The document discusses challenges product managers face in applying lean startup principles to enterprise software, noting that validating concepts requires dozens of in-depth customer interviews rather than hundreds of pre-sale tests, adoption happens slowly through replacing pieces of complex existing systems, and metrics typically measure post-sale usage to determine feature prioritization and renewal. The document provides examples and recommendations to help product managers navigate the enterprise validation process.

1. Challenges of (Lean) Enterprise
Product Management
Rich Mironov
CEO, Mironov Consulting
23 Aug 2016
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2. • Veteran product manager/exec/strategist
• Organizing product organizations
• Smokejumper VP Products
• What will customers pay for?
• 6 startups, including as CEO/founder
• “The Art of Product Management”
• Founded Product Camp
About Rich Mironov
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3. Conversations, market information,
priorities, requirements,
roadmaps, epics, user stories,
backlogs, personas…
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Management
What Does a Product Manager Do?
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5. • Identify pain/need (e.g. user journey, interviews)
• Describe/position a possible solution
• Validated learning (mock-up, smoke test, MVP)
• Iterate to improve concept
• Early sign-ups (crowdfund, ask for the order)
• Iterate toward revenue product
Consumer-Focused Lean Validation
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6. • User is buyer
• We can talk to lots of target users (with plenty left)
• We can run A/B tests with product variants, sign-up
variants, pricing options, alternate messaging…
• Identifying need >> building solution
• User can commit ahead of shipment/value/use
Often-Unstated Assumptions

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• Proposition A/B testability?
• Buyer’s decision risk?
• Purchase complexity?
• Buyer’s success metric?
• Target audience size?
• Product technical risk?

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• Proposition A/B testability?
• Buyer’s decision risk?
• Purchase complexity?
• Buyer’s success metric?
• Target audience size?
• Product technical risk?

10. growth hacking

13. • High-powered (expensive) sales teams
• Small numbers of customers (100’s – 1000’s)
• Big ticket deals, long sales cycles, lumpy revenue
streams
 Subjective (political)
win/loss attribution
Enterprise Sales

14. • Few prospects, some already in funnel
• Heavily over-surveyed/over-marketed
personas (corporate CIOs)
• Can’t afford A/B testing with serious
prospects
• Sales wants to control every interaction
• Real decision makers not obvious
• Complex incumbent systems
• Need to show hard ROI/efficacy
Enterprise Validation Challenges
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15. Marketing/Sales Funnel
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Target audience
Aware
Interested
Evaluating
Buyer
Repeat Buyer
• Might take years with
dozens of touches
• Message and product
mostly stable throughout

16. • “Closing” meetings
• Organized by Sales
• Goal is to close
• Anticipate/answer objections
• Never raise new issues or ask about new needs
• Listening/learning meetings
• Organized by Product Management
• Open-ended questions
• Dig for blockers, issues, ideas, new concerns
• Trial-close unbuilt products, unproven solutions
Two Kinds of Customer Meetings
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17. • “A legacy system is any system that works.”
- Bob Epstein, Sybase co-founder
• Every enterprise is already (sort of) operating
• Uniquely confusing assembly of old systems, mis-designed
processes, inherited policies, acquired divisions, accidents
• We have to displace exactly one piece
Detailed Systems and Process
Contexts Are Essential
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18. No corporation ever fully replaces
any production system
Your product
fits here

19. • Bottom-up, land-and-expand, departmental
• Jira, Slack, product-level marketing, recruiting, productivity, travel, events
• Strategy: start with workgroups
• All-or-Nothing Major Systems
• ERP, finance, corporate HR, security architecture…
• Evaluation process, RFP, references substitute for real trial
Can Customers Directly Try/Test
Your Product?
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20. • Mironov’s Theorem #2: whenever enterprise
customers are really interested, Sales and Execs
will convert “learning” into “early revenue
commit”
• “Beta,” “early access,” “preview,” “early adopter”
• MVP is whatever we can
sell to someone sooner
Co-Opting “MVP”
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21. Solo/SMB accounting vs. enterprise accounting:
Validation approach, provability, mean-time-to-joy?
Collaborative Example #1
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22. Single-family health insurance vs. F200 group policy:
Validation approach, provability, mean-time-to-joy?
Collaborative Example #2
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23. • Every enterprise security company has the same
benefit headline
• “We will stop x% more bad stuff than competitors”
• How do enterprise customers choose?
Collaborative Example #3
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24. • How many of your users logged in this week?
• Strong predictor of Trial  Paid
• Strong predictor of Paid  Renewal
• Onboarding success, feature usage, problem
identification
• Finally, a non-vanity enterprise metric
Instrumenting (Cloud) Apps
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25. Prioritizing Based on Use
25Des Draynor, Intercom: https://blog.intercom.io/prioritising-features-wholl-use-it-how-often/

26. 1. Product/market fits into complex environment
2. Dozens of in-depth interviews replace
hundreds of pre-sale A/B tests
3. Intense pressure for one-off features
4. Must understand buying process/players
5. Market adoption happens slowly
6. Usage metrics typically post-sale
Enterprise Lean Takeaways
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27. CONTACT
Rich Mironov, CEO
Mironov Consulting
233 Franklin St, Suite #308
San Francisco, CA 94102
RichMironov
@RichMironov
Rich@Mironov.com
+1-650-315-7394