Tag: Product Portfolio Management

Yahoo, Death By 200 Paper Cuts

Posted by joshua duncan – July 9, 2010

Back in April of 2009 when Carol Bartz joined Yahoo as the new CEO, she discussed the challenges of their product portfolio and brining discipline to their product management process.

Techcrunch is now reporting,

In an email to all staff last week, new chief product officer Blake Irving told employees that he would be sending a two page document outlining Yahoo’s overall product strategy moving forward by the end of July. Later employees will be able to dive deeper into a twenty page document, and later still a 200 page detailed product strategy document would be available.

My gut call is that this is not a good sign (yes, I know when the ship is already sinking, it isn’t exactly risky to say it is in trouble). 2 pages is an acceptable length for a strategy document. I can even buy 20 pages for an in-depth overview of the various parts of the product portfolio strategy. 200 pages? That to me sounds like death by presentation that most employees will take a pass on.

To use a gardening analogy, when you are overrun with weeds you have to take drastic steps to recover lost ground. You can’t save everything, so sacrifices must be made and made quickly. If the plant can be saved you save it, but this is not a time for nurturing. What you hope to do is to pick a few hearty plants to focus on and try to build from there.

Back in 2007, I had a chance to hear Steve Miller speak while he was in the process of trying to turn around the auto part maker, Delphi. What I remember most from his speech was the sense of urgency he conveyed when talking about his turnaround plan. He knew that the only way to the save the business was to to take action quickly before it was too late to save any momentum.

I would like to see more action and less presentation coming out of Yahoo. What does Yahoo stand for? Which of their many,many products are they going to cut and which one are they going to bet the farm on? What’s going to be the rallying cry to galvanize the organization?

I personally think Yahoo has the resources and the brand equity to make the turnaround happen – plus wouldn’t a comeback from one of the pioneer’s of the Internet make for a great story? Let’s hope that there is more than talk coming soon!

Photo Credit: Flickr

Category: strategy
Tags: Product Portfolio Management, Steve Miller, TechCruch, Turnaround, yahoo
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Top Down Strategy

Posted by joshua duncan – May 7, 2009

Wanted to follow-up to my last post on Portfolio Management with an add on the importance of strategic direction from the top. This month’s HBR has an article discussing “What Only The CEO Can Do” and I thought this comment sums it up perfectly:

Resolving the tension of sometimes divergent short-term and long-term priorities is, as Peter Drucker reminded us, a challenge as old as business itself. Drucker said, “The CEO decides on the balance between yield from the present activities, and investment in an unknown, unknowable and highly uncertain future….it is a judgment rather than [a decision] based on ‘facts.’

Yahoo And Product Portfolio Management

Posted by joshua duncan – April 27, 2009

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The current issue of Fortune has an article covering Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo, and the staggering job in front of her trying to turn the company around.

One of the most interesting parts of the article was the historical recap of the early 2000′s where the company was on a buying tear, gobbling up companies left and right. The strategy seemed to be focused on growth through acquisitions with no attempt to merge and focus the acquired companies. Of course, it was during this time that Google perfected paid search and the rest is history.

Comment new Yahoo CEO Bartz,

She also wants to prevent more space debris from launching in the future. “Yahoo was amateur hour in the past when it comes to product management,” she bluntly told business partners last month; groups haphazardly released things without a clear sense of whether customers wanted them.

It is always easier looking back, but I think is safe to say that a strong product portfolio management process may have helped avoid some of the missed opportunities. The key here is to make prioritization decisions on product development that align with the strategic direction of the company.

Portfolio Management for New Products is an excellent resource on the topic. From PMNP, the portfolio process should be the starting point for evaluation:

Does the new product fit our business strategy?
Where is the business currently spending resources and what allocation changes need to be made?
What needs to be done immediately and what should be postponed?

However, a good process doesn’t guarantee success. If done right, it will defenitly help focus, but you still need a sound strategic direction to make sure at the end of the day, your products hit the mark.