Productize by Eisha Tierney Armstrong

About the book

Productize

The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products

By Eisha Tierney Armstrong · Published by Vecteris · 2021

More and more traditional professional services firms are turning to “productization” as a strategy to grow, improve valuations, and fend off new digital-first competitors. However, many of them will fail and waste a lot of money in the process. Productize first outlines the “Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes” made when pursuing a product strategy, then provides the blueprint for overcoming each of these missteps. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth.

Key concepts

The Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes
The Productize Pathway®
The Innovation Ladder
Urgent and expensive problems
The 3 C’s of Cannibalization

What you’ll learn

How to shift your culture to embrace a product mindset
The capabilities you need, and whether to acquire them or grow them internally
How much to invest in exploring and building more scalable solutions and products
How to ensure there is a viable market for your product idea
How to sequence investments in new product development
How to source and work with developers and data scientists
How to test your ideas inexpensively before investing in development
How to win the hearts and minds of your sales team so new products succeed commercially
Real-life case studies from professional services leaders who have created more scalable services and products

Where to start in the book

Each chapter pairs one of the Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes with its solution. Start with the mistake that sounds most familiar.

Mistake	Solution	Chapter
Starting too big or too perfectly	Follow the Productize Pathway®	Two
Focusing on processes before people	Create a product-friendly culture	Three
Favoring core businesses, rather than new products	Align to support innovation	Four
Developing products that don’t solve an urgent and expensive problem	Define the (right) problem	Five
Designing and developing in a vacuum	Co-design and develop	Six
Fear of cannibalization hinders sales and marketing	Launch boldly	Seven
Stopping at the MVP	Manage and iterate	Eight

About the author

Eisha Tierney Armstrong

Co-founder and Executive Board Member, Vecteris

Eisha Armstrong is the executive chairman and co-founder of Vecteris, where she works with B2B services companies around the globe on new product strategy and commercialization. She has 25+ years of experience developing, launching, and managing new data and information service products. Prior to co-founding Vecteris, Eisha held senior product leadership positions both with E.W. Scripps, the diversified media company, and with CEB (now Gartner). Eisha earned her MBA at the Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts in both women’s studies and economics at the University of Kansas.

Contact Vecteris for speaking engagements and media inquiries.

Praise for Productize

“Productize is a must-read for leaders of both product and services companies seeking to create scale and growth in their business. It’s a great combination of frameworks and sound advice!”
Simon Frewer, CEO at Challenger

“Launch BOLDLY! Eisha’s wisdom identifies 7 Deadly Productization Mistakes and masterfully offers leaders a simple (yet, not easy) vision & roadmap to sidestep these common mistakes. Eisha goes beyond the productization tools and zeros in on leadership’s most challenging role of the Productize journey: stonewalling legacy team & an entrenched culture who are complacent with the current business model. Eisha inspires leaders to be bold and fearless.”
Ray Attiyah, Author of The Fearless Frontline

“Any leader of a professional services business will recognize the challenge of scaling their business beyond one-time services. Productize is a great blueprint for CEOs of B2B professional services firms who are looking to get to the next level of growth by turning IP and services into products that can scale.”
Christoffer Ellehuus, President, KF Digital at Korn Ferry

“Productize is a must-read for any leader of a services business who wants to scale their organization. It’s a powerful playbook for how to create and launch successful products alongside a services business, including relatable case studies and a library of tools for your team to use.”
Jennifer McCollum, CEO at Linkage

“It is rare to find someone like Eisha who has such extensive experience productizing professional services and teaching other business leaders how to do it themselves. This is not your typical business book where you skim it and wonder why you bought it. Productize is a book you can use with your leadership team to study, discuss and use its tools to bring your growth ideas to life.”
Jeff Spanbauer, CEO of Relevate Health Group

“Scaling any business is challenging, even more so for professional services businesses. Productize is a handbook for creating successful products that complement existing services, allowing your business to grow revenue without adding costs at the same rate, and without putting your existing business at risk. As Eisha says, ‘That’s the sweet spot.’”
Christy Pretzinger, CEO at WriterGirl

Titles at time of publication.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Productize for?

Productize is written for professional services organizations, such as consulting firms, accounting firms, marketing agencies, and training companies, that want to develop more scalable, often tech-enabled, products.

What does “product” mean for a services firm?

In Productize, a product is a scalable, often tech-enabled, tool or program that can be packaged and sold. It has a name, a predefined set of features and benefits, and a set price.

How much investment does productization take?

Productize suggests starting with about 2–3% of revenue to explore market needs and test ideas. Full new product development typically ranges from 10–30% of revenue, depending on what you build.

Do we have to do it all at once?

No. Productize recommends a “think big, start small” approach. Each part of the Productize Pathway® can be implemented over time and in small increments.

Productize: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Professional Services into Scalable Products