外文翻译---经营策略与产品策略的比较

外文文献 Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy April 10, 2009 Marty Cagan In keeping with my recent theme of product planning, Id like to focus in this article on an important distinction and source of frustration in many companies, and that has to do with the differences between business strategy and product strategy. Many companies confuse or blur the two, and the result is easy to spot. The senior executives want to focus on the business strategy, but they find they are forced to make decisions at a level far below where theyre comfortable or usually even interested, such as which specific products, projects and even features to invest in, and what the interdependencies are between these features and projects, and often what is on the actual page and how to resolve conflicts. And on the other side, the product managers feel like they dont understand the reasons behind decisions that directly impact their products, they feel like the strategy is guard-railing every few months, and they dont feel empowered to do their jobs. Very often Ill attend a product planning session with senior executives and theyre being presented with lots of detailed product plans but without the business context. When I ask where the business strategy is, Ill often get a blank look. The team wants to make more money so these are the features they want to add, or so their reasoning goes. Business strategy is about identifying your business objectives and deciding where to invest to best achieve those objectives. For example, moving from a direct sales model (your own sales force selling directly to customers) to an online sales model (your customers buy from your site) is a business strategy. Deciding whether to charge for your services with subscriptions or transactions fees or whether you have an advertising-based revenue model is a business strategy. Deciding to move into an adjacent market is a business strategy. Now, clearly there are some big product implications to each of these business strategies. But they are not one in the same. There are lots of ways to sell online, lots of ways to monetize value, and lots of ways to develop or acquire and integrate an adjacent offering. The product strategy speaks to how you hope to deliver on the business strategy. Moreover, while the business may believe something is a great business opportunity, you dont yet know if your company can successfully deliver on this opportunity. Maybe it will cost too much to build. Maybe customers wont value it enough to pay for it. Maybe itll be too complicated for users to deal with. This is where product strategy and especially product discovery come into play. The business maintains a portfolio of investments, and the business can and should adjust that portfolio mix as businesses and markets develop. Take as an example Amazon. Theyve got a portfolio of investments including their core e-commerce offerings by category, theyve got third-party selling, theyve got an infrastructure technology (cloud computing) business, and theyve even got their own growing consumer electronics business. I especially like Amazon as an example because they illustrate so many points of good business strategies (and good product strategies). Amazon may have made their business in selling hardcopy books and theyve been a great innovator there, but instead of spending all their time trying to protect that business, theyve also got an investment that could one day revolutionize that entire business. To Amazons credit, they realize that if they dont pursue this someone else probably will. Similarly, they have worked hard to create innovative technologies to allow them to provide a differentiated e-commerce customer experience, yet they also have been leaders in making that technology available to others (Amazon Web Services) because its possible that cloud computing business will one day be even larger than what they can ever do themselves as an online retailer. Thats a business strategy and you can see their portfolio planning. Now each of these businesses has one or more product strategies. As an Amazon user you can see the evolution of the e-commerce retailing business. You can also see the evolution of the Amazon Web Services product line; every few months another piece of the puzzle is launched. You can see the evolution of the electronic reader and the supporting technologies. Think of it this way. The business strategy and business portfolio planning provides a budget and a set of business metrics. The product organization then lives within that budget to pursue as aggressively as possible the best ways to hit those business metrics. Some product strategies will prove more successful than others, and this will impact the business portfolio planning. And not every business of course will resonate with customers, so a big part of business strategy is knowing when to continue to invest and knowing when to cut your losses so that you can invest elsewhere. Two key techniques to help with these investment decisions are Opportunity Assessments and Product Discovery. Whats most important however is to make sure youre asking the right questions and making the hard decisions. So business owners and senior executives are responsible for the business strategy and the business portfolio planning, and the product organization (especially the directors of product management) are responsible for the product strategy and the product portfolio planning. Keep these two concepts straight and I think youll find that you will have more clarity and understanding in terms of objectives and responsibilities, as well as better managed business and product portfolios. 经营策略与产品策略的比较 2009 年 4 月 10 日 马蒂 卡根 与我最近的产品策略主题一样，我想要将这篇文章的焦点放在企业失败的重要特征和根源，并且与经营策略和产品策略之间的差异联系起来。 许多公司混淆模糊这两个概念，所以失败的结果是显而易见的。高级管理人员想要将注意力集中于公司的经营策略，但是他们发现，他们被迫在一个很难让他们舒服乃至于让他们通常感到有兴趣的情况下做出决策，如投资特定的产品，项目甚至是功能，然后与这些功能和项目之间相互依存，并且投资通常是在现实的纸上以及怎么去解决这些矛盾。 然而另一方面，产品 经理觉得他们不理解那些决策背后的原因，这直接影响了他们的产品，每隔几个月他们觉得这个策略是是护栏，让他们没有感觉被准许去做他们的工作。 很多时候我要与高级管理人员参加一个产品计划会议，他们给出了许多详细的但是没商业背景下的产品计划会议。当我问其中的经营策略在哪，我经常会得到一个茫然的眼神。这个产品计划会议小组希望赚到更多的钱，那么他们想要添加这些功能，或是他们的理由。 经营策略是发现你的业务目标，并决定在何处投资，以最好的效果实现这些目标。例如，从直销模式（你自己的销售队伍直接将产品销售给顾客）到一个在线销 售模式（客户从你的网站购买）都是一个经营策略。决定你的服务是否收取订阅费用和交易费用或者你是否有一个基于广告的收入模式都是一种经营策略。决定进入附近的市场也是一个经营策略。 现在，有一些重要产品明显影响到这些经营策略。但在这种相同情况下的不只有他们一个。在网上有很多卖东西的方法，很多创造财富的方法，以及很多开发或收购并且整合周围产品供应的方法。产品策略是围绕着实现你所希望的经营战略。 此外，虽然企业可能认为这是一个巨大的商机，但是你还是不知道是否你的公司能够成功地抓住这一次机会。该业务保持投资组合，企业可以而且应该调整该产品投资组合来推动企业和市场的发展。也许这将花费太多的钱去发展。也许顾客会觉得不值得去支付那么多钱。也许是太复杂了让用户很难应付它。这就是产品策略和产品发展发挥得作用。 营业额的保持需要通过投资组合来完成，企业可以调整产品投资组合为营业额和市场带来发展。 以亚马逊为例。他们已经有了一个投资组合，按类别包括其核心的电子商务产品，他们也有出售第三方产品，他们已经得到了一个基础 设施技术（云计算）的业务，他们甚至有自己不断增长的消费电子业务。我特别喜欢用亚马逊作例子，因为它们表明了很多优秀经营策略（和良好的产品战略）的观点。 亚马逊可能已经