Additionally, I see a slight inverse sarcasm about real skill in PdMgrs. If the product is not good, there will be criticisms and evidence and probably some indication of direction, making the job clear. There are several ways to move ‘up’. Hungry markets pay attention to change. When the product is good and performing well, many product managers will want to do little to avoid screwing up the cash cow. It takes *more* skill, then, and cajones to find the more complex, non-obvious thing that would kick it up or make the success more sustainable in a dynamic, entropic world while risking several ways to move ‘down’.

So, I don’t think we are post-PdM at all. It just takes more to stand out as a PdMgr or as an accomplishment of PdM.

When a category leaves Moore’s tornado, it faces an explosion in fast following copy cats, and it faces price-based competition. That is one face of commoditization. The customer’s are not yet unwilling to pay for improvements, but they are very close to that point.

When you cross over into Moore’s late market, or the consumer market, you are commoditized by the utility economics of SaaS, or the commodity nature of the consumer market. That a lot of software skips the product stage and goes directly to the service stage means that they jump right into a commodity market.

As for solutions, enterprise software was always sold as a solution via solution selling.

Even with a great product fighting off the fast followers, maintaining the margins, transitioning Moore’s serial markets, and avoiding the stock stall makes product marketing difficult. Nothing is static. The market lifecycle isn’t particularly slow, particularly when you start out in the late market.

When everything is easier, get harder. Get harder, because it’s just as easy for your fast followers. Getting harder will put you further ahead of them, because if they were going to work hard, they’d have come up with their own idea.

However, high-tech or more specifically software systems which I believe the original post is targeting, the answer is “no” and probably “never”. The reason being primarily the amount of innovation in high-tech. Problems, that may not even be recognized as problems today, will be solved through innovation. For example, 8 or even 5 years ago who thought it was a problem that you couldn’t get e-mail on a mobile device? Today it is almost mandatory.

As long as there are a steady stream of new problems to solve, and innovation will make sure there is, it will be easier to fight becoming a commodity. It will happen to specific technologies but that is when you reposition and reinvent.

I liked the couple of posts on solutions.

Remember, the reason that the iPod was such a hit was not just the hardware product, but also the online service. Together these products created a solution that was irresistible.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental PM Blog
“Learn How Product Managers Can Be Successful And Get The Respect That They Deserve”

Product managers in consumer goods know it best, the hard work comes when the competitors product looks just like yours. Sometimes it means adding more green crystals!

My experience tells me that product management is more important as products mature and the differentiation gaps begin to narrow between the competition. It just – at times – may not feel as satisfying.

It’s the “good” products that are commoditized to the point where customers just don’t care. (IMO)
-Mark