What is enterprise product management?

Enterprise product management (EPM) refers to managing products that serve businesses rather than individuals.

Unlike consumer product management, EPM manages complex products with:

• Longer development cycles

• High stakeholder involvement

• Significant impact on the company's overall strategy

The goal is to ensure that product solutions align with the organization's larger business objectives, while also meeting the diverse needs of a customer base.

Enterprise product managers handle various responsibilities, including:

• Strategic planning

• Cross-functional collaboration

• Ensuring the product meets internal and external demands

These managers are primarily responsible for establishing a vision, strategy, and roadmap for a product. They are tasked with aligning the goals of the product with the company's business strategy. This often involves managing multiple teams, including marketing and design.

EPMs are also involved in setting and executing long-term goals for the product. These managers develop strategic plans that may include product roadmaps and timelines. EPMs need to anticipate:

• Market trends

• Customer needs

• Tech advancements

Those working in this role allow the team to stay aligned with the main objectives of the business.

In large enterprises, product teams can be highly complex. The teams are typically divided into various roles and specializations that support the product lifecycle from the beginning. This division of labor allows the organization to handle multiple products or product lines at the same time, each catering to different markets.

Cross-functional collaboration

EPMs must collaborate with different departments, including:

• Sales

• Marketing

• Engineering

• Customer success

Collaboration ensures that product development runs smoothly and stakeholders have aligned product goals.

When they work with the sales team, EPMs gain insight into customer needs and market demand, which allows them to prioritize some features and determine a pricing strategy. 

Coordination with the marketing department is crucial for an EPM trying to develop go-to-market strategies and branding personalities.

Collaborating with a customer success team provides feedback from real users that can improve the functionality of a product.

Cross-functional collaboration facilitates the smooth progression of the product lifecycle while achieving technical goals, maximizing revenue, and improving customer satisfaction. EPMs who know how to collaborate can streamline workflows and ensure product success from all angles.

Roles within the product team

A product team may include several roles, such as:

• Product manager: Also known as the enterprise product manager, this person handles day-to-day decision-making for the product

• Business analyst: Manages data-driven decisions for the product

• UX/UI designer: Focuses on creating the best possible user experience for a customer

• Developer or engineer: Builds the product

• QA tester: Responsible for ensuring the quality of the product before it launches

A variety of tools and methodologies ensure the efficiency and success of product management in large organizations. These are some of the methods and tools your team might consider as part of your product development plan.

Agile vs waterfall approaches

There are two key product development methodologies: the Agile approach and the waterfall approach.

The Agile methodology emphasizes:

• Flexibility

• Continuous development

• Responsiveness to customer feedback

Many EPMs prefer this method because it is so adaptable.

The waterfall method follows a more linear approach. This method is a good option for projects with well-defined stages and less need for iteration. EPMs who prefer a more structured approach appreciate this method.

Product management software

EPMs often rely on a handful of tools, like Trello and Asana, to manage tasks and track progress.

Software is used to foster collaboration across teams, and it streamlines the process of product development. Product management software is also beneficial for managing several projects at once.

Different types of software are available, so each team must find the one that works best for them.

Managers at all levels experience a variety of challenges. Those who operate at the enterprise level face their own set of obstacles.

The scale and complexity of the organization and its customer base will have a lot to do with the challenges a manager faces.

Customer segmentation in large organizations

Enterprise products often cater to multiple customer segments. Each segment has distinct needs, which can make managing these products extremely difficult. EPMs must develop products that address diverse requirements while also maintaining product cohesion.

Market research is the first step in managing the complexity of customer segmentation. Market research helps managers identify and understand the characteristics of each segment. 

Research involves analyzing:

• Customer behavior

• Industry trends

• Pain points

• Specific use cases

Additionally, EPMs create a flexible, modular product that can adapt to different needs without compromising its core functionality.

Segmentation strategies involve close collaboration with sales and customer success teams.

Managing complexity and scale

EPMs also manage complex projects that have multiple stakeholders, including senior leadership and department heads. Each stakeholder brings a unique perspective and influence to the organization.

For example, a sales team may advocate for new features to meet client demands that will close deals, whereas the engineering team might prioritize performance optimization. The EPM will act as a mediator, balancing priorities to satisfy key concerns.

EPMs must also ensure the product is scalable, that is, it can meet the needs of large customer bases. EPMs need to aim for a product capable of handling significant growth in user numbers and data without compromising performance or reliability. Scalability requires foresight into the product's design, which will require EPMs to work with the engineering teams.

When assessing the scalability of a project, EPMs must also consider factors like:

• Infrastructure

• Cloud computing capabilities

• Data security

A roadmap is a helpful tool that can guide product development over time. It is a visual representation of the product's strategic direction and evolution.

A product roadmap must strike a balance between being strategic and flexible. Each roadmap should provide clear long-term goals and strategies.

In a large enterprise, product roadmaps span multiple quarters or even years. They outline key milestones, feature releases, and phases of development. Product teams use this map to guide them and to communicate with stakeholders and the leadership team.

This map ensures all teams are aligned on the product goals.

Creating a strategic roadmap

The best roadmaps provide a long-term vision for the product, outlining key features and milestones the project needs to hit. The roadmap aligns product development with business strategy to ensure everybody understands the direction of the product.

Adjusting roadmaps based on feedback

One crucial fact to remember is that a product roadmap is ever-changing; it is not a static document.

An EPM will continually adjust the roadmap based on market trends, customer feedback, and insight into the product's development.

Understanding user needs and gathering feedback is crucial for product success.

In an enterprise environment, this can be more challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the user base. Still, user feedback can provide excellent guidance for moving forward with a plan.

Gathering customer insights

To gather insights, EPMs use:

• Surveys

• Focus groups

• Direct interactions with customers

In some cases, feedback comes from internal departments using the product. The type of insight you gather is largely dependent upon the product you’re making as well as the audience segment you want to appeal to.

Analyzing feedback for product iteration

EPMs analyze the gathered feedback to identify areas for improvement or new features to add. This approach is highly data-driven and helps seek out opportunities for product enhancement. 

EPMs will keep product development decisions grounded in real-world user experiences rather than assumptions about how users will experience a product.

Feedback analysis involves categorizing and prioritizing feedback based on factors like:

• Frequency

• Urgency

• Business impact

For instance, multiple users reporting difficulty with a specific feature signals a critical usability issue that requires immediate attention. Other feedback may not be as urgent or critical and need not be immediately prioritized.

Once patterns emerge from the analysis, EPMs work with other teams such as engineering, design, and customer support to determine the feasibility of proposed changes or new features. They collaborate to assess whether these improvements align with the product's overall vision and strategic goals, ensuring they add value not only for users but also for the business.

Product iterations are part of an ongoing process. After analyzing and implementing changes, EPMs must continue to gather and monitor feedback. This creates a continuous feedback loop to improve a product over time. This also helps a product stay relevant, competitive, and aligned with user expectations.

For enterprise products to succeed, their vision must align with broader business goals. EPMs ensure the product contributes to:

• Revenue growth

• Customer satisfaction

• Operational efficiency

Setting clear goals

EPMs define clear, measurable goals for their product, aligning them with the company's strategic priorities. These goals help guide the development process and provide benchmarks for success.

Communicating vision across teams

EPMs must effectively communicate the product's vision and objectives to ensure alignment across different teams. This requires strong leadership and the ability to articulate the product's value to various stakeholders.

To create products that resonate with customers, EPMs must have a deep understanding of their needs, especially in complex B2B environments.

EPMs collaborate with other teams to assess the needs of customers.

Methods for researching user needs

To gather insights into user preferences and pain points, EPMs employ techniques such as: 

• Customer interviews

• Market research

• Usability testing

Each EPM must determine not only how to perform the best research but also how to use the information gathered.

Balancing stakeholder expectations

Managing the expectations of multiple stakeholders is one of the most challenging aspects of enterprise product management. EPMs must balance the needs of customers, executives, and internal teams to deliver a successful product.

Enterprises often have multiple layers of reporting, making it essential for EPMs to communicate outcomes and progress effectively.

A complex organizational structure may include:

• Executive leadership

• Department heads

• Cross-functional teams

• Stakeholders

EPMs must communicate outcomes and progress in a way that resonates with different audiences across the organization. Clear, tailored communication is the key to addressing the concerns of all parties.

Key metrics for success

Key indicators of product success are metrics such as:

• Customer satisfaction (net promoter score – NPS)

• Product adoption rates

• Revenue growth

EPMs must track these to measure the product's impact and make informed decisions. 

Stakeholders and department heads may also have their own metrics for EPMs to consider. EPMs can show how the product is performing in real time and how it is contributing to the company's broader business goals, such as:

• Increasing market share

• Improving customer retention

• Driving innovation

Best practices for reporting outcomes

Regular reporting is crucial in enterprise environments. EPMs should provide clear, concise updates to stakeholders, focusing on key metrics and how the product is contributing to overall business goals.

EPMs must provide targeted updates for each type of audience to ensure all stakeholders are aligned with the product's objectives.

Additionally, reporting should include an analysis of how product initiatives align with strategic priorities, such as improving operational efficiency or expanding into new markets.

The primary difference lies in the target audience and product complexity. Consumer product managers focus on products for individual consumers, often with a faster development cycle and fewer stakeholders. Enterprise product managers handle complex products aimed at businesses or internal teams, requiring collaboration across multiple departments and longer development cycles.