Product Management Tools: What Should Your Product Stack Include?

 

When talking about tools for product managers, we’re usually referring to the standard few that most product managers use every day. These product management tools generally include product analytics software, development tracking tools, and roadmapping software.

But a product manager’s job involves a lot more than gather product insight, tracking the backlog, and reviewing the product roadmap. Whether you’re a new product manager or a seasoned PM just wanting to make sure you’re not missing a key component of your role because you’re lacking the proper tool—the following is a list of product management tools to help you excel in your role.

12 Product Management Tools to Have in Your Product Stack

1. User tracking and analysis tools (such as Pendo and Amplitude)

These tools can be invaluable sources of intelligence and insight into how your software’s users or your website’s visitors are actually engaging with your product and your content.

Whereas customer surveys or interviews — which are valuable tools in their own right — will tell you only what your customers say and think product analytics platforms capture and help you analyze what those customers actually do.

If your company sells software or just maintains a lot of content on a website, deploying a service like Pendo or Amplitude can uncover important realities about what resonates with your users, and what doesn’t.

2. Roadmapping software (such as ProductPlan)

Roadmapping software is a must-have item on any list of product management tools. Using any non-native roadmap application to draft and maintain your product roadmap (such as spreadsheets or slide decks) will create far more work, be far less flexible and easy to share, and more prone to version-control issues that can slow your product’s progress. This is exactly why we built ProductPlan.

ProductPlan makes it easy for product teams to build and collaborate on product roadmaps. A visual, interactive roadmap is much more effective for communicating product strategy and helps align your team around your product vision.

3. Customer survey tools (such as SurveyMonkey or Typeform)

What’s great about web-based survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform is that they have so many types of pre-formatted questions that, whether you want to offer multiple-choice questions, drop-down lists, or just open comment fields, you can put together a survey in minutes.

You can then send the survey out to your customers and easily track and analyze the results.

For gathering quick answers to important user questions, these tools are extremely helpful. But beware: Like email, online survey tools are so easy, convenient, and inexpensive that it can be tempting to overuse them. Use your surveys sparingly, so as not to upset your user base.

For gathering quick answers to important user questions, these tools are extremely helpful. But beware: Like email, online survey tools are so easy, convenient, and inexpensive that it can be tempting to overuse them. Use your surveys sparingly, so as not to upset your user base.

4. Recording apps for customer interviews (such as GoToMeeting or Zoom)

When you speak on the phone with customers, even if you’re just calling to answer a question, it’s always a great idea to record the call. Using a tool such as GoToMeeting or Zoom makes it easy to record those conversations and reference them later. You never know when a customer will offer valuable insight, ask a question you realize a lot of other users will have, or just share with you a novel why they’re using your product that you might not have otherwise thought of.

5. Industry analyst accounts (like Gartner or Sirius Decisions)

Here’s a tool you probably wouldn’t immediately think of as part of the product management tool stack — but depending on your industry and target customer, you might want to consider it.

Having access to the collective industry research and the latest thinking of the analysts covering your space can be extremely beneficial in terms of guiding your strategic thinking and helping you determine where your market is headed. The statistics and reports these research firms (such as Gartner or Sirius Decisions) output can give you just the types of data you need to prioritize and earn stakeholder buy-in for specific themes and features on your product roadmap.

Of course, this will be among the most expensive product management tool on this list, so you might need to use your powers of persuasion (which you no doubt have as a product manager) to convince your management team of its value.

6. Team messaging tools (such as Slack or Confluence)

When your product development, or any complex and cross-functional initiative, gets underway, you will want an easy and immediate means of communicating — as well as maintaining an ongoing record of all communications related to the initiative.

Thankfully, there are many simple, cloud-based tools that allow for just this type of easy and centralized team communication. Slack and Atlassian’s Confluence are a few that come to mind.

7. Presentation software (like PowerPoint or Keynote)

We often point out how inefficient presentation tools are for roadmaps. But that doesn’t mean that PowerPoint or Keynote shouldn’t have a prominent slot in your product management toolkit.

Presentation decks can be invaluable for communicating your high-level strategies, visions, and plans across your organization and to external audiences like customers.

Vision decks, for example, can be a powerful way of communicating your product’s vision to a group of executive stakeholders and earning their buy-in. Presentations can also be a highly effective way of conducting sales training or educating industry analysts about your product.

8. Project management tools (such as Jira, Pivotal Tracker, or Trello)

Like the team messaging tools we listed above, today’s project management applications are much more robust and provide a simplified means of tracking and documenting details.

Using a web app such as Trello, for example, you can track and share various items with relevant team members by grouping these items into easy-to-view Boards — such as “Sales Collateral in Progress” — and then creating individual Cards below, such as “Product Data Sheets” or “Case Studies.” These cards can easily be dragged and dropped under different Boards — say, from “In Progress” to “Under Review.”

Other popular project management tools include Microsoft Project, which teams typically arrange in Gantt chart format, and Jira, which is often configured as a less visual issue-tracking tool. And tools like Pivotal Tracker will help you to execute on your roadmap and keep your backlog organized.

9. Feature flagging software (such as Split.io or LaunchDarkly)

Feature flags give product teams an easy way to “turn on and off” specific features once code has been deployed to production. This comes in handy in a number of scenarios: coordinating a big feature launch, A/B testing, rolling back a new problematic feature.

Tools such as Split.io and LaunchDarkly empower product teams to manage feature flags and get the most out of their usage.

10. Session replay and heatmap tools (such as FullStory or Hotjar)

As a product manager, you spend a lot of time trying to dig into the minds of your customers and unearth exactly what the experience of using your product is like for them. With tools like FullStory and Hotjar, you can get insight into user behavior like never before.

Heatmap software helps you understand exactly what users on your site care about by visually representing their on-site behavior. This insight can be extremely valuable as supplemental data for your product team. A heatmap in conjunction with a number of session replays and a few customer interviews will give you plenty of data to make an informed product decision.

11. Flowcharting tools (such as Visio)

Although not all product managers use flowchart and diagram applications, the affordability and ease of use of these tools make them a great way of performing a step that many PMs overlook but shouldn’t — customer journey mapping.

Creating a customer journey map is helpful in giving you and your organization a clearer view of your customer’s full experience with your company. When created properly, a journey map will show all of the touchpoints an individual has with your organization from the first visit to your website (or the first call from one of your sales reps) through purchasing and using your product.

Journey maps can also focus specifically on the full experience of using your product — say, from the first visit to the site, through completing an online form, through any contacts the user has with your sales reps or other staff, through downloading and logging in to your tool.

Flowcharting and diagramming tools — like Microsoft Visio and OmniGraffle — can be helpful in mapping out any specific aspects of a user’s workflow or experience with your product. And because they offer a visual view of that workflow or experience — as opposed to merely a list of steps your customer will take — the flowcharts you output from these tools can then help you uncover insights into how to strategically prioritize your product roadmap.

12. Idea-capture and collaboration tools (like Evernote and Google Drive)

Finally, don’t forget the business productivity tools to capture ideas, review and share notes from meetings, and organize your insights into cohesive plans to earn stakeholder support.

Here we’re thinking about idea-capturing tools like Evernote, cloud-based collaboration apps like Google Drive, Dropbox — and even paper and pen because sometimes inspiration strikes when your smartphone is across the room!

Get a Budget for Your Product Management Tools

Requesting budgets for a tool is still a relatively rare occurrence for product teams, who traditionally haven’t had any dedicated budget and rarely ask for anything financial other than approving travel expenses or a new laptop. So, how do you successfully broach this subject with the executives holding the purse strings?

1. Make assumptions

Paint a picture of how life will be better once you have this tool because you’re either more productive, more nimble, your customers are happier, you’re saving the company money or you’re improving time to market, you can begin trying to quantify those benefits.

For example, having a requirements management tool will save the team 15 hours per week and reduce the likelihood that customer requests will fall through the cracks, which will reduce the average turnaround time from customer feedback to deployed feature by one sprint.

2. Strength in numbers

While a tool that only helps product management is still valuable, a much stronger case can be made when the tool will benefit other groups in the organization. This could be via direct usage—meaning that not only will product management use this tool but it will also be utilized by customer support or engineering—or as an indirect benefit where the output of the tool will be consumed by another group and make them more efficient as well. In addition to benefitting more than just the product management team, it also gives you another executive in your corner when it’s time to ask for money.

3. Acknowledge the alternatives

In most cases, there are multiple vendors offering specialized software solutions that address your needs. Even if you have already settled on a particular vendor, do your homework and include the other options as part of your pitch.

You can highlight why the solution you’re sweet on is superior, whether it’s the features or the cost, and potentially have a fallback plan if there’s a cheaper, inferior choice you could live with if you can’t get the full budget you were looking for.

4. Try the free-trial

If the tool you want has a free trial, dive in and start using the product before you even broach the budget subject with the powers that be. Not only will you be able to confirm that it’s the tool you want, but you can also collect more data to strengthen the business case when the trial is ready to expire, and you can demonstrate exactly how your team is using it.

5. Overcome the uncomfortable ask

Product teams aren’t used to requesting a budget for tools, but that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t deserve them. High performing organizations need tools and processes that support their growth and expanding portfolio, so there’s no shame in requesting the budget required to equip your team with tools that can truly make a difference. Even if the funds aren’t available immediately, you can at least start the conversation to carve out a dedicated product management tool budget for the next planning round to get them in the future.

https://tinyurl.com/32exabzz

Tactics for Managing Change

 

Managing change in an organization is crucial for encouraging new growth and instilling confidence in employees. Therefore, managers must provide leadership and inspire employees to make changes themselves.

After observing changes in numerous industries, I created an 11-item checklist for managers to use to manage and promote change.

1. Be a Change Agent

Embrace change instead of simply letting it happen. Become involved, and be an agent of it. Work hard to realign the way you think about it. Typically, when organizations experience change, there are gaps and spaces – organizational uncertainty – about things like ill-defined roles.

2. Utilize the Empowerment

Many times, the best way to be a change agent is to utilize the empowerment you have been given and do a power grab. If there are things to accomplish, just do it! Don’t wait until deciding if it is the organization’s responsibility or yours. If it’s a gap and needs to be filled, then fill the gap.

3. Focus on Short-Range Objectives

When you are trying to work on change, instead of looking at the big vision of where you want to go, create a series of short-range objectives. It is good for you, the manager, as well as the organization that reports to you.

4. Get Resistance Out in the Open

As you manage the changes, understand any resistance that is out there. In other words, if you are proposing something different, make sure to:

• Propose it,
• Get it out there, and
• Figure out why there is resistance to it.

That way, you can understand how it is going to work. In fact, you can couch it like this, “Hey, we’re going to be agile. Let’s perform an experiment. You have these reasons why it won’t work, but we want to try to move in this direction. Let’s do this for x period of time and see if those concerns come up. Then, we can adjust.”

5. Lead by Being a Motivator

If you are a line manager and trying to be a change agent, encourage and motivate people to be willing to experiment, be agile, and be leaders. Leaders create followers. That is a crucial part of the process as is motivation.

6. Encourage Initiative

It is important to realize that all the ideas cannot be yours as the manager. Encourage the initiative from people reporting to you. If you can ultimately get people motivated and following you, then have them help you establish short-range objectives. Get them to find the power grabs out there and be their own change agent. The best thing a manager can do is to lead a group of fellow change agents. 

7. Create a Supportive Work Environment

During this time of change, people will be more stressed than not. For example, they may be thinking … Does this change mean that my job is going to change? Will I still be needed? I won’t be as valuable. The people I work with might not be here because of the reorganization.

Those are all the thoughts going through people’s minds when they are in the middle of a major change. Create the most supportive work environment that you can so that people have a chance to feel comfortable and have a safe space. They need to know that there will be good communication throughout the process.

8. Pass Out More Psychological Paychecks

Because of all the stress, you must provide more psychological paychecks. In other words, subconsciously they are thinking, “Is my job going away or changing? What’s going to happen to the people around me?”

Before they put those thoughts into words, pay them the support they need by saying, “Wow, what you’re doing is really valuable. I’m sure glad we have you doing that. I can’t imagine what we would do if we didn’t have you.”

Little encouragements like that go a long way. Before people can figure out the words to describe the stress they are feeling, they already have reinforcement. They think to themselves, “Hey, wait a minute. My boss just told me how this couldn’t be done by anyone else but me. Wow! That’s really cool.” Once that individual is comfortable, they can help the other people around them to accept the change. That is an excellent way for managers to create change agents within their organization. 

9. Increase Communication

What I have just talked about has really increased communication, which is a critical part of a supportive environment. But another crucial element is to ensure that people communicate with each other effectively. 

10. Reduce the Level of Job Stress

Do whatever you can to reduce the level of job stress during times of change. This is not the time to do 10% more with 10% less time and resources. This phase requires extra space for people to maneuver. Provide opportunities for them to think about things – how to be a change agent and what are ways to be able to do that.

11. Proactively Encourage Risk-Taking

Do whatever you can do to make employees feel better so that they are comfortable with change. Once this occurs, the next step is to encourage team members throughout your organization to proactively take on risk.

Sliwa Leads by Example

When I was at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as their new President, I was concerned about trying to create change and to encourage the faculty members and managers to follow suit.

I gave a speech to about 1,500 people and talked about how it was important to have a model to reduce risk aversion because many things are broken and need fixing. One reason that there was little change was that people were afraid of making mistakes. It was a very control-oriented organization, partially because of the extensive military influence. I tried to send the message that we must reduce the risk of making mistakes. My main point was, “Don’t be afraid of making mistakes!”

I encouraged people to:

• Not be afraid of making mistakes.
• Identify them.
• Correct them.
• Avoid them in the future.
• Learn from the experience.

Early on, I made what many of the faculty viewed as a major mistake. I appointed a dean who they did not feel comfortable with, nor did they approve of the process I used. I had consulted numerous people about the position, talked it out, found out what I required, and then made a selection.

They were not happy with that. After a couple of days of people visiting me and explaining how upset they were, I said, “Okay. I made a mistake and will correct it. For this particular dean position, I will list my requirements and ask the faculty to conduct a search and provide three candidates. From there, I will make the final choice.” They liked that idea and moved forward. Even though we ended up with a candidate who did not satisfy all my requirements, it was a joint project. 

About six months later when I had built some rapport, several faculty members said to me, “Yes, Sliwa leads by example. He told us to go out there and make mistakes. And by golly, that’s what he did. Right from the beginning, he made a huge blunder.” I had to chuckle about that because it is a fun faculty interpretation of the situation. It ended up being a little endearing. 

About five to eight years after I left Embry-Riddle, some faculty members were talking to faculty at another institution. They said some kind things about my tenure and also brought up the fact that I encouraged taking risks and making mistakes. I had also made plenty of errors in the beginning, such as the dean appointment, but I was willing to correct them. At the time, they were shocked that a President would listen and be willing to admit and correct his/her mistakes.

I was true to my principles. If you make a mistake, own it, correct it, and then avoid it in the future. That experience created endearment between the faculty and me.

https://tinyurl.com/f6dj2sat

How to Measure Innovation

 

By Mark Malinoski & Gail Stout Perry

https://tinyurl.com/2s459w7a

Реальный кейс: потеря миллиардного бизнеса из-за проблем стратегического управления

 

Сегодня разбираем реальный бизнес кейс о том, как потерять миллиард долларов. Такая перспектива вполне реальна для тех, у кого он есть. Риск особенно велик, если управление бизнесом недостаточно качественное.

Речь пойдёт не о всем известной истории про того, кто учил, что нужно делать тем, у кого нет миллиарда. Речь о том, какие бывают последствия, если стратегические решения не принимаются или по свойствам системы управления не могут приниматься вовремя.

Мы выясним, что такие последствия возникают по причинам низких когнитивных способностей системы управления компании, недостатка информации или ошибочных представлений о поведении рынков.

Бытовой уровень стратегического управления с тяжёлыми последствиями

Несколько лет назад я работал в крупной холдинговой компании, которая владела несколькими вполне успешными компаниями. В структуре этой корпорации существовал департамент, в обязанности которого входили стратегические вопросы: разработка стратегии холдинга, проверкой и утверждением стратегий компаний, контролем их реализации, отслеживанием действий конкурентов и т.п.

Назывался этот департамент тоже интересно: департамент портфельной стратегии. По сути, это было совмещение управления портфелем бизнесов и участия в их управлении через советы директоров и функциональное управление департаментами стратегии.

Часть сотрудников департамента работала непосредственно с бизнес-активами. Они состояли в советах директоров этих компаний и принимали активное участие в разработке и утверждении их стратегий и решении некоторых операционных вопросов. Разумеется все мы общались между собой, делились мнениями на совещаниях и в частных беседах.

В те годы ещё не было методологии оценки качества системы стратегического управления. В связи с этим у меня нет точных данных о том, какой был уровень у этой компании. Субъективно оценка была где-то между красной и фиолетовой линией на диаграмме ниже. В общем, уровень был ниже среднего и мы сейчас увидим, чем это всё закончилось.

Однажды, в преддверии кризиса 2008 года, у меня случился разговор с одним из таких руководителем, который состоял в совете директоров девелоперской компании. На тот момент её капитализация оценивалась в миллиард долларов. Наш разговор шёл о возможных проблемах в этом довольно большом девелоперском бизнесе. Это была просто беседа, между делом.

Отмечу, что специального регулярного совещания по вопросам изменений внешней среды, их возможных последствий и разработке ответной реакции на них формально не существовало. Поэтому я этот вопрос поставил в частном порядке, из чистого любопытства, т.к. сам занимался другими направлениями бизнеса.

Предвестники кризиса: макро, микро и явные сигналы о проблемах компании

Небольшая предыстория. Весной 2008 года сигналы о возможных проблемах в экономике уже были довольно ощутимы: в большом объёме стали появляться аналитические статьи о надвигающемся кризисе и его последствиях. На эту тему можно было посмотреть материалы Михаила Хазина, Олега Григорьева, Нуриеля Рубини и других.

Более того, в тот момент не нужно было быть очень продвинутым аналитиком, чтобы понять, что кризис уже начался. Уже устойчиво падали цены на нефть и фондовые рынки.

Поэтому прогнозы о том, что спрос на недвижимость будет падать, а перегретый рынок недвижимости может испытать большие проблемы, были известны почти всем. Вопрос был только в том, верим мы в эти прогнозы или нет, и как мы реагируем на эти прогнозы.

Начитавшись всего этого, я высказал свои опасения в разговоре с директором направления девелопмента. В ответ он заверил меня, что никаких проблем быть не должно, и даже обосновал этот вывод.

Обосновал тем, что компания фокусируется не на потребительский рынок, а на рынок коммерческой недвижимости. В том смысле, что рассматриваемая дочерняя компания занималась в основном строительством офисной и торговой недвижимости, а прогнозируемые проблемы со спросом, дескать, ожидаются на рынке жилой недвижимости.

Это была довольно большая ошибка, ведь известно, что рынок бизнес недвижимости гораздо чувствительнее к изменениям конъюнктуры. Профессионалы отрасли должны бы были знать это. Но все могут ошибаться. Гораздо большей ошибкой было то, что данный вопрос не был изучен дополнительно и не поставлен на обсуждение на совете директоров.

Почему теоретические представления менеджмента расходятся с реальностью

Конечно, отраслевым специалистам могут быть виднее тонкости поведения субъектов рынка, поэтому разговор закончился ничем. Мы дружно пожали плечами и всё шло своим чередом. А теперь время вспомнить, как в действительности (буквально через несколько месяцев после разговора) эти рынки реагировали на кризис.

Практика показала, что сегмент коммерческой недвижимости оказался гораздо более чувствительным к кризису, показав критическое сжатие, тогда как потребительский сегмент отреагировал даже повышением спроса. Это было связано с существованием значительного отложенного спроса на жилую недвижимость в виде накоплений, которые люди во время кризиса решили срочно вложить в недвижимость.

Эту особенность потребительского поведения и почему она возникает мы сейчас рассматривать не будем, но отметим, что для принятия верных стратегических решений знание особенностей потребительского поведения на тех или иных рынках часто является ключевым. И для того, чтобы не только определять эти особенности, но и руководствоваться ими при принятии решений, в компании должны существовать специальные процедуры.

Тонкости функционирования отдельных рынков вы будете подробно изучать в ходе разработки реальных стратегий в специальной проектно-тренинговой программе по разработке стратегии компании, которая включает несколько опций, в том числе практикум по разработке стратегии, адаптированный для проектной команды.

Так что же случилось с бизнес сегментом рынка рассматриваемой компании? Бизнес в целом начал реагировать на кризис довольно резко (можно даже сказать, панически) и стал стремительно сжиматься. В том числе и в буквальном смысле — снижать занимаемую в офисах площадь. Спрос на офисную недвижимость резко упал, стоимость аренды и заполняемость площадей резко снизилась, а стоимость активов рассматриваемой нами компании упала в разы.

Чем это кончилось в итоге?

Внешние проявления внутренних проблем компании: маржин-колл и его последствия

Все кончилось очень просто и довольно быстро. Такое беззаботное и неверное толкование менеджментом рыночных угроз кончилось тем, что корпорация потеряла значительную долю в дочерней компании и утратила контроль над этим активом.

Причина была в том, что стоимость этой компании резко упала, а так как значительная часть её проектов финансировалась за счет заемных средств, то возникла ситуация под названием «маржин-колл», и актив перешел кредитору за долги. Механика этого процесса уже не так интересна и может заинтересовать только юристов…

Нам интересно только то, что и как именно привело к такому результату. Я думаю это произошло потому, что своевременная продажа компании новому владельцу угрожала большинству членов совета директоров и топ-менеджменту и они сознательно или подсознательно избегали постановки этого вопроса.

Как угрожала, спросите вы? Да очень просто, это была единственная компания внутри бизнес-направления. Все, кто им занимались, остались бы не у дел.

Ну что же, те, кто делает мирную революцию невозможной, делают насильственную революцию неизбежной. Поэтому данный вопрос был поставлен самой жизнью, менеджмент этой компании всё равно сменился.

Другой негативный стратегический кейс и «эффекты успеха»

Пример, о котором мы рассказываем, не единственный – многие в тот кризис испытали сложные времена. Теперь давайте поговорим про другие, не такие большие, компании и про то, как принимаются решения, стоящие людям значительной доли накопленного капитала.

Владельцы одной такой небольшой компании, изучая выгодные области для преумножения капитала, решили вложить средства в большой земельный участок для строительства рыболовной базы. Выглядело это неплохо, однако, стоимость земли на тот момент была просто заоблачной. Решение они приняли и провели сделку в 2008 году незадолго до кризиса.

Буквально через несколько месяцев стоимость этого участка упала в несколько раз – и до сих пор не восстановилась. Это данные из первых рук, и таких примеров тысячи, если не миллионы.

Почему все это стало возможным? Можно, конечно, винить объективные причины, нежелание разбираться с негативными сценариями, стадный инстинкт и надежду на лучшее, но давайте скажем прямо: всё это может служить оправданием только для отдельного человека, а не для компании с эффективной системой управления.

Упреждающие сигналы о надвигающемся кризисе были довольно сильными, и время для подготовки к ним тоже было!

Логика подсказывает, что раз уж компания выбрала рискованную структуру финансирования проектов, то в такой угрожающей ситуации нужно было заранее избавляться либо от такого актива, либо от части его проектов.

Но кто взял бы на себя ответственность за это в обычной компании? Персонально взять ответственность за такой вопрос не каждому под силу. Ведь до этого все рискованные проекты были успешными.

Это пример, когда внутри компании возникают так называемые «эффекты успеха», которые программируют менеджмент на специфическое излишне оптимистическое поведение. Эти процессы успешного периода развития компании встраиваются и «цементируются» в её системе управления. И эти же процессы управления становятся причиной проблем в будущем.

Что могло бы помочь в этом бизнес кейсе?

Решение такого рода ситуаций должно быть «вшито» в систему управления компанией. Подобные сложные вопросы должны ставиться автоматически, исходя из периодически обновляемых сценариев дальнейшего развития компании. Именно такие решения являются частью стратегии и сферой ответственности процессно-ориентированной системы стратегического управления.

Можно привести в пример некоторых крупных бизнесменов, которые избавились от гораздо более значительных активов к началу кризиса. Со стороны такой выход выглядел довольно случайным или даже вынужденным, по крайней мере, если судить по открытым источникам, которые мы анализировали.

Тем не менее, своевременное принятие и, самое главное, реализация стратегических решений при возникновении изменений внешней среды – это ключевая вещь для конкурентоспособности компании. Если эти процедуры не встроены в систему управления компании, то всё будет зависеть от грамотности и решительности высшего руководства.

Проблема в том, что руководство в предкризисный период обычно почивает на лаврах, а в кризисный латает дыры. Источниками этих дыр являются проблемы стратегического управления.

В качестве примера и лирического отступления можно привести пример реагирования менеджмента компании в фильме «Предел риска» (Margin Call, 2011, реж. Джей Си Чендор) на угрожающий существованию фирмы прогноз. Были приняты тяжелые, но верные и быстрые решения.

Вывод по уроку. Что делать, чтобы не потерять бизнес

Реальная причина потери актива была не только в несвоевременности принятия решения или непринятии его вообще, но также и в том, что сигналы, которые имелись, не были соответствующим образом учтены и обработаны. Дальше кулуарных разговоров дело не пошло.

В компании не было соответствующих процессов «прослушивания рынка», отслеживались только действия конкурентов. Такой подход предполагает значительный лаг между внешними изменениями и реальными реакциями на них, не говоря уже о том, что действия конкурентов могут быть попросту неправильными.

Поэтому единственным выходом может быть создание такой системы управления бизнесом, которая по определению исключала бы такие ситуации. Это непростая задача, но те, кто решают эту задачу, становятся реальными лидерами, а не халифами на час.

©Дмитрий Рыцев — автор является основателем проекта Strategium.Space

https://tinyurl.com/nuc8xnm4

How to Create a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2025

 

Sam Lauron

We marketers know that creating a marketing strategy is essential to effectively nurture our customers, improve our business’s bottom line, and increase the ROI of our efforts.

A marketing strategy is especially critical if you want to use the highest ROI trends we've seen in 2024: short-form video and AI. To get powerful results, you must carefully weave both emerging trends and proven strategies into your plan.

What is a marketing strategy

A marketing strategy covers a company’s overall approach for promoting its brand to a target audience. The process involves research, goal-setting, and positioning.

A completed marketing strategy typically includes brand objectives, target audience personas, marketing channels, key performance indicators, and more.

I’ve found a marketing strategy will:

• Align your team to specific goals.
• Help you tie your efforts to business objectives.
• Allow you to identify and test what resonates with your target audience.
• Empower you to capitalize on emerging trends.

The last one is especially important. Keeping up with marketing trends is important for your strategy, but it could be a full-time job.

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan

I like to think of a marketing strategy as outlining the long-term goals and overall approach, while a marketing plan covers the specific actions and tactics to achieve those goals.

In other words, marketing strategy guides a business's overall marketing efforts. It includes goal-setting, market and competitor research, and messaging and positioning for a brand.

For example, say you’re creating a marketing strategy for a new fashion brand. Your strategy might target young Gen Z students and position the brand as trendy and affordable.

But, a strategic marketing plan is a detailed tactical roadmap that outlines the specific actions and tactics that should achieve the marketing strategy’s goals.

For example, the marketing plan for the fashion brand mentioned above might include:

• Targeted social media campaigns.
• Influencer partnerships.
• Online advertising timeline.

Both a marketing strategy and a marketing plan are essential for a business’s success.

To succeed in the fast-paced marketing world — and maintain a sense of relevance with your audience — it’s vital to stay ahead of the curve.

Below, I’m going to show you step by step how to create a comprehensive marketing strategy. But first, let’s go over the individual components that make up a strong marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy Components

1. Marketing Mix
2. Marketing Objectives
3. Marketing Budget
4. Competitive Analysis
5. Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning
6. Content Creation
7. Metrics & Key Performance Indicators

1. Marketing Mix

The marketing mix, also known as the four Ps of marketing, is the preliminary document you must create to understand what you will be marketing, where you’ll be marketing it, and how you’ll be marketing it.

The following P’s make up this framework:

• Product: What are you selling?
• Price: What is the price?
• Place: Where will you be selling the product?
• Promotion: Where will you be promoting the product?

You can then extrapolate this information into a full-fledged marketing plan for each promotional channel. It’s important to lay out the information in broad strokes so that you understand the overall direction of your marketing strategy.

2. Marketing Objectives

You can set your marketing objectives in conjunction with your four P’s, or right after. Either way, I recommend you outline your marketing goals before building upon your strategy. Why? Because your goals will inform other components of the plan, including the budget and content creation process.

With every objective, you should aim to be as specific as possible. Try to create SMART marketing goals divided by channel or promotional tactic, and don’t forget that you can always come back and revise your goals as your priorities change.

3. Marketing Budget

A marketing budget is an essential element of your strategy. Without allocating funds to hire the right talent, use the right software, advertise on the right channels, and create the right content, your marketing strategy won’t have a powerful impact. To get a high return on investment, you must first invest.

Pro tip: Remember that you can always start small — hyper-focusing your budget on one or two efforts — and build upon them once you generate an ROI.

4. Competitive Analysis

Knowing your competition is key when creating a marketing strategy. Without conducting a competitive analysis, you risk “yelling into the void” without measurable results.

Worse, you won’t know whether you’re differentiating yourself enough from the competition to effectively draw the attention of your intended audience.

You might already have an idea of who your competitors are, but I think it’s still essential to sit down and find them. You might end up uncovering a surprise competitor who’s vying for your target buyer’s attention and engagement.

5. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) refers to the process of delivering “more relevant, personalized messages to target audiences.” In other words, rather than publishing posts and advertisements on a whim, you’ll go through a methodical process for creating content that resonates with your target buyer.

During the segmentation, targeting, and positioning process, you’ll take three steps:

• Identify your target audience. This process entails not only interviewing your current customers but also carrying out market research and creating buyer personas.
• Target a segment of your target audience. It’s better to speak to a narrow group of highly qualified buyers than to send your message out to everyone.
• Position your brand alongside other brands. What do you do better than your competitors? It’s essential to map this information when creating a marketing strategy.

6. Content Creation

Once you have your budget, competitive outlook, and STP information, it’s time to create your marketing content. But, it’s essential to be strategic with your content creation efforts.

For one, you don’t want to publish random content that doesn’t solve for the customer, and for two, you must aim to capitalize on emerging trends so that your brand enjoys high visibility in the marketplace.

The competition is fierce across all formats. According to HubSpot Research, 44% of marketers use short-form videos as part of their content strategy, and 31% say it generates the highest ROI of all content creation formats.

It’s even more essential to invest in trends that have a high ROI, such as short-form video, influencer marketing, and social media DMs.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in blogging, one of the most proven content marketing techniques. It’s simply important to know where to allot the most resources, in my opinion, especially if you have a limited budget.

7. Metrics & Key Performance Indicators

Last but certainly not least, your marketing strategy must include metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure its effectiveness.

The KPIs you choose will vary depending on your business type and preferred customer acquisition channels. Examples of KPIs include:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC).
• Organic traffic.
• Conversion rate.
• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

Now, let’s dive into why it’s important to follow the steps of a marketing strategy.

Why is a marketing strategy important?

Without a defined strategy, you’ll essentially be throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. And that process will cost you money, time, and resources.

A robust marketing strategy will reach your target audience and have the power to turn people who’ve never heard of your brand into loyal repeat customers.

Here are just a few of the top reasons I think a marketing strategy is essential:

Offers Direction

A marketing strategy outlines clear goals and defines the path to achieve them. It pulls together all marketing efforts within an organization for optimal effects.

Targets the Right Audience

A well-defined marketing strategy helps you find and understand your target audience. This helps your business tailor your messaging and positioning to reach the right people at the right time.

Builds Brand Identity

A marketing strategy helps you create a consistent and cohesive brand identity. This makes it easier to align all marketing initiatives for increased brand recognition and loyalty.

Maximizes ROI

With analysis of market trends, competition, and customer behavior, marketing strategies help businesses find the most effective marketing channels and tactics to invest in. This helps businesses get the maximum return on investment.

Evaluates Performance

A marketing strategy defines key metrics and performance indicators. This makes it easier for your business to measure and track the success of marketing initiatives. It also gives you what you need to make data-driven decisions and optimize future campaigns for better results.

Marketing Strategy Process

1. Conduct market research.
2. Define your goals.
3. Identify your target audience and create buyer personas.
4. Conduct competitive analysis.
5. Develop key messaging.
6. Choose your marketing channels.
7. Create, track, and analyze KPIs.
8. Present your marketing strategy.

1. Conduct market research.

Before you can begin creating your marketing strategy, you need to gather useful data to make informed decisions. Market research is like playing detective, but instead of solving crimes, you uncover juicy details about your customers.

I think market research is important because it will help your business make data-driven decisions for your marketing strategy. It also makes it easier to understand your target market, find gaps, and make the most of your resources.

This process is essential for understanding your customers and adapting to changing trends. If you’re new to this process, this complete market research guide and template can help.

Once you have the data you need, you’ll be ready to set some marketing goals.

2. Define your goals.

What do you want to achieve through your marketing efforts?

Well-defined goals will guide your marketing strategy, whether you’re increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or diversifying your customer base.

Your marketing strategy goals should reflect your business goals. They should also offer clear direction for marketing efforts.

For example, say one of your business goals is to increase market share by 20% within a year. Your goal as a marketer could include expanding into new target markets, updating your brand, or driving customer acquisition.

Other marketing goals might be to increase brand awareness or generate high-quality leads. You might also want to grow or maintain thought leadership in your industry or increase customer value.

I find defining clear goals provides direction and clarity, guiding marketing efforts toward desired outcomes. It helps with resource allocation, decision-making, and measuring the success of marketing initiatives.

I recommend this SMART goal guide which can help you with more effective goal-setting.

3. Identify your target audience and create buyer personas.

To create an effective marketing strategy, you need to understand who your ideal customers are. I suggest taking a look at your market research to understand your target audience and market landscape. Accurate customer data is especially important for this step.

But it’s not enough to know who your audience is. Once you’ve figured out who they are, you need to understand what they want. This isn’t just their needs and pain points. It’s how your product or service can solve their problems.

So, if you can’t define who your audience is in one sentence, now’s your chance to do it. Create a buyer persona that’s a snapshot of your ideal customer.

Buyer Persona Example

For example, a store like Macy’s could define a buyer persona as Budgeting Belinda, a stylish working-class woman in her 30s living in a suburb, looking to fill her closet with designer deals at low prices.

With this description, Macy’s marketing department can picture Budgeting Belinda and work with a clear definition in mind.

Buyer personas have critical demographic and psychographic information. This can include:

• Age.
• Job title.
• Income.
• Location.
• Interests.
• Challenges.

Notice how I included all those attributes in Belinda’s description.

For B2B SaaS companies, keep in mind that buyer personas don’t apply solely to the end user. When you’re selling a product to another business, you also have to address the decision-maker, the financial buyer, and the technical advisor, among other roles, says Head of Marketing at Entrapeer, Hillary Lyons.

“You need to be able to tailor your message to each of these unique personas even though most of them will never actually use the product,” says Lyons. “You have to sell each of them on the unparalleled benefit you provide without muddling your [overall] message.”

You don’t have to create your buyer persona with a pen and paper. In fact, HubSpot offers a free template you can use to make your own (and it’s really fun).

You can also use a platform like Versium, which helps you identify, understand, and reach your target audience through data and artificial intelligence.

Buyer personas should be at the core of your strategy.

4. Conduct competitive analysis.

Now that you have an understanding of your customers, it’s time to see who you’re competing with to get their attention.

To begin your competitive analysis, start with your top competitors. Reviewing their websites, content, ads, and pricing can help you understand how to differentiate your brand. I think it’s also a useful way to find opportunities for growth.

But how do you know which competitors are most important? This competitive analysis kit with templates will walk you through the process. I like it because it will help you choose and evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and strategies of your competitors.

This process will help you find market gaps, spot trends, and figure out which marketing tactics will be most effective. Competitive analysis can also offer valuable insights into pricing, positioning, and marketing channels.

5. Develop key messaging.

You’ve figured out who you’re talking to, what they’ve already heard, and what they want to hear. Now, it’s time to share your brand’s unique value proposition.

In this step, you’ll craft key messaging that shows the benefits of your product or service that resonate with your target audience. This process should show off the research and work you have done up to this point. It should also incorporate your creativity, inventiveness, and willingness to experiment.

In my experience, well-crafted key messaging:

• Sets businesses apart from the competition.
• Resonates with the target audience.
• Is flexible enough to be consistent across all marketing channels.
• Builds brand credibility.
• Creates an emotional connection with customers.
• Influences buying decisions.

The key messaging in your marketing strategy is critical to driving engagement, loyalty, and business growth. These value proposition templates can help if you’re not sure how to draft this important messaging.

6. Choose your marketing channels.

You know what you have to say. Now, decide on the best marketing channels for your message. Your top goal for this stage of your strategy is to align your channel choices with your target persona’s media consumption habits.

Start with media channels you’re already using. Then, consider a mix of traditional and digital channels such as social media, TV, email marketing, podcast ads, SEO, content marketing, and influencer partnerships.

To streamline this process, I like to think of your assets in three categories — paid, owned, and earned media.

Paid Media

Paid media is any channel you spend money on to attract your target audience. Most of this spending is on advertising. This includes online and offline channels like:

• Television.
• Direct mail.
• Billboards.
• Social media ads.
• SEM (search engine marketing).
• Podcast advertising.

Owned Media

Owned media refers to (mostly) online channels your brand owns, including:

• Blogs.
• Websites.
• Organic social media.

It also refers to the media your marketing team creates, such as

• Videos.
• Podcasts.
• Ebooks.
• Infographics.

Earned Media

Another way to say earned media is user-generated content. Earned media includes:

• Shares on social media.
• Posts about your business on X or Threads.
• Reels posted on Instagram mentioning your brand.
• Organic news stories about your company.

To decide which marketing channels are best for your marketing strategy, look carefully at each channel. Think about which channels are best for reaching your audience, staying within budget, and meeting your goals.

For example, a business targeting a younger demographic, like Gen Z, might consider using TikTok or Reddit to reach its audience.

Don’t forget to take a look at emerging platforms and trends as you complete this review. You may also want to look at the content you’ve already created.

I suggest gathering your materials in each media type in one location. Then, look at your content as a whole to get a clear vision of how you can integrate them into your strategy.

For example, say you already have a blog that’s rolling out weekly content in your niche (owned media). You might consider promoting your blog posts on Threads (owned media), which customers might then repost (earned media). Ultimately, that will help you create a better, more well-rounded marketing strategy.

7. Create, track, and analyze KPIs.

Once you have a clear outline of your marketing strategy, you’ll need to think about how you’ll measure whether it’s working.

At this stage, you’ll shift from marketing detective to numbers nerd. With a little planning and prep, your analytics can unveil the mysteries of marketing performance and unlock super insights.

Review your strategy and choose measurable KPIs to track the effectiveness of your efforts. Pick a marketing analytics software solution that works for your team to collect and measure your data.

Ideally, I recommend choosing an analytics platform that allows you to track data across all of your marketing channels — from emails to social media and your website. This centralizes all of your data, which makes it easier to understand how each channel contributes to your overall strategy.

You can then plan to check and analyze the performance of your strategy over time and identify the channels that bring the best results. This can help you refine your approach based on results and feedback.

Lexi Boese, an ecommerce growth strategist and co-founder of The Digital Opportunists, recommends making data a priority when building your marketing strategy.

“The more data you can use, the easier you can track your success,” she says. “This could be as simple as understanding which channels convert the highest amount of customers (to determine how your team should prioritize ad spend), or assessing whether you have a higher amount of first-time or returning customers to [determine] if you should focus on internal or external marketing.”

Analyzing KPIs helps businesses stay agile, refine their strategies, and adapt to evolving customer needs.

8. Present your marketing strategy.

A finished marketing strategy will pull together the sections and components above. It may also include:

Executive Summary

A concise overview that outlines the marketing goals, target audience, and key marketing tactics.

Brand Identity

You may want to create a brand identity as part of your strategy. Brand positioning, voice, and visual identity may also be helpful additions to your marketing strategy.

Marketing Plan and Tactics

Your marketing plan is the specific actions you’ll take to achieve the goals in your marketing strategy. Your plan may cover campaigns, channel-specific tactics, and more.

Budget Allocation

Defining a budget for your marketing strategy helps you show that your planned resource allocation aligns with business goals.

I think it’s important to get clear about your spending and how your proposed budget will impact the company’s overall business goals.

Timeline and Milestones

Marketing strategies can be complex and difficult for stakeholders to understand. Creating a timeline that outlines the different tactics, milestones, and deadlines can help.

Your marketing strategy is a living document. It will need constant reviews, revisions, and optimizations to meet your long-term goals. Prepare to revise your marketing strategy at least once a year to address market trends, customer feedback, and changing business objectives.

Examples of Successful Marketing Strategies

1. Regal Movies

Digital Strategy: Owned Media

Regal shares interactive Instagram content that’s not only relevant to its film-loving customers but also encourages them to interact with the content.

Regal’s Instagram post is an example of owned media because the company was in full control of the answers it shared with its followers. Interacting in the comment section was an opportunity for Regal to showcase its voice and brand to its audience.

And it clearly worked well. The post received half as many comments as it did likes, with an impressive 207 comments.

Best for: I think social media is a great owned channel to experiment with new ideas for your overall marketing strategy.

2. La Croix

Digital Strategy: User-Generated Content, Earned Media

I think user-generated content is one of the best ways to gain traction in your strategy.

It demonstrates your appreciation for loyal customers, builds community, and incentivizes other users to promote your products for the chance at a similar shout-out.

Plus, sometimes the content your brand loyalists create is really, really good. In this case, the consumer is creating a handmade needlepoint featuring the brand’s product.

Image Source

Pro tip: UGC isn’t reserved for consumer brands with visual products to share. B2B companies can also take advantage of UGC by sharing positive reviews of their product and incorporating them into their messaging.

3. Small Girls PR

Digital Strategy: Owned Media

Image Source

Small Girls PR is a boutique PR company based in New York, and one of the company’s talents is connecting with amazing clients. This post on Instagram is an effective marketing example, as it boosts awareness for their brand and offers social proof by featuring high-profile clients.

Pro tip: I find owned media in the form of PR is a great way to spotlight company executives and position them as industry leaders.

4. Tobii

Digital Strategy: Paid Media

Eye-tracking software company Tobii launched a LinkedIn ad to promote a lead magnet. While the brand may have created the guide specifically for paid promotions, it’s also possible that they repurposed a high-performing blog post into a downloadable PDF.

Image Source

In this case, all they had to do was repackage their current content, build an ad around it with creative assets, and run it.

What I like: In previous sections, I discussed the power of leveraging multiple forms of media in your marketing strategy. This is a great example of it.

5. Target

Digital Strategy: Owned Media, Influencer Partnership

If you’ve got the time for influencer partnerships, I encourage you to take full advantage of it.

Influencer marketing is when you partner with influencers to promote your content on their site. By doing this, your content reaches new audiences you might not be able to reach organically:

Target recently partnered with fashion expert and influencer Jeneé Naylor to collaborate on its Future Collective line. What made this campaign even more powerful was that Naylor was a former Target Team Member.

I love how this collaboration highlighted Target’s commitment to supporting its team members, even after they’ve moved on from the company.

Best for: Influencer marketing continues to have a strong ROI — 86% of marketers say influencer marketing was effective for their marketing strategies in 2023.

Recommended Resources

Here, I’ve curated a list of some tools with various functions that can help you track and measure the success of your marketing goals.

1. HubSpot Marketing Hub

The Marketing Hub allows you to connect all your marketing tools into one centralized platform.

Too often, you’ll find a tool that’s powerful but not easy to use. With this tool, you can attract users with blogs, SEO, and live chat tools. You can then convert and nurture those leads through marketing automation, the website and landing page builder, and lead tracking features.

With custom reporting and built-in analytics, you can analyze your data and plan out your next move.

What I like: HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates with over 800 tools, making it easy to create a tech stack that meets your specific business needs.

Pricing: Free plans are available; Starter - $15/month; Professional - $800/month; Enterprise - $3,600/month.

2. Trello

Trello keeps your marketing team on track and openly communicates about the projects you’re working on. You can create boards for individual campaigns, editorial calendars, or quarterly goals.

Built-in workflows and automation capabilities keep communication streamlined, and simplicity keeps your marketing team focused on the work that matters.

What I like: Trello’s visual elements and straightforward organization make it easy for everyone to stay on the same page.

Pricing: Free plans available; Standard - $5/month; Premium - $10/month; Enterprise - $17.50/month for 250 users.

3. TrueNorth

TrueNorth is a marketing management platform built to help you hit your marketing goals. Built specifically for marketing teams, TrueNorth turns your marketing strategy into a visual projection of your growth, which is used to create monthly milestones that help you stay on track.

What I like: TrueNorth centralizes all your ideas, campaigns, and results in one place, with everything tied back to your goal.

Pricing: Plans cost $99/month, with a free 14-day trial available.

4. Monday.com

Everything on Monday.com starts with a board or visually driven table. Create and customize workflows for your team and keep groups, items, sub-items, and updates synced in real time.

You can also transform data pulled from the timeline and use Gantt views to track your projects on Monday.com to make sure you’re meeting your deadlines.

Plus, with more than 40 integrations — from SurveyMonkey to Mailchimp and, of course, HubSpot — you can visualize your data and make sure your whole company is collaborating.

Best for: I think it’s best for companies with locations around the world or lots of remote workers, as it keeps everyone in touch and up to speed no matter where they’re located.

Pricing: Monday.com is free for two seats; Basic - $27/month; Standard - $36/month; Pro - $57/month. Contact Monday.com for Enterprise pricing. All plans are billed annually.

5. Semrush

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SEO continues to be a huge factor in the successful ranking of your website. But you need the right tools to do it successfully.

Semrush allows you to run a technical SEO audit, track daily rankings, analyze your competitors’ SEO strategy, research millions of keywords, and even source ideas for earning more organic traffic.

But the benefits don’t stop at SEO. I like that you can also use SemRush for PPC, building and measuring an effective social media strategy, content planning, and even market research.

Best for: Creating, implementing, and tracking your marketing strategy.

Pricing: Pro - $139/month; Guru - $249/month; Business - $499/month.

6. Buzzsumo

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BuzzSumo allows you to analyze data to enhance and lead your marketing strategy, all while exploring high-performing content in your industry.

Use the platform to find influencers who may help your brand reach, track comments, and find trends to make the most of every turn.

What I like: As your needs evolve, you can also use their crisis management and video marketing tools.

Pricing: Content creation plan - $199/month; PR & Comms plan - $299/month; Suite plan - $499/month; Enterprise plan - $999/month.

7. Crazy Egg

Need to optimize your website?

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I highly recommend getting started with Crazy Egg. You’ll be able to identify “attention hotspots” on your product pages, track ad campaign traffic on your site, and understand if shoppers are clicking where you want them to.

You can even make sure your “Buy Now” buttons are in the best place.

Crazy Egg also offers recordings, A/B testing, and more to help make sure your website is offering the best user experience.

Best for: If your marketing strategy includes optimizing your website, Crazy Egg is the tool for you.

Pricing: Plus - $99/month; Pro - $249/month; Enterprise - $499/month.

What to Expect After Following Your Marketing Process Steps

Ultimately, creating a complete marketing strategy isn’t something that can happen overnight. It takes time, hard work, and dedication to confirm you’re reaching your ideal audience — whenever and wherever they want to be reached.

Stick with it (and use some of the resources I’ve included in this post), and over time, research and customer feedback will help you refine your strategy to make sure you’re spending most of your time on the marketing channels your audience cares most about.

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