Overcoming Challenges in Transitioning to a Product-Led, Customer Focused Organization

The phrase ‘you can have any color so long as it’s black’, for most represents an era of product development and manufacturing where the focus was to churn out identically spec'd product, historically developed by the Founder and / or the engineering team.

Fast forward to the present, and many companies have adopted a ‘product centric’ approach to new product development, moving from a ‘what can we engineer?’ (and pushing this to the customer), to adopting a customer-centric, Voice of Customer (VOC) product development process, with a product champion responsible for the entire life cycle of the product, from inception, to prototyping to launch and maturity. It is clear to see that the former process requires much more effort from sales to convince a customer they really want this product, vs the latter scenario where sales are selling the customer the product they actually wanted.

But how do organizations adapt to that change for them to be successful? What challenges do they face and how best to overcome them? This article will consider strategies to address the 3 main areas that can become a barrier to moving towards a product - centric organization.

1)???? Overcoming the Mindset

For many companies with legacy processes, structures and hierarchies, changing who is responsible for determining the product that gets developed (including performance specs and product options) is challenging. Those that have done this in the past may feel they are not valued, and may feel the product champion does not 'get' their area of expertise enough to be able to make decisions. They may feel authority is being taken away from them, and actually start to sabotage the process.

Strategies to Overcome Mindset

Executive Leadership: With the company making such a fundamental shift in product development, this needs to be led from the top. As the company prepares this transition, top leadership need to be leading the message of why the company is making this change, and its importance in the growth of the company.

A Seat at the Leadership Table: As with the other key areas, the product function should be a part of the executive leadership team – reporting to the CEO, or in larger companies, the Strategic Marketing function. This allows it to operate as a standalone unit, and gives the visibility in the company that it's equally as important as the others.

Reporting: Making the product function, along with customer and market data part of the monthly communication and results to employees. By highlighting datasets that drive the product lifecycle, it inherently communicates to employees this is why we're doing it, and these are the results.

2)???? Executing Organizational Changes:

Even if individuals can see the reason behind the change, or the need to change, change is still hard for everyone to embrace equally enthusiastically. It’s clear that new structures must be created as the Product function takes on its own entity. The way this is done is paramount to keeping the organization stable and moving forward – balancing the need for change while maintaining operational stability, and the ability to deliver existing products to existing customers.

Strategies to effective restructuring

Skill set – ?Think carefully about where the skill set will come from. What are the skills of a good product leader, and do you have the skills in employees already in the company? Can someone from engineering or sales make the transition into this new role and champion it without bias to an area? Or is it necessary to hire from the outside? Both sides should be evaluated.

-??????? Internally; Beneficial to the company, as it is seen to promote from within, making existing staff as part of their growth strategy, a 'we're all in this together' approach.

-??????? Externally; Hiring someone who has done this before and has a solid knowledge of best practices can be the quickest way to move forward with the strategy and bring that knowledge in house.

Implement a phased approach – Picking one new product and using this as a pilot approach, getting attention from senior leadership, having it included in the monthly or quarterly communication outreach may be a good plan for companies looking to learn how best to do this from the ground up. Then once best practices are established, the team can be built up from there.

3. Ensuring Smooth and Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration

The product management function has one of the most challenging jobs – the responsibility of the effectiveness and performance of the product line, without any of the cross-functional members in the implementation team reporting to them. Thus one of the most important skill sets of a product leader is the ability to influence and coordinate everybody working together, keeping on track to the project plan. How well this is executed very often makes the difference between a successful NPD process and launch and a mediocre one.

Strategies to foster cross-collaboration

Value the team: Make a big deal of the team that is part of developing the new product. Create a team name, make it special and something that people want to be a part of. Ensure a representative from all different company functions is part of the team, demonstrating that no one function is better or has more influence than the other.

Training: With any new concept, it’s going to take a while before it’s embraced by all equally in the company. The company can support this with training programs as part of ongoing personal development.

In Conclusion

The path to becoming a customer-focused product manufacturer has ongoing challenges, but carefully navigating these can turn these obstacles into opportunities for growth. Change is always hard, however embracing a product mindset, implementing organizational changes, fostering cross-functional collaboration, investing in talent development, and staying attuned to market dynamics are the key areas to focus on. For companies looking to embark on this transition, the key lies not just in overcoming challenges but in leveraging them as catalysts for innovation and sustainable growth.

#ProductManagement #Leadership #Newproductdevelopment #Organziationalchange