Product management and marketing management - Two
sides of the same coin?
Products are business models.
Marketing is a function to communicate and connect business models to
the world.
Hence in my view product management and marketing management are not two
sides of the same coin, marketing is an important function but should not drive
the product journey.
However, most of the companies still have their product management
driven by marketing professionals.
Benefits of this setup:
•
New thoughts are always being worked upon.
•
The products get shipped out immediately
•
They are what users always wanted
•
The product is largely driven by pricing &
communication.
Limitations of this setup:
Most of Such products live by the duration of campaign and then die a
silent death post that. Why?
•
PLC linked to a campaign
•
Product roadmap is myopic
Hence, if a product shipped from a marketing standpoint it is always a
Minimum marketable product (MMP), which is different from a complete
sustainable product.
What’s the difference between a MMP and a Full-fledged product?
To explain this from a marketing standpoint
•
The same difference between a satisfied and a
highly satisfied customer.
•
Difference between
consideration, evaluation and purchase.
To explain this from a product standpoint -
•
MMP is good enough, and can be
improved to be great one day.
Product
journey is vision driven, use cases can be prioritised and worked upon basis
the feedback from marketing teams, but use cases should not be driven by the
marketing teams. User journey and user experience is to be given utmost
importance.
How
marketers think product works:
How product actually works:
Product is always forward looking and should be sustainable. If the
product is right marketing will be easier and will help in growth. Classic
examples of good products are Facebook & WhatsApp, with minimal marketing support
they were able to offset the competition in initial days and quickly became the
leader.
Products and campaign should be independent, to create sustainable
businesses. Business who are running on campaigns will struggle to grow every
day after a point. Initially they win but will lose in the longer run. While
businesses which believe in pursuing products independent of campaigns will
always zone to become bigger and better.
