Productization as a service offering

Productization as a service offering would include a bundle of services. Here are some thoughts on what those could be.

1) Project Management - putting all of the pieces together to get your product from prototype to an actual product that customers can buy. What are those steps? 

2) Market Strategy - who are the customers and how do you reach them? But more than just the big picture analysis, a productized marketing strategy would include a complete marketing plan with specific steps. Now, there might be a level of detail left out here if marketing execution is going off to another firm, which seems likely. There are marketing firms out there already that specialize in campaign execution and management. In this case, it seems likely that the marketing plan would be higher level. 

3) Distribution - how will the product get out to customers? If it's a physical product, then we're talking about retailers. If electronic, what are the standard distribution channels, what are their costs, and how do you maximize them? Import and export laws are important here.

4) Manufacturing - if a software product relies entirely on electronic distribution channels, then maybe this isn't necessary. 

5) Support - how do you support the product? 

6) Legal and regulatory - different markets have varying legal constraints. Import and export laws and controls are an important touchpoint mentioned already. Product liability is another. What happens if your product bursts into flames?

 

Productization

I was talking to a friend of mine today that made a suggestion for a business that rings true for me. He suggested a consultancy built around the concept of productization. I didn't really know what that meant and he clarified that he was talking about the concept of moving a product from prototype to market. 

I also found this blog post from last year, which deals with the concept of productization of professional services. Since this sort of business would be a professional service, or set of services, I imagine it's the sort of thing you would want to productize as well. Since this is Seattle, we're probably talking about software products for the most part, and it seems like one would need to be on the radar of some of the local venture funds. Once a local startup gets the funding to go to market, they need to find a way to get that done.