GE 10: Product DECK — a model for mid-cycle product management

The product DECK model is designed for product managers who are responsible for mid-cycle products. These products have already been launched and have traction but still have a number of years of growth and opportunity.

Work is split into four categories and resource allocation should be equally split across these four areas (at least when being introduced).

Delighters

Let’s kick off with delighters. Originating from the KANO model and arguably the most important category for long term product success. Delighters are features that will ‘delight’ users — not just satisfy them, but exceed their expectations. Delighters will encourage users to write positive reviews, convent from trial to paid, recommend the product to colleagues and stick with the product for the long term.

To find inspiration for your delighters you will need to do some deep market research and out of the box thinking. You should channel the ideas of your most creative contacts and colleagues. It is unlikely you will find delighters from customer conversations or as existing features in competitor products.

For B2B products, try searching the latest and slickest digital consumer products for innovative ideas.

Enablers

As the name suggests, enablers allow you to build future features quicker, easier, better and with less risk. Building an enabler is an investment made today to accelerate output and impact tomorrow. Enablers may include developing a design tool, creating a template, producing an API framework or even up-skilling the team through targeted training.

Enablers may not offer direct value to users but they are an essential part of building an efficient team. They also serve to motivate the team as better tooling helps them become more efficient and can eradicate boring and repetitive tasks.

Finally, enablers can offer competitive advantages as they elevate the technology stack and processes above the level that is widely available.

Inspiration for enablers can come from sprint retrospectives, the product team and the infrastructure/hosting teams. Ask the question:

“That was great — but what do we need to make it easier next time.”

Customer Requests

Executing a pipeline of carefully chosen customer requests is a great way to build an engaged supportive user community. Products like UserVoice and FeatureUpVote allow users to directly submit and vote for features and enhancements. But, if you provide this option you better make sure that you can follow through on delivering the most requested features in a reasonable timeframe.

Allocating approximately 25% of your resources to this area will help you consistently deliver on customer requests. Providing there is consensus on which requests possess the most value, your products will move forward and you will win positive feedback and support from your user community.

Inspiration for this work comes of course from your existing customers, but keep an eye also on requests from prospects and recurring themes within RFP and RFI documents.

Keeping the Lights On

Every product requires maintenance to keep it running smoothly, safe from bad actors and performing consitently. This is especially true for products that are experiencing rapid growth or are being used by ever-increasing Enterprise clients.

Formally recognising this work in the Keeping the Lights On category ensures you have dedicated resource to perform these important maintenance activities. Tasks may include archiving data, upgrading system components, running ethical hacks and optimising performance.

Inspiration for these tasks is likely to come directly from your product instrumentation tools and your service teams.

The product DECK model provides a simple balanced working process to manage mid-cycle products.