TMC Vocabulary
Compiled by Chris Halliwell, TMC Director
Potential Product
Augmented Product elements will eventually be matched by competitors, thereby evolving once-unique value to a customer expectation of all suppliers in the category. Potential Product refers to all of the possible unique elements that have yet to be added to the product offering. The source of Potential Product elements is both innovation in technology, and the constant effort by the supplier to identify opportunities to help customers respond to change, compete and reduce their cost structure.
Product Platform
A Product Platform defines a set of sub-systems and their interfaces forming a common architecture from which a stream of derivative products or services can be developed over a period of time. High tech firms increasingly consider platform-based approaches to reduce complexity and better leverage investments in design, manufacturing and marketing. Platform strategies address the defined needs of some number of Adjacent Market segments, and may have to be extended in order to cover additional target markets.
Solution Drivers
Solution Drivers, and their metrics, are defined by what is important to customers, thus they correspond to and support the customer's own driving business metrics. For customer satisfaction purposes suppliers prioritize Solution Drivers and then rate their performance to metrics versus competitive alternatives. For more strategic product planning effect, driving metrics can be applied to core technology, or Generic Product, elements; to customer satisfaction, or Expected Product, elements; and, most importantly, to customer-partnering, or Augmented Product, elements providing the basis for the supplier's Vector of Differentiation.
