We train thousands of product managers in hundreds of companies. Some work at businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) and so do B2B product management. This is also known as Enterprise product management. Others work at companies that only sell to consumers which are known as B2C product management. Some do both.
We’re sometimes asked to highlight the differences between a product manager building products for businesses with one whose customers are consumers.
To help answer this question we’re showcasing a recent blog from Rich Mironov, Understanding Enterprise Product Companies, which explores these differences in some detail.
The truth is that B2B product management probably has more similarities than differences compared to product management in a B2C business. Even so, there are differences caused by, amongst other things, the number of potential customers, the level of engagement and the value of each customer as well as the way that things are sold.
To give you a sense of scale – some of the clients we train have 100’s of millions of customers whilst, at the other end of the scale, some have a global market of just a few hundred potential customers. From our work experience and from our training and reviews, we recognize the truth in many of the comments Rich makes in his blog.
The differences for product managers dictate where they need to spend time and the approaches to completing product activities that are most likely to work well. If you’re building your skills so you can work across business and consumer products, then it’s useful to gain insight into these differences.
As a reminder again, this is the link to Rich’s blog.
How does this compare to your experience in managing consumer or business products?
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