Research and Development is Product Management

Marc Rubner, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Blackboard, shares how he builds new products from within established companies and how he inspires his customers in the edtech market to buy.

Large organizations are not organized to build new products, they’re organized to defend what they’ve already built. That’s what Marc said is the biggest challenges he’s faced in his 25 years of experience building new businesses from within large organizations.

To solve this challenge, Marc recommends research and development teams set up their physical space apart from the rest of the organization, measure success over the course of years instead of months, and recruit people who thrive in that environment. This approach helped him start and scale a new business unit from within American Express.

After 13 years of research and development experience at American Express, Marc moved into ed-tech, a market with notoriously risk-averse customers. To overcome the procurement challenges of selling to schools, Marc strives to build products that meet three key criteria:

• Value: Customers achieve a positive ROI from using the product
• Capacity: The product allows customers to accomplish more in less time and with less money
• Workflow: The customers overall workflow is better after adopting the product than it was before adopting the product

He then paints a clear before and after picture that shows the customer that the risk of not adopting his product is greater than the risk of the change that comes with adopting a new technology.

You’ll learn a lot from this episode about market segmentation, customer development, and product positioning.

Here are the highlights:

• The most significant challenges Marc has faced when building new businesses within established companies (7:30)
• Marc’s framework for build/buy/partner assessments when developing a strategy for growth and innovation (12:10)
• How Marc conducts user research to identify market opportunities and adapt to global markets (18:20)
• How Marc positions his product to inspire adoption in edtech (24:00)
• Marc’s product strategy for turning research and development projects into successful businesses (30:00)