Product as a "Design Win"

I've been pondering lately what if we in product management (and by extension sales) started thinking about our products as "design wins" as opposed to a stand-alone products.

First, let me expand on what a "design win" is. I first got exposed to the term during my first job at Intel, and this was the way Intel got its success and market domination back in the day. They were not the only general purpose microprocessor on the market, and perhaps not even the best one. What they did do was understand the value of being "designed into the system" by working with the computer manufacturers to actually help them with the designs. In a lot of cases, they would do the entire system design for the manufacturer (which is where reference designs came from).

So what if we applied the same thinking to our products, as opposed to hoping to use leverage on the customer, or worse yet, competing on price?

What qualities would the product need to possess in order to be designed in? I can think of a few:

1. Business continuity (compatibility and integration with existing processes)
2. Interoperability (with existing systems)
3. Predictability (in businesses and in functionality)
4. Compliance (to various industry standards - maintaining or enhancing)

In addition, designing products for the design win would imply assisting the customer with deployment and training.

Don't get me wrong. Most companies and products already do most of these things. They provide training materials, design for common interoperability standards and protocols, obtain compliance certifications, but

do they go far enough?

What else can we take on to make this complex and risky task of introducing a new system or switching out systems easier for the customer?

I have a few thoughts around the product that I'm managing, but thought I'd throw this out there as a weekend product manager musing to see if it helps others.

Thoughts and comments are always welcome. #productmanagement