Understanding customer churn is important for product managers, product marketers, and sales management. Simply put, customer churn is the percentage of customers that decide not to renew their subscriptions or term contract agreements. I came across an article recently entitled 43 ways to calculate SaaS churn (and why you should just keep it simple). While they did not lay out all 43 formulas it was still an interesting piece. I have always been a numbers guy – I find that facts can help you better understand a situation and minimize the effects of anecdotes on key decisions. In this post I am going to talk about churn analysis and why, at the end of the day, numbers cannot tell the whole story.
Monthly Archives: August 2018
Another Installment of “Is the Bubble About to Burst?”
I came across two interesting articles today in my daily reading, both focus on how venture capital and private equity may be hurting our economy. As the stock market continues to climb to new record highs and GDP continues strong growth (4.2% revised upward for the second quarter) I think more and more about a bubble and that bubble bursting. In my career I have been through a number of economic slowdowns and recessions. In the 1980’s it was the recession in the auto industry, in the early 1990’s it was the recession after Gulf War I, then the dotcom boom and bust of 2000, and the great financial crisis of 2008.
M&A Basics for Product Managers. Part III: M&A Process
The objective of this post is to describe, at a high level, the steps in a typical tech M&A project. Each company tends to have their own playbook for M&A deals. Based on my past experience I have summarized the typical process steps in an M&A project. You should talk with people in your company to learn if there is a formal process in place for deals.
M&A Basics for Product Managers. Part II: Roles & Responsibilities in M&A
The objective of this post is to describe, at a high level, the major roles and responsibilities in a typical tech M&A project. Each company tends to have their own playbook for M&A deals. Based on my past experience I have summarized the typical roles and responsibilities in an M&A project. You should talk with people in your company to learn if there is a formal process in place for deals and what the roles and responsibilities are in that process.
How to Build a M&A Strategy
The following presentation presents a basic approach that can be used to develop a merger/acquisition strategy for your business. It is especially geared towards product managers that are interested in exploring the pragmatic aspects of M&A for their company.
M&A Basics for Product Managers. Part I: Major Types of M&A
The objective of this post is to provide product managers with some practical insights into the overall merger and acquisition process. I have been involved in product management for over 15 years. As a corporate development executive, I have led five major acquisitions and eight divestitures. This is the first of a three part series. It will focus on the major types of acquisitions. The second will focus on roles and responsibilities in the M&A process, especially for product managers. The final installment will walk through the major process steps in a typical M&A deal.
Why Product Managers Need to be Able to Read 10-K (Annual Report) Filings
One of the key themes I have reinforced over my 15 year career in product management is basic financial literacy. Product managers need to be able to locate, read, and interpret basic financial filings like Annual Reports (10-Ks), quarterly filings (10-Qs) and Proxy Statements (Def 14As). There is a ton of information that customers and competitors who are public companies must disclose. This information can make or break a sales deal or competitive steal away campaign.
Acquisition Candidate Analysis
A short presentation for product managers on how to analyze a potential acquisition candidate and present it to senior management. Acquisition analysis leverages open source and other publicly available information. This presentation covers the key concepts associated with acquisition candidate analysis, the process of developing an analysis, a sample ‘teaser’ presentation used to present information to senior management, boards of directors, and investors.
Moneywheel Analysis
How to find repeatable sales transactions to scale revenues in tough times. You can also use the moneywheel to estimate the size and scale of demand generation requirements needed to hit product/service line revenue targets.
How to Calculate the Enterprise Value of Private Companies
Enterprise value is perhaps the most common metric used to describe the value of a company. Simply put Enterprise Value is what it would cost to acquire a company. This post describes how to calculate the enterprise value of a private company