What's the best way to manage multiple new products?

Any company that wants to grow its business must become proficient at managing multiple products that may be in varying stages of the new product cycle. This is sometimes referred to as a "product portfolio". Some products may be in the idea stage, others might be just entering or completing development and others may already be launched to the marketplace. By examining four key groups of issues, a simplified high-level plan will help guide new products through the cycle simultaneously. These four issue groups are: market, strategy, planning and profitability.

The best way to approach this exercise is to gather up the facts about the multiple products. You'll need product descriptions, target customer, lists of existing/new customers by name, target market size, pricing information, and most importantly, the stage of the cycle that they're in now. You will also need information on the primary competitors for each product and the nature of the sales cycle for each one. Once you have the facts, start at a high level. Create a one-page diagram (or on a white board) that places each product on a timeline representing the new product cycle. Now you're ready to examine the issues, first at a high level and then in more detail. From examining each group of issues, you will have a master "To-Do" list with dates that you can use to develop a new product management plan for your portfolio.

(NOTE: For each of the major issues sections below, I have indicated pertinent chapters and/or page numbers from my latest book, "From Idea to Launch at Internet Speed". The book is all about managing new products from beginning to end. Those of you that have the book can consult it for more detail on these issues. For those of you interested in learning more about the book, you can visit the books section of this website. It can be ordered from www.pelepubs.com.)

Market Issues

For each of the products on the diagram, you will need to characterize whether the product will be sold to existing customers, new customers or both. (This is sometimes called a "new-new" analysis.) If you have new customers, then more marketing work will be required for those products, especially as they near the end of the development cycle - about 4 months before launch. This marketing work will include customer description, market characterization, competitive analysis, and development of marketing programs; add that to the To-Do list for that product. The next detailed step would be to complete this marketing work.

For selling the new products to existing customers, you want to make sure that there is no confusion about the new product versus the one they may already have (you don't want to cannibalize your existing products!) Therefore, you may want to update any product-level collateral to point out how the new products are different, better, or have more value, or how they complement existing products from your company. For those products sold to existing customers, you may also want to update the competitive analysis and refine key messages accordingly. Proceed to the detailed level by listing collateral pieces that need to be updated and which messages need to be changed. Any updating needs to be done during the early part of the launch phase (2 to 3 months prior to launch date).

(References: Chapter 4, including charts on pages 46 and 60, also page 251 from Chapter 15)

Strategy Issues

For the products being sold to new customers, the go-to-market strategy must be formulated. To develop the strategy, the competitive analysis must be complete and should include the competitive environment, list of competitors by name, and the key differentiators at a company level and product level, which are "To-Do" list items. The detailed level will include doing this detailed work and then choosing a strategy. Once developed, this strategy must be compared with other strategies for existing customers and existing products. How different is it, and will it require more resources or perhaps some partners in order to put it into effect? This entire exercise must be completed during the development phase.

For the products being sold to existing customers, the existing strategy may work just fine, but it would be a good idea to get some feedback from the sales force on this topic; add that to the To-Do list. In addition, the competitive analysis should be updated while the product is still in the development phase. If there are changes (and there usually are), then perhaps the strategy will need to be modified in order to improve competitive advantage.

(References: Chapters 5 and 9)

Planning Issues

This step involves developing your timeline or map further. For each product, identify dates for first customer sale, development completion, development start, launch date, etcetera; in short, any dates related to a point in the new product cycle.

Next, look at overlaps. How many products will be in development at one time? Not only is this helpful in general resource planning, but it also indicates periods of overlap during which the marketing/launch team need to be working more closely with the development team. It may be possible to share results of competitive analysis, pricing data, go-to market strategy for products in the development stage that have a common target customer. List those products for which you can aggregate this information being gathered by the marketing team.

Now look at the launch phase, especially when products will be coming out of development and into the launch phase. This is when a lot of the market information needs to be updated. Once again, look for opportunities to aggregate this work; list those as well.

In addition, look for products that are near or slightly past launch versus those entering the development stage. If those products have common target customers, it represents a key opportunity to gather feedback from real customers and use it to increase the value of the new products that are in the development stage. The sales people are probably the best avenue for obtaining this feedback. (If you have channel partners, it may take a little longer to get this information.) Add that to the To Do list.

(Reference: Chapter 15)

Profitability Issues

It's all about profit, and sometimes during the development or even the launch phase products can be cancelled for financial reasons. So, one of the first things to do is to take a look at your product portfolio diagram, and then create a chart to analyze profitability. For each product, list new product stage, anticipated launch date, anticipated date of first customer sale, expected revenues first and subsequent years, resources peaks and valleys, expected development and launch costs, and forecasted profit. (Your financial staff are likely already doing this, so enlist their help.) You will end up with a profitability forecast. Why should you be doing this for new products; why not just let the bean counters worry about it? Because in the big picture of things, it will help you prioritize your own time and effort in getting new products through the cycle. A product with a higher profit potential should receive a higher priority or effort by the entire team. Exceptions to that might be if there is a high-level corporate objective to get a product out there to enter a new market that may not necessarily be profitable, but may achieve some other corporate growth objective. For this exercise, it's a good idea to consult with people from the executive management team so that you understand the priorities and objectives, and work them into your new product management plan.

(References: Chapters 7 and 8, chart on page 310 of chapter 18)

Once you have worked through these four groups of issues, you will have a To Do list with dates, a diagram and timeline of new products, and a sense of the priorities. From that you can develop a monthly and weekly list of actions and objectives for your team to implement.

Look for more articles based on my new book in future issues of The Launch Forum. In the meantime, may all of your portfolios be profitable!

Catherine Kitcho
The Launch Doctor