Productize : the ultimate guide to turning professional services into scalable products

More and more traditional professional services firms are turning to "productization" as a strategy to grow, improve valuations, and to fend off new digital-first competitors. However, many of them will fail and waste a lot of money in the process. Productize first outlines the "Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes" made when pursuing a product strategy, then provides the blueprint for overcoming each of these missteps. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth. For companies that deliver highly customized services, new product development and commercialization are often outside of their core skills, processes, and mindsets. Productizing services typically requires organizations to think differently about how they work and how they create value for their customers. This change does not come easily. Productize includes real-life case studies and stories featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products. It also includes more than two dozen tools and templates to help your team implement the tactics so you don't have to start from scratch. In this book, you'll learn: How to turn shift your culture to embrace a product-mindset The capabilities you to be successful and whether or not you should acquire them or grow them internally How much money to invest in exploring and building more scalable solutions and products How to ensure there is a viable market for your product idea How to sequence investments in new product development How to successfully source and work with developers and data scientists How to inexpensively test your ideas before investing in development How to win the hearts and minds of your sales team to ensure your new products are commercially successful Bonus: Key point summaries at the end of each chapter to help you lock in what you learn Real Life Case Studies: featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel. More and more traditional professional services firms are turning to "productization" as a strategy to grow, improve valuations, and to fend off new digital-first competitors. However, many of them will fail and waste a lot of money in the process. Productize first outlines the "Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes" made when pursuing a product strategy, then provides the blueprint for overcoming each of these missteps. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth. For companies that deliver highly customized services, new product development and commercialization are often outside of their core skills, processes, and mindsets. Productizing services typically requires organizations to think differently about how they work and how they create value for their customers. This change does not come easily. Productize includes real-life case studies and stories featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products. It also includes more than two dozen tools and templates to help your team implement the tactics so you don't have to start from scratch. In this book, you'll How to shift your culture to embrace a product-mindset The capabilities that you need to be successful and whether or not you should acquire them or grow them internally How much money to invest in exploring and building more scalable solutions and products How to ensure there is a viable market for your product idea How to sequence investments in new product development How to successfully source and work with developers and data scientists How to inexpensively test your ideas before investing in development How to win the hearts and minds of your sales team to ensure your new products are commercially successful Key point summaries at the end of each chapter to help you lock in what you learn Real Life Case featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel. Many professional services businesses want to create more scalable services and solutions but they often lack the tools and capabilities to successfully transition from a customized services model to a scalable solutions and products model. Productize outlines the unique pitfalls that professional services organizations face when they embark on a strategy of creating more scalable, often tech-enabled, products and services and it provides you with the tactics and tools to overcome these pitfalls. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth.Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel.Productize includes real-life case studies and stories featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products. It also includes more than two dozen tools and templates to help your team implement the tactics so you don't have to start from scratch.In this book, you'll learn:1) How to turn shift your culture to embrace a product mindset2) The capabilities you to be successful and whether or not you should acquire them or grow them internally3) How much money to invest in exploring and building more scalable solutions and products4) How to ensure there is a viable market for your product idea5) How to sequence investments in new product development6) How to successfully source and work with developers and data scientists7) How to inexpensively test your ideas before investing in development8) How to win the hearts and minds of your sales team to ensure your new products are commercially successfulBonus: Key point summaries at the end of each chapter to help you lock in what you le "More and more traditional services firms are turning to 'productization' as a strategy to grow, improve valuations, and to fend off new digital-first competitors. However, many of them will fail and waste a lot of money in the process. They fail for two reasons. First, they tend to massively underestimate how difficult it is to add a product business model alongside a services business model. Second, they do not recognize how hard it is to develop successful new products, even in the best conditions (new product failure rates are estimated to be somewhere between 40-70%). For companies that deliver highly customized services, new product development and commercialization are often outside of their core skills, processes, and mindsets. Productizing services typically requires organizations to think differently about how they work and how they create value for their customers. This change does not come easily. Productize first outlines the "Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes" made when pursuing a product strategy, then provides the blueprint for overcoming each of these missteps. Throughout, Productize urges leaders to follow three key principles: Think big, start small; Follow urgent, expensive customer problems; Be fearless"--Page 4 of cover