Developing a product within a service company

For this week's Lean Coffee Toronto, we discussed the ins and outs of developing a product inside of a service company.

A few interesting discussion points from my notes:

• Products often come from satisfying an internal need
• Working on products have many intangible benefits, including:
• Increased motivation
• "Bragging rights" for developers
• How do you know when to "unbind" the product from the service company? No clear answers:
• When the product needs investment in marketing, support, enhancements, etc.?
• When the market is established?
• How do you know when to "kill" the idea?
• Treat it the same way as you would any investment
• If it is being used and generating value internally, this question isn't relevant
• Ask yourself: Is the product a hobby, or a business?

I found this discussion extremely valuable as we begin to productize our own internal system: http://softwarepms.com/

Thanks to everyone who attended, and especially to Andrew for facilitating, and Jet Cooper for hosting.