What Topics should Product Manager include in the Software Product Presentation to a sponsor/customer/integrator/developer?

Sponsor, customer, integrator and developer should get completely different material in the presentation. Sponsor always wants to know how much time does it takes to enter the market, where we can beat our competitors and what profit he can earn to understand the investment strategy. Customer is interested in features and benefits of product implementation and how much OPEX he can save, and what payback time for the business case is. Integrator is looking for the margin and new markets, so he would be interested in customization opportunities for the product in order to easily deploy it widely and add its value as a value added reseller. Finally, developer wants to see a strong interoperability and API, well commented code and good documentation. Please take a look at the table with the contents of a typical product presentation.

Outlines	Sponsor	Customer	Integrator	Developer
1. Introduction (This is normally just a title slide where I introduce myself and the point of the product presentation. This is where I want to hook the audience and tell them what is in it for them)	Common	Common	Common	Common
2. Agenda (An agenda is optional, but provides me with an opportunity to tell my audience what I’m going to cover in my presentation. It avoids people asking questions early in the presentation about material I will be covering later)	Common	Common	Common	Common
3. Company Information (This is a way to establish credibility and to make the audience feel comfortable with my company)	1. Short history 2. Funding and revenues 3. Size 4. Market share 5. Strategy	1. History 2. List of major customers 3. Customer's benefits working with my company	1. Short history 2. Market Share 3. Market strategy 4. Full products portfolio	1. Short history 2. R&D department info 3. Corporate culture 4. HR strategy
4. Positioning (Successful products have a unique technology or positioning that sets them apart from other products on the market. I want to introduce this aspect of my product up front to let my audience know how my product is different and why they should listen to the rest of my presentation)	1. Product business idea 2. Investment strategy 3. Profits and Loss target	1. What customer problem product resolves 2. How (mostly how easy) 3. Why should they pay for resolving the problem	1. Product benefits across the competitors 2. What customers this product can attract and how 3. Why my product should be deployed via the embedded integrator	1. What customer problem product resolves 2. What is the technology framework 3. Which unique technologies are used in creating the product
5. Product Description (Clearly describe my product in terms that my audience will understand. How my product fits into their existing environment. Show how the product interfaces with other products or systems they may be using)	1. Show that product is scalable and have a good roadmap to protect investments 2. Show that it can interoperate with other products and probably competitors to slightly enter the market 3. Show where in OSS framework the product is and which benefits it will provide	1. Description of main product features 2. Show that it can interoperate with other products customer already have deployed 3. Show where in OSS framework the product is and which benefits it will provide	1. Description of main product features 2. Show that it can interoperate with other products and probably competitors to win more customers 3. Show which features and how will provide the most value for the customization and integration	1. Description of main product features and how they are deployed 2. Show the development process example of one of them 3. Show couple comments from existing developers
6. Benefits (They may be obvious to me because I live and breathe the product, but my audience should have them clearly called out and they must relate to their needs.)	1. Profits and investment payback	1. Business benefits	1. Margins and new markets 2. Partnership and Discounts	1. Developers benefits (should be discussed with current developers prior)
7. Success stories (At this point in the presentation my audience should be familiar with my product and why it is different and better. In order to drive this point home I will use examples of how my product is being used and how customers have benefited from the product)	1. Investors success cases	1. Customers success cases	1. Other integrators/partners success	1. Show the career path of existing product developers and how working on my product forced them in professional development
8. Call to action (I want summarize my product presentation, reiterate the point of the presentation, and ask my audience to do something, if that is the point of my presentation)	1. Call to invest	1. Call to purchase	1. Call to become a partner	1. Call to be a developer

What is the difference of the OSS role in the Service Provisioning Process between the wireless and fixed carriers?

To understand fundamental difference in the role of OSS, let's take a look at difference in the nature of Service Provisioning Process in fixed and wireless carriers.

Wireless Operators (2G/3G/LTE) are using radio coverage as subscriber access. Fixed carriers (ADSL, FTTH, GPON, etc.) are using various technologies of ground access (copper pair, fiber, etc.).

By including new radio base station, wireless carrier immediately creates the potential access channels to the subscribers within the entire coverage area. By including new hub, fixed carrier will get only the technical ability to connect the subscribers within one building or even one floor.

To connect to the mobile operator subscriber need only register their mobile terminal in its network. To connect to a fixed carrier the subscriber must leave a request for connection and wait for the construction of transmission lines to his home or office. It is obvious that the Service Provisioning Process of fixed operator is much more complicated both from the technical side and organizational. Fixed operator has to take care of the constant and rapid construction of the core network, access network, distribute and optimize labor resources inside the installation teams, monitor the connection of subscribers in a timely manner and so on.

You should also take into account that the fixed carrier expansion to the next house or office creates inevitable costs for the construction of linear facilities, and each of the operators need to determine those homes and offices that will provide more profit among the others and connect them first. This is not the entire list of difficulties faced by the fixed telecommunications provider in Service Provisioning Process.

At each stage of service delivery the role of OSS at the fixed operator is significantly higher than at mobile carrier. If mobile operators can take advantage and convenience of using radio access and use OSS to provide the additional services in a cost effective manner, the fixed operators are unable to provide even the essential services without OSS.

However, wireless carriers now promoting commonly service bundles. Wireless service bundles have become so complex that synchronizing billing and provisioning requires great technical dexterity and of course the role of OSS has become more important.

What is the difference between Hardware and Software Product Management Processes?

Product Management Process is responsible for definition, planning, design and implementation of all products in enterprise's portfolio. It manages products to required profit and loss margins, customer satisfaction and quality commitments, as well as delivering new products to the market.

So there is pretty much the same if we’re talking about generic obligations of these processes. It is obvious that both Hardware and Software companies tend to launch better products and gain more margins.

However, Product Management processes and Product Development process are two distinct process types.

Product Development is predominantly a project-oriented process that develops and delivers new products to customers.

And here we can see difference between Hardware and Software cases because of different nature of Product Development. I’ll try to show you exact difference.

The first difference is in Time-To-Market indicator.
Software Product Development process always delivers new Products faster to the market than a Hardware Product Development process.

The second is product roadmap and new feature requests.
We can easily upgrade Software Product by issuing new update, but it is impossible to update Hardware Product especially when we are talking about major upgrade. Thus, Hardware Product Manager should pay more attention at the beginning of a Product Lifecycle (at Gathering and Analyzing market requirements and Planning).

Now, let’s take a look at the difference between Software and Hardware Product Manager’s role.
Hardware equipment is pretty much the same across many vendors, because of highly standardized protocols used. The only difference is in how features are implemented and how much does they costs. So in most Hardware vendors Product Managers are only specification and presentation guys and their role in the Product Development Process tends to zero.
In Software vendors Product Managers are commonly playing the “embedded CEO of a Product” role.

Also if enterprise product portfolio consists of many products, Software Product Manager need to take care of cross-product integration and customization which is not the issue for the Hardware Product Manager.