Is IT finally getting its act together? Well... at least one visionary has seen the light. In an article for InfoWorld, David Margulius writes about Susan Certoma (CIO for Wachovia) and her push to use product management for application development.
With IT projects running at a 50% failure rate, it’s about time that someone started using marketing concepts. Because new products are the lifeblood of a company, product management embraces a customer focus and advanced management methods.
The typical IT department is a slave to process and text-based requirements documents. On the other hand a product manager adapts to the needs of the customer and often works with prototypes. In fact, prototypes are the Lingua Franca of design... a common language that customers truly understand.
In 2000, I worked for a consulting company that created websites. As part of the design process, we’d produce HTML wireframes and seek customer approval. For one customer, the guys who wrote the HTML, spent hour upon hour coding HTML and discussing usability issues with the customer. Final bill? $500K for some HTML pages. The customer never worked with us again.
Today, I don’t have to deal with a bunch of HTML jockeys who are bouncing off the wall and have no concept of customer service. Instead, I can use a prototyping tool (for example: Irise, Axure) and a business analyst to create the wireframes. The analyst juggles technology with one hand, business opportunities with the other.
In essence, the tedious task of writing HTML has been outsourced to a software product company. Yes, new tools are one factor that allow IT organizations to shift focus to the customer.
In addition, few companies have realized that application development is really a customer service position. Application developers aren’t coding rock stars. The way to be remarkable in this space is by enchanting your customers with adaptive software that changes as the business changes.
Product management punches the ticket to this ride.
tags: Product Management
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