Industry Insight

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When companies migrate to product-based portfolios, they're leveraging product management as the visionary and future-focused innovators. The skill set fits most certainly from a technical standpoint. Yet there's one technological challenge that no method can solve. Technology's biggest challenge is speed.

What's the problem? If you follow Agile, new features are developed and released every two to three sprints (on a small scale). In case you're not agile or operate in a big company, say three to six major releases a year (drastic product changes). The moment you get comfortable with your product(s) or create features that compete with your competitor's product(s), everything changes. While the digital world is great, it's also a competitive challenge.  

Portfolio creation should be centered around a five-to-ten-year year strategic objective that will keep the company competitive. Obviously, products (and services) support that objective, but theoretically speaking, what is the end goal? That's your portfolio! From a business standpoint, no product won't be modernized or replaced in the next five to ten years. For futuristic sustainability, product management and portfolio management must be two separate disciplines tailored to your business strategy. They both have a divine purpose, planning (portfolio management) and executing (product management).