Top 7 books for Product Managers

The point of greatest peril in the development of a high-tech market lies in making the transition from an early market dominated by a few visionary customers to a mainstream market dominated by a large block of customers who are predominantly pragmatists in orientation. 

The gap between these two markets, heretofore ignored, is in fact so significant as to warrant being called a chasm, and crossing this chasm must be the primary focus of any long-term high-tech marketing plan. A successful crossing is how high-tech fortunes are made; failure in the attempt is how they are lost.

1. The product is first used by innovators, people with keen interest in technology.
2. Secondly, by the Early Adopters, who appreciate the benefits of the new concept.
3. As the product gets traction and becomes mainstream, the early majority starts to use it.
4. Then comes the late majority and finally the laggards, people who are away from technology but cannot help but buy it now due to practical reasons.

The Whole Product Concept identifies four different perceptions of product:

1. Generic product – This is what’s shipped in the box and what’s covered by the purchasing contract between the seller and the buyer.
2. Expected product – What the customer thought they were buying.
3. Augmented product – This is the product fleshed out to provide the maximum chance of achieving the buying objective.
4. Potential product – This represents the product’s room for growth as more and more ancillary products come on the market and as customer-specific enhancements to the system are made.