Evaluation Copy of the Software

One of the key "try before you buy" techniques used by product marketers in the software industry is for a qualified prospect to download an evaluation copy of the software. The evaluation copy of the software would typically have a time period (usually a month) associated with it. Another form of trial version is when you want to release a "pre-production" version of your software for testing purpose to a select few customers. In this post, I will be talking about the first case. You already have general availability(GA) release of your software. You are making your software available to a prospect for evaluation purpose.

Some of the key questions to consider:

Dual role of Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager

Can and should the same person be responsible for both product management and product marketing for a product?

Couple of years ago, I was faced with that decision while leading a team of product managers. The open headcount I had for the Product Marketing Manager got frozen because of the ensuing financial crisis and lack of visibility. 

Analyzing Your Presentations

"According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? That means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you are better off in the casket than doing the eulogy"
- Jerry Sienfeld

Making effective presentation. A very important skill for a Product Manager/Product Marketing Manager.

While the content of a presentation is extremely important, how you deliver is equally, if not, more important (more about that later in this post). Mastering the behavioral aspects of effective presentation takes time and a lot of practice.

Feature Request from an Important Customer

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who payes the wages".

- Henry Ford

If you are in the product management role in an enterprise software company, you have probably come across the following situation at least once.


You and your team are working feverishly towards the finish line of a release. Suddenly there is an escalation from the sales channel. One of your important customers is making a feature request that needs to be addressed quickly. The big sale to another department in that customer may not come to pass. Or, the customer may not renew the Enterprise License Agreement that’s coming up in a few months. Unless, of course, you promise to add the feature the in the next release or worse still, deliver it as an emergency bug fix within the next few weeks!

Customer Service Org - a Key Stakeholder

... for a product manager and a product marketer. More often than not though, we, as product managers or marketers do not take a proactive approach in our interactions with this important stakeholder.

As a product manager, you spend quite a bit of time on customer escalations coming through the support channel. With Q/A and support folks, you "triage" customer reported bugs to be put on the list for next hotfix. When it's time to plan for a release you are sure to check on the enhancement request queue that has been piling up.

Financial Analysis ... It Pays to be Proactive

Doing regular financial analysis of your product(s) is an important part of a product manager’s job. With everything else going on around you, it’s hard to do it in a disciplined manner though. In the early part of my product management career, I tended to be more reactive – GM asks for reports about how we did in a certain vertical or in a specific geo in the recently concluded quarter and I would scramble to get the reports out of the sales system. A few years back, I was entrusted with the responsibility of leading a product management team to nurse a product suite back to financial and functional health. Through that experience I learned the power of doing proactive financial analysis and powerful insights you can get through data driven analysis.

So what kind of financial analysis would you do and how frequently should you do it?

Of Creams and Dreams ...

One of my favorite quotes is by Charles Revson, founder of Revlon Cosmetics - "In the factory we make cosmetics; in the drugstore we sell hope".

.. very relevant for the product manager role. Depending on the audience you are addressing to, you as a product manager need to communicate at the right level. To the customers and prospects, you are selling the benefits of your product and your company’s brand with the emphasis on how the product helps them solve real world problems. Although in some cases and for some audience (e.g., technical folks in the customer’s organization evaluating your product), you might be required to get into the details of how your product is built (e.g., review the architecture of the product to determine compliance with technical standards in the customer environment), for the most part you want to stick with talking about the benefits of your product and get the customer/prospect excited about how she is going to get the solution to the business problem by using your product. You really need to hammer home the points about customer advantage with your product and why the customer should buy from you.