Pity the Product Planner: If you know one, buy them a cup of coffee - or maybe chamomile tea

摘要

Although there are undoubtedly more thankless jobs in an organization than one might shake a con rod at, I would like to submit that there probably isn't one that is more sleeplessness-inducing than that of the product planner. This is the person who holds the financial fate of literally thousands of people in her hands. Consider: If said planner makes a case for a particular vehicle, projects the sales and profits, and if these calculations are figured to be mete and the program gets green-lighted, then a veritable cascade of investments follow. This extends from the designers to the manufacturing engineers to the people creating the collateral for the dealerships. If the product makes it, then that's a big boon - or at least not a negative - for all involved. If the product tanks, well, then there's everything from (a) designers who really don't want that vehicle in their portfolio (arguing, perhaps, that someone downstream in the process destroyed the original intent), (b) manufacturing people who are now trying to figure out how to cost-effectively cut production and redeploy assets, to (c) marketing people who are trying to determine what the best means by which those vehicles can be moved out of dealerships without losing one's proverbial shirt. Yes, product planners have a job that is more thankless than that undertaken by many. There is a certain fickleness to the market that is unpredictable, regardless of what "those in the know" might have us believe.