Product and Feature Selections
What are product and feature selections and why are they important?
A product is a tangible good that is an output or result of a fabrication, manufacturing, production, or engineering process. Products are commercially distributed, and typically pass through a distribution channel before being consumed or used.
A feature meets a consumer need associated with a product and is seen as a product benefit. In business, a feature is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a product or service that helps boost its appeal to potential buyers.
Product and feature selections involve identifying, evaluating, and selecting one or more products/features that best meet the business strategy, product strategy, or functional requirements.
How does Definitive help facilitate this process?
Product and feature selections are, by their very nature, a team sport. As such, the process must enable significant stakeholder engagement and promote strong teamwork amongst the product and project teams.
Definitive’s role is to facilitate: the establishment and weighting of the selection criteria that will be used by the team; the review and evaluation of products or features; trade-off analyses; and the decision-making process.
Definitive also assists the customer by managing the business process, developing job aids and reports, and providing and maintaining the support tools, such as Definitive Pro™ and Microsoft SharePoint.
Example Decision Model
In this example, a company is selecting a commercial product (e.g., laptop) to meet business requirements.
Collaboration
Definitive Pro™ enables the product and feature selection team to collaborate anytime, anywhere, using any device. By making it easier to participate, we: bring together representatives from finance, legal, human resources, marketing, and technology; promote teamwork; and improve cross-functional insight.
Prioritization
Definitive Pro™ uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to accurately establish the relative importance of the decision criteria, and efficiently score all alternative products and features. The consistent and transparent scoring process yields greater consensus and buy-in than other approaches.
Optimization
Definitive Pro™ employs the Gurobi optimizer®, a state-of-the-art mathematical programming solver for optimizing the allocation of resources. The Gurobi optimizer can quickly identify the set of products and feature that maximize strategic benefit, while satisfying all dependencies and constraints.
Faster and better decisions — Justifiable decision rationale — Historical record of decisions
Definitive Pro™ also powers group decision support for:
- Budget Formulation
- Business Opportunity Selections
- Business Partner Selections
- IT Demand Management
- Merger & Acquisition Selections
- Organizational Cost Savings
- Personnel Selections
- Requirements Prioritization
- Risk Assessments
- Strategic Investment Selections
- Strategy Development
- Surveys and Audience Response
- Vendor Selections