Software products leverage both hardware and software technologies that are evolving fast. Therefore, software product managers frequently need to assess the impact of new technologies.
To draw the right conclusions from available data, it is key to apply the right technology adoption model to the situation at hand.
This helps with several product management activities: assessing the threat posed by new entrants who leverage new technologies, creating plausible forecasts for new types of products, and determining the strategy and timeline for migrating existing products to new technologies.
In her talk, Barbara Hoisl highlights how the Category Maturity Model by Geoffrey M. Moore (“Crossing the Chasm”) differs from the more generic Technology Adoption Life Cycle Model and the concept of technology S-curves.
She provides criteria when to apply which model, and discusses the implications for market analysis and forecasting.
Main points of value for the audience
• understand the difference: technology S-curves vs. Category Maturity Model and especially when the Category Maturity Model needs to be applied
• understand that adoption of new product categories initially follows an exponential curve and needs to be modeled accordingly, e.g. for forecasting revenue when introducing a new product categories, or when assessing the threat posed by a competitor
• understand the deceptive nature of exponential growth curves, and how they make timing more difficult
About the speaker:
Barbara Hoisl is a consultant and trainer, specializing in “Exponential Strategy – Thriving in a world driven by exponential change”. She draws on more than 30 years of direct, first-hand experience in the global software and Internet industry, including 14 years with the software business unit at Hewlett-Packard (HP).
Her German-language reference book on innovation strategy for vendors of IoT products was published by Springer Gabler in 2019: “Produkte digital-first denken: Wie Unternehmen software-basierte Produktinnovation erfolgreich gestalten”.
Barbara holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from Technical University of Kaiserslautern. She is a fellow of the ISPMA (International Software Product Management Association) and partner at pd7.group, a leading provider of ISPMA-based certification training for software product managers.
You find her at barbarahoisl.com, on LinkedIn and Xing.