The Biz of Coding

Practical Product Management — Finding New Product Ideas

by Ujwal Tickoo on June 16th, 2006

Finding new product ideas is simple if you are looking only for incremental evolution of the product. But often Product Managers are looking for making bigger changes to their product. The reasons could be many:

1. Direct competitor threats
2. Threats from product substitutes
3. Shifts in consumer preferences
4. Major shifts in technology or policy enviornment
5. Acquiring new customers
6. Extending the lifecycle of the Product

New product ideas would depend upon the nature of change that the Product needs to meet. The source will thus also depend.

For 3 and 5 the best way is to get a sense of the customers. For 1, a lot of analysis of the competitors strenghts, weaknesses, goals along with why the threat is so real helps.

Extending the Lifecycle of a Product requires a lot of examination. In some cases it makes sense to just call End of Life of a Product. At other times, re-positioning the product, or finding new uses of the product helps.

One good resource on Product management issues is the SVPG (Silicon Valley Product Group) Web site founded by Martin Cagan. Martin has about 20 years industry experience and was a VP of Product Mangement at eBay before he founded SVPG. He has provided several nice white papers on Product management. He also runs a free newsletter.

Other posts of Interest Practical Product Management — Giving the Bad News and Software Product Management.

POSTED IN: Product Management