Updated: January 24, 2024 - 2 min read
In this talk, Eric Menzie illustrates how to build good enterprise products, whether internally at a 200k+ employee organization, or, at an Enterprise Software Firm.
Eric Menzie
Eric Menzie serves as the Global Product Head for Evaluation solutions products at IHS Markit. During his term of more than 16 years in the financial services industry, Mr. Menzie has focused on sales, trading and research applications for global investment banking. He is a frequent speaker on financial services technology trends and enterprise product management. Prior to joining IHS Markit in 2017, Mr. Menzie led the entire Salesforce CRM build for Wells Fargo Securities that covered 30 lines of business and 1500+ users.
What is an Enterprise Product?
Generally Expensive ($10,000 – $10M+ per year contract)
High Expectations… and you have to meet them (legally)
Short window for “experimentation” vs. a Consumer app
Enterprise vs. Consumer reality check. “We’re not paying you to learn our business.”
Three Main Goals for Enterprise Software Built “In-House”
Make Money
Save Money
Operate more efficiently*
*This helps #1 and #2
How to get things done within a 200K+ employee firm
Get buy-in from and listen to stakeholders
Get Quick Wins (can’t start chucking 3s at your first game)
Find allies/power users (+Social Proof)
Lead without authority
Three Main Goals for Enterprise “Vendor-Built” Software
Build products that solve actual user problems (painful ones)
Sell them, learn, iterate, then expand the market (and sell more)
World domination*
*This helps #1 and #2
Selling Enterprise Products to Prospects/Clients
Know what impact your software is going to have on an organization, and
Stakeholders are extremely important, but they are
rarely your end users
Building Great Products as a Vendor or Internally
Find out what really matters
Save your product’s life by saying NO
Know your user’s time
Add value with your app, even for users who never log in!
Your worst users give the best
How to Get Better at Product Management?
Eric concludes by highlighting that one can always find the time to do things that they want to, and build things that they want to, illustrating the example of his own app with over a hundred downloads that he had developed and finally managed to publish on the Apple Store, overcoming many hurdles.
Updated: January 24, 2024