Post on 13-Apr-2017
Common Sense into Common Practice
Trendspotting, Market Discovery and Market Validation
Proven techniques that reduce the impact of hype and noise
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Discussion Topics
Market Discovery Activities
Trendspotting Context Identifying emerging Trends Separating good signals from the noise
Market Validation Activities How big is opportunity?
Analyzing Market Data
Customer specific data Lean justification
2
Egress Solutions, Inc.
Product management, product marketing consulting firmOur capabilities include:• Market Discovery and Validation• Win/Loss Analysis• Product team assessments• Custom workshops• Consulting In operation since 2009, serving our customers in US and the UK implementing product management frameworks.
www.egresssolutions.net
Customer Engagements
5© 2015 Egress Solutions. All rights reserved.
Egress’ Consulting Methodology
Uses best practices of Pragmatic Marketing and Lean Product Management:• Framework implementation concepts• Hands-on Implementation Workshops• Product management team support
Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Copyright Pragmatic Marketing, 2016
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What is trendspotting?
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What is trendspotting?
Is this noise or a trend? What is the actual problem? Are there systemic drivers? What about environmental
influences? How much time do we have?
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What is trendspotting?
Who are our buyers and users?
What pains and gains are critical to them?
What value do they place on a solving these issues?
What alternatives are available to satisfy the gain or alleviate the pain?
Source: © 2016 Gartner, Inc.
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Key drivers to market & product success
Market ValidationAre these problems pervasive with buyers/users?How does this opportunity align with our strategy?Are there better options for us?
Business HealthHow does this product/solution contribute to overall company performance?
Market DiscoveryWhat unmet needs frustrate our buyers/users?Where is the competition focused?What is feasible with our current architecture?
Dependent upon…
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Finding Market ProblemsExisting Customers• Increment
al improvements
• Deployment insights
• Advance capability
Competitors Customers• Product
comparisons
• Selling tactics
Non-Customers• Barriers
to purchase
• Unmet needs
Beware of early feedback; it’s mostly noise Collect from a variety of sources Repeat visits well help refine assumptions Raw inputs must be structured
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Win/Loss Analysis
Source of validation for emerging trends Integrate Win/Loss with other market research Best results come from a programmatic approach Can leverage what you have in place
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Competitive Assessment
Product Centric vs. Market Centric• How strong is our existing market position?• How strong is our market velocity?• How much pricing power do we have?• In the ways which matter to customers, how do we compare?
Market CentricProduct Centric
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Technology Assessment
Value of Customer Gain or Pain Addressed
Com
plet
enes
s of
So
lutio
n
Ours
Theirs
Others
Potential Threats
Niche Players
Who is your market?
“Opportunities lie in the place where the complaints are….” — Jack Ma
Success Story: KeyTech Services
The Challenge Customer migration solution sales had
stalled
Existing customers questioned value of solution
Cost of deployment exceeded budget
Senior leadership evaluating “killing” product
Success Story: KeyTech Services
Triangulate the emerging trends with buyer priorities and behavior
Validate user behavior and experience with current offering
Refine market segment
Identify ideal buyers/users for next release
Who is your market?
“Customers adopt new capabilities when the value gained is at least 3X the pain of change….”
— Anonymous
Success Story: WellCare Systems
The Challenge Product adoption for a series of
new releases and new offerings was poor
Existing customers lacked general awareness of new capabilities
Sales continued to offer existing or older versions of products
Success Story: WellCare Systems
Integrate go-to-market into product lifecycle Require pre-launch success metrics Make product management accountable for launch success Established rules of engagement for all departments. Require senior management signed off
20© 2015 Egress Solutions. All rights reserved.
Success Story: CPQTechnology
The Challenge Large and competitive market
opportunity• Significant white space• Attractive greenfield
Tension around product strategy• Competing priorities • Capacity trade offs
Lots of opinion and lots of raw data
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Analyzing market data for effective decision making
Converting market discovery, market validation, customer data and competitive intelligence into meaningful information that improves the business is a stakeholder driven process.
The Bottom Line
Trendspotting is essential
Triangulate feedback to weed out the noise
Knowing your buyers and users trumps traditional research
Your competition could be chasing noise – Let them!
Data analysis is a good tie breaker
Think short, medium and long
Collaborate
Be decisive
Commit and Go
Thank you