An Introduction to Product Opportunity Mapping
I launched Product Opportunity Mapping to help companies compare, evaluate and plan out new product ideas that will diversify their revenue and build corporate resilience.
After making an announcement on Linkedin, a few have asked – or want to ask – the Why?, Why Now? and Why Me? questions so I wanted to go into some detail.
Why?
My primary goal for Product Opportunity Mapping is to inspire companies to develop new products. I have a sincere belief that a flow of new products is the life blood of every single business and a product pipeline is crucial to a company’s long-term prosperity. Even for a company that is successful today, not having a stream of new products will eventually marginalize them into oblivion.
Why Now?
All companies want to grow and revenue diversification builds corporate resilience. Creating and launching new products – especially products that differ from a company’s current line of business – accomplishes that. New product initiatives are also an effective way to engage and inspire employees to be more innovative and to think differently.
What really accelerated this in 2020 was the pandemic and Alberta’s broader economic woes. More and more, my contacts reached out as they needed to take a fresh look at their corporate strategies and were questioning whether their current lines of business could prosper (and maybe even just survive) moving forward. For many, they concluded they needed to be more resilient which translated into diversification and creating new products for new markets or customers.
Why Me?
I feel I’ve been training for this for most of my professional life. To explain, there are three things you need to know about my career.
First, over thirty plus years, I had an amazing opportunity to work in many different industries ranging from software development, advanced manufacturing, real estate, hotels, finance and venture capital. Along the way, I always held c-level positions - whether in startups, scaleups or long-standing, well established businesses – and in each business I was fortunate to be part of a team that complemented my personal skills.
Second, in all of my roles I was responsible for growth. This included new product development, finding new customers, expansion projects or building investment portfolios from the ground up. As examples, I was responsible for revenue generation for a company that went from $6.5 million to $24 million revenues; I led 8-figure expansion and building projects; and was a CEO of a startup that doubled in size each year I was there. In all cases, growth was the result of creating products that customers wanted to buy.
Third, in every role, I was the “newbie” - meaning I didn't have any direct experience in the industry before I joined the company. While I have a business degree which is portable from industry to industry, I started in senior roles where I didn’t have a deep understanding of how wealth was created nor the norms of the business or industry. Over time, I came to love the steep learning curve and figuring out the fundamentals of creating value for customers and shareholders.
What I’m most proud of was that I always was able to make it work. Within 12-18 months, I was able to generate real results and become a leader in the field.
Overall, I experienced new product development process from many different angles and used my outsider status to bring in a fresh perspective. I was able to ask different questions (and in hindsight ask the dumb questions that I didn’t know were dumb) and provide a viewpoint that caused even the old-timers to question their assumptions.
Three years ago, when I launched A-Partners Ventures Inc., I had two main objectives. First, as an angel investor I wanted to build a portfolio of equity stakes in early stage growth companies and focus on businesses that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to create a competitive business advantage.
Second, I wanted to do advisory work but under two conditions. First, I only wanted to work on projects that excited me and second, I only wanted to work with people who gave me energy (for those of you who have watched What We Do In the Shadows, I will do as much as possible to avoid the Colin Robinson’s of the world).
Over time, these two priorities kept intersecting. My advisory work focused on helping companies spin out new products - which I loved doing - while my due diligence on investment opportunities centred on an entrepreneur’s ability to create a product and/or translate a technology or new idea into something that someone would actually buy.
By mid-2019, I recognized an overlap with the “mental model” for product development I had developed over the course of my career and I translated it into a written framework. With that foundation, I set a goal of validating it by talking to 100 people by the end of 2019.
I tracked my progress and by December 31, 2019, I had spoken to 94 (and got over 100 by mid-January, 2020) which allowed me to crystallize my thoughts even further.
I then tested the framework on corporate projects and asked for anonymous feedback after each session. Projects included:
an engineering firm, who typically sold its services by the hour, patented a novel construction material and used the framework to develop a product commercialization strategy;
a logistics company and an oil field services firm had developed software for internal purposes and wanted to translate their tools into external products to generate new sources of revenue. They each used the framework to clarify the market opportunity and solidify a winning value proposition;
a professional services firm used the framework to help plan the spin-out of a subsidiary company; and
a national charity used the framework to re-examine whether or not their programs were meeting the needs of key customers
Through these projects, I learned three things. First, I was on to something as there was a clear demand for curriculum and skills related to new product development. Second, companies who wanted to diversify had trouble creating products that differed from what they did day-to-day. And third, the product development process was very engaging for both senior leaders and their teams – not only was framework an effective tool to translate overall corporate strategic goals into day-to-day action plans, it could be used to gather new ideas and innovations from front-line workers.
Post-session feedback was excellent (some testimonials are here) and, notwithstanding a COVID-19 pause, more projects started to emerge. This gave me the confidence that I should take another step forward.
A Five Step Framework
This leads us to today and a more formal launch of Product Opportunity Mapping. As I said at the beginning, my goal is to inspire companies to develop new products so they can diversify their revenue and build corporate resilience.
The framework is a five-step process with over 40 exercises and discussion points and real-life case studies. Further, it is backed by my personal businesses experiences and aligned with global best practices.
While customers complete the framework with their own content, a key part of the process is facilitation. This ensures there is an internal consensus, alignment with corporate strategy and proper accountability measures are put in place – as well, I can help when the team gets stumped or needs to reframe the discussion.
It is also important to note that the framework can be customized to a company’s specific needs with sessions run in person or virtually.
Ultimately, the result is improved product development ROI.
Let's Chat
If this is something you or your company is interested in pursuing, let’s chat. The first consultation is always free. If I can’t help, part of my promise is to find someone who can. Book a meeting or visit www.product-mapping.com for more information.