Bill Wishon’s News and Views

I went to a breakfast discussion on the Philosophy of Product this morning.  It was a small event at Il Fornaio in San Jose hosted by my friend Ellen Grace Henson of Marketing Mechanics fame.

Here’s a snip from the breakfast description and invite:

Merriam-Webster’s definition of “Philosophy” includes a: a theory underlying or regarding a sphere of activity or thought b: the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.

When it comes to the definition and development of products and services, every company operates from a “Philosophy of Product” whether this is implicit or explicit. Also, the stated philosophy (We are customer centric.) may differ from the actual or implicit operating philosophy (This is cool technology. We just need to find the right market). No matter what your role in helping to deliver your company’s product to market, your efforts are impacted by this philosophy of product.

It was one of the most interesting product management / marketing discussions I’ve been a part of.  In the back of my mind I kept thinking how there isn’t really a product marketing / management discipline in our educational institutions.  Like myself, most of the people came from other disciplines into this one over time out of desire, necessity or accident.

So what is my philosophy of product?  I’m not sure I have a crisp definition, but a few thoughts:

When I asked a successful entrepreneur for his thoughts on how he built his success his response was simple.  Focus on creating value, everything flows from that.  Another bit of marketing wisdom from him was that perception precedes reality ( I have found this to be true, but with the caveat that without real value the perception creates a fragile reality that does not stay long ).

There are a lot of great technology ideas and anyone can take dictation from customers and build to spec.  But what I find is rare is the ability to distill specific customer requests and unspecific market information into clear statements about what a product should do without addressing how.

Creativity is enhanced when focused within well defined boundaries.  This breakfast itself was a good example of a good boundary that led to a creative discussion.

Those are the important ones that come to mind right now.  I’m looking forward to the next discussion forum.