AMA: Gainsight Group Product Manager, Pavan Kumar on Enterprise Product Management

I usually ask myself a few questions when we are being asked to commit resources to 'tasks outside of the strategic product roadmap'. The primary aim is to not deviate from the core road map unless the short-term benefit (retaining the customer) is justified. 1. Is this feature request bespoke only and doesn't require any product-level change? - If yes, offload it to the 'professional services team' and bill the customer directly for the work done. Usually larger enterprises prefer getting the one-off implementation done through a verified team rather than trying to go through the hassle of implementing them in-house. 2. Do we need to enhance the core product to support this custom work? - If yes, does this help in repeat sale / add value to other customers? - If yes, get it into the product roadmap / implementation cycle. If the answer to both questions is no, try to renegotiate with the customer - if even this fails and retaining the customer still takes priority, commit resources at the cost of the planned roadmap - we try to keep this lower than 10% of the overall effort in a release. During the early stages of the product, it may be as high as 25%, but we would want to minimise the bespoke work as the product matures. The amount of bespoke work being done is also one good proxy measure of the product market fit.

Being able to support 'repeat sales' is one of the hallmarks of a scalable sales setup. As such championing the product USPs with powerful demos that bring out the best of the use cases is a task only PMs are uniquely positioned to enable, sometimes even before the feature is fully built. Producing a small library of such impactful demos and talk tracks in collaboration with product marketing and presales has the effect of greatly amplifying the impact our product can deliver.

A product usually graduates from the SMB mid-market customers to larger enterprise customers as it stabilises. Larger enterprises usually look for reference implementations before committing, which usually makes the overall sale that much harder. Some key features that usually cut across product modules that make a product enterprise-grade are: * As employee roles & responsibilities tend to be defined in larger orgs, they usually look for granular and flexible user access controls and permissions that mimic their organisation hierarchy - This is also a great monetisation opportunity with larger enterprises * Especially in a SaaS model deployed on the cloud, enterprises usually hate surprises/changes - and tend to look for ways to test changes before they apply - An isolated and production equivalent Sandbox environment to experiment is preferred * For high-volume SaaS products, compartmentalisation/isolation of traffic surges that are guaranteed, backed by SLAs * Robust data security and data retention model that is both transparent and the policies documented and certified * Periodic security audits & certifications that prove platform stability and adherence to industry best practices Many of these donot usually apply to SMB / longtail who primarily focus on quick onboarding, rapid turnaround on setup and usage.

No one answer suits all situations! Often the impact of a feature is not based on the size/complexity of the feature, but rather the 'value' it can deliver for our customers and most importantly - if it sets us up for launching more impactful features in the long term where it can become an enabler. As an example, when I was looking at reducing the cost of text messaging for our CPaaS platform- we were working with multiple vendors and each had certain minimum volume commitments and different price points per text message. I proactively took up an 'academic' style study to see if there was scope for reducing cost. I called my little module a 'Least cost router', that pushes the text message out via the cheapest path until the minimum commitments were met but in real-time. A seemingly boring feature that nobody 'wanted' or thought would be necessary, but once we ran a small pilot simulation we saw that we could easily save 30% on the costs. Implementing it meant we boost our profit margin directly. When our volumes and our global reach grew, this had a wider impact and played a pivotal role in maintaining profits. Doing our best work, and delivering value will always lead to a lasting growth story that can be truly ours :)

This has always been a chicken and egg problem, and the challenge itself is compounded by the fact that larger customers demand more scrutiny, (longer sales cycle). Depending on the maturity level of your product - If you are in an early build phase, it is probably worth going down a trial/beta period with a functional PoC built to demonstrate the product. - However, as the product matures and you onboard more customers, it becomes extremely challenging to entertain such requests, where having a smaller but dedicated solutions team that can work with the customer to steer the requirements according to your product capabilities becomes more and more essential. Where possible, having visibility into the pre-sales process especially keeping track of features requested in RFPs (Request for Proposals) allows us to be better prepared as a PM overall. This allows us to preemptively keep the most common asks demo ready even though they are not part of your core product.

* Know your customer - Often this can just be the investor in the company/company owner. Meet their basic expectations from the product first, and win their confidence. * Aim to build a functional prototype / MVP even before attempting to build a fully functional product - It is always important to be able to showcase your product and always be demo ready - Else we run the risk of being dismissed as vapourware * It's easy to get carried away by all the great ideas, Identify your core product USPs early on and stick to them until they are ready in some form. One of the toughest jobs as a PM is the ability to say 'NO' and prioritize mercilessly. * Know your work boundaries, and be prepared to go beyond the ask when the situation demands initially, but do not hesitate to ask for help - Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, rather demonstrates your capability. * Prudently set up a structure to delegate non-PM work early on - such as documenation, UX/design and leaving enough space for market / competitive research, formulating a go-to-market strategy, and processing customer feedback - these functions cannot be filled by anybody else. * Finally, have a clear path to support product growth worked out and do not be caught off-guard by early success. Good luck, this is one of the most exciting phases of being a PM! 

One of the core functions of an enterprise PM (on top of being a specialist and a subject matter expert) is their knack for 'abstracting' and 'generalising' requirements. As such few (not an exhaustive list) pointers from a candidate's past experience where they have demonstrated some of these traits in their past work would help them stand out: * Identifying macro patterns that can be generalised, and productised. E.g. building a flexible user permission schema vs building standardized user roles * Data-driven decision-making capabilities - Proactively measure usage adoption, derive actionable insights that feedback into the product roadmap * Obsession to simplify * Ability to identify monetizable assets and build product walls accordingly that provide incremental value

Some key traits that would really help in a fresh PM interview situation: * Passion for product, its inner workings, ability to interpret some of the best features and bad ones - Typically I ask the candidate to choose any popular tech product of their choice (say Netflix and compare it to Hotstar/ amazon prime). This simple exercise can reveal the candidate's thought process as they walk me through it. * Strong communication skills are a big bonus, but the ability to articulate and convey an idea in any format (written / verbal) effectively is a must * Good analytical ability, and cognitive/ reasoning skills * Overall a positive attitude with a willingness to learn