Have you ever felt like the Deer in the Spot Light? Don't you just know the bullet is fast coming? Yet, Mr. Product Manager there you stand, frozen in uncertainty.

It's time to cut. "Everyone must do it." Today and in the foreseeable future the business objective is to cut costs. Business objectives change rapidly. Rapid change is the environment that Product Managers live in.

Reduce Costs!

Scott Anthony in his blog "Scott Anthony Innovation Insights"  post dated 28th Jan warned "Cut Customer Service? You'll lose Customers". Product Managers want customers ... Must keep customers ...

NO WAIT.

Scott states, "Companies might think that innovation and survival are discrete choices. They are not." This is an assertion that should have been better supported. Innovation and survival are discrete choices. Like all discrete behavior (that of an individual or organization of individuals), the question is about the time interval. If it appears continuous, shorten the interval. Eventually you'll see the beginning and end.

If this is true, you can cut innovation, and any other discrete event, and still survive. The question is how long.

Go Ahead, Cut!

"How long? What does that mean?" Scott might ask. "If you cut an arm off, it's cut. Can you say, FOREVER?" Companies without Customer Service die, they don't survive. That's a proven fact.

WAIT.

You've hit on something here Scott; arms are a continuous part of the body. It's part of the body's structure. Is there a way we can keep the organization process of Customer Service intact, while cutting the activities of Customer Service for a short periods of time? If so, Product Managers could throttle Customer Service activities to regulate costs. In this way we don't cut the arm off; just reduce blood flow for short periods of time.  We don't have to amputate when we get tennis elbow do we?

OK, Go ahead and throttle the flow!

Customer Service is critical to the survival of your company. How do you know how long the Product Manager can keep the activities turned off? This is a tricky and dangerous business. It reminds me of a video clip "Monkey vs. Tiger" I saw recently. The Product Manager would feel like the monkey playing with the Tiger's tail. Customer Service is just one of hundreds of discrete activities that the Product Manager manages across the innovation value chain. How do they know which activities to reduce, by how much, and for how long? These activities span across the entire organization, the product manager isn't even responsible for some of these things. There are teeth at the other end of that tiger you're playing with.

WAIT!

That's why activities across the innovation value chain should be instrumented with key performance indicators. These indicators have thresholds that are monitored by the Product Manager. When the business environment changes the business objective may change. If the business objective changes some of the targeted threshold values change. The Product Manager doesn't have to cut ...

Never mind - The BULLET just found you.

Your competitors were using Adaptive Product Management. All of the APM practices we're in place. All the KPI's we're being monitored by a set of dashboards. When their objective changed to reduce costs, within seconds, the Product Manager's activities were aligned to the new strategy. In fact, all the activities of the innovation value chain became aligned to the new strategy. They gained significant cost reduction in less than 30 days. While you were contemplating cutting off your arms and legs, they gained the competitive advantage.

Not only are their customers more loyal than ever, but your customers became tired of waiting.

The Product Management Community knows the value of Adaptive Product Management. They also know how Product Mangers can acquire APM capabilities. Meaningful steps toward steering the activities within the innovation value chain can be taken by gaining APM capabilities. Product Management must effectively keep this path straight. The good news is that those who wish to help Product Mangers gain APM capabilities within the innovation value chain can play a constructive - perhaps decisive - role in keeping that path unobstructed.