Benefits of a Product-Driven Approach
By Implemify
Less than half of organizations say they mostly or always deliver the full benefits of a project, and only 29 percent report that their projects are always completed on time. In that light, a big question facing organizations is this: How can we achieve success and continue to grow our business when so many projects don’t meet deadlines or fail to be completed at all?
Failure to finish projects on time or complete them at all is often the result of businesses losing sight of the bigger picture: keeping the focus on your products. Product-driven management refers to an organization’s ability to focus all functions on the product, including its design, features, and capabilities. Instead of building product roadmaps based on singular projects—which hinders growth and capability for success—the overarching priorities should instead be on the end product.
As opposed to a project-based approach to management, a product-driven approach is able to help businesses better optimize efficiency, become more flexible to changes in the market, and increase the value to customers. Read on to learn more about how a product-driven approach to management drives better results in these three key indicators for businesses.
Benefit #1: Efficiency Is Optimized
Finding ways to increase workplace efficiency is key to increasing a business’s value. Research suggests that organizations lose 20–30 percent of their revenue each year due to inefficient processes. One of the best ways to increase a business’s efficiency is to focus on producing products instead of checking off projects.
In a product-oriented approach, dedicated teams are organized around a single product or product family instead of individual projects. In this model, the team applies incremental improvements to the product in short cycles as part of a larger roadmap, which brings the tasks together and unites them with a common end goal.
This approach is also a great way to maintain a growth mindset and a willingness to improve among team members. Instead of focusing on the short-term projects, taking on a big-picture approach to the entire project through a product-driven approach is an important way businesses can increase their efficiency.
Benefit #2: Proactive Flexibility Is Possible
When businesses are flexible to market changes and proactive instead of reactive, research shows they are able to clearly outpace their competitors and achieve advantages. While staying on top of market research and customer data may show an organization how they need to change, a product-based approach to management will allow the organization to make changes earlier and more effectively.
Because a product-driven approach to management should ideally have teams focused on the entire master plan instead of individual projects, flexibility is possible when changes are required. While a project-driven approach would require a significant amount of resources to pivot, a product-based approach only requires sign-off from the team’s product owner and any key stakeholders to reorient capacity to act on new information. In a product-driven model, the objective is improving the project rather than simply focusing on finishing a project on time and within budget, all while fulfilling inflexible requirements determined by an unpredictable marketplace. The ability to quickly pivot to new priorities is a clear advantage of product-based management teams. Instead of every priority siloed into different projects, team members can focus on what needs to happen to achieve product goals.
Benefit #3: Value To Customers Skyrockets
Incrementally increasing the value of a business’s product to its customers pays dividends. In fact, a study found that if businesses are able to take steps that increase customer retention by 5 percent, profits are boosted by at least 25 percent. In a product-based management model, the business’s focus and main driver is all about delivering value to your customers, which is an important factor in increasing retention.
When teams are focused on the full product roadmap instead of individual checklist items or projects, they are more able to take customer feedback into account when designing, redesigning, and marketing their products. An iterative process that is constantly improving based on customer feedback and data is a great way to ensure products fulfill your customers’ needs. Product-driven approaches to management are great ways to help businesses optimize workplace efficiency, increase proactive flexibility, and create an environment that puts the customers first. This approach allows organizations to reap benefits like better growth capacity, increased customer satisfaction, and improved products at the end of the process.
Implemify Can Help
By automating workflows and finding cloud-based solutions, Implemify helps businesses save money, build product-based roadmaps, and become more efficient. With experience in implementing CRMs for large corporations and driving technology work for global clients, the team behind Implemify has been a trusted adviser to key stakeholders, executives, and customers to manage risks, plan adjustments, and ensure business outcomes are achieved on time and under budget.
With Implemify propel your organization’s success through digital transformation that will help you define priorities, measure progress, analyze strategies, design solutions, and verify success.
