I received a letter some time ago threatening my family's safety. They were to be killed if I didn't change my proposed position before November 5th.   I reported this to the security officers responsible for our safety. Folks came out to our home and evaluated our defensibility. Their mission was to examine my "exposure". My wife loved that.

They told me my exterior doors were worthless. "Get armored ones. Order bulletproof windows. Build a safe room. Install panic buttons. Upgrade you wireless security system. Get rid of the cedar fence in the backyard and put in a steel-and-concrete one. Screen incoming calls. Don't use the front door. Don't use the driveway. Vary the way I come home - and our entire family's schedule."

Pretty soon, we were talking over six-figure costs and relocation to Canada. And that was back when six-figures were a lot of money.  November 5th came and went uneventfully, but the experience taught me some important lessons about Product Management.

When security is at stake, there is no limit to fear or fortification.

The Al-Qaeda and the like have taken more from Americans than the IRS has. Think about the "extra half-hour" millions of airline passengers waste standing in security lines. The annual cost in lost work hours runs into the billions of dollars. Add to that the freight delays at borders, ports, and airports. Add the cost of checking money transfers as well as goods in transit, and the wages for beefed-up security forces around the world.

I say, "If fear starts like a tax,
behaves like a tax,
and produces results like a tax;
then it must be a tax."

This world wide "fear tax" represents the most significant victory of Terror to date.

Sun-Tzu in the Art of War states that "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." Product Managers need to maintain a balance between how they react to their competitor's, and how they advance, much like the balance between strategy and tactics.

Fear of the competitor can tax the product.
Fear of the competitor can tax the process.
Fear of the competitor can tax the technology.
Fear of the competitor can tax the product management team
until there's nothing left to give.

Fear thrives on the unknown. You must to know the competitor if you want to reduce the fear tax. You must maintain a balanced response to competitive information. Building bulletproof products is not a balanced response normally.

Bold new strikes in the market place can come as much from reducing the fear tax, as they do from new innovation processes.

Fact is, less than three out of ten Product Management teams feel they are gathering sufficient competitive information. Even less feel they can adequately respond to the information they have. To me this means that the worlds Product Managers are paying too high a fear tax.

Just like what my mother used to teach me about the play ground, good competitive analysis can help avoid fights. But that's not all competitive analysis can do. Most Product Managers view competitors as a threat. While competitors can be threats, the right competitors can strengthen rather than weaken a product's competitive position.

"Good" competitors can serve a variety of strategic purposes that increase your product's competitive advantage. Accordingly, it's often desirable to have one or more "good" competitors. See Michael Porter for more on that. Competitive analysis should be a part of every Product Management process. Even a little will go a long ways in reducing the fear tax.

Access to good competitive analysis is essential to the Product Management team. The correct response to that information is the Product Manager's responsibility.

At the end of the day, if your product management team is paying too much fear tax ― have a talk with your Product Manager.

The Product Management Community knows the value of competitive analysis.They also know how Product Mangers can develop correct responses to this information. Meaningful steps toward steering the activities within the innovation value chain can be taken by using competitive information.  Product Management must effectively keep the path straight. The good news is that those who wish to help Product Mangers better utilize competitive information can play a constructive - perhaps decisive - role in keeping that path unobstructed.