Making product management systematic, disciplined and quantifiable

Lacking better methods, product management's performance is often inferred (indirectly and in retrospect) from the performance of other corporate functions. But the performance of other corporate functions (for example, sales) is not an accurate indicator of product management's execution. And even if it were, it provides little insight as to how product management is performing right now.

Marketing is the most critical corporate function. Among its key responsibilities is achieving strategic convergence and operational coherence. But strategies can be overly influenced by personal bias, making alignment more difficult due to imprecise data.

What prodcut management must establish is a way to engage all stakeholders in systematic, disciplined and quantifiable processes that drive convergence and alignment horizontally and vertically across the enterprise. The work products must be measurable in absolute terms and drive real-time decision support. Finally, product management processes must be continually improved (re-engineered) and robust enough to resist unwarranted changes, yet flexible enough to adapt quickly when necessary.

Marketing process engineering is not taught in business school. Most marketing executives pay scant attention to the crucial responsibility of context coherence. This is where the experience of On-Fire Associates can help.

Read about one crucial workflow that many marketing teams struggle to perform.