Product Management in the Age of Disruption

April 15, 2021 | Hector Del Castillo | Article 

A brief discussion to identify how to effectively guide product teams to make smarter decisions in the age of disruption.

Here are the top challenges product managers and their teams face post pandemic. Many of these will last well beyond 2021.

Consumerization and mounting disruption has significantly changed buyer behavior.

Few companies have restructured product management and product marketing to eliminate these challenges.

Disruption describes a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses.

Six powerful global forces are colliding brewing the perfect storm that could trigger economic and environmental disruption far greater than we have experienced over the past 60 years. They are igniting major transformation across industries that will extend over several decades.

Business leaders today often think disruption is beyond their control. When faced with disruption, losers cling to their legacy business. Winners seize the opportunity to protect the core and lead in the new.

Disruption follows a discernible pattern. To identify the opportunities that disruption brings, business leaders should recognize where in this pattern of disruption their industry is positioned and why. By identifying the type of disruption a business is experiencing, business leaders can confidently address its risks. There are four varying periods of disruption that different industry segments may experience over time.

Before initiating any strategic actions, you need to understand where in the pattern of disruption your industry is positioned and why it is so. Here is an example of industries and their disruption pattern.

Here are four offensive tactics current companies can adopt to boost their resilience and seize opportunities when experiencing any of these four disruption patterns.

Each of the four patterns of disruption requires a different set of actions.

1. Disruption State: Viability
   Focus: Greater Emphasis on “Growing the Core”
   • Direct investments to build new capabilities
   • Activate demand for innovative offerings with existing customers
   • Use core strength to expand into adjacent markets
2. Disruption State: Durability
   Focus: Transform the Core
   • Maintain cost leadership in the core
   • Use efficiency-enabling technologies to increase profitability
   • Channel freed-up investments toward experimentation, making core offerings cheaper and better
3. Disruption State: Vulnerability
   Focus: Scale the New
   • Reduce dependence on fixed assets, and monetize those that are underutilized
   • Respond to decreased demand for core products by spotting and scaling up innovations
   • Use technology and data to build enhanced services and offerings that alleviate customer pain points
4. Disruption State: Volatility
   Focus: Pivot Wisely
   • Be bold with corporate and financial restructuring
   • Find the right pace and timing to shift to new businesses and opportunities

Here are three ways to take advantage of disruption in your industry:

Act quickly and decisively
Each disruption period brings unique challenges and opportunities. For example, for companies in the Volatility period, it is imperative to change course decisively. Meanwhile, for those in the Durability period, it is imperative to experiment and focus on maintaining existing sources of competitive advantage.

Be bold and wise
Don’t presume that the best way to respond to disruption is to become the disrupter —that is, focusing solely on scaling new businesses. Companies must balance investments required to reinvigorate the core, by modernizing existing businesses, while scaling the new businesses, by introducing new digital business models.

Turn your vulnerabilities into advantages
Business leaders can use the index to understand their vulnerabilities and drive their strategic response. Additionally, they can identify opportunities to exploit their own core competencies in adjacent markets that are exposed to disruption today.

Use this information to take advantage of disruption and shape your own future.

Free Discovery Call

Need help transforming your business for greater resilience? Set up a free discovery call to discuss your current situation and identify actionable steps.

Related Talks

An engaging discussion to identify how to boost the agility of your product for greater competitive advantage.

Knowledge is the KEY to Your Future. Commit to that investment TODAY by joining The Great IT Professional.

Our limited time April promotion reduces the price of a one year premium membership from $199 to $69. That’s just $5.75 per month.

Become a member today by selecting our one year premium membership option, and – using promo code APR21. This will reduce your one year premium membership cost to $69. Offer ends at midnight on 4/30, so act soon!

As a subscribing member, you will have unlimited anytime access to our library of professional development material. All of our material is PDU approved.