The context of this discussion is software development in a software products company but I think the principles are universal. 

What is a product set?

A product set makes sense as a collection. DeWalt makes a kit (or collection) of tools called the fatboy kit — I own a set and it's proven its worth to me many times over. The batteries are interchangeable so only one charger is needed, it's cheaper than buying the individual items, it comes in a great case and DeWalt benefit because I purchased everything from them: I'm locked in! Software is similar, I suppose the ultimate product set is Microsoft Office. A collection of different but complementary products that makes sense as a group and locks you in to a way of thinking as well as a commutable file format.

Image taken from www.transtools.co.uk

What is a marketer?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/marketing suggests that marketing is: the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling. This is true if you're selling cut flowers, but no where near extensive enough if your organisation produces software products. Marketing cannot be a passive process; one in which the best is made of a bad lot for example. Good marketers will want to start with the basics. The organisation and its products are of course discrete entities:

— what does our organisation stand for?
— how are we distinct from our competitors?

— what are our values and opinions?
— are the above clearly understood by our audiences?

What comes first: marketing or code?

We'll assume the basics are fixed and a new product, or new version of a product is going to be built. Product Marketing must be involved at this point — at the start. New developments sometimes come in the form of entirely new products but most often they're new versions of an existing product or the integration of a collection of existing products — Product Sets. There are many challenges to building product sets, the first is to understand *why we're doing this*. The work involved in building product sets can be enormous, especially when there's different underlying technologies, different product development teams with various code development, test and release processes, APIs to build and so on. Defining who does what can be quite tough though I'd suggest not as hard or as important as defining the lower items in the list below, specifically: "market need" and "gap analysis". In other words: what problem are we trying to solve? And, what's the delta between our current offering and the one required to fulfill this need?

• Product GA (general availability)
• Marketing campaigns
• Product launch
• Beta programme
• Improvement cycle
• Internal release
• Product set development
• Product design
• Gap analysis
• Market need
• Brand development: V&O etc

I'm not suggesting product marketing necessarily starts before coding begins — that could squash innovation. However, product marketing should start to build propositions soon after innovation delivered new opportunities. Marketing is accountable for its role in steering development so that the theoretically achievable, technically do-able, tech-lead thinking is given a commercial imperative. The sum of a product set must be greater than its constituent components: a collection of discrete software applications. A product set must be a development of *what can be sold* and not that of *what we could build*. I.e. build what you can sell because there's little point in trying to sell what was built opportunistically.

The challenge for product marketing

Product Marketing must clearly state what problem is being solved and clearly demonstrate how the proposed new product set meets that challenge. Or else, the product set, no matter how fully featured, is likely to fair badly. If the marketing team have to spend inordinate effort in *market building* activities — trying to persuade buying audiences why they need this x,y,z collection of software packages — it might be because the software vendor is trying to sell what it could build!

The deliverables

I have used Marketing in a generic sense in this post, there will be various marketing disciplines involved, though there does need to be an accountable senior manager wearing the marketing hat and delivering on all areas of responsibility. I see the deliverables as these:

1. Steering product development strategy by injecting market insight

2. Steering product development strategy by accurately predicting the beyond-horizon opportunities and threats

3. Developing persona's that typify user roles, activities, goals and motivations

4. Educating the channel: opportunities, new target audiences, competitive landscape

5. Scripting the product set demonstration that enables audiences to put the discrete components together to tell a coherent story; one their respective audiences will understand and buy into

6. Grouping software into a product set will likely mean audiences, roles and therefore opportunities begin to overlay. Perhaps discrete components enjoyed the attention of specialised sales forces? These too may need to merge

Ultimately marketing has to explain the product set in a *what and why* format: what it is, what it does and why you need it. Crystallizing a proposition to the elevator-pitch takes lots of insight and understanding. Sales activity cannot properly commence until this step is completed.

A note to management

Building a product set takes more time, involves more investment and certainly more involvement from the senior management team in the form of strategic planning than you might hope for. Get it right and you can end-up with a killer proposition that redefines the market and puts you in poll-position.