Product Management Beyond the Build
In this episode, Melissa Perri tackles a vital topic for product managers working in environments where building products from scratch isn't always the norm. With the rise of SaaS tools in large enterprises, Melissa explores the critical role product managers play in ensuring these tools are effectively implemented, customized, and aligned with business needs. This episode dives into the complexities of using pre-built tools and the essential product management tasks that accompany them.
Show Notes
What product management principles can be applied in an enterprise setting where teams implement a purchased SaaS tool rather than building their own?
The podcast discusses the role of product management in organizations that implement purchased software rather than building it. Melissa Perri emphasizes that product managers still need to evaluate whether the tools solve the right problems, customize them for their needs, and ensure they align with business goals. She encourages teams to practice good product management principles, regardless of whether they own the tools, and to communicate the importance of these practices to leadership.
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Episode Transcript
PreRoll: Creating great products isn't just about product managers and their day to day interactions with developers. It's about how an organization supports products as a whole. The systems, the processes, and cultures in place that help companies deliver value to their customers. With the help of some boundary pushing guests and inspiration from your most pressing product questions, we'll dive into this system from every angle and help you find your way.
Think like a great product leader. This is the product thinking podcast. Here's your host, Melissa Perri.
Melissa Perri: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Product Thinking Podcast. It's time for Dear Melissa. We go into deep questions from our listeners every single week, and you can submit yours at dearmelissa.com.
This week's question is all about what it's like to be a product manager. For a product that you didn't necessarily build one that was bought by the company and implemented. So let's dive in.
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Dear Melissa
Melissa Perri: Dear Melissa, my team supports enterprise service management across a very large enterprise using a SaaS tool.
We are split into four product teams and suffer from many of the shortcomings of product teams that create their own products. We have product owners who are expected to do many of the things you discuss as a product manager role, and our product managers are just their supervisors. Ultimately we have ended up being a feature factory because our pos don't have good training materials that show them what good product management looks like.
I tried sharing your talks, books, and ideas with leaders with most saying stuff like "This stuff is for companies that make and sell products.
It doesn't apply to us because we don't own the tool."
Do you think that topics discussed in Escaping the Build Trap and your other materials can apply to us as well?
How could someone in my position help leadership see the light? While we do use a SaaS tool, I see our product as being the service we offer, so I think it still applies. Please help.
Melissa’s Answer
Melissa Perri: All right. Great question, and one that I do run into from teams that buy software and implement it rather than build it themselves.
And there are so many teams out there that do this in every large enterprise. A lot of the companies are just buying SaaS software and then implementing it. But there are teams out there that have to go and customize it and make sure that it works for their situation, and that involves product management.
So we have to remember that even if we are not building this tool from scratch ourselves, we still need to figure out does this tool solve the problem? What problem are we actually solving with this tool?
What teams are going to be using it? What do we need to add to it or customize it? Is it actually like fit for purpose?
There's a lot of work that goes into it, and that's the core of product management. So many companies are out there extending different tools. They're really understanding like how their people are using it. And we're also thinking about, is this something that, is core to our business where we need to innovate and actually add onto this tool, or, make it a little bit better for our needs because it helps us with our position in the market?
Or does it affect our internal processes in a way where we do have to go back and think about, is this right? Is this the way that we actually wanna operate? So that's, that's really product management, right? You are owning this tool and you're figuring out is it solving the right problem for our customers?
Build vs. buy and the role of PMs
Melissa Perri: And that's a build verse buy decision. So in product management we, we talk all the time about build verse buy. Should we just buy this tool from a company because somebody else has solved that problem and it will work well for us, or should we build it ourselves? And just because you're buying a tool doesn't mean that you're not doing product management around it.
Like I said, figuring out, do we extend it? Is it solving the problem? You still have to do all of that. Set the goals. Understand your customers, follow up with them, see if it's actually working for them. And I've had people come to me and tell me how when they implemented the wrong tools or bought the wrong tools, there were huge detriments to the company.
In one organization, I had a girl tell me that they put this new tool in for developers and the developers threatened to quit because they did not like it, right? They didn't understand their needs. They did not figure out if this was the right tool for them, and then that caused them to go, oh, we have to, we're not gonna be here anymore.
And then once the developers started to threaten with that, they went back and they reevaluated and decided that they were gonna go with a different tool. That's product management, right? Even if you're integrating it into your systems or not, it's still product management. Product management is about discovering the right solutions to the right problems, and it doesn't matter if you own that tool from a perspective of, I built it or not, you still own it.
You still own the success of that tool. So that's what we really have to look at.
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Now, I'll give you an example.
Customizing tools for competitive advantage
Melissa Perri: There's one that a lot of pharmaceutical companies use a SaaS tool that they get right out of the box that helps run clinical trials. There's a bunch of tools out there that can do this.
If you're bringing that into a pharmaceutical company as a technology person and implementing it, you also wanna look at the tool and say, is this something that is going to give us a competitive advantage if we customize it? Or is it something that's just a commodity? And if it's a commodity, then you just use it out of the box.
You don't need to do any product management on it. You just need to make sure that it's implemented correctly. But if it's something that's going to give you a competitive advantage, like the way that you run your clinical trials, the way that you run your internal services, the way that you run your supply chain, all of those things, if you can do it better than your competitors, that's where you wanna put your product management efforts.
And that's where you wanna put your engineering efforts to customize it and make it better. So if you are working on a tool that is core to your business, even if you bought it, you still need product management. You still need to figure out what are the outcomes that we're trying to achieve with this tool?
How do we measure success? What are the problems that we're trying to solve? And how do we customize this tool to make sure that it's solving those problems? And that's what product management is. So you can go back to your leaders and say, it's not about whether we built it or not. It's about whether or not this tool is core to our business.
And if it's core to our business, we need to treat it like a product. We need to make sure that we are getting the most value out of it. And that's where product management comes in.
Product management is about value
Melissa Perri: So I think that's the key thing that you need to tell them. It's not about building it. It's about value. Product management is about value.
It's about making sure that you are getting the most value out of your investments, whether it's an investment in building something or an investment in buying something. You still need to make sure that you're getting the most value out of it. And that's where product management comes in.
So I hope that helps you with your leaders. I know it's a tough conversation to have, but I think if you frame it around value and competitive advantage, you'll have a better chance of getting them to see the light.
Thank you so much for submitting your question. If you have a question for me, please submit it at dearmelissa.com. And I'll see you next time.
Outro: Thank you for listening to the Product Thinking Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. And for more product thinking insights, visit melissaperri.com.
