(SEATTLE, WASHINGTON) We are pleased to announce two important developments today. The first is that The Prosys Group is now Acture Consulting. Acture is a word that means "Action."
The second and most important development is the addition of James Gallagher as a Managing Director for Acture Consulting. For nearly 2 years, Prosys has focused mostly on Product Management work for emerging companies in the Seattle area. With James joining the team, it puts together a "1-2 punch" in terms of providing value to start-up clients. James will head up the Sales & Customer Strategy practice for Acture.
James brings with him a solid playbook with a focus on sales traction and customer acquisition. Over the last 16 years, James has been responsible for building and accelerating revenue streams for dozens of companies. While at Jobster, I personally witnessed James build a sales engine of systems, process, people that achieved some phenomenal sales numbers for our SaaS products.
As Acture brings year two to a close over the next few months, we are gearing up for a busy 2009, assisting start-ups in the areas of business, product and sales strategy. We believe that 2009 will be an important year for companies, as they find they must do more with less. We look forward to partnering with companies in achieving this goal.
Showing posts with label product. Show all posts
Showing posts with label product. Show all posts
Monday, October 20, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Product Management vs Product Marketing
The Seattle area is notorious for blending job titles and functions when it comes to the product managers and product marketers. In fact the majority of people I talk to think they are one and the same. In my opinion, they are very different, especially for a company that is truly customer centric.
Product Management = Inbound
Fundamentally, true product managers have a very important job; they are tasked with representing to the company the needs, pains and opportunities in the market.
They conduct research, watch the market, use related products, read between the lines, ask questions, do competitive analysis, ultimately using their "voodoo powers" to assess and size a given market/business opportunity.
If they do their job, not only will their company be able to depend on them to be the ultimate customer advocate at both a tactical and strategic level, but the product's capabilities and long term roadmap will set the company up for great success.
Product Marketing = Outbound
Product marketers represent to the market the products & services a company offers. They deal in the art of mapping the product's current (and future) capabilities into value propositions that resonate in the marketplace.
They handle analyst engagement, positioning, branding, PR, marketing communications, campaigns, lead generation, etc.
If they do their job, the product they bring to market will successfully resonate with current and prospective customers, ultimately propelling their sales against the competition.
Over the last 10 years, I have had the pleasure of working with rock star product people and rock star marketing people. I have yet to find anyone who is a rock star in both. Certainly the tendency is to combine the role for cost and simplicity; the companies that do this will ultimately be picking one talent (product or marketing) over the other.
Why is this important? It is important to understand if you are planning to add marketing or product headcount to your team. It also can help drive the content of the interviews you hold with top candidates. Candidates who are answering the tendency of companies to want an "all-in-one" product marketing manager will bill themselves as such. With the right questions however, you can easily discover which tendency rules the way they think.
Product Management = Inbound
Fundamentally, true product managers have a very important job; they are tasked with representing to the company the needs, pains and opportunities in the market.
They conduct research, watch the market, use related products, read between the lines, ask questions, do competitive analysis, ultimately using their "voodoo powers" to assess and size a given market/business opportunity.
If they do their job, not only will their company be able to depend on them to be the ultimate customer advocate at both a tactical and strategic level, but the product's capabilities and long term roadmap will set the company up for great success.
Product Marketing = Outbound
Product marketers represent to the market the products & services a company offers. They deal in the art of mapping the product's current (and future) capabilities into value propositions that resonate in the marketplace.
They handle analyst engagement, positioning, branding, PR, marketing communications, campaigns, lead generation, etc.
If they do their job, the product they bring to market will successfully resonate with current and prospective customers, ultimately propelling their sales against the competition.
Over the last 10 years, I have had the pleasure of working with rock star product people and rock star marketing people. I have yet to find anyone who is a rock star in both. Certainly the tendency is to combine the role for cost and simplicity; the companies that do this will ultimately be picking one talent (product or marketing) over the other.
Why is this important? It is important to understand if you are planning to add marketing or product headcount to your team. It also can help drive the content of the interviews you hold with top candidates. Candidates who are answering the tendency of companies to want an "all-in-one" product marketing manager will bill themselves as such. With the right questions however, you can easily discover which tendency rules the way they think.
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