Enterprise Products – Product Management

Principles and Best Practices

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TILTING AT WINDMILLSShould you attack the large enterprise opportunity?Andy LientzSVP Engineering and ProductProduct Tank – 2016/04/05

TILTING AT WINDMILLS Off in the distances is the grand prize, the great adversary...

Enterprise customers represent big, stable revenue. They also ask for a lot.

What if you miss? What does it do to other customers?

MAKING AN ENTERPRISE FEATURE CHOICE1) Define value

2) Be measured and focused

3) Be deliberate

4) Sell, sell, sell

VALUE YOUR FEATURES Develop a framework for how you value a feature. Include:

Revenue Strategy Keeping the lights on Innovation Customer promise

Everything should get to a consistent value (Even if you have to fake it a little… See Sell Your Strategy!)

BE MEASURED, BE FOCUSED All feature work is part of a portfolio

Tie your goals to the same value framework Allocate the number of people against your goals Measure your features against your goal allocation

Limit your investments to what you can do well Don’t over extend yourself just because you are afraid to cut Think about what you can work on over the long haul

DELIBERATE DECISIONS Prioritizing is being deliberate

Don’t let noise or scrambling make your decisions

If you miss, you can always correct (Caveat: this is a software statement)

Decisions are not made by a lone person… Make sure you have gotten enough input so you aren’t deliberately stepping in something

SELL YOUR STRATEGY… AND STICK TO IT Everyone on the team needs to believe you have made the right decision

Publicize your tradeoffs Discuss your strategy early and often with leaders Refine it before you place your bets

Don’t turn on a dime Put a timeline on when you will consider changes to the strategy Leave a little room to experiment but only a little Think through changes. Developers HATE thrash

EXAMPLE: Three goals: Enterprise, Ecosystem, and Growth of our Base Converted from revenue targets and strategy, it roughly breaks down to:

Goal Percentage # of EngineersEnterprise 30% 21Ecosystem 20% 14Growth 50% 35

Don’t use hours… No one likes to track them unless they have to.

EXAMPLE: (CONT.) Encryption of a single column

Complex feature Only needed by 1% of user base Sales says it’s a “must have” to close an important deal

This is a 1% impact for a 30% goal… When we look at the compliance work that we were trading off used by

30% of enterprise users… Saying no is easier and possible to sell through with data. Don’t be afraid to get competing sales people into a room.

LEARN AND REFINE You will make the wrong bets You will make gut calls Unless there are specific dollars tied to doing work (professional services) remember to answer the question:

Are you building something that will delight your customers?