How to avoid born-to-die products

If there is one thing that characterizes the market today, it is its dynamism. Product life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter in order to adapt to changing market needs and competitive pressures. But there are still very complex products whose development cycles are very long, so they are at high risk of suffering the product manager's biggest nightmare: a “born to die” product. Let us look at the case of the market for space rockets to launch satellites. These rockets have development cycles of more than 8 years.  ESA and ULA have been the traditional dominators with a quasi-monopoly. When both launched the development of their new generation of rockets, SpaceX was only Elon Musk's dream: to design reusable rockets and reduce the cost of launching by 50%. Hardly anyone believed it was possible. Traditional manufacturers launched their new developments with objectives and specifications suited to the old semi-monopolistic rules. But sometimes dreams come true...

Product management: what, how and why?

We started a new professional project and a blog with it, and what better way to start than by talking about WeMake Consulting's mission. Ever since I embarked on this new adventure, the question I have heard most often is, "And what is your business going to be about? When I replied that I wanted to offer product management consulting, my interlocutors showed a great range of poker faces. The problem is that expressions such as product management, product roadmap management, product marketing, etc., have often been used as catch-all designations, which were as useful for roles in a marketing department as they were for operations or even technology. Add to this the fact that few companies have departments focused on product lifecycle management, and there is complete confusion about roles and responsibilities. In my opinion the best definition of product management is to ensure that the product is competitive. This simple definition comprises complex aspects:

ProductManiacs: Fortnite

I intend to open with this article a series where I will highlight certain aspects of product management with actual examples. When I considered this series, I thought of the typical examples used in the PM: Apple, Under Armour, Tesla, Inditex... and I was thinking of them when my children interrupted me by talking about a game that, in plain language, was "killing it". It was Fortnite and I, of course, had not heard of it until that moment and did not suspect that, from that moment on, it would be like another member of the family. If you have children between 7 and 18, you'll already know what the game is about: 100 players are on an island and only one can survive. It is played online and is highly addictive. The truth is that, like the Pokemon Go phenomenon a few years ago, I am very interested in understanding the reason for these trends, as I am of the opinion that luck cannot explain everything.

The 5 basic cost-out steps applied to the electric car

I'm an electric car enthusiast. I have already decided that the next car I buy (or rent, although I leave that for another post) will be 100% electric. But as I have a limited budget, I follow with great interest the evolution of costs and/or prices in a sector in full expansion. And it is extremely interesting to see the movements of the different manufacturers to accelerate the learning curve that leads to cost/km parity with internal combustion cars. In the cost-out, as in any complex issue, it is highly recommended to start from a very simple and common sense structure. Here are 5 simple steps to implement a cost reduction program: