How do you demonstrate the value and impact of your product to stakeholders?

I approach defining product vision and goals at two levels - 1) Top-down, connecting our company mission to the current technology challenges and where I see my product or platform addressing a need, 2) Bottoms-up, based on qualitative and quantitative data on the specific problems users need help with. Using these two signal groups, I then propose a compelling product vision and SMART goals to address and prioritize user needs. This structured approach also enables me to align with leadership more effectively.

Every product needs to solve a relevant customer pain point. In my experience, the product vision acts as a guiding star in aligning the company and the team(s) with what needs to be build and accomplished with the product, by defining its purpose, value proposition and goals. This also goes in hand with the product strategy that dictates how we achieve the vision. Goals & metrics are milestones to ensure we are on the right track. Metrics could range from adoption, engagement, monetization and retention based on the stage and scale of the product. Having a clear and strong vision is critical in ensuring the company resonates with what needs to be achieved.

From my years of experience, the best way to communicate the value and impact of your product to stakeholders is to build the product WITH the stakeholders. 1. Make sure it is a problem they are experiencing and craving for a solution. 2. Build according to their demands and regularly check-in with them. 3. Focus on impact, not features. Sometimes, the stakeholder might request for things that is not in alignment with the goals of the business. The stakeholders here are the users.

New product introduction into your target market requires a rigid process to launch it successfully. Your product must address a pressing concern that can make the life of your target customers better. In the advent of other existing similar products in the market, your new product should cater a particular segment that could find value on it. You need to demonstrate how a product is differentiated to others based on its features and benefits. Key buying factors on product and the value propositions to users must be set clear as well. In crop protection industry, highly dominated by generic players, introduction of products with new active ingredients that provides better innovative ways to solve pest problems can be exciting and rewarding.

Use Data-Driven Metrics such as user engagement stats, market share growth & cost savings tying them back to the goals and KPIs that were set for the product. Share customer testimonials, case studies, and success stories Conduct Product Demonstrations that highlight new features, usability, and the problem-solving capabilities of the product can be effective. Create and provide a clear ROI analysis. Always Highlight USPs. Demonstrate how the product aligns with the company's long-term strategic goals and vision. Track and report on user adoption rates. Link the product's performance to broader business objectives helping stakeholders see the product's role in the company's overall success.

In agriculture, grower pain-points are diverse and highly dynamic, hence you have to deeply understand how they think and behave to better understand their needs. Key knowledge on grower and area segmentation is important so that you can simplify your introduction of product based on the similar needs of the growers belonging to identified segment. As grower's needs are endless, targeting topmost concerns and directing which among these needs your product can address will be important. Customize your messaging based on the segment they are in so that communication will be simple and straightforward. Develop messages that are sticky to the minds of the customers based on key features and benefits.

First, there's external stakeholders who are making decisions around your product; these include the buyer, the user, the customer, the analyst, and the partner. Second, there's the internal stakeholders, design, engineering, marketing, sales, leaders, etc. The strongest stakeholders will be the ones who can drive their own metrics and impact by leveraging your product. So for example when Uber launched Uber Eats, that made it easier for the User Acquisition and Partnerships teams to grow their own impact, making them key stakeholders for that product.

Choose SMART metrics and (KPIs) such as business metrics, customer and user metrics, product metrics, innovation and development metrics, that align with stakeholder interests and your product goals. Use these metrics along with data visualization and dashboards to tell a story. If possible, benchmark the metrics reporting against industry standards and competitor analysis. Solicit feedback from stakeholders and use techniques such as pre-suasion and post mortem analysis to get to root cause of issues and get stakeholder buy-in for Product Decision. Above all be transparent and regular in such presentations.

Go through your company's customer acquisition funnel to see which metrics your product will help with. The easy acronym for this is AARRR - Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral. Does your product focus more on top of funnel or on retention, or on conversion? Once you figure that out, pick 1 or 2 north star metrics for your product which align with the north star metric for the company. AirBnB's north star metric is nights booked on the platform; so the perfect metric for changing the home page's defaults to "Anywhere, Anytime" were to see if they improved overall nights booked on AirBnB.

The moment you put together a story to the metrics, you should keep in mind the background and interests of the stakeholder. The most trivial situation you don't want to get is a stakeholder confused by the complex terminology you've crammed into it. Try to make the aspects of product and business metrics that are of interest to the stakeholder as simple as possible. Show stakeholder the correlation of other metrics to the metrics he is interested in, to build his confidence in your understanding of the work and the future of the product. For storytelling, I prefer to use narrative presentations with a flowchart: stakeholder - problem (goal) - solution (what was done and how it was done) - benefit (what happened).

Success stories and testimonials are one of the classical approaches to build a compelling story behind your brand/product. In case you have a built a data bank to support product claims, consolidating stories, feedbacks and insights from first trial users will be valuable as well. This will easily translate to your customers especially when emotions and dramatic impact was experienced by the users. Stories from the farming community transcends across geography and can be highly recognized by other farmers immediately. It can boosts higher sense of pride and morale among the farmers. This could trigger positive builds on your product hence building a grower touchpoints and influencers can be a rewarding approach to successful product use.

Product Managers are Storytellers; to customers, investors, team members, and stakeholders. And the golden rule of storytelling is to make your stakeholder the hero. In the amazing book "Building a Storybrand" author Donald Miller talks about the framework used by 90% of successful stories: A character, has a problem, and meets a guide, who gives them a plan, and calls them to action, that ends in a success or helps them avoid a failure. For our scenario, you need to make your stakeholder the hero and the product as the guide. Your product needs to help your stakeholder achieve success or avoid failure. Your product is Obi-Wan Kenobi, not Luke Skywalker!

I start by clearly defining and articulating the product vision and goals. This provides a roadmap for what we're trying to achieve and why it matters. I make sure these goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). For instance, if I’m working on a data analytics product, I’ll outline how this product will revolutionize our clients' ability to understand their data, specifying the measurable outcomes we aim to achieve.

Getting feedback on your product's value and impact not only help make sure that you're on the right path, but also actually helps you to achieve that value and impact. Just soliciting feedback actually makes your stakeholders more vested in your product's success, making sure they go the extra mile to talk about it with potential customers, identify synergies with ongoing marketing campaigns, and even seek out industry best practices when writing the code.

Demonstrating the value and impact of your product to stakeholders is an ongoing process of adaptation and improvement. Begin by regularly gathering and analyzing feedback from stakeholders through surveys, interviews, and performance data. Use this feedback to identify areas for enhancement and quickly implement iterative improvements. Leverage agile methodologies to ensure flexibility and responsiveness to changing stakeholder needs. Continuously measure and report on key metrics that align with stakeholder priorities, showing progress and the impact of adjustments. This adaptive approach not only demonstrates value but also builds trust and fosters a collaborative relationship with stakeholders.

Product: AI-FraudShield, an AI/ML-driven security solution designed to prevent digital payment fraud Demonstration to Stakeholders Value Proposition: Utilizes advanced machine learning to identify fraud patterns Data-Driven Results: Achieved a 40% reduction in fraudulent transactions among clients in six months Case Study: Highlighted success with a major e-commerce client significantly reducing chargebacks Live Demo: Showed real-time fraud detection capabilities, emphasizing system speed and accuracy Cost-Benefit Analysis: Illustrated savings from fraud reduction outweigh the product cost Customer Feedback: Shared positive testimonials about integration ease and user interface Compliance: Confirmed adherence to PCI DSS and GDP standards

Being able to side-by-side demo the product that is currently used, and the product that is presently being created, speaks tons when it clearly demonstrates the value it creates to stakeholders. You may want to consider: a. Setting up two screens together - side-by-side - that allows the stakeholders to visually see response times, UX, and importantly the "before" and "after" viewed in the present, and b. The optimization values in simple language such as "the customer call response averaged 72 seconds totaling $2.50 each, at our volume of 'xyz', with a total cost of $175K per quarter. The new solution drives the call response down to 42 seconds, with a total cost of $102K. equating to a quarterly realized savings of $73K ... "