Product Management Tidbits

SaaS and the Evolving Role of Product Management

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In our earlier post we suggested that many traditional product management responsibilities have either been de-emphasized, dropped or have evolved with the ongoing software industry trend or shift to SaaS. I recently attended a seminar where the question was asked, "Do SaaS companies still need a Product Manager". Dumb founded by what I thought was a rhetorical question, I was surprised by the ensuing discussion and debate.

Behind this question is the notion that under SaaS, product management is somehow less important and potentially even disposable.  While I agree many of the traditional product management responsibilities (e.g., developing and managing a product lifecycle policy or NRE requests) are threatened with SaaS, to infer that product management in no longer necessary --- is absolutely absurd.  With the advent of SaaS the product management role remains largely untouched; it does however impact the activities and scope of responsibility. While some traditional product management responsibilities may disappear, others are introduced or more emphasized. The most significant of which is the expanded responsibility of managing the entire "service" or user experience. In many ways this is akin to a familiar concept for product managers ---managing the "whole" solution. Examples include:

• Providing enough self-serve information on-line to support a low-touch (cost) sales cycle
• Managing a X-day free trial (and all of its intricacies)
• Product configuration or packaging to support a "land and expand" sales strategy
• Capitalizing on usage data to drive development, innovation and profitability
• Squeezing costs (product/service BOM) to support low subscription pricing

Regardless of whether solutions are delivered on-premise or hosted, the role of product management remains the same. The responsibility of product managers is to identify market problems and understand or quantify customer "pain" and its pervasiveness. Armed with this information product managers, designers and engineering can conceive, develop, price and deliver solutions that customers' value and are willing to buy. Why? Because it addresses a market problem customers are willing to pay "money" to solve. Bottom line, as long as there are problems to solve and people or companies willing to pay for solutions to those problems --- there will always be a need for product managers.