Validating Market Opportunities

There are times where technocrats, bitten by the entrepreneurial bug have a particular idea and they would like to develop it. But once they develop the product, they have difficulty in getting the product across to the masses. Only a few early customers trickle in. This is because they have not really validated their idea. Only when the market feels the need for a particular product, will the masses end up buying it. Else, the product will be languishing without any takers. 

For a company practising Product Management with well defined roles of product planning and product marketing, these problems will not occur. This is because the product management function envisions the product strategy, new product strategy and new product development and also for the emerging markets for the company. They would always validate the idea before development and will also have a detailed product positioning strategy. As a part of product marketing, the marketing strategy will take care of the positioning and relevant directions to the marcom teams.

A product manager needs to be a friend of the end user and buyer. We need to keep in mind that the buyer is different from the user. The product marketer communicates to the buyer about the values he will be getting and the product is designed keeping the user in mind. If the product manager does not heed the market and designs a product keeping a closed view, there are high chances that the product will not be accepted by the masses.

As to the best ways to validate the market opportunity, it would be going to prominent customers (Existing and new) and talk to them regarding the pain points that they face. A lot of secondary research will also go into finding new opportunities. The question that the product managers should always have in mind is that if they build it, will the market buy? Answering that in each phase of the product will work wonders for the product. There should also be internal evangelising amongst the company to accept the product.

If the product is not taking off, then the strategy will have to be revisited and if this means going back to the market, then it has to be done. There are no two ways about it. The product manager will always build products for the market, more specifically, the end user.

Confianzys is a pioneer in Product Management space and has helped in evangelising it to Indian companies. Its mission is to help companies conceive market-driven breakthrough products and achieve global scale.

Benefits of practicing Product Management

“What is product management?” Product Management consists of 2: Product Planning, which is customer advocacy and product marketing, which is articulating business value. Product planning covers market requirements and product marketing covers product positioning strategies. Practising product management may not guarantee absolute success but not practising it will guarantee absolute product failure.

It should be noted that the product management as a function should report to the CEO and not to the marketing team or the technical team. Reporting to the marketing team will make the product management team a very tactical and not a strategy oriented division. Reporting to the technical team will limit the vision of the product management function in envisioning products for the market.

A product manager does not solve the problems in the market but rather transfers it to his product architect. The architect is the one who envisions the product and features. The product manager must always stand for the customer and get to create products for them. Otherwise it will not be accepted by the market. The product manager needs to interact with all the teams in the company, i.e Development team, Sales and Marketing, but he is not in charge of those activities.

For a great product strategy and new product strategy, a Product Manager is vital person. The product management practitioners are responsible for the product planning and product marketing. Product positioning is another important responsibility for the Product Manager and there are certain companies which advocate profit and loss for the Product management function.

Confianzys is a pioneer in Product Management space and has helped in evangelising it to Indian companies. Confianzys Consulting has helped companies with institutionalising Product Management function in their companies.

It has also associated with Blackblot for Product management certification. Confianzys has helped companies equip their teams with Product Management training and has partnered with Blackblot for Product management certification Product Management certification. This helps the companies to have better qualified employees and hence better productivity. The product manager training course helps the employees with industry proven best practices and templates.