Product Strategy and Product Portfolio Strategy: framework and tools

Product strategy refers to the generation and update of a future view of current and new products which includes creativity and innovative thinking. The term 'Product' as used here refers to; Whole Product; Whole Product Range; including the intangible as well as the tangible elements which make up the total product, service and brand benefits which customers buy. Product Portfolio Strategy extends this to encompass a company's or business unit's bunch or portfolio of products, services or Value Propositions.

Even with a very efficient product development process, lack of strategy or a portfolio plan means that there is not a credible way to select the ideas which are going to be most successful or important to the company. This can result in: incremental products; products which are not matched to customer needs or competitive activity; an ineffective/overloaded product development pipeline or a low product success rate.

:In the Time to Market approach, product strategy and portfolio planning method and tools brings together:

vision and statements of objectives

customer, market, technology, competitor, innovation chain and route to market gap analysis

mapping the whole products, services and portfolios

prioritisation and selection

action planning

From our wide experience of product marketing and management in different international markets and industries, such as:

• Electronics; Telecoms;
• Software and High Technology
• Engineering and Manufacturing
• Food and Beverages
• Chemicals
• Ceramics and Building products
• Financial Services
• Retailing

We can turn 'generic' best practices and methods into those best suited to a specific company, business unit, market or industry.

Product Strategy principles and practices can be tailored for: physical products and associated services; non-physical products and services; Business to Business (B2B); Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to End-User (B2E) application

Framework, Roadmap or Processes
The classic method uses a set of iterative steps as illustrated below:

However, in most cases we help tailor the framework and toolkit to a client's situation in terms of the mix and complexity required.

Product/Service Strategy helps to:
stimulate the formal collection and analysis of information
provide the methods to integrate and interpret customer, technology and competitive information
initiate long and short term projects or actions
guide the allocation of resources

Deliverables:
Strategy and Portfolio Evolution Map
Prioritised set of projects
Customised Strategy and Planning Method
Customised Toolkit
Expertise and Skills

In some cases integration with Strategic Management and Portfolio Management achieves the best results

Toolkits:
The Time to Market approach utilises an advanced set of tools to achieve a market, customer and competition, product, portfolio and technology oriented approach for strategy generation and management. These include:

Directional Policy Matrix (DPM)
Ansoff Matrix
Portfolio Matrices
Product Portfolio Evolution Map
SWOT Chart
Value Map
2-Axis Model
Attractiveness, Risk, resource Model (ARRM)
Next On' Lists
Resource Histograms

Software Packages and Templates
Many of the tools are provided with Excel or Web based software packages or templates to facilitate practical use and ease of learning.

Implementation Programme
Each programme is tailored to the client's situation, but typically comprises the following deliverables: draft set of strategies; frameworks and models; toolkits, facilitated workshops and software.
A typical programme comprises:

An assessment of current product ranges, markets and strategic management practices and processes.

Agreement of programme deliverables

Tailoring of framework or model, toolkit and software for client's specifics

Facilitated workshops, 1:1 and 1:n coaching

Off-line telephone and e-mail support

Skills transfer to Product Managers, Product Marketers, Product Marketeers, Technical, Sales, Operations folks et. al.

Free Proposal
We can provide a free proposal, including programme outline with costing, to meet your requirements - please contact us.
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Other aspects can be accessed by clicking below:

Product Marketing and Management
Product Definition (PD) and pragmatic Quality Function Deployment (pQFD)
Voice of Customer (VoC) and Market Research
Competitive Analysis and Competitor Analysis
New Product Introduction (NPI) or New Product Development (NPD)
In Life or In Market Management of Current Products
Product Value Proposition and Value Propositions Portfolio
Product Development, Marketing and Management Software Applications
Product Management and Product Manager Training