Good technology. Bad business.

If we build it, they will come. It’s a great movie line, but extremely poor business practice. In the high tech arena, it’s an all too common mantra for corporate success. Having worked for 4 high tech firms as a product manager, I’m yet discouraged by executives incapable of grasping the full issue.

A product or business may be thought of in terms of a sports team – let’s say football - American, that is. The successful team does not have the best quarterback in the land, but the best team. Having players in various roles who understand those roles is important. Of greater concern, is ensuring those players are working within each role to maximize the performance of the team…. not the performance of an individual player.

As any armchair fan, coach, or player can attest, maximizing the quarterback’s contribution while neglecting the performances of the supporting cast on both offense and defense is a recipe for mediocrity or abject failure. You can have a perfect season with such a philosophy. Perfectly abysmal that is.

Product managers and executives, if not astute, will quickly devolve their interest to the single component (technology) of the business while neglecting the supporting roles within the value chain. If only we can build the best, fastest, largest, most feature rich widget, the rest of the business will take care of itself. Shoot, the product will sell itself. We will dominate the market with a break through offering and live richly thereafter. In theory.

In practice, such great focus goes into building the best widget that little attention is paid to other necessary items within the value chain. Inadequate or misdirected sales coverage ensues, limiting volume. Schizophrenic messaging and dilutive marketing efforts are propagated, confusing customers. Manufacturing efforts slide precipitously delaying product delivery.

Any number of value chain components can run amuck, damaging your business. In other words, the executive coaches focus on a single player in the zealous belief that if the player can become uber dominant, the inadequacies of other players on the team will be eclipsed to such an extent that success is assured. It's the industry's best technology. It’s magic. It’s misguided.


Product managers who own a product or business own the value chain. Consequently, they must endeavor to coordinate the value chain participants to maximize the business. They should do so like a coach coordinating the efforts of his players to maximize team performance and not just the quarterback’s.


This may be the most crucial activity a product manager may engage in to facilitate the success or failure of her product. Concentrate on the business, the whole business and nothing but the business. Great technology is but one facet of that. I’d much rather own a great business with middle of the road technology than award winning technology and a losing business. Wouldn’t you?