Step 6: dIPDL Measure and Manage
Your offerings are now in full production and your new offerings are scaling. An offering in the context of the Outsell Growth Framework and the data and information product lifecycle (dIPDL) refers to whatever the customer buys. It might be an information solution, an analytics offering applied at the point of use, data sold by the field, or a new conference or scholarly journal. If it has a SKU in your finance system, it’s an offering that has a lifecycle to manage.
The last stage of product execution is Measure and Manage. This is where the rubber meets the road, and you go full circle evaluating how the offering is doing. Are customers loyal? Are they renewing and recommending? Do you understand win/loss and how you’re doing in the field? Do you know why you are winning or losing? Is the offering achieving or exceeding its financial targets? How about other KPIs? Is the offering achieving its intended strategic goals?
This is the time to make adjustments and refinements either to extend lifecycle and add more features or functionality in the roadmap or to consider end-of-life decisions. Yes, even products have those, especially in our industry, where far too many companies maintain far too many products. Less is more in information services and focus is the operative word, especially these days. Prune the portfolio. Treat it like a garden: weed, seed, till, cut, replace, and harvest. Businesses and their product offerings are living things, and in this last stage of dIPDL, you go back full circle to the beginning. Value chain, strategic plan, product execution — rinse and repeat, just like the seasons.
The key cross-functional responsibilities here are as follows.
