Organizational Memory
Offering card, MethodKit for Memory & Reminiscence
Card 38 of 66 · MethodKit for Memory & Reminiscence
  • ThemeProduct & Offering
  • CardCard 38 of 66
  • Questions5 to explore
Product & Offering

Offering

Services, products & eco-system you offer

An offering is only as useful as the organization's ability to describe it clearly, price it consistently, and understand which parts of it actually create value.

Most organizations sell more than one thing, and the relationship between those things is often murky: what is included in which tier, how services relate to products, what the ecosystem looks like from the outside. When that picture is not documented internally, it is nearly impossible to present coherently externally.

Offering documentation captures the current portfolio: what exists, who it is for, what it costs, and how it is positioned relative to other things you sell. It also captures what has been discontinued and why, which prevents the same ideas from being proposed repeatedly.

Pricing in particular tends to be held by one or two people and is often undocumented or out of date in the places where it is written. Sales, support, and operations teams need a single, reliable reference.

What to capture

For this part of the company brain, what is worth writing down and keeping current. The goal is not a complete archive but a living record that new people can read and returning people can trust.

Portfolio overview

List everything the organization currently offers: products, services, subscriptions, add-ons, and any ecosystem relationships between them. Include what is active, in beta, or being wound down.

Pricing & packaging

Document current pricing, what is included at each tier or in each package, and when prices were last updated. Note who is authorized to negotiate or deviate from standard pricing.

Positioning per offering

For each major offering, capture a short description of who it is for, what problem it solves, and how it differs from the alternatives (including your own other offerings).

Questions to explore

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

  1. If a new sales hire had to explain your full offering to a customer on their first week, where would they find everything they need?

  2. Are there offerings that have been discontinued or changed significantly that are still described somewhere as if they were current?

  3. How does pricing get communicated across the organization, and who has the authority to change it?

  4. What is the relationship between your various products and services, and is that relationship documented anywhere?

  5. Which parts of the offering are most often misunderstood internally, and what causes that confusion?

Things to notice

  • Offering documentation goes stale quickly. A list that was accurate six months ago may now include discontinued products and missing new ones, which is often worse than no list at all.
  • Pricing information is frequently scattered across proposals, spreadsheets, and email threads, with no single authoritative source. This creates real inconsistency in how deals get made.
  • Internal descriptions of what you offer are often written from the organization's perspective. They need to be legible to someone who does not already know the background.