Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in …

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Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in a Complex Environment

In the world of enterprise software, building products that meet the needs of large, complex organizations is a daunting task. Enterprise companies have unique requirements, stringent security standards, and intricate IT infrastructures, making it challenging for product managers to develop solutions that cater to their needs. In this article, we will delve into the world of product management in the enterprise space, exploring the key considerations, challenges, and best practices for building successful products.

Understanding the Enterprise Environment

Enterprise companies are characterized by their size, complexity, and scale. They often have multiple departments, teams, and stakeholders, each with their own set of requirements and priorities. To build products that resonate with these organizations, product managers must have a deep understanding of the enterprise environment, including:

  1. Security and Compliance: Enterprise companies have strict security protocols in place to protect sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance. Product managers must ensure that their products meet these standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.
  2. Scalability and Performance: Enterprise products must be able to handle large volumes of data and user traffic, while maintaining high performance and reliability.
  3. Integration and Interoperability: Enterprise companies often have existing systems and infrastructure, requiring products to integrate seamlessly with these systems to avoid disruption.
  4. Customization and Configuration: Enterprise customers often require tailored solutions to meet their specific needs, making customization and configuration essential features.

Challenges in Enterprise Product Management

Building products for the enterprise comes with a unique set of challenges, including:

  1. Complex Sales Cycles: Enterprise sales cycles can be lengthy and involve multiple stakeholders, making it difficult to navigate and close deals.
  2. High Expectations: Enterprise customers have high expectations for product quality, support, and reliability, which can be challenging to meet.
  3. Limited Feedback: Enterprise customers may not always provide timely or detailed feedback, making it difficult for product managers to iterate and improve their products.
  4. Competition from Established Players: The enterprise market is often dominated by established players, making it challenging for new entrants to gain traction.

Best Practices for Enterprise Product Management

To overcome these challenges and build successful products for the enterprise, product managers should follow these best practices:

  1. Develop a Deep Understanding of Customer Needs: Conduct thorough research and engage with customers to understand their pain points, requirements, and priorities.
  2. Build a Strong Relationship with Key Stakeholders: Foster relationships with key stakeholders, including IT, procurement, and business leaders, to ensure that products meet their needs and expectations.
  3. Prioritize Security, Scalability, and Performance: Ensure that products meet the highest security standards, are scalable, and perform well under heavy loads.
  4. Offer Flexible Pricing and Licensing Models: Provide flexible pricing and licensing models that cater to the diverse needs of enterprise customers.
  5. Invest in Customer Support and Success: Provide exceptional customer support and success services to ensure that customers achieve their desired outcomes with the product.

Conclusion

Building products for the enterprise requires a unique set of skills, knowledge, and strategies. By understanding the enterprise environment, acknowledging the challenges, and following best practices, product managers can develop solutions that meet the complex needs of large organizations. As the enterprise software market continues to evolve, product managers who can navigate these complexities will be well-positioned to drive innovation and growth in this critical sector.

10 reviews for Building Products for the Enterprise: Product Management in …

  1. Reader

    Super relevant to today’s ecosystem on products
    I’ve found this book very interesting in understanding the difference between building consumer tech vs enterprise and the understanding of customer vs user. And the explanation of how to apply and evaluate the concepts learned is super important.

  2. Robert

    Good orientation guide when starting in Enterprise PM
    I highly recommend the book for all beginners in Enterprise PM. I wish I read it 3 years ago.The book elaborates on difference between customer vs users needs and the importance of other teams beyond Ux and Dev you need to leverage for overall product success in Enterprise environment.I was expecting more examples and how-tos for various Enterprise situations. Authors skipped description of how to recognize product oriented enterprise and how to drive the change from within. I think the book is more relevant for Feature Product Owners.

  3. ty

    Great primer on PM
    A terrific primer on the nuts and bolts of product management. While I believe this would be a beneficial read for anyone who is interested in getting into enterprise software product management, I would highly recommend it to anyone tangential to product management, i.e. sales, solutions consulting, product marketing, etc.I myself read this while I was in a solutions consulting role, and have since moved to sales, but it continues to be a beneficial guidestone to know what the product management teams I frequently interact with are actually doing. There seem to be many in sales, for example, who believe that product managers are catch-all geniuses who can solve any software issue that is thrown over their fence. To be certain, product managers often can solve a lot of these problems, but it is critical to gain understanding that doing so would require deviating from their biggest priorities.In summation, I recommend this book to anyone working WITH product managers as a way to gain knowledge and empathy as to how you can maximize your relationship with the PMs in your organization.

  4. ankush Grover

    Must have enterprise product management book
    Very well written book for enterprise product managers but mostly covers the basics and doesn’t go deep enough. Still very good for entry level product managers trying to understand how to do product management in enterprise B2B world

  5. Andrew Montalenti

    Highly recommended: there is no other book on enterprise product management on the market, and this provides a helpful guide
    “Building Products for the Enterprise” is a guide to Product Management, especially focused on B2B software companies. The authors of the book are PMs at Adobe and SAS, two of the largest companies by revenue in that category, and throughout they include some interviews with other PMs from other companies of various stages. The reason I enjoyed the book is that it covers what makes enterprise product management special/weird/complex, while also providing insights that could only come from hard-won experience. I particularly enjoyed the section on how to form the “product leadership team”, and the trade-offs of decision-by-committee vs nimble-but-silo’ed in roadmap planning. To me, this book belongs on a bookshelf alongside other material like Making Things Happen (Berkun); Peopleware (DeMarco, Lister); and The Mythical Man-Month (Brooks). Also a quick-and-easy read. Highly recommended.

  6. House of Rain

    Real actionable advice from real product management experts
    I really enjoyed this book because it felt relatable and applicable to my role as an enterprise software product manager. I already knew most of what they explained about market focus on users vs customers. Still those parts were described in such an interesting and concise way. I am motivated to apply more of what I knew about field support and product leadership teams but too frequently ignore in the rush for the next release. The other quarter of the book that was truly new and unique were the perspectives on product measurement and testing. I have just started to apply their advice and it is already starting to pay off significantly.

  7. Jonathan Ziv

    Recommended only if you are new to PM
    This is a very good description of the product manager role but missing the practical tools.I hoped this book had more detailed examples

  8. Kirst

    Quick read. Great info. Buy it!
    Great information for those of us struggling in the world of B2B enterprise applications. Some good nuggets of wisdom in there. Found myself nodding in agreement a lot. If anything, this book will confirm you’re either on the right path already or you’re not.I only wish there was more to it! It was like you guys were just getting started. Pretty short read. Write a sequel. I’ll buy it!P.S. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide, this isn’t it. But it does give you some basics to keep in mind as you plan, make decisions and execute.

  9. luc savage

    Livre interessant

  10. onet

    I was expecting a book on product management for enterprise software. But this is basically a book written by someone working IN an enterprise company.Not much useful information, you won’t discover how to manage stakeholders, how to maintain growth, how to test your user, how to know if you are building the right software. The only thing that you won’t find in another product management book, can be sum up in one sentence: PM building for enterprise company have two kings of customer, exec and day to day analyst, and you always need to balance your product into these two kings of people to have the best product

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