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Transcript of Mdawson product strategy preso geek girls 12 7-12 sanitized
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Margaret Dawson, Vice President, Product Management & Marketing December 6, 2012
Product Strategy
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Build it and they will come . . . .
A technologist’s dream
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
And great engineering, design and coding!
Great products DO take a great idea
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡What is the problem you are solving?
➡Who is the product for?
➡Do they need it?
➡How much would they pay for it?
➡ Is somebody already doing it?
➡Are those competitors doing well? How well?
➡How do we keep growing?
Just some of the important questions:
But it takes much more
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
12 Steps to Product Success
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
1. Have a Vision!
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
I have a dream . . . .
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Symform Vision in the Beginning
To make cloud storage the same price as local
storage
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Symform Vision today (3 years later)
to build the world’s first “Exabyte Factory” by
crowdsourcing data storage over the Internet
and creating the largest global “virtual” data
center.
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
2. Do Your Research
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Many companies NEVER do market research
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Overall SaaS Integration Market Opportunity
Hubspan Confidential
$3B+ market opportunity for SaaS-based integration and
file transfer as well as high value-added brokerage services
for partners
B2B Integration
as a Service
$2B
Cloud
Broker
Services
$200M
Source: Gartner & Forrester Reports and Hubspan Analysis. 2012 Market Forecast
File
Transfer
as a
Service
$500M
PO & Invoices Top Integration Processes
Customer Business Processes they Integrate today (check all that apply)
48% 47%
41% 39% 39%
33% 31%
23% 18%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Source: Hubspan Application & Integration Survey, 2011
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Top 3 Priorities When Considering Cloud?
Data Protection, Self-Management & Scalability Top the List
70%
45% 45%
38%
32% 29%
21%
8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Ability toSecure Data
Easy to SelfManage
Easyscalability
Fast on-ramping ofpartners
DataRecoverycapability
"Pay as I go"Pricing Model
Requires noCapital
Expense
Other
Source: Hubspan Cloud Usage Survey, 2010
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Cloud Storage & Backup Market
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• Very large & noisy – large vendors
• Predatory pricing
• Low value add
• Average data stored 10-50GB
Consumer
• Single-digit penetration
• All players promising revenue here
• Economics still broken
• Data protection equates business existence
• Average data stored 500GB – 10TB
Mid-Market
• Minimal penetration
• Pain around very high costs of all storage
• Advanced security & privacy vital
• Data protection required for compliance & governance
• Average data stored in the Petabytes
Enterprise
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
3. Understand the Market & the Competition
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Being first doesn’t matter if nobody needs/wants the product
➡Being later to market is fine if you can:
• Improve on what’s out there
• Take a different twist on it
• Hit a different part of the market
First or Later to Market?
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
4. Choose Your Market Niche
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Find a place to succeed
I skate to where the puck is going,
not where it’s been! Wayne Gretzky
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
5. Know the Target Customer & Their Pain
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Small and Medium Businesses (SMB)
Who is our target customer?
Prosumer SMB Small SMB Medium 0 – 4 employees 5 – 99 employees 100 – 499 employees
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
What pain do our target customers have?
➡Data growing faster than their business
➡High cost and overhead to manage and protect data
➡Compliance and governance requirements
➡Tight budgets
➡Lack of resources force target customers to prioritize / lifeboat data that is backed up
➡Minimal to no internal IT resources
➡At risk SMBs that are not protected by a larger entity’s backup procedures
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
What scenarios will they use us for?
1. Offsite storage & backup
2. Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR)
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Prosumer
Who is our target customer today?
• Individual business owner or hobbyist
• Relies on word of mouth
• Minimal to no IT experience
• Has lots of valuable data
• Typical industries would be:
Photographer
Graphic Designer
Architect
Lawyer
• Might need to work with IT service
provider
• Very budget sensitive
Sally
Photographer
Best Images
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Small SMB
Who is our target customer today?
• Largest group of SMBs
• Once 50 employees, probably has at least
one internal IT person
• Struggles to stay current in multiple fields
• Typical industries would be:
Healthcare Offices
Engineering firms (CAD/CAM)
Advertising / marketing
Technology companies
• Only doing local backup and swap
• Owner approves all IT decisions
• Should be working with IT
consultant/service provider
Mike
Network/IT Guy
Tri Valley Clinics
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Medium SMB
Who is our target customer today?
• Usually has internal IT department but
under staffed and minimal budget
• Networks with peers for ideas and
recommendations
• Embracing the cloud to obtain next
generation solutions and save dollars
• Already uses SaaS applications
• Trying to figure out data management,
backup, DR, etc.
• Typical industries would be:
Healthcare Organizations
Large engineering firms (CAD/CAM)
Technology Companies
Manufacturing
Steve
IT Manager
Cool Designs
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
6. Identify a Go To Market / Channel
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
What is our go-to-market strategy?
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RESELLERS • Managed Service
Provider
• IT Consultants
• Technology Service
Companies
ATTACH • NAS Devices
• Storage Devices
• Other solutions
DIRECT • To the SMB or
Prosumer
• Focus on mid-
size to minimize
channel conflict
VIRAL • Freemium and
word of mouth to
drive nodes on
the network
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Value proposition by Go To Market
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RESELLERS ATTACH DIRECT VIRAL
• Higher margins
• Easy to deploy
• Instant Restore
• Handles large data
volumes
• Leading data protection &
security (Resilient Storage
Architecture)
• Can Contribute on behalf
of customers
• Complements MSP
management and customer
backup solutions
Adds instant cloud storage offering
High Margins
Increases value
their customers can
obtain from their
solutions
Competitive
differentiation
Great price
Flat fee pricing
eliminates escalating
costs
User licenses cover
multiple devices
Works with your
existing local infrastructure
Runs automatically in
the background, self-
monitoring, self-healing
Secure
FREE
Invite friends
Cool technology
More value when
collaboration is
added
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
7. Build a Prototype
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Find a Champion(s) & Validate
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Show it to everyone you trust
➡Get meetings with angel investors
➡Get people to play with it, break it, use it
➡ Identify a few “target customers” and get them to review it in exchange for free product, early releases, whatever
And hit the road
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡ If they don’t like it, start over
➡ Incorporate feedback and do your product plan
Update your product plan
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Do you have the skill set needed? Really?
➡Can you get help?
➡Do you need more money to get it off the ground?
Do a resource assessment
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
8. Build a BASELINE product
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Start with basic feature set
➡Don’t over-engineer
➡Go back to your research
What’s the BASELINE product?
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Faster to market with a ‘good enough’ product is better than a perfect product to market too late
Get the Beta out there quickly
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Get the beta out to as many people as possible
➡Make noise everywhere
➡ If you have no money, use social media, friends, family
➡Create a forum, facebook page, etc., so people can leave comments
➡Spend a little money to “launch” the product at an event where you’ll know there will be media
Find early adopters
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Good Examples of Simple Base Product
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
And not so much . . .
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
9. Build V1.0 with Feedback
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Even if you change just one thing, make a big deal about it, and show that you listened to your beta customers
➡V 1.0 (or a promised roadmap) needs to address biggest concerns and requests
Show You Listened!!
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
10. Believe in Marketing
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Entrepreneurs often “forget” marketing
➡PR can be most powerful and cheapest marketing tool
➡Combine with social media
➡ Invest in a product marketing person EARLY in the process
➡Get coaching if you are not a good spokesperson
➡Get OUT there: Blog, Tweet, Speak, etc.
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Marketing is now all about digital content
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
11. Stick to your Strategy while being Agile
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Stick with your strategy
➡Don’t change your pricing, product positioning, messaging, and channel too frequently
➡Give your strategy time to prove true and work or not
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Know when to make adjustments
➡Competitive pressures might cause it
➡ If something just doesn’t work right
➡Add incremental improvements quickly
➡Listen to your customers!!
But be Agile
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The Product Plan
Increase
Innovation
and
Revenue:
Decrease
Risk &
Randomization
A Balancing Act
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
12. Use Metrics!
www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
➡Market share
➡Topline revenue and bottom line
➡Customer satisfaction
➡Uptime or other reliability metrics
➡Release on time
➡Number of users or licenses
➡Share of voice
➡Web traffic
➡Conversion rates
➡Churn rates
Everyone should be metrics driven
Measure key indicators
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www.symform.com The Revolutionary Cloud Storage Network
Thank You
@seattledawson
Cloud Connect
Advisory Council
CloudNOW
Steering Committee