A financial services department staffed by tax lawyers, actuaries and technically minded product developers may sound like the industry equivalent of a full blown Star Trek convention, complete with attendees in character costumes.
A financial services department staffed by tax lawyers, actuaries and technically minded product developers may sound like the industry equivalent of a full blown Star Trek convention, complete with attendees in character costumes.
Using the same analogy, the heads of these departments would probably be swanning round dressed as Captain Kirk and snapping orders to underlings.
But even though product development departments are a packed full of technically minded staff, product development managers are keen to avoid the boffin tag.
BT Funds Management senior vice president product development Brian Bissaker says this is easy to deal with since product development heads who are good at their jobs are actually on the road and meeting financial planners.
“The concept of a collection of back room tech-heads is dependent on the model in use but there is no point producing the very best product if it will not sell,” Bissaker says.
“The best model is where people are out on the road interacting with planners and talking and gaining feedback. This allows a dynamic approach to being on top of the issues which concern those selling and working the product.”
AMP superannuation and retiree services product manager Tristan Laszok says people do tend to see the process of product development as the realm of the white lab coats.
“To some extent it is still seen that way due to the specialised nature of the process,” Laszok says.
“However product developers follow an open, collaborative process to make it transparent so stakeholders can see what is involved, and dealing with a wide range of people needs a level of management and diplomacy to get the process to work.
“It is not an overtly front office thing anyway yet product development managers get to deal with every group within the structure and build something which creates benefit for all.”
In building products the responsibilities and duties which product development managers undertake include taking a concept and fitting that into the overall company strategy.
From there the concept is researched, approved by management and specifications are created util-ising what Bissaker calls a hub and spokes concept.
“The spokes are the sales, legal, marketing, distribution, support and other arms of the company while the product development manager forms the hub and drives the project while ensuring other lines have input and representation,” Bissaker says.
After this the product is then created and rolled out in due course with added tasks a regular part of the process. These include day to day maintenance and enhancements to existing products while raising new concepts all within a standardised process.
“Maintaining the momentum of a development in the face of hurdles such as legislation adds to the need to step above the process and attempt to draw the project together,” Laszok says.
“One of the challenges of this role is the management of expectations and balancing short and long term capabilities.”
While management and research skills are critical the other chief strength the product development manager utilises are their technical skills which have a wider impact beyond the projects at hand.
“The role also becomes one of a trouble-shooter if any problems occur in production or there are queries on any of the mechanics of fund products. Leading product developers will have a specialist role within the group and will understand how issues such as legislation or tax reform will affect products,” Bissaker says.
These skills are gained or possessed by those in assistant product development roles or those who may have marketing, distribution, sales, legal and actuarial backgrounds.
At the same time university qualifications would also point in similar directions with marketing, law and financial services being a common factor.
After this product development staff are involved in small projects as they work up to an assistant role where they may spend some time honing skills and driving the product development process and eventually moving into a lead role within product development.
Both Bissaker and Laszok say the demographic is wide with education and experience and not age as the most common factor. In fact Laszok says there are some advantages to having a team with wide age ranges.
“Even though it tends towards late twenties to early thirties, older members provide a backbone which makes the process easier. Young teams can get panicky when under extreme pressure so a mixed team is more stable and controlled as the result of extensive experience,” Laszok says.
Beyond the world of product development there are further managerial positions which are the re-sult of the wide scope and in-depth nature of the role
“People in product development enjoy the wide scope of the role which keeps them happy due to change and the challenges. Due to the central location and the constant contact across the board there is a good chance product developers have had exposure to all business lines.,” Bissaker says.
“This provides a good springboard as managers know what the job is beforehand and they can tai-lor the next move. They tend think on long term scales.”
