Specialty Product Domains

Do you have hosted (SAAS, PAAS, Cloud) tools and apps that are mired in the Web 2.0 freemium swamp? Minor modifications to features and market-specific messaging can re-target your products for a real, paying client constituencies. Yes, you can get paid for real hosted applications. Technical services, equipment maintenance, Test and Measurement, fleet services. Target, get perspective, broaden your product horizons with my services. Let me help you save that code base.

Lets say your company has a web application (or any software system) that might have the potential to cross over from the horizontal to the specialty vertical or technical industrial markets, but you are not sure how to approach the sector for validation or go-to-market? What is the potential market volume, who influences, certifies, what features need modification? Let’s go.

Let’s say you have a lead that someone, some company needs a jump start into a specialty technical market, such as product service, automotive supply chain, etc. Get me a referral and I will pay you 20% off the top of my contract. Hire me on contract to provide contract management services, and I will lop off 15% of my standard rate.

What do you do, anyway?

I realized of late that when people asked what I do professionally, my fast repartee was not clear enough. This is all fine when the tech sector is booming and the referrals are flying in. However, when things slow down, like now, we can’t take any chances. So what do I do, exactly? A review of all of my on-line professional profiles showed a ghastly mishmash.

This is what I do:

I currently work for Product Managers as a strategic sector helper.

I evaluate vertical and technical B2B sectors prior to my client PM’s pulling the development trigger. I provide specific steering (mid dev timeline) on what features need to be tweaked, what market approaches need sector-specific massaging, and all that trade org liaison work that few want to do.

I spot hot trends where consumer web app waves might cross over into a profitable vertical where the users pay for the service.

I make the right calls at the right time, delivering cogent written and oral advice to your management; I almost never miss when creating value, fostering partnerships, and creating the groundwork for new products and innovation.

My rates are more than reasonable considering the stakes, and I never drag a contract out, usually wrapping in less than 6 months.

Consultants: Mess Up Totally while being 100% Right!

Consultants: Mess Up Totally while being 100% Right!

Don’t go against the money; what say, you say? Consultants, don’t go against the opinion of the people funding a venture, or their management proxies – you will not get contracts, you will have your early termination clauses invoked, and you will be forced out the valley. Of course, you will also not be able to provide any services of value, but it seems that the valley is chock full of closed end product management hires that are basically yes-men and gals for the management. So why did they hire you?

First, some background about what a good product strategist does -people are confused until they really need a guy like me. I built my reputation by being honest and never pulling punches, all while providing action oriented, sane product / channel re-jiggering.

People who label as ‘Strategists’ take a lot of heat; where do you get the nerve? Well, first of all, there are two types of strategists: Corporate capital ‘S’ strategists, and product channel specialty small ‘s’ strategists. I am a small ‘s’ strategist specializing in technical, industrial, and vertical markets. Without this specialization, I should be rebuffed; with no MBA, no degree from any institution of higher learning, I need my tool belt of practical industry experience to underwrite my credibility, and to speak with authority regarding the markets that I swim in, on behalf of my clients.(visit)

When a client calls me, via a referral or via my blog articles, they have a bone to pick. Often this bone is an internal conflict over the direction of a product’s channelization, or a strategic (small ‘s’, product features and industry targeting strategy) issues that is causing division or insurrection in the ranks.

I can often be a balm to these conflagrations; it doesn’t always get to the point of emotional entanglement, either. I have had a good career acting as an honest broker for the best interests of the product and the user community. This obtains in cases when the particular user community is already in place, or needs to be freshly recruited.

There are so many great Web 2.0 tools and services that have steered down the path of fremium and ad-supported subscription models. Many of these great, small companies will never see the revenue sufficient to turn a profit, and therefore wait for the buyout that may or may not come.

All the while, there are any number of technical and skilled trades markets that are dying for specialized instances of messaging, social networking, and mobile applications that can help their constituencies work more effectively. However, these vertical markets are never going to be evangelized by non-specialists, and their revenue models require a fine-tuned balance between ads (and these industry specific ads can have hight CPC and CPM) and subscriber paid accounts.

That’s my job, to use my skills as an advocate on behalf of the Web application provider, to swim in the vertical and fine tune the delivery of these services, and to help make a payment model that works for the product sector, and the developers.

More on this topic, and in depth, soon.

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