{"id":53775,"date":"2018-02-11t12:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-11t17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=53775"},"modified":"2018-03-09t09:00:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09t14:00:21","slug":"firm-product-management-way-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2018\/02\/11\/firm-product-management-way-future\/","title":{"rendered":"firm product management is the way to the future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a> provider and customer have to be aligned.<\/strong><\/p>\n by jody padar<\/i> what is your firm\u2019s purpose?<\/p>\n let\u2019s go back to the idea of innovation, or what i like to describe as the application of innovation and business model transformation.<\/p>\n more on radicalism:<\/b> josh zweig\u2019s liveca offers new thinking from the ground up<\/a> | why our clients need us to be radical<\/a> | introducing the fifth radical tenet: the business model<\/a> | dear midsized firms: yes, you can change<\/a> | the four tenets of radical firms: a brief review<\/a> | the radical cpa: always changing<\/a> we\u2019re not just managing change anymore. change management is becoming obsolete \u2013 new firms know they must be nimbler than just strategizing around any sort of targeted change. managing change was fine five years ago, but trust me when i say we are beyond that. product management is what technology companies do when they create new technology. it\u2019s the organizational lifecycle<\/strong> dealing with the planning, the forecasting, the production and the marketing of a product or products in all its stages.<\/p>\n if you look at this definition from wikipedia, product management \u201cintegrates people, data, process and business systems.\u201d isn\u2019t that what we do as cpas?<\/p>\n i mean, think about it. don\u2019t we integrate people, data, process and business systems? don\u2019t we do this to provide the best service possible to our customers?<\/p>\n it\u2019s a brain change. we haven\u2019t before thought of ourselves as a product. we always think of ourselves as selling service hours, but if you move to fixed pricing, or a value-pricing model, we\u2019re in a whole different ballgame. we\u2019re selling a product now and really a result or even transformation. it\u2019s like what ron baker of verasage institute said, \u201cthe customers become the product in a transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n the question becomes, how are we going to keep that product innovative and cutting-edge so that we\u2019re not just selling service hours? because, guess what? we shouldn\u2019t be thinking of ourselves as selling service hours anymore.<\/p>\n in a traditional cpa firm, most deals are structured on a combination of time and scope. as the scope of requirements increases, so does the time needed to deliver them, so the price goes up. in other words, the more work the customer wants done, the more they\u2019ll have to pay. in this situation, the customer is incentivized to ask for less, while the firm is incentivized to find more work for more billing.<\/p>\n a productized service is organized differently. it\u2019s designed to align the incentives of both the provider and the customer with one common purpose: to produce desirable results for the customer.<\/p>\n case study: launching a new product line at new vision, new vision wealth management<\/strong><\/p>\n the best way to explain how this works is to talk about a new product launch at my firm. we are in the process of launching wealth management services, and we are doing it via a product management model.<\/p>\n how did we decide we wanted to do this? it was the next natural step.<\/p>\n our customers were asking us about financial planning. i also saw some of our younger business owners exit their companies and watched their wealth leave our firm because we were no longer able to meet their needs.<\/p>\n i decided it was time to get licensed. not to mention, a shift of generational wealth is starting to occur as the baby boomers are dying and my customer base is primed to receive inheritances.<\/p>\n i also believe that complete financial planning should be in a firm. it just makes sense to serve your customer from a holistic point of view. if you look at any of the bigger firms, they offer wealth management as it is a complementary offering.<\/p>\n perhaps even most importantly, fintech helps us provide services that our cloud-based customers expect. we are a technology-driven firm and now, thanks to the latest in financial technology, we can meet them where they are online.<\/p>\n once again, traditional cpa financial planning firm owners are not meeting the needs of the next generation of customers, when they expect in-person face-to-face meetings.<\/p>\n now, i know compliance is tough and it\u2019s not as easy to transact using the internet, but i\u2019ve trailblazed before. why shouldn\u2019t cpa financial planners be able to serve their customers in the same fintech-driven way?<\/p>\n where did we start?<\/strong><\/p>\n we decided to align with 1st global, which only serves cpa firm owners. they are our ria and our broker dealer.<\/p>\n why 1st global?<\/p>\n after doing research and asking other firms we knew, we did not want to be an in-house ria. we also knew we wanted to have a complete offering as we got more involved in the financial planning space.<\/p>\n also, i challenged their leadership team about where i wanted to be from a fintech perspective, and they were open to be challenged. it started with compliance doing a social media audit of me. talk about walking into an unusual relationship!<\/p>\n we created a business plan using aha!. we defined what we would sell. this is a big deal because we didn\u2019t just say we would sell everything 1st global offers. we defined a handful of products that we believed would complement our current customers\u2019 needs. we don\u2019t want to be everything to everybody, and are comfortable with defining who we want to serve and how we will serve them. that means we may turn down business because it does not fit into our product line offering.<\/p>\n the slide below is a one-page overview of what we are selling and who we are selling to. it can keep our whole firm engaged with a simple explanation of our new product line goals. this is especially helpful for the members of our team who are not directly involved in the initiative.<\/p>\n
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\nwhat i\u2019ve realized is that firm management is evolving into product management. now hear me out, before you think i\u2019m throwing service out the window.<\/p>\n