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Product Management Advisory Program

"As a start-up with limited resources, we saw the PMAP program as a way to get some assistance with our product strategy and to learn more about the potential markets for our product. The program has been very helpful in addressing some of our organizational issues, and giving shape to the resources required on the deployment side." Dan Pacholik, VP of Business Development, Cellbridge Communications

TRLabs' Product Management Advisory Program (PMAP, launched in 2006) bridges the gap between technology development and successful entry and endurance of the product in the marketplace by bringing companies face to face with an industry expert to map out a company’s path forward. With PMAP assistance, companies can improve the results they get from their new (and existing) product marketing efforts.

Q. What is Product Management?
Product management is "the messenger of the market," delivering market and product information to the departments that need facts to make decisions. Product management works with the development, support, finance, marketing and sales teams to:

• define new products and gathering product requirements
• translate feature requirements into engineering specifications
• define product business criteria including cost management
• establish product support requirements
• create product positioning and outbound messaging

Q. What type of company gains the most from a program like PMAP?
A. Any company in the process of bringing new products to market. Any company that doesn’t have trained and experienced product managers can benefit tremendously from this program at any stage of their product development effort.

Typically technology companies spend the majority of their resources on technology development. The PMAP program helps companies take a more in depth look at their potential customers in the context of the broader market.

Q. What’s involved in the PMAP process?
A. The process works best when it's divided into two phases:

• Phase 1 - Opportunity Assessment - Combines an organizational new product management capabilities assessment with best practices education. This initial phase provides an understanding of how a company can best improve their new product successes and where it is best for them to invest in addressing this opportunity.
• Phase 2 - Recommendations - Provides the company with specifically relevant and useful assistance in reaching their new product goals through the delivery of new product-related services. Depending on the unique ambition and resources of each company, PMAP assists with the generation of a recommended plan of action to reach the goals identified during the Opportunity Assessment.

Q. What are key benefits of PMAP for a company?
A. One of the most important things for companies to do is to take the time to ensure that what they are building will be valuable to those they are planning to sell to. While this seems obvious, many companies fail to conduct sufficient research about their customers’ actual needs and priorities early enough in the development cycle. This legwork can save an incredible amount of time and money if done correctly.

PMAP works to build company capacity to balance technology development needs with a thorough understanding of potential customers and the market their products and services will be competing in. That translates to generating awareness of how proven product management processes can be used to dramatically increase the odds of success, and providing companies with tangible skills, tools and contacts to help them effectively incorporate these processes.