Introduction

Market leadership requires proactive, systematic management of products throughout their lifecycle. This concept, popularized by Harvard professor Theodore Levitt 40 years ago, leverages the unique marketing opportunities in each stage of the product lifecycle. This capability is called Product Excellence. Application of rigorous Product Excellence practices can help streamline and rationalize bloated product lines, cut costs, and boost profitability.

This session will review:

• A framework for Product Excellence

• Symptoms and signs of problems – how do you know you have a problem?

• The value proposition for Product Excellence – why this is important to do

Take-Away: Strategies for developing your own Product Excellence framework

Baselining Your Portfolio

Understanding where your portfolio is based on its stage of maturity is a critical first step to enable informed product excellence decision making. “Baselining” the lifecycle maturity stage of your portfolio will help guide your rationalization and enhancement decisions and answer key questions like:

• Will emerging/growth products generate a sufficient revenue stream to replace the anticipated decline in revenue from the mature/declining products?

• Are resources allocated to maximize revenue and profit from mature/declining products?

• Are initiatives in place to drive the rapid evolution of emerging/growth products and ensure their profitability?

This session will examine:

• Stages of Maturity for products, customers, and markets – what are they? How do they vary by industry?

• “Bucketing” your products based on maturity – what are the metrics?

• Interpreting the data – what does your portfolio baseline mean?

Take-away: A methodology for developing a “lifecycle map” of your product portfolio

Product Rationalization

Pruning product portfolios is critical for long-term product profitability. However, this is more than an exercise in reducing product sku’s. Effective product rationalization involves a two-stage approach: platform driven product strategy in the front end to maximize leverage and rigorous downstream product rationalization.

This section will cover:

• A two-stage approach to product rationalization

• The major value drivers that guide product rationalization efforts

• A framework to identify the major complexity drivers in product development, manufacturing, supply chain, life-cycle management, and service support

• Quantifying the margin enhancement and cost reduction opportunities achievable through a complexity reduction effort

• A framework to estimate profit contribution and break-even from low volume SKU’s to facilitate go/no-go production decisions

• CASE STUDY

Take-away: A practical framework to identify the major cost drivers in your product portfolio and make product rationalization a sustainable competence in your organization.

Roadmapping

Effectively roadmapping technologies, platforms, products, and product lines is critical to enable product management decision-making.

This section will cover:

• Definition and anatomy of an integrated roadmap

• How to develop and use integrated roadmaps

• The role of IT tools in roadmapping

• Interactive Exercise - Learn the key elements of roadmapping

Governance and Organizational Structures

Frameworks and tools are useful but are often ineffective without the appropriate organizational structure to make them stick. A robust product management organization with ownership of the product from cradle to grave is critical.

This section will cover: 

• Decision-making and accountability

• Optimal organizational structures for product management

• Alignment with other functions impacted by product management

• Q&A advice session

Tying it All Together

Making these best practices approaches work is as much art, as science. Where do you begin? How do you drive change?

This section will cover:

• Strategies and implementation approaches to gain buy-in and support of rationalization and roadmapping practices

• Exercise - Create your own action plan

• Q&A with instructors, discussion with colleagues from other companies