This book is for product managers, product owners, product marketing managers, VPs and Heads of Product, CEOs, and start-up founders. In short, it serves anyone interested personally or professionally in software product management. You'll learn how to plan, coordinate and execute all activities required for software product success.  It enables you to find the right balance for delivering customer value and long-term product success.

The book offers a comprehensive introduction for beginners as well as proven practices and a novel, holistic approach for experienced product managers. It provides much-needed clarity regarding the numerous tasks and responsibilities involved in the professional and successful management of software products. Readers can use this book as a reference book if they are interested in or have the urgent need to improve one of the following software product management dimensions: Product Viability, Product Development, Go-to-Market / Product Marketing, Software Demonstrations and Training, The Market / Your Customers, or Organizational Maturity.

The book helps product people to maximize their impact and effectiveness. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner, new to software product management, or just want to learn more about the best-of-all disciplines and advance your skills, this book introduces a novel and 'business' tested approach to structure and orchestrate the vital dimensions of software product management. You will learn how to create focus and alignment on the things that matter for product success.

The book describes a holistic framework to keep the details that matter for product success in balance, taking into consideration the limiting factors, strategies and responsibilities that determine the overall product yield potential. It explains how to leverage and adapt the framework with regard to aspects like product viability, product development, product marketing and software demonstrations and training, as well as more general aspects like markets, customers and organizational maturity.

The book focuses on the unique challenges of software product managers or any related roles, whether you are a founder of a small to mid-sized software company or working in the complex ecosystems of large software enterprises or corporate IT departments.

Timo Wagenblatt is VP of Product Management at SAP in Walldorf, Germany. As head of the product management team he shapes and drives the incubation of cloud-native products that service underserved customer needs all the way to valuable product adoption for both customers and SAP.

Timo is dedicated to Software Product Management for more than 20 years working with clients and product teams across the globe building world-class enterprise solutions. His passion can be best described as continuously improving product management maturity while focusing on customer and employee success by evangelizing and showcasing product-mindset.

Timo's experience is based on working in organizations that range from 40 employees to more than 90.000 employees. Before he joined SAP, he established software product management at a start-up, gaining hands-on experience as the first product manager reporting directly to the CTO and co-founder.

In 2018, Timo started PYPR Software Product Management, his own start-up that is dedicated to helping product managers and founders adopting PYPR. He focuses on balancing and consistently improving all aspects of Software Product Management toward an aligned product mindset in the product team, department and the overall organization.

Timo holds a Diploma in Business Administration with specialization in operations research, commercial information systems and industrial management. He is a conference board member of one of the largest product management conferences in Europe (Product Management Festival, Zurich).

1;Preface;7 1.1;Who Should Read This Book;10 1.2;How This Book Is Organized;10 2;Acknowledgements;12 3;Contents;13 4;About the Author;21 5;List of Figures;22 6;Setting the Scene and Introducing the Product Yield Potential Radar;27 7;1 Software Product Management Fundamentals;28 7.1;1.1 Defining Software Product Management;29 7.1.1;1.1.1 An Approach to Define Software Product Management;35 7.1.2;1.1.2 An Approach to Define Software Products;37 7.1.3;1.1.3 Software Product Taxonomy;39 7.1.4;1.1.4 Software Product Management for Corporate IT Products;41 7.1.5;1.1.5 The Promise of Software Product Management;45 7.2;1.2 The Role of Software Product Managers;47 7.2.1;1.2.1 Software Product Managers-T-Shaped Superheros at Work;50 7.2.2;1.2.2 Types of Product Managers-Same, Same, but Different;56 7.2.3;1.2.3 Quick Side Note About Job Titles;59 7.2.4;1.2.4 Product Teams;59 7.2.5;1.2.5 Leading the Product Team and Instilling a Product Mindset;61 7.2.6;1.2.6 Ikigai for Product Managers;64 7.3;1.3 Excursus: Defining the Journey from Total Addressable Market to Customers;66 7.4;1.4 The State of the Software Product Management Nation;68 7.4.1;1.4.1 People;70 7.4.2;1.4.2 Organization;76 7.4.3;1.4.3 Process and Product;78 7.4.4;1.4.4 Culture;80 7.5;References;83 8;2 The Product Yield Potential Radar;84 8.1;2.1 Introducing the Product Yield Potential Radar;86 8.1.1;2.1.1 PYPR-Providing Focus and Driving Alignment;89 8.1.2;2.1.2 Unfolding PYPR's Full Potential-Applying PYPR in Four Steps;91 8.1.3;2.1.3 Step 1: Define, Understand, Structure, and Transparentize (DUST) Product Management Dimensions;92 8.1.4;2.1.4 Step 2: Clarify Roles and Responsibilities and Form a (Extended) Product Team;97 8.1.5;2.1.5 Step 3: Assess and Visualize the Product Yield Potential;102 8.1.6;2.1.6 Step 4: Prioritize and Strategize Actions Based on PYPR Scores Analysis;107 8.1.7;2.1.7 Proven Practice to Leverage the PYPR Assessment;110 8.1.8;2.1.8 Summary and Next Steps;115 8.2;2.2 Detailing the PYPR Dimensions;118 8.2.1;2.2.1 Product Viability;119 8.2.2;2.2.2 Product Development;124 8.2.3;2.2.3 Go-to-Market/Product Marketing;129 8.2.4;2.2.4 Software Demonstrations and Training;134 8.2.5;2.2.5 The Market/Your Customers;139 8.2.6;2.2.6 Organizational Maturity;145 8.3;2.3 Software Product Management Governs the Product's Yield Potential;151 8.3.1;2.3.1 Introducing the Law of the Minimum;153 8.3.2;2.3.2 Applying the Law of the Minimum to Software Product Management;155 8.3.3;2.3.3 Examples How PYPR Helps Transparentizing the Limiting Factors;158 8.3.4;2.3.4 Understanding the Law of Tolerance;167 8.3.5;2.3.5 Summary and Conclusions;169 8.4;References;172 9;3 PYPR-On Your Mark, Get Set and Go Toward Software Product Management Excellence;174 9.1;3.1 General Manager of YourProduct Inc.-What's on the Radar?;176 9.1.1;3.1.1 CEO, Mini-CEO and Lots of Debate;178 9.1.2;3.1.2 Firewall Against Organizational Craziness and the Bold Usage of the Power of No;181 9.1.3;3.1.3 Avoid the "DIY Product Manager"-Syndrome;182 9.2;3.2 360° Stakeholder View;183 9.2.1;3.2.1 Clarify Roles, Responsibilities and Titles in Your Product Team;183 9.2.2;3.2.2 Understand Impact and Interest of "No Product Team" Stakeholders-Working with Stakeholder Maps;188 9.3;3.3 On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!;191 9.4;3.4 How to Benefit Most from Part 2 and the Default PYPR Configurations;195 9.5;References;199 10;PYPR Software Product Management Dimensions in Detail;200 11;4 Product Viability;201 11.1;4.1 The Business Model Canvas;204 11.1.1;4.1.1 Proven Practice;209 11.1.2;4.1.2 PYPR Dimension Details;212 11.1.3;4.1.3 Summary and Conclusions;212 11.2;4.2 Customer Business Case;213 11.2.1;4.2.1 Proven Practice;216 11.2.2;4.2.2 PYPR Dimension Items Details;218 11.2.3;4.2.3 Summary and Conclusions;219 11.3;4.3 Pipeline Development;220 11.3.1;4.3.1 Proven Practice;222 11.3.2;4.3.2 PYPR Dimension Items Details;225 11.3.3;4.3.3 Summary and Conclusions;226 11.4;4.4 Product Profitability;227 11.4.1;4.4.1 Proven Practice: Product