic home-made sausages. At all times make sure you capture feedback and add it to your plans for the next sausage-making day.......
Your product is made and passes internal deployment criteria - but has it been field tested? How are we going to market with this new product? Who will support and provide training for it? What are the logistics around deploying the product? How do we report and fix errors?
Delicious final product ready for cooking...and eating
A few last words.....before you rush off to find some sausages!
Product management is an art really - as much about communication as it is technical skill. If you are interested in finding out more about how to manage your products or how to make sausages at home, then please contact me today. It's lunchtime now - Bratwurst or Boerewors?
PS. All photos from the last highly successful round of sausage making here at Inception HQ. Stay tuned to find out how the salami matures......