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Product Promises: Is your Product Promise really a promise?

by: jillian@280group.com on Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 Time: 3:53 PM

I had an experience with a product this week that was so far off base I decided write about Product Promises.
A product promise is the implied commitment made to customers by a company. It embodies everything that the company, brand, marketing, features and benefits and product description convey. Put simply, a product promise is kept if the customer has an experience that is at least as good as what they expected based on what the company told them.

Products that keep their promises tend to build loyal fan bases and succeed. Products that don’t, often fail (though if they solve a burning need for the customer and are the only available solution they sometimes succeed anyway).
What are some examples of product promises where companies met customer expectations and it paid off for them? The original Palm Pilot made a product promise that synchronization would work seamlessly. For me it worked so well I couldn't believe it (at the time). Macintosh (at least the early days) had the product promise that it was the easiest to use personal computer available. Amazon.com had the promise that they offered the world’s largest selection of books and that purchasing and customer service be hassle-free. Google’s product promise is that you will find what you are looking for on the Internet rapidly with a minimum of effort.

Here's the 280 Group Product Promise. We promise to provide you with professional, high-quality Marketing and Product Management consultants and contractors that deliver excellent results at reasonable rates.

Product promises have gotten a bad rap, primarily because of what happened during the boom. Companies shipped crummy products, made claims that were nowhere near true, burned their customers, and then wondered why they had no repeat or referral business. In fact, one of the biggest challenges the tech industry faces today is that it has trained even the most tech-savvy people to be late adopters. Why beta test software or hardware for a company when you can wait until it is solid and many other people are using it reliably. Of course, this mentality leads to no one using anything because everyone is waiting for the other guy to endure the pain.

Oftentimes Product Management has to be the gatekeeper to watch over whether customers are truly being taken care of. Engineering will always have pressure to ship the product, no matter what. Sales will want the product now, and by the way, it had better work right. Upper management will feel the pressure to make quarterly numbers and will tend to want to ship the product even if it isn't completely ready. QA will tell you what the bug count looks like, and how many severe problems remain. But in many cases the only group that truly has a handle on whether the product will meet customer expectations and keep its promises is Product Management.

At one point during the boom I was offered a high-level job with a company going public in three months. They had an incredible story, lots of talent, a first-class board and executive team, and $120M in funding. But after consulting there for 2 months I declined their offers, despite the fact that they sweetened the pot multiple times and made me by far the best offer I had ever received in my career. Why? I was running Product Marketing and Product Management for them and despite my communication that the product was nowhere close to meeting its product promise, management was barreling ahead and determined to ship it. They did. They never made their numbers. Not even close.

Yes, the founders made some money. But think of the momentum and wealth they might have had if they had truly kept their product promise. They might even still be in business today.

Does your company really keep its product promises?

About the Author

Brian Lawley is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group (www.280group.com), and has shipped more than fifty successful products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is the author of the best-selling books, Expert Product Management and The Phenomenal Product Manager.

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