swimming with the sharks (productcamp boston 2016)

Amisha Thakkar@amisha_thakkar_

Product Manager @ UpToDate

Swimming with the Sharks

Image credit:dkidiscussion.blogspot.com

What does it take to be a

Product Manager?

• Passion!

• Product design skills

• Product building skills

• Business Skills

• Juggling

What does it take?

PASSION

• You wish a product had “this” feature

• You dislike something in a product & you know exactly how you would change it

Passion !!

PRODUCT DESIGNSKILLS

• Understanding what the user needs

• Defining requirements

• Designing intuitive products, solutions

• Good design vs bad design - “It’s not a defect, it’s a feature”

Product Design Skills

Image Credit: From the book “Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug

Book Recommendations

PRODUCT BUILDINGSKILLS

• Making sense of lots of data

• Prioritizing features

• Building smart analytics into your product

• Building roadmaps

Product Building Skills

Image Credit: http://www.fridgemagazine.com/marketing/practical-tips-

tools-conducting-market-research/

Short Term Roadmap Example

Image Credit: http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/goal-oriented-agile-product-roadmap/

Long Term Roadmap Example

Credit: http://www.tom-gray.com/2012/02/26/product-roadmap/

• Saying no to customers

• Saying no to internal stake holders

• It’s not easy !!

Saying NO !!

Image Credit: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/03/the-

spiritual-practice-of-saying-no-sisters-take-note/

BUSINESS SKILLS

The Business Case is a Decision Making tool• It helps the business quantify the opportunity

• Maximise its investments

• Find the opportunities that can deliver the highest returns

• It helps the business prioritize its activities

• Businesses have limited resources

• Determine the best opportunities to allocate its people & money

• Captures the assumptions and risks

Writing a Business Case

Credit: http://www.slideshare.net/brainmates/stop-writing-bad-business-cases

Communications

Managing Stakeholders

Image Credit: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/managing-stakeholders-going-beyond-conventional-wisdom.php

Some timesyou will be

jugglinga

million things!

Why call it Swimming with the Sharks?

• You are dealing with a lot of complexity

• You have to understand different perspectives

• You are bridging the gaps

• You have to figure out what communication styles work

• You need persuasion skills

It’s tough

• Situation: When a developer says I can’t build this

• Situation: When your intention was to build a scooter but now it is becoming a bus

• Situation: Everyone wants what they want right now but you can only do so much

Common Challenges

It’s a lot of fun !

Image Credit: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/summery-ness.html

NEVER STOP LEARNING