Member Challenge
- Make critical decisions on building, buying, or shutting down product lines while aiming for growth and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Implement a rigorous self-evaluation process to accurately identify products that align with strategic goals.
- Develop and employ a versatile product evaluation framework to maintain agility, informed decision-making, and competitiveness in fast-evolving markets.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- A CEO should rigorously assess internal needs and evaluate product roadmaps, minimizing strategic errors and controlling development costs to speed up growth realization.
- By adhering to our methodology, a CEO will realize the importance of strategic alignment in product decisions, ensuring that every choice directly contributes to the company's overarching goals and addresses the dynamic needs of the market, thereby optimizing resource allocation and enhancing value creation.
- The adoption of a rigorous and versatile product evaluation framework facilitates quicker, more informed decision-making, enabling the company to swiftly adapt to market changes, seize growth opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge, ultimately leading to sustained long-term success.
Impact and Result
- Info-Tech’s approach necessitates a thorough self-review to pinpoint requirements for achieving business objectives.
- It employs a structured assessment method to gauge company competencies and identify potential obstacles and opportunities.
- It yields well-prioritized, strategically aligned product choices with business goals for products, services, or revenue generation activities.
Research & Tools
| Name | Actions |
|---|
1. Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Storyboard – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to assess internal needs and evaluate product roadmaps.
The Executive Brief found within walks through the information with the correct multidepartmental team structure to make critical product decisions.
Access your product strategy through self-assessment tools and guides.
Learn how to evaluate the market and potential
partners or competitors to decide what to do.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Storyboard
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2. Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Self-Assessment – A best-of-breed template to help you build a clear, concise, and compelling self-assessment of product strategy for stakeholders.
Here's how to approach this focused self-assessment:
- Define the scope and set objectives.
- Identify key factors and develop assessment criteria. Consider market demand, competitive landscape, financial implications, technical feasibility, and strategic alignment.
- Collect data through market analysis.
- Evaluate internal resources and capabilities.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
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Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Self-Assessment
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3. Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Workbook – A structured product strategy workbook to help you prioritize strategy activities and build a product roadmap to ensure success.
This workbook is crafted to help product leaders identify their needs and facilitate the practical evaluation and choice of potential product lines to build, buy, or shut down.
This workbook helps you:
- Use an interview guide method to critically evaluate your strategy and objectives, including examples of potential questions and their corresponding answers.
- Determine your company's criteria to develop, purchase, or discontinue a product.
- Implement the interview guide technique to systematically appraise various products that could enhance your company's offerings.
- Create a structured list outlining the profiles of top-priority products or potential partners that align well with your company's needs and potential.
- Formulate a proposal that clearly articulates the essential aspects of the desired relationship or partnership based on your company's key priorities.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
|
Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Workbook
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4. Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Executive Presentation – This presentation template uses sample data to demonstrate an ideal build, buy, or shut it down strategy.
Use this template to document your final strategy outputs including executive-facing business alignment and strategy highlights, key initiatives and summaries, budget proposal, goals and operating model, and functional project roadmaps.
| Name | Actions |
|---|---|
|
Build, Buy, or Shut It Down Executive Presentation
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Onsite Workshop: Build, Buy, or Shut It Down
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
Module 1: Align Team and Document Strategy
The Purpose
- Review your portfolio, select the target product area, and outline team roles and responsibilities.
- Conduct a self-assessment of your product, sales, and marketing capabilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
A self-assessment of your product roadmap strategy using an interview guide presentation and workbook
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 1.1 Identify team members, roles, and responsibilities. |
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| 1.2 Establish timelines and project workflow. |
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| 1.3 Modify and document your self-assessment questions and answers according to your company’s strategy. |
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| 1.4 Discuss your self-assessment questions and answers in a group interview to summarize and modify your evaluation criteria. |
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Module 2: Validate Initial Insights and Market View
The Purpose
- Identify product roadmap requirements needed to remedy missing capabilities.
- Build out evaluation criteria to prioritize products for evaluation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Documented internal and external product, partner, and sales requirements
- Your company’s criteria for investing in a new product line or shutting down a product or service at its end-of-life (EOL)
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 2.1 Identify potential product types by market segment, region, and industry based on your self-assessment and objectives. |
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| 2.2 Research industry analysts ‘ perspectives on the potential opportunities, competitors, buyer expectations, and market trends. |
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| 2.3 Establish product criteria and scoring attributes. |
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Module 3: Schedule and Hold Interviews
The Purpose
- Identify target products and competitors.
- Evaluate at least three competing companies.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A guided workbook evaluation of several competitors or potential products and why they are critical to your company.
- A prioritized list and profile details of high-priority, high-potential, good-fit candidates.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 3.1 Understand the market and potential target product types. |
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| 3.2 Create product roadmap criteria based on the competitive market research. |
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Module 4: Summarize Findings and Provide Actionable Guidance to Management
The Purpose
- Present final decision(s).
- Build, buy (contract), or shut the product down.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Proposal information based on the key elements of a product’s success or shut down
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Review all draft findings and rank them against the scoring criteria. |
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| 4.2 Product Strategy Refinement |
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| 4.3 Executive Review for Approval |
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| 4.4 Approach the selected partnership with a proposal. |
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