Comments on: How Do You Manage Market Data? http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/ Software product success. Tue, 22 May 2012 20:46:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Scott Sehlhorst http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-443012 Scott Sehlhorst Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:13:30 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-443012 Thanks Markus, and welcome to Tyner Blain. I've used various tools, depending on the client I'm working with. Bug trackers like bugzilla, jira, MKS (yes, really); feedback mechanism "baked into" an application (provides useful contextual info); and inbound email and conversations (from users directly and indirectly). I've managed things in a completely ad-hoc fashion. The best tool I've used so far is a concept map, which allows me to relate pain-points with processes, customers, features, and other pain-points. It is free-form, but provides insights. Where it is weak is in metrics and tracking conversations / feedback. I haven't seen a solution yet that helps me gain insight, track quantitative elements of the feedback, do demographic analysis, and manage conversations and engagement. Hence the question behind this article. Thanks Markus, and welcome to Tyner Blain. I’ve used various tools, depending on the client I’m working with. Bug trackers like bugzilla, jira, MKS (yes, really); feedback mechanism “baked into” an application (provides useful contextual info); and inbound email and conversations (from users directly and indirectly).

I’ve managed things in a completely ad-hoc fashion. The best tool I’ve used so far is a concept map, which allows me to relate pain-points with processes, customers, features, and other pain-points. It is free-form, but provides insights. Where it is weak is in metrics and tracking conversations / feedback.

I haven’t seen a solution yet that helps me gain insight, track quantitative elements of the feedback, do demographic analysis, and manage conversations and engagement. Hence the question behind this article.

]]> By: Markus Ahonen http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-437640 Markus Ahonen Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:18:05 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-437640 Great article again. The question of tools is always hot since I haven't seen a satisfying toolset for PMs yet. Featureplan seems cumbersome (per-seat licenses are so 2000... :-) while Rally + Salesforce.com requires a salesforce using ...Salesforce. What do You use for tracking user requests? Excel? Bugzilla? Great article again. The question of tools is always hot since I haven’t seen a satisfying toolset for PMs yet. Featureplan seems cumbersome (per-seat licenses are so 2000… :-) while Rally + Salesforce.com requires a salesforce using …Salesforce. What do You use for tracking user requests? Excel? Bugzilla?

]]> By: Raj http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-425682 Raj Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:58:21 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-425682 Scott, LOL - yup, more up-to-date now! :) Scott, LOL – yup, more up-to-date now! :)

]]> By: Scott Sehlhorst http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-425228 Scott Sehlhorst Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:22:20 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-425228 Thanks Raj, very much. Since this is a recent article, should I assume you finally caught up in reading the backlog? :) Thanks Raj, very much. Since this is a recent article, should I assume you finally caught up in reading the backlog? :)

]]> By: Raj http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-425033 Raj Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:36:40 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-425033 Hi Scott, This is an excellent post, I shared it with our company's product management team! >>>> I had a great conversation with someone who asked the Austin PMM yahoo group what tools they used for tracking “customer feature requests.” ... Just a mechanism for tracking feature requests >>>> Perhaps they might find it worthwhile to check out our product (Accompa) at <a href="http://www.accompa.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.accompa.com</a>? >>>> A 2006 survey of SaaS vendors found that the ratio of feature requests to bug reports was on average, 5 to 1. That’s a lot of feature requests. >>>> This ratio makes sense to me - it is similar to our experience at our company too. Hi Scott,

This is an excellent post, I shared it with our company’s product management team!

>>>>
I had a great conversation with someone who asked the Austin PMM yahoo group what tools they used for tracking “customer feature requests.” … Just a mechanism for tracking feature requests
>>>>
Perhaps they might find it worthwhile to check out our product (Accompa) at http://www.accompa.com?

>>>>
A 2006 survey of SaaS vendors found that the ratio of feature requests to bug reports was on average, 5 to 1. That’s a lot of feature requests.
>>>>
This ratio makes sense to me – it is similar to our experience at our company too.

]]> By: Stewart Rogers http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-422888 Stewart Rogers Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:34:19 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-422888 Without turning this into a sales pitch for FeaturePlan... FeaturePlan can integrate into Salesforce and we have web forms for contributors to directly enter their data directly in the tool. >>How do you manage the mapping of problem-statements to market-segments ( >>or to buyer or user personas)? From FeaturePlan's perspective we use a market research template to describe segments and tie them to problem statements. FeaturePlan also has a persona template that can be linked to requirements. I polled our product management community (http://tinyurl.com/5vtgwt) in April to see if they thought it was better to link personas to problems, scenarios or requirements and the majority (albeit on 7 responses) thought requirements. I believe it should be problems but can also see needs to link them to requirements and scenarios. NB: The product management community is open and not just a FeaturePlan community. Without turning this into a sales pitch for FeaturePlan… FeaturePlan can integrate into Salesforce and we have web forms for contributors to directly enter their data directly in the tool.

>>How do you manage the mapping of problem-statements to market-segments (
>>or to buyer or user personas)?

From FeaturePlan’s perspective we use a market research template to describe segments and tie them to problem statements. FeaturePlan also has a persona template that can be linked to requirements. I polled our product management community (http://tinyurl.com/5vtgwt) in April to see if they thought it was better to link personas to problems, scenarios or requirements and the majority (albeit on 7 responses) thought requirements. I believe it should be problems but can also see needs to link them to requirements and scenarios.

NB: The product management community is open and not just a FeaturePlan community.

]]> By: Scott Sehlhorst http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-422279 Scott Sehlhorst Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:55:41 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-422279 Stewart, welcome to Tyner Blain, and thanks for sharing! Good to hear that FeaturePlan does organize this stuff in terms of problem statements. How do you manage the mapping of problem-statements to market-segments (or to buyer or user personas)? And does this product work in conjunction with a CRM solution like Salesforce or include its own CRM capabilities? How do you get feedback (from the field) into the tool - does the sales rep contact you, then you update featureplan? Thanks! Stewart, welcome to Tyner Blain, and thanks for sharing! Good to hear that FeaturePlan does organize this stuff in terms of problem statements.

How do you manage the mapping of problem-statements to market-segments (or to buyer or user personas)?

And does this product work in conjunction with a CRM solution like Salesforce or include its own CRM capabilities? How do you get feedback (from the field) into the tool – does the sales rep contact you, then you update featureplan?

Thanks!

]]> By: Stewart Rogers http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/08/19/managing-market-data/comment-page-1/#comment-421589 Stewart Rogers Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:59:45 +0000 http://tynerblain.com/blog/?p=696#comment-421589 The way FeaturePlan works, and I kind of like it and did like it before I joined Ryma, is by encouraging a line of thinking (i.e. problem statement) between the feature request and the requirement. The tool, and Pragmatic Marketing, encourages this type of process... tell me what you want (enhancement), let me describe what you are trying to do (problem, feature description, use scenario) and then explain it to development (requirements). Something like that. The other piece is that it treats all inputs (enhancements, bugs, win/loss, call reports, etc.) consistently by using them to support problems identified in the market. So all inputs are grouped by the problem statement. Hopefully this did not come across as a sales pitch for FeaturePlan, it just happens to be a tool that supports the way I think. The way FeaturePlan works, and I kind of like it and did like it before I joined Ryma, is by encouraging a line of thinking (i.e. problem statement) between the feature request and the requirement. The tool, and Pragmatic Marketing, encourages this type of process… tell me what you want (enhancement), let me describe what you are trying to do (problem, feature description, use scenario) and then explain it to development (requirements). Something like that. The other piece is that it treats all inputs (enhancements, bugs, win/loss, call reports, etc.) consistently by using them to support problems identified in the market. So all inputs are grouped by the problem statement. Hopefully this did not come across as a sales pitch for FeaturePlan, it just happens to be a tool that supports the way I think.

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