Product Management During Business Case Phase
From Product Management School
The Business Case Document is the place where you make a sound business case for or against developing a new product or enhancing an existing product.
Business cases are actually used in nearly every industry to justify a whole range of business activities that need sign off from senior management. These can range from cases being built for developing new products to cases being built to justify investment.
Just like the Product Roadmap, the Business Case documents need to be treated as a living, breathing document. They are not static or created to just capture one moment in time. They are designed to be used to monitor and aid in the decision process throughout the Product Lifecycle.
Tips for Creating Business Case Documents
Key points to keep in mind when building a business case are:
- The business case should be tailored to the size and complexity of the product.
- Everything within the document should be justifiable.
- Everything within the document should be expressed in such a way that it can be tracked and monitored.
- The document should be complete i.e. it contains all relevant information needed to enable the decision making process from a business perspective. This is not a requirement for the document to be exhaustive. In fact part of the getting the balance of this document right is knowing when to stop researching and produce the version for approval.
What a Business Case Should Contain
Now that we know what a business case is let us take a look at what it should contain:
Executive Summary
- Introduction – purpose of the document
- Description – identification of the problem, why the problem should be addressed and resources expended to do so ; and what will be achieved
- Industry, market and customer data
- Assumptions and Risks – associated with the product
- Key Financial Indicators – 3 year summary
Background
- The challenge; how it arose; the research journey for solutions
- Funding needs for the entire project.
Business Need/Strategic Alignment
- How this concept fits in with business goals.
Market Analysis
- Industry Overview
- Competitive analysis
- Market Segmentation
- Target Markets
Product Description
- Written product description describing how the customer needs within the market will be met by the characteristics of the product.
- Diagrams and models to illustrate the product description.
Proposal
- Description and summary
- Deliverables and justification
- Team Members
- Project plan
- Resource requirements
- Launch Plan
Financials, Assumptions, Forecasts
- Scenarios that are going to be used & rationale behind them
- Financial Analysis
- P&L, balance sheet, cash flow forecasts, breakeven analysis, Cost benefit analysis, tax advice, financing and so on.
- Base case scenario – i.e. what would happen if the project did not proceed
- Using the scenarios, usually best, worst and most likely cases.
Implementation and Operational Action Plans
- A full description of what needs to be actioned throughout the development, launch and post-launch stages. Most of this information will be derived from the Functional Support Plans.
Risks and Contingency Plans
- Impact analysis of any perceived risks.
- Contingency plans that have been formed to mitigate the risks.
Recommendations
- This should be a well thought out and rationalized conclusion to all the work that has taken place to date. Remember it is your reputation as a Product Manager that is on the line so ultimately you should recommend approval as you see fit based on all the evidence.
