introduction to product management
TRANSCRIPT
INTRO TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT Benjy Boxer Director of Product Strategy, NewsCred
AGENDA
1 What is a product manager? 2 Steps to building an MVP 3 Building products at companies 4
How to become a PM
CLASS INTRODUCTIONS Name
What do you do? What are you hoping to learn?
YOUR TEACHER Benjy Boxer
Product manager at NewsCred My goal – You feel confident in your ability to become a product manager
A PRODUCT MANAGER
WHAT IS A PRODUCT?
Who is a product manager?
Business Tech & Design
Customer PRODUCTMANAGER
WHAT IS A PRODUCT MANAGER?
The product manager is the
OWNERof a business.
WHAT IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? A PRODUCT MANAGER IS
A PRODUCT MANAGER IS NOT
WHAT IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? A PRODUCT MANAGER IS
A PRODUCT MANAGER IS NOT
ü The mini CEO ü An excellent communicator ü The voice of the customer ü The expert on the market ü Technical (enough) ü A motivator ü A team player ü A listener
WHAT IS A PRODUCT MANAGER? A PRODUCT MANAGER IS
A PRODUCT MANAGER IS NOT
ü The mini CEO ü An excellent communicator ü The voice of the customer ü The expert on the market ü Technical (enough) ü A motivator ü A team player ü A listener
x A project manager x A developer x A designer x A gopher x A customer support rep x The boss x The dictator
THE KEY RESPONSIBILITY
The product manager is chiefly responsible for
aligning BUSINESS VALUE with solving the
CUSTOMER’S problems
STEPS TO BUILDING A MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Define the problem to solve
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Twitter’s Business Model Canvas
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Twitter’s Business Model Canvas
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Your Business Model Canvas
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER
Your EMPATHY for the customer is essential to solving their
problems
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER
You MUST leave the building and LISTEN to your CUSTOMERS
UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER Why are people hiring you?
• Analyze the needs of your potential customers
• Now translate that into answering this question – What is the job that your product will be hired to do?
• A strong understanding of the outcome customers want, and how they currently get it, is essential for you to succeed in product management
JOBS TO BE DONE FRAMEWORK Why are you hiring LinkedIn?
How did you get this done before
LinkedIn?
EXERCISE – JOBS YOU ARE SOLVING FOR Why are people going to hire your
product?
How did they accomplish this before?
THE PRODUCT VISION
As the product manager, you must set a
VISIONto guide you and your team’s
DECISIONS
THE PRODUCT VISION
The Press Release (Amazon) • Heading – Name the product in a way your
target customer would understand
• Sub-Heading – One sentence describing the market and benefits of the product
• Summary – Give a summary of the product and benefit
THE PRODUCT VISION
The Press Release (Amazon) • Problem – Describe the problem your
product solves
• Solution – How do you elegantly solve that problem
• Customer Quote – Pretend a customer is telling you their favorite part of the app
THE PRODUCT VISION
Write the press release for our Photo App
THE MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
The MVP is the smallest version of your product that can be used to TEST and MEASURE your hypotheses
THE MVP – ACCORDING TO SPOTIFY
MY STARTUP – LESSON LEARNED
Arkad was an investor relations software product…We spent 6 months building, but could have had an MVP immediately if we did things manually at first.
MVP WITHOUT BUILDING ANYTHING Test everything you can before
building any product.
MVP APPLIES THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Design your experiments like those in your high school
chemistry class
EXERCISE – MVP OF OUR PHOTO APP
What ASSUMPTIONS would you want to test?
What is the SIMPLEST version of the product to TEST and MEASURE these things?
THE HOOK MODEL – GET LOYAL USERS
THE HOOK MODEL – PINTEREST
BUILDING PRODUCTS AT COMPANIES
THE PRODUCT MANAGER AT A STARTUP Sales
Marketing
Customer Support
Technology
THE PRODUCT MANAGER AT A STARTUP Sales
Marketing
Customer Support
Technology
OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS (OKRs)
OKRs give product managers a methodology for prioritizing
OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS (OKRs)
Objectives – One sentence that is inspirational, time bound, and
actionable
Sound familiar? The press release
OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS (OKRs)
Objective – Launch an MVP of a photo app that inspires people to capture and share their moments
OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS (OKRs)
Key Results – These are the KPIs that are most important to
achieving your objective
OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS (OKRs) Key Results
• 40% of users return 2X per week • Net Promoter Score of 8 (quality) • 50% of users take a picture in 1st week • 50% of users follow a friend in 1st visit
Which should we focus on?
NEWSCRED PRODUCT KPIs
AGILE METHODOLGY – HOW WE WORK
Agile is all about learning and adapting our decisions
AGILE MANIFESTO
Individuals and interactions OVER processes and tools Working software OVER comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration OVER contract negotiation Responding to change OVER following a plan
WORKING WITH YOUR DEVELOPERS
SCRUM is the perfect complement to Agile
It defines how we react and adjust to what we learned
SCRUM – HOW WE WORK Every iteration delivers customer
value
USER STORIES With your OKRs, you can now
prioritize your features and write user stories
WRITING A USER STORY User stories should focus on your
personas needs and goals
As a USER PERSONA, I want ACTION so I can GOAL
USER STORY EXAMPLE As a FREQUENT SHARER,
I want to PUBLISH A PHOTO so my friends
can SEE WHAT I’M UP TO
EXERCISE – WRITE 5 USER STORIES Write 5 user stories on the wall for your product and rank them in the
order of importance.
EXERCISE – UNDERSTAND THE LOE Now, your engineers give you the
level of effort of each story
THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS How would your rankings change?
Which 2 stories will you discard
from this sprint?
HOW YOU CAN BECOME A PRODUCT MANAGER
ANYONE CAN BE A PM – MY STORY
FINANCE
PRODUCT MANAGER
ANYONE CAN BE A PM
Most importantly, demonstrate your expertise in the market,
problem solving skills, and ability to communicate
ANYONE CAN BE A PM
Volunteer for a project Suggest a new idea and build it Offer to help the product team with analysis
RESOURCES