@evanwolf

A Generic Product Retirement Product Plan Slide Deck

Phil Wolff Product Grim Reaper Graceful Exits at Let My Data Go.org

Kill It and Dispose of the Body, With Bullets or Love

#prodmgmt #eol #killthepwoduct

#producthospice #gracefulexit

#productmanagement

@evanwolf

Your product won’t live forever, right? Let’s have its end-of-life discussion now.

@evanwolf

A generic flow Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Based on your advance

directive, you’re

tracking key indicators for signals your

product is not healthy.

Signals

@evanwolf

Set Triggers

•  Choose key warning measures and vital signs

•  Set up alerts

•  Trigger Life or Death Meetings

Map

Stage

End? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Convene your “death panel” to choose life or death.

If life, go back to monitoring health.

End?

@evanwolf

Choice: End Now?

•  Get buy-in

•  Abandon hope

•  Decide to end the product

Map

Stage

End? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Where does the body go?

How?

@evanwolf

Choice: Disposal

•  Weigh product death vs. other options

•  Mothball for later revival, Sale outright, Recycle parts internally, Sell components, Donate to NGO, Contribute IP to public (open source)

•  Choose how your organization’s relationship with the product will end

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Mothball

Chop Shop

Outplacement

Adoption

Set It Free

Mind Wipe Bullets & Blood

Graceful Exit

Value Extraction Just Done

Later Now

How?

Choice: Disposal

@evanwolf

Extreme Variations: Bullets & Blood

Shoot first, ask questions later

Pros:

•  Rapid signals to partners, market, staff

•  Rapid discovery of breakage

Cons:

•  Preventable breakage

•  Prolonged cleanup stage

•  Higher risk of liability, legal challenges

How?

Round them up, put them against the wall, shoot ‘til dead, drag the bloody bodies to a ditch, toss in lime. Pack your snacks, grab your guns, and leave.

@evanwolf

Extreme Variations: Graceful Exit

Leave the ecosystem better than you found it

Pros:

•  Thorough

•  Builds reputation

• Manages risk

Cons:

• More up-front work

How?

Do right by users, partners, the ecosystem, & society. Meaningful notice, data portability, paths for continuity, customer voice

Takes: -  Planning -  Soft skills -  Readiness for

emotional intensity

-  resource cushion.

@evanwolf

Disposal variations: Mind wipe

End the product under its brand name

Relaunch under a new name or as a white label service

How?

Marketing and

messaging suck?

Stick a new label on

it and try again.

@evanwolf

Disposal variations: Chop Shop

Sell the parts

Data. Plumbing. Experiences. Relationships. Business Models. Creative.

How?

Harvest the organs. Dump the body

@evanwolf

Disposal variations: Outplacement

Sell the whole product to another organization

How?

Product trafficking

@evanwolf

Donate to an NGO

Users have continuity

How?

Disposal variations: Give up for adoption

Want it? Take it. Now.

@evanwolf

Disposal variations: Set it free

Put the IP into the public domain

Hand control to the customers or ecosystem

How?

Leave remains in the open for vultures and historians to pick over

@evanwolf

Disposal variations: Mothball

Suspend the product until better conditions

How?

“It’s dead” she said. But we knew she kept him closeted in cold storage in the basement. He might live again. Some day.

@evanwolf

Dig In Map, Plan, Prep, Rollout, Respond

@evanwolf

Map what’s to be done

•  Technologies

•  Operations

•  Business flows

•  Financial flows

•  Regulatory flows

•  Staff

•  Ecosystem dependencies

•  Customer relationships

•  Media relationships

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

•  Detail your product’s…

@evanwolf

Scope and sequence

•  Define completion measures (how you know it’s dead)

•  Choose how you’re going to end the product, step-by-step

•  Communications/relationships plan

•  Technology/operations plan

•  Finance, Legal, HR plan

•  Define post-product needs & plan to deploy them

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Prepare for rollout

•  Execute pre-closure steps

•  Announcements

•  IT prep, operations, testing

•  Business activities

•  Cutover design

•  Post-closure setup

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

End the product

•  Flip the switch

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Clean up and leave

•  Rapid response to breakage

•  Systems, relationships, legal, HR

•  Dispose of product remains

•  Track and handoff post-life services

•  Product team debriefings, wakes

•  Financial, legal, HR, real estate closeouts

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Done

•  Final project reporting

•  Turn out the lights

Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

So that’s how we talk about putting your product out to pasture.

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

Let me ask you a few questions.

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan Are you ready to prepare for end-of-life while your product is still healthy?

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan Can you shift to the happily grim mindset of a reaper?

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

Are you, your product’s champion, best suited and best prepared to deal death to your own products?

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Done

Plan

It’s probably time for a new #prodmgmt specialty.

The Reaper.

@evanwolf

Share your product death stories to improve reaping

Your stories from real product endings

Anecdotes tell us what to test

Instrumented experiments

Share hard data

Surveys

How people think

Prediction markets

Test conclusions

@evanwolf

Product Reaping could become a standalone product management discipline

More science, less art

More ROI, less housekeeping

More brand building, less brand protection

More experience, less “ooh, that’s a wheel”

More up front planning and prep, less last minute scramble

More reaping ecosystem:

•  apps (or features in #prodmgmt apps)

•  markets (for selling features, products)

•  services (project support)

@evanwolf

Done Map

Stage

Kill? How?

Deploy

Close Out

Signals

Plan

Thanks!

Done

@evanwolf

Phil Wolff Hi!

Email or tweet your stories, suggestions,

referrals or just call/skype

Phil Wolff is a consulting product manager in Oakland, California. Phil co-founded four startups,

worked as a programmer, project manager, business analyst, technology architect, industry analyst,

operations researcher, and tech journalist at Bechtel National, Wang Labs, LSI Logic, Adecco SA, NavSup,

and privacy NGOs.

e phil@LetMyDataGo.org skype evanwolf v +1-510-343-5664 t @evanwolf @letmydatago bio About.me/evanwolf cv Linkedin.com/in/philwolff blog Letmydatago.org

@evanwolf

Phil Wolff Hi!

Email or tweet your stories, suggestions, referrals or just call/skype

Phil Wolff is a consulting product manager in Oakland, California. Phil co-founded four startups,

worked as a programmer, project manager, business analyst, technology architect, industry analyst,

operations researcher, and tech journalist at Bechtel National, Wang Labs, LSI Logic, Adecco SA, NavSup,

and privacy NGOs. He volunteers in Code for America’s #OpenOakland brigade.

e phil@LetMyDataGo.org skype evanwolf v +1-510-343-5664 t @evanwolf @letmydatago bio About.me/evanwolf cv Linkedin.com/in/philwolff blog Letmydatago.org