Kevin Brennan

Deciding to retire a product

Deciding to end-of-life (EOL) a product is an important yet often neglected decision for a Product Manager. Products often continue in the market long after they should have been retired and while most companies have formal new product processes for defining and launching new products, many do not have the same discipline when deciding to end-of-life products. This article identifies some key considerations that can help you make an end-of-life decision.

Consider the product and category life cycle.

Products and product categories in the decline phase of their life cycle are often candidates for end-of-life. Also, the decision to develop the next generation of a product should trigger end-of-life consideration for the old version of the product.

Monitor key financial metrics.

Actively monitor revenue, unit shipments, profitability, and market share in the absolute sense and compared to trends over time. When a product enters the maturity and decline phase of the life cycle, revenue growth slows and ultimately declines. Profitability can turn negative even during the maturity phase depending on market conditions. Once a product no longer makes economic sense, it should be actively reviewed for retirement.

Compare the product portfolio to the product strategy.

Compare the product or product portfolio to the company, business unit, and product line strategy. Does each product continue to make sense relative to the strategic goals of the business? Does the product continue to align with, and leverage, the core competencies and skills of the company? If not, then an end-of-life decision should be considered.

Monitor redundancy in the product portfolio.

Periodically, review the overall product portfolio and look for areas of overlap and redundancy. Are there too many products in the portfolio?

Conduct a competitive and market analysis.

When doing competitive and market analysis, consider how changes in customer preferences, competitive solutions, or technology advancements could make current products obsolete in the future and consider whether an end-of-life decision is reasonable. Often it takes years to fully retire a product and getting ahead of the process can save considerable resources.

Build an end-of-life decision process.

Finally, if your company or business unit does not have an end-of-life decision process, create one. Establish an agreed upon set of rules to guide the end-of-life process. Identify conditions that trigger an end-of-life decision. Establish an end-of-life committee of key stakeholders to assist in the decision-making process.

Read more about retiring products and other key product management topics in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available now in paperback and eBook.

Product portfolio management: Thriving in tough times (and good times)

With markets in turmoil and development budgets coming under increasing pressure, the need for prudent investment oversight at the product and portfolio level has never been more important. This article outlines a straightforward framework for evaluating where to slow down investment and where to speed it up to ensure continued long-term success.

Product portfolio management is the process of managing a collection of products. This could relate to all products at the company level, within a business unit, and even the different features of an individual product or service could be thought of as a “portfolio.” Portfolio management should be an ongoing activity where products and features that no longer make sense are retired and other investments are slowed down to allow increased investment in more promising areas. However, when market conditions deteriorate and investment budgets come under increasing pressure and scrutiny, the need for active management of the portfolio can become an existential necessity.

The 4 S’s of portfolio management: Stop, Slow, Start, Speed

Even in the best of times, there are finite resources to invest in new product development and maintenance. In essence, successful portfolio management is an optimization of contractionary and expansionary activity. Given a fixed amount of resources to invest (including money, time, and people), it’s a zero sum game between activities that must be stopped or slowed down to allow for other projects to start or speed up. The art of portfolio management is finding the right balance between these competing forces.

Managing a product portfolio

1. Determine the investment budget

Decide the total amount of resources to invest. This can include monetary and other resources such as employees with different types of skills, manufacturing capability, and channel capacity.

The overall budget for investment in existing and new products can shift based on the macroeconomy and what’s going on in the specific markets for the products. It could be the case that the investment budget needs to be reduced to manage costs during an economic downturn or perhaps there’s an opportunity to accelerate investment to take advantage of market conditions. Either way, having a definitive understanding of the available investment budget is necessary to balance the portfolio.

2. Quantify new investment areas

Measure the necessary investments in new areas. This is the “expansionary” perspective – the view of areas to increase investment in. What new projects need to be started and in which existing areas does the business need to accelerate investment? New products are the lifeblood of any business, and in tough times the business needs to ensure there is adequate investment in new areas to ensure the continued health of the business.

3. Make room for your new investment areas

Trade off new areas of investment with existing projects. With a fixed investment budget, you’ll need to reduce investment in existing projects (Slow) or stop projects altogether (Stop) in order to invest in new projects (Start) and increase investment in existing, promising areas (Speed).

The decision to slow or stop an active new product project is often among the most difficult for product leaders. Not only can it impact existing customer commitments, it’s hard to end a project you’re passionate about and invested in. Nonetheless, these tradeoffs are crucial to ensure the business remains strong.

Read more about product portfolio management and other key product management topics in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available now in paperback and eBook.

4 best practices for Product Manager job interviews

The most important parts of a manager’s role are recruiting, developing, and retaining high-performance product team members. Like all specialized roles, successfully hiring Product Managers requires that the recruitment and interview process be optimized for the unique aspects of the role. Here are some key best practices for interviewing Product Managers.

1. Have the interview be a simulation of the actual role

The best measure of a candidate is to evaluate the person operating as close as possible to the actual role. Hiring the candidate as a contractor for a period to work in the role would be an ideal way to assess fit. However, that’s often impractical for both the candidate and the hiring manager. Focus the interview on the key responsibilities of the specific product role and how the candidate fits these criteria. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways:

  • Presentation – Given the importance of communication and influence in most product roles, have the candidate create and present on a topic related to the role. Have the full interview panel attend the presentation and allow time for the panel to ask questions. This is a great way to start the overall interview.
  • Homework – Get the candidate to do an assignment based on a project they will encounter in the role. For example, get the candidate to do a market and competitive analysis for a specific product and to recommend features for the next version.
  • Case study – Leverage a case study that outlines an actual situation the candidate is likely to encounter in the role as part of the evaluation.
  • Behavioral questions – Use behavioral questions to see how the candidate would respond to common product management situations. Behavioral questions examine specific situations the candidate has experienced where they had to use certain skills. For example, “Describe a time where you had to drop a potential new feature from a product project,” or “Tell me about a time where you had to interact with a difficult client.”

2. As the hiring manager, take an active role in organizing the interview

It’s critical that the hiring manager takes an active role in working with the hiring panel in preparation for the interview. It’s not enough to gain commitment from the four to five members of the hiring panel and hope that they will know what to do. Meet with the interviewers before the interview to make sure the role and the ideal candidate criteria are clear and understood. Assign specific areas for each interviewer to evaluate that are critical to the role (see the list below). These assignments will help ensure that all important areas are evaluated and that there is no significant overlap across interviews. Discuss how each area will be evaluated and how notes from the interviews are to be captured and distributed. Common areas to evaluate for product roles include:

  • Teamwork
  • Influence and leadership
  • Strategic thinking
  • Decision-making
  • Problem-solving
  • Analytical skills
  • Communication skills, both verbal and written
  • Product design
  • Market knowledge
  • Technical knowledge
  • Company fit and team fit

3. Build the interview panel with roles the Product Manager will work with daily

Have the people the Product Manager will interact with most participate in the interview panel. If that’s not possible, at the very least, ask representatives from each functional group to participate in the interview. Common groups a Product Manager interacts with may include Engineering, Design, Program or Project Management, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Legal. 

4. Conduct the interview in person

It’s common to do an initial screening of potential candidates on the telephone or on a video call. However, given that product management roles have a high degree of interpersonal interaction, it is best to conduct the subsequent interview in person where possible.

Read more about interviews and other key product management topics in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available now in paperback and eBook.

Addressing competitor price reductions

Competitors can reduce their price for a variety of reasons, including reacting to the launch of your product, selling off inventory in the run-up to the release of a new product, or in a strategic shift to win more market share. Below are a couple of approaches to navigating competitor price reductions.

Percentage breakeven sales

A good first step when considering a competitive price reduction is to calculate the percentage breakeven sales change and make a judgment call on whether to change your price or not.

First, a definition. “Contribution Margin” is the incremental money generated for each product sold after deducting the variable portion of the product’s cost. For example, if the current price of your product is $50, and the variable cost is $40, then the contribution margin is $50 less $40, or $10. The percentage breakeven sales is calculated by dividing the potential price reduction by the product contribution margin. 

For example, if a competitor reduces their price by 5%, the percentage breakeven sales change for the same 5% reduction in your product is the price reduction (5% of $50 or $2.50) divided by the contribution margin ($10), or 25%. As a first-order analysis, if you believe that by not matching the competitor price, sales volume will be reduced by 25% or less, then it is better not to match the competitor price change since doing so would result in lower overall profit. 

On the other hand, if you believe sales will drop by more than 25%, then a price reduction should be considered. In deciding, you also need to consider whether the competitor price reduction was a one-time or temporary event. Perhaps the competitor is preparing for the launch of a new version of the product and is temporarily reducing the price to sell off their remaining inventory with the intention of reverting to the prior price for the next version when launched. If so, a price reduction on your part may be unwise and unnecessary. On the other hand, if you believe that a price reduction on your part may result in the competitor further reducing price, then you need to account for that when determining the appropriate course of action.

Cost of responding and competitor strength

Another approach is to estimate (1) the total cost of reacting to the competitive price reduction as well as (2) the strength of the competitor, and respond in one of four ways:

  1. Ignore – Ignoring the competitive move is prudent when the competitor is weak, and the cost of reacting outweighs the benefits. Matching the price reduction may also only precipitate a further, more painful reduction.
  2. Accommodate – When the competitor is strong and responding would be too costly, it is best to accommodate the competitive move and make the strategic changes necessary to address this new reality.
  3. Defend – When a response is cost-justified, and when dealing with a strong competitor, then the best strategy is to engage and defend your market position. The goal here is to convince the competitor to “play nice” and to signal that aggressive pricing is not in the competitor’s best interest. This may involve a temporary price reduction on your part with a subsequent price increase to signal your intent.
  4. Attack – Sometimes, a weak competitor misjudges their market strength and initiates a price reduction in the hope of gaining market share, only to be outdone by a strong response on your part.

Read more about pricing and other key product management topics in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available now in paperback and eBook.

Five steps to prepare for powerful product demos

Demonstrating product features and benefits is a key skill for successful product management. Often, the Product Manager will conduct the demo, while at other times, the Product Manager will define demos for others to carry out. Demos are likely required in the early stages of the new product process to gain support for the new concept. During development and testing, demos can be used to showcase recent work and get feedback, either from internal stakeholders or customers. Demos to potential and existing customers are a critical part of the sales process for winning new business and are also often an integral part of tradeshows and other events featuring the product. The following is a general five-step process for planning compelling product demos.

  1. Define the demo goal. Consider the purpose of the demo. Is it to move a “prospect” to the next stage of the sales funnel by persuading them of the key benefits of the product? Or is it to gain feedback on a proposed feature during development?
  2. Consider the audience. Think about the audience’s needs. What needs, wants, or goals do they have that the product can help achieve? Engage directly with the audience or with the demo organizer to confirm your understanding of the audience’s needs before defining the optimal demo.
  3. Understand key constraints. Enquire about and confirm all potential constraints for the demo. These include how much time is allocated for the demo, the characteristics of the location (is the demo to happen in a small office space or a large, noisy tradeshow floor?), and the size of the audience.
  4. Define the demo. Given your agenda for the demo (“your goal”) and the audience’s agenda (“their goal”), define the best demo that will accomplish both. Items to consider when defining the demo include:
    • An “A/B” demo, where you show the audience today’s solution (“A”) and then contrast that with the new product (“B”) and show how it is superior, is often very effective.
    • Plan to start with the high-level context before driving down into the details.
    • Consider localization and cultural sensitivities when doing demos for foreign audiences.
    • Consider what could go wrong and how you will respond if something does go awry.
    • Plan to end the demo with a call to action in support of the goal for the demo.
  5. Do a dry run. Do a dry run of the demo and practice it a few times. Ideally, do the dry run in the location where the actual demo will occur using the actual equipment and leave the equipment and room set up. Confirm during the dry run that the demo meets all the constraints, including timing. If possible, record a video of yourself doing the demo to identify areas for improvement.

Read more about demos and other key product management topics in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available now in paperback and eBook.