Product leaders are constantly under pressure to serve the needs of end users in ways that create value and generate revenue for a company. Though as the Tech market evolves with changing customer demands and innovative new products and services, ensuring the product line is not impacted and attracts the expected customers is a constant challenge.
Product leaders must remain agile and responsive to fluctuations in the marketplace, whilst continually reinforcing product value to senior management, key stakeholders and employees. In a digital age, software has become increasingly important to every company's performance and leaders in the space must begin thinking about ways to broaden their ecosystems and revenue streams, whilst navigating new competitive dynamics.
Top five Product leader challenges in tech
CPO's, Product VP's and Product Directors wear many different hats and work in environments where change happens rather frequently. With so many moving parts to keep track of, it comes as no surprise that they have their fair share of challenges to manage and overcome, such as:
1. Increasingly competitive markets
The Tech and Software space is one of the fastest changing industries, experiencing a constant influx of new competition entering the market or large organisations branching into new service areas. It's harder than ever to create a unique value proposition and be heard above the noise as the marketplace becomes increasingly saturated.
As we enter the 'new normal', businesses can gain long-term advantages by seizing opportunities that have grown out of the pandemic. According to McKinsey, history indicates that not only did through-crisis innovators outperform by 10%, but they also outperformed the market by upward of 30% in post-crisis years.
Product leaders must relentlessly seek knowledge and conduct research around their end user via an effective R&D strategy to reveal strategic options, as well as invest in innovation to deliver a product function that differentiates offerings for their priority markets. It is also important to consider exploiting all the data you have, as well as incorporating software-enabled techniques such as rapid prototyping and real-time testing to speed up product life cycle times.
2. Remaining flexible in a turbulent market
Not only is the market highly competitive, but it is also continually changing. According to study by Hinge Marketing, 61% of Technology and Software firms identified unpredictability in the marketplace as a top challenge.
As Steve Jobs famously noted, "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."
Though research from McKinsey found that more than 40% of companies aren't talking with the end user during product development and are therefore, not remaining responsive to their changing needs. At a time where the value of customer experience has now permeated the B2B market, Product leaders need to remain flexible and respond to change with an agile mindset, as well as embed an ongoing improvement discipline centred around customer expectations to continuously provide value.
3. Not enough time or resources
According to a survey by Product Focus, 52% of professionals in the product space say a major challenge is the amount of time spent on unplanned 'firefighting' activities, when there's simply not enough time or resources to accommodate for these unscheduled delays.
Ad hoc requests from stakeholders can make forecasting accurate time estimates for product development on the roadmap difficult, particularly when these requests have the tendency to escalate. If the entire product team must drop what they're doing and refocus their attention on problem-solving, productivity is hindered and product development is majorly impacted.
Product leaders should try to eliminate process breakdowns that result in gaps in knowledge between the varying stages of development, from engineering to design and manufacturing. As highlighted by McKinsey, this leads to 'development blind spots, which in turn introduce unnecessary risk and inefficiencies. Often, a large amount of work is finished before other stakeholders have a chance to weigh in, causing misalignments, delays, and rework.'
4. Expectations to perform at superhuman levels due to pace of digital transformation
According to a survey by Pendo, Product leaders are at the forefront of digital transformation, with 66% of respondents perceiving Product and R&D teams to be the most responsible for these efforts. This puts pressure on CPOs as their role becomes increasingly integral to driving business growth at a time where the pace of the technology market has accelerated.
Customers are firmly in the driving seat and expect excellent digital experiences that align with a company's products and services. If you slack on the quality of your product experience, organisations could lose their users to their competition overnight. But with emerging tech and digital solutions entering the market all the time, it can be hard work to keep up and to create a seamless experience connecting the online and offline.
While Product leaders are unable to change the pace of digital transformation, they will need to remain resilient and innovate at speed. Digital investments are more likely to focus on product development and R&D to enable new growth opportunities and forge entirely new relationships with end users. Digitally sophisticated companies will be better positioned to leverage opportunities in the long-run, as the pace of change in the tech industry does not look like it'll slow down any time soon.
5. Sourcing high-quality candidates fast enough to meet demand
Another key challenge is identifying the right talent with the necessary skills and experience for effective Product Management. Professionals in the product space have a unique set of skills and experience and the successful candidate should be poised to drive innovation and key business objectives.
In a candidate-driven market, demand on salary is also high when competition for top Product talent is increasing. Businesses should revisit their existing talent acquisition strategy and consider a proactive approach to sourcing candidates, as many high-performing professionals will already be working for competing firms.
With a shortage of Product skills in the tech industry, businesses may also consider widening their talent pool by branching out into different markets and looking at transferrable qualities from candidates in sectors such as marketing, engineering or software development.
How Target Alliance can help you find top Product talent – and fast!
Our entire company is geared to supporting Product leaders within Technology and Telecoms businesses. We know how to maximise your opportunity and limit any challenges you'll face within the recruitment process, including incorporating greater diversity when scaling your teams.
We advise and liaise in the way that best suits you and do all in our power to deliver your ideal service from start to finish. However complex your requirements we'll introduce exceptional candidates to drive your strategic goals and add real value to your organisation.
Get in touch below to find out how we can help find high-calibre Product talent for future success.