The value of Product Master Data for Effective Product Management
Why Multi-domain Master Data Management (MDM) is critical for Data Driven Product Management
A key tenet in Product Management is building Products and offering Services to customers by understanding in depth what they really want, need and require. Product Management experts say that this approach is really a two way act between companies and customers as shown below.
Such a two way act between Customer and Company is expected to get usto the state where addressing and finding the perfect balance between building the right product and building the product right as shown below.
But what does it take to achieve the above? I recently came across an excellent viewpoint from Daniel Lambert [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGK6sfsSlHI] where he illustrated the different dimensions of entities, relationships and processes that are needed to achieve and deliver on the value proposition of a company’s Product and Services.
In a rush of cross domain epiphany, what I realized is that Master Data is integral and key to all aspect of the Product-Service ecosystem. Master Data represents the business objects that contain the most valuable, agreed upon information shared across an organization, provides context of business transactions and typical categories are arties (individuals and organizations, and their roles, such as customers, suppliers, employees), Products, Financial Structures (such as ledgers and cost centers) and Locational Concepts. Master data management (MDM) is a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise’s official shared master data assets.
This leads me to believe that Multi-Domain Master Data Management is crucial to making the Product, Service and Product Management work in an efficient, non-redundant, insight oriented, growth aligned and most importantly get a single source of trusted information of all aspects of customers interactions and interactions and value chain management.
Establishing a Multi domain Master Data system tied to Product/Service Management capability gives us so many possibilities such as:
- Getting answers to basic questions such as “Who are our most profitable customers?”, “What product(s) have the best margins?”
- Increased upsell/cross-sell and drive efficiency, growth and time to value
- Getting a trusted single source of truth for who are our current customers, who are the prospects
- Figuring out what benefits, entitlements, discounts, and contracts paying customers are entitled to
- What is the state of customer churn? What are the driving forces behind it?
- Enhanced customer insight with consistent, accurate data powers engaging customer experiences
- Faster GTM enabling launching and onboarding new, on-trend products faster leveraging best product launch practices
In summary:
Data driven Product Management is the hot trend and soon will become the norm. Understanding the importance, significance and value of Master Data and making Master Data Management work along with established Product Management processes has the potential to enhance the value chain, crossing the chasm and a superior Go-To-Market experience.
