Product Management
CONTINUITY THROUGH CHANGE
28.08.2020
The speed at which digitization and technological progress are changing our world is breathtaking. But along with the new possibilities come new demands on existing structures and processes. This also affects the area of product management.
ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW PRODUCT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
- Value-enhancing products with a clear vision
- Shorter development cycles and rapid learning through experimentation
- Earlier and continuous value creation through “Continuous Delivery”
- Goal-oriented road map focused on added value for the customer (no prioritization conflicts
To draw closer to our vision of a damage that is compensated worldwide, fairly and on the same day, we have implemented new structures in product management. We have reoriented our product teams and solutions based on the claims process for motorists, our customers’ needs, and our declared goal of always establishing the best and most innovative product on the market. All decisions are focused on the product and the related prod-uct culture. As a result, we are able to constantly monitor whether or not our customers are satisfied with the product, whether new needs are arising from trends and, above all, whether the previous orientation is reflected in the product‘s success. An important starting point was the development of individ-ual product visions as well as a clear and compelling strategy developed by our product managers in cooperation with the stakeholders.
AGILE WORK THROUGH CLEAR SEPARATION
To guarantee the range of solutions along our customers’ motor vehicle claims value chain, the area of product management, among others, was restruc-tured. The areas of technology, product design and delivery management are now clearly separated. The processes run parallel to each other, without interruption, which eliminates prioritization conflicts and leads to greater respon-siveness and quality growth.
- TEAM TECHNOLOGY
Provides the technological basis as reusable components, transfers innovations and features.
- TEAM PRODUCT LINES
Packs the technologies and features into products and adds functionalities such as rules and reports.
- TEAM DELIVERY
Configures, develops and implements products based on customer requirements.
FROM PRODUCT MANAGER TO PRODUCT CEO
This clear separation as a result of the transformation has also changed the duties of the company’s product managers. In the new structure, they bear end-to-end responsibility, from product vision to performance measurement. They independently prioritize the further development of their product solutions based on their in-depth understanding of market trends, customers and competition. And they are also responsible for the design of a target-oriented road map. In future, they will also manage the Profit & Loss, Legal and Marketing Departments with strong leadership and refined communication skills. “The goal is to turn our product managers into product CEOs who not only take full responsibility for the product but also enjoy full authority over it,” says Dr. Florian Pallas, Director of Product Management at ControlExpert.
FAIL FAST, LEARN FAST
The changeover to the new structure is showing results. A new culture of experimentation has been established within a very short time. The benefits of new developments and features are evaluated in experiments on the basis of data. This means: Work and experimentation are very agile, things are simply tried out, “just done” and tested. Whatever works, is adopted, whatever does not work, serves as a learning experience. True to the motto of: Fail fast, learn fast. In the end, only features that have a verifiable added value for the defined success factors are released.
This not only promotes product development, our customers also ben-efit from our delivery management, as delivery and implementation can be completed much more quickly. So it is already clear that we are drawing a little closer to our vision through the restructuring measures.