Product Management Roadmap

The graphic below illustrates the market research and decision support TMTG provides at all key points in the product life cycle.  From exploratory market analysis, to critical pre-launch planning and fine tuning, and on to post-launch monitoring, TMTG delivers a comprehensive suite of decision support services. To learn more about the topics in the graphic below, simply click on any item. To view a larger version of the Product Management Roadmap, click here.

Technology Assessment
The MarkeTech Group (TMTG) clients are constantly looking for innovative technologies that can create a significant competitive advantage. Using Economic Value Analysis (EVA) or its proprietary Black Box™ analysis, TMTG can efficiently support technology valuation and licensing decisions:

• Definition of technology benefits and functions: what does the technology do better?
• Identification of cost and resource requirements: what does the technology cost to the end user?
• Net value proposition: what is the net gain for the technology and for which specific applications?
• Analysis of the competitive advantage: what is the differentiating advantage of the technology and for what product space?

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Customer and Product Requirements
Seeking product improvement or even a game changer, clients ask TMTG to identify their customers' unmet needs, translate their requirements into product features, and quantify the differentiating value of each relevant feature for a potential segment. Thanks to advanced qualitative research methodologies, as well as sophisticated demand modeling, TMTG can help resolve basic product trade-offs for R&D and engineering product development teams:

• Identification of unmet needs: out-of-the-box brainstorming and observational analysis.
• Review of relevant and important features for product choice: analysis of customer rationale and requirements.
• Prioritization of product features and assessment of the differentiating value: trade-off analysis and price sensitivity analysis.

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Segmentation Analysis
TMTG employs sophisticated qualitative and quantitative techniques to provide valuable market segmentation results to their clients. From this information clients can derive a variety of benefits: product design input, branding and positioning strategies, and marketing mix guidance. By tailoring the overall customer offering in terms of product, communication, channel, services, and price, clients can more precisely meet the needs of different customers and consequently gain higher market share and profit.

Designing segmentation studies is made more challenging due to a single underlying constraint: you must be in position to capitalize on the revealed segments; i.e., it must be clear how to place customers into each group and then target and track each of them. In almost every study, a solid base of qualitative research is required to calibrate and chose the quantitative techniques to be used. Based on this foundation of qualitative research, TMTG then utilizes quantitative techniques that focus on:

• Measuring the motivational and needs-driven factors that ultimately create the basis for differentiating customers.
• Analyzing the relationship between the demographic, psychographic, and buying behavior dependent and independent variables that ultimately define segments.

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Opportunity Analysis
The MarkeTech Group (TMTG) clients may be looking for new markets, opportunities for new technologies, or new opportunities for maturing products. TMTG provides the following information in a typical opportunity analysis:

• Attributes: market attributes which clearly define the space within which the product will compete.
• Segmentation: market segmentation, including the identification of key target segments.
• Sizing: market sizing for each segment.
• Prioritization: a segment-by-segment roadmap to launch the product, service or solution.

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Product Testing
Whether a product or technology, TMTG makes sure at the inception that the client is able to offer a value-add to each potential segment. This often includes transforming a technology that does something into a product that brings value to the market:

• Market viability: assessing the value of the product to the market being targeted.
• Target market definition: defining the segment(s) that see the most value in the new technology.
• Go/no-go decision: providing a balanced market assessment in order to determine whether or not to send the product to market.

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Go To Market Planning
After a product has been developed and the target segments have been prioritized, TMTG helps their clients construct the right downstream essentials to successfully launch a product, service or customer solution. TMTG assists in defining the optimal:

• Distribution: identification of the optimal distribution channel(s), whether it be an OEM strategy, a partnership, direct sale, or other.
• Product feature mix: identification of the right mix of product features to highlight and a means to best communicate product value to each market segment.
• Positioning: determination of the product's optimal positioning in the target segment; i.e., Low- or high-cost solution? Service focus or product focus?
• Competition: Competitive offers and their likely reaction to a new market entrant.

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Pricing
Going beyond simply determining a monetary value for a product or service, TMTG uses the following tools in order to shape the pricing policy that will maximize revenues:

• Conjoint analysis: The collection of survey data on product attribute preference facilitates the calculation of buyer willingness-to-pay and the modeling of critical market scenario simulations.
• Price points: TMTG develops and tests appropriate pricing and product bundling models in order to define the market or segment-specific price points that will satisfy clients' market share and profitability objectives.
• Cannibalization: TMTG validates the price point and positioning of a new product in order to minimize the extent to which it will take away sales and revenues from a client's already established products.

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Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Customer relationship development does not stop with the initial sale since current customers represent a recurring source of revenue at a relatively low cost. TMTG provides its clients with an unbiased understanding of customer satisfaction, as well as the underlying loyalty of these customers. Since retention, repurchase, and willingness to recommend are several of the key components of customer loyalty, the underlying barriers and drivers of loyalty must be both measured and nurtured. TMTG provides clients with tools that will continue to enhance the value of their customer base:

• Customer satisfaction surveys: through either direct phone-based interviews or survey questionnaires, TMTG collects feedback on product and service value.
• Customer loyalty analysis: understanding which elements contributing to satisfaction are most correlated with customer loyalty provides a roadmap for clients to improve in those areas with the highest pay-off.
• Brand equity analysis: TMTG determines not only customer satisfaction with the client product, but their perception of the clients' brand and their product's perceived value relative to the competition.

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Post Launch Acceptance
Companies selling medical products, systems, and services must monitor their sales, installation and product performance after each new product/service launch. This may continue up through the warranty period. To this end, TMTG will measure specific elements of the delivery, installation and initial utilization relative to both performance and their impact on customer relationships.

• Post installation surveys: Post purchase perception of the product is enhanced if the installation has proceeded smoothly and if communication has been optimal.
• Post warranty surveys: Product and service experience during the warranty period is a driver for customers' perceived value of the product and is generally predictive of their willingness to purchase extended service contracts.

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