For someone whose career started in business intelligence and analytics, there is no substitute for having accurate data and statistics to inform product prioritization and design decisions. This is why we launched and continue to leverage the HCL Commerce | Product Ideas Portal, which I wrote about in my previous post. An equally important program that we rely on to shape our product roadmap is the Sponsor User Program (SUP), a community of clients and partners, who we collaborate with more closely on new product capabilities and longer-term strategic initiatives. SUP organizations engage directly with HCL Commerce Architects, Designers, and Product Managers through a variety of research methods to share their industry expertise, business priorities, and product experiences. In turn, they are among the first to see early designs and prototypes and are invited to exclusive Webinars and events. Last year, select SUP organizations also participated in our first Beta Program through which they were given access to beta features and pre-release code. Just this week, we kicked off an exciting project with a few of our most important and industry-leading SUP clients to re-imagine the Search business user tools, and we are already planning for our next Beta Program that will coincide with our mid-year release. As Product Managers, we are always looking for patterns in what our users do, say, think, and feel, but the context that is needed to tell a more complete and powerful product story can come only from direct, personal engagement with them (even though it is all virtual these days). If you are interested in learning more about the Sponsor User Program, please reach out to your Product Specialist.        

In software product management, we are in the business of solving “market problems.” Market problems are evaluated along two dimensions: pervasiveness and willingness to pay. Through this series of blogs, we’ll share more details about how HCL Commerce play imporatnt role here.