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Product Portfolio Consulting: Which Lines Earn Their Place
Product portfolio strategy is the decision about which product lines deserve continued investment, which should be merged or retired, and how each is funded. It is answered by mapping every line against contribution margin, cost to serve and strategic role, and then arguing each on current evidence rather than on history.
Most multi-product companies are funding several lines with the margin from one, and have never said so out loud.
- Senior-led engagements
- Written recommendation first
- Reply within two working days
When companies call us
The conversation that keeps restarting
Portfolio
“We're funding eleven products and can't say which ones earn their place.”
Adoption
“Nobody will kill anything because someone senior once championed it.”
Pricing
“One line is quietly paying for all the others.”
Sequence
“A product is kept alive by a single customer.”
And usually
“We have been going round this for months and keep starting the argument again.”
And usually
“We have been going round this for months and keep starting the argument again.”
The engagement
What we look at, and what you keep
What we analyse
- Every line by contribution, cost to serve and strategic role
- Which lines are sustained by a single account or a legacy commitment
- True cost to serve, including support, engineering and sales attention
- What consolidation would do to revenue, and to the customers affected
What you receive
- A ranked portfolio with a funding decision on every line
- A consolidation or sunset plan, including the customer communications
- A one-page rule for approving future investment
- The revenue bridge across the transition
How long it takes
Two to four weeks for the diagnostic; longer if we support the transition.
Who it is for
Companies carrying more product lines than their margin comfortably supports, usually after several years of growth by addition.
We will tell you which lines are being funded by affection rather than evidence. That is usually the uncomfortable part of the engagement and the reason it was commissioned.
Related services
Common questions
Product Portfolio, in practice
When should a company sunset a product?
When the line does not cover its cost to serve, has no strategic role that another line cannot fill, and its customers can be moved or exited without disproportionate damage. The test is not whether it makes money in isolation but whether the capital and attention it consumes would earn more elsewhere.
How do you decide what to fund?
Contribution first, strategic role second, and evidence rather than history throughout. We write the rule down so the next funding argument does not start from the beginning.
What if a product is kept alive by one large customer?
That is a commercial decision rather than a product one, and it usually needs pricing attention rather than a sunset. We separate the two so the conversation can be had honestly.
Tell us the decision you are facing.
A short paragraph is enough. Where another firm would serve you better, we will say so and suggest one.
- Senior-led engagements
- No model or software resale
- Reply within two working days