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Planning for 2023: Consider Your Products

With products typically changing and evolving, how do you work them into your 2023 plan? Look at the things it takes to create and make and change to ensure you continue to have the right product for your business and your customers. Then look at the price you get for it and the value it creates. Use both those angles to come out with action items that are priorities for you to incorporate into your plan.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

  • Do I have the right product to meet my customer needs?
  • Is there something I’m already aware of that needs to be built out?
  • Are there any products that are not selling well?
  • What are my costs associated with developing a product and getting it to my customer?
  • How does my cost compare with the price I’m getting for my product?

Then dig a little deeper to accommodate the answers. What information will you need to include key action items in your plan?

Product development

Be specific. If you decide you need to invest in a new product, think hard about whether this an investment worth making in 2023. And if so, how does it happen? Do you need extra staff to do it? How does the cost of that get funded in your plan? You might incur other vendor requirements, as well, that will have time and cost investments associated with them. Put all of it into your plan.

Product discontinuation

If a product is no longer needed, come up with how you’ll deal with that. Maybe you already have stock of a product that doesn’t sell well, so is it better to dispose of that stock, or can you package it as a value-add with other products until it runs out? If it’s not a physical product, but more of a software item, then how will you support the product that’s already been sold as you discontinue it? Consider all the different dependencies of discontinuing a product, and incorporate them into your plan.

Product roadmap

Your product roadmap — your map of how to get your specific product from point A to your vision, which is point B — will be at a certain place at the end of 2022. Think through how that roadmap is going to change for 2023 and fill that into your plan, both in terms of what it costs to follow that roadmap and what investments are needed. Also think about how that might affect your sales and your revenues if you are adding new or better features.

Planning through what these product action items look like on a month-by-month basis for 2023 and how they fit into the overall picture is essential to making an accurate, successful plan for the coming year. Unsure how to do this? Reach out to me. I’m happy to help.