I was recently approached by a friend who offered up the following challenge: Let's say you start a new job as a sales guy. You've never been in the industry before, which is solar panels for generating electrical power. It's a small company, no marketing, no product management, just a few technical guys who know how to configure the system.

Your company configures these panels (which are manufactured in China) into different systems in the U.S. depending on the needs of targeted markets. Currently you're servicing customers in one region, but you'd like to expand. You have complete control of which markets will be targeted, as well as the authority to define the configuration of products that will be competitive in the existing markets, and are responsible for identifying new markets for existing products.

So my friend asked me: "You've heard that there was a thing called product management, but don't know much more than this. Could the product community help this guy?". I told him yes, product people are great, and certainly could point to a few starting spots.

Which leads me to the game:

Below is a listing of the current offerings and personas that make up their markets. The "F" indicates that its feasible. "N" indicates that it's not feasible that this consumer would want that offering. "E" indicates that this is an existing market segment.

An example would be that building owners are currently buying solar panels for IT systems back up. Can anyone find potential offerings or personas that could become viable markets for the solar panel industry?

Don't forget to do your market sensing. If you happen to know this industry, point us in the right direction.

Remember, explaining your work is more important than the answers you get.