By Michael Tessler, Managing Partner

In our previous blog, Scott covered how to make sure your demos showcase your solutions. There are several aspects to make it easier for your customers to understand, evaluate and purchase your products. One of the most effective and not well-known tools is a Marketecture. So, what is a Marketecture and how do you build one?

Let’s start with a definition. A Marketecture is a non-technical description of your products, systems, structures and interactions. It is used to help your customers, partners and investors understand what your product or solution does and how it fits into a broader ecosystem. They should be used to drive the marketing efforts and messaging around your solution. A well crafted Marketecture should allow you to tell the story of your solution that makes it easy for your audience to understand what problem you’re solving.

Personally, I like Marketectures that flow from left to right — showing how inputs are transformed into systems outputs. They also show how the system is built and delivered from bottom to top — explaining how the product is built from platform components up to modular or optional components. This is especially useful for a non-technical audience who simply wants to know how your product fits into your overall ecosystem.

Let me share a Marketecture success story. At BroadSoft, we were faced with communicating our flagship product, BroadWorks. As we started to prepare for our IPO, it was clear that many investors struggled to understand what an application server did and how it fits into a service providers network. We needed to simplify the message so we turned to building a Marketecture.

Wow! We were shocked how hard it was to come up with a version that we liked and one that allowed us to tell the right story. Here’s a picture from our IPO filing document, so you can see the one we used back in 2010.

In all IPO investor briefings, we started with this Marketecture. It allowed us to explain how we connected to devices, delivered consumer and enterprise applications. It showed how our solutions fit into the operator’s network infrastructure and its operational support systems. While a few things changed over the years, many of the elements in the diagram continue to be core value propositions of the solution.

So, how do you build a product Marketecture? Here are some hints..

First, you should look at the exercise of building one as an opportunity to align and energize your teams. The finished product will allow anyone in the company to tell the story about what you do. The more complex your product, the more important the exercise is.

You won’t be able to build a Marketecture in a few minutes. Getting a simple diagram takes lots of iterations. Most likely, your technical team members will hate these and they will identify all the technical inaccuracies. Listen to their feedback, but continue to build your Marketecture. These diagrams are critical for your customers, partners and investors.

Second, test your Marketecture with your closest and trusted customers, partners and investors before you settle on your final one. The exercise of walking through it with them will make it better. You will find places where the story doesn’t fit so expect to make changes.

Finally, once you have the final Marketecture, use it in every communication and marketing program. Don’t build it and then not use it. You put in the time and effort, so share it with the world. It should be the one diagram you use to tell the story to your audience and build your marketing collateral around it.

If you haven’t tried to build one, start now and you will see the benefits on how it will help to align your company overall product messaging no matter who it is you are trying to convey it to. It’s a way to bring your team together and enjoy the process. Do you have a Marketecture? Share with us!