Finance as a Stakeholder in Product Management

The traditional literature of software product management focuses on sales, marketing and executive management as key internal stakeholders for the product manager. However in public companies and private companies positioning for a public offering, the importance of reported accounting revenue can cause the finance office to become a significant additional stakeholder. The concerns of finance can cause significant impacts on the offering, apart from those driven by market needs and other stakeholders. The struggle to balance these competing interests is particularly acute for B2B software offerings during the market entry phase, offerings that include a significant service component and offerings delivered under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) arrangement. This paper will describe some of the common concerns of the finance office, describe the impacts to the offering they create, and offer suggestions to the product manager on how to address those concerns.