Post on 12-Apr-2017
transcript
Inside the Minds of Product Managers
Catherine Shyu
Product @ FullContact
Previously at SendGrid, BandPage
@cthrin
What do Product Managers Do?
Solve customer problems Hold and communicate the vision of the product
Research, spec, and prioritize scope of new features
Work cross-functionally to ship features
Source: MindtheProduct
The Problem
The product process starts with a core user problem the PM is trying to solve.
The Product Process
RESEARCH STRATEGIZEGATHER
CONSENSUSBUILD MEASURE
80% 20%
Step 1: ResearchIs the problem worth solving?
Interview Customers
Interview Stakeholders
Market Research
Usage Analytics
Support Tickets
Qualitative Research
1. Interview Customersa. User research
b. Customer development
c. Usability tests
2. Interview Stakeholdersa. People who know the
context of the problem
well
Quantitative Research
Usage Analytics
Competitive Research
Market Research
Support Tickets / Deals Lost
Sample Interview Questions
● How do you stay up-to-date on market trends?
● What are some of the activities you do to understand your product’s core user?
● What is your process for uncovering user needs?
Research Stage
Step 2: StrategizeWhat’s the best approach?
1. Problem Statementa. Articulates the problem
and whether it is worth
solving
2. Spec Doc / PRDa. Use cases
b. Detailed requirements
c. Flowcharts/wireframes
Sample Interview Questions
● How do you prioritize among competing features?
● How do you decide what not to build?
Strategy Stage
Step 3: Gather Consensus
Get buy-in from stakeholders
Estimate of Work
Negotiate Product Scope
Dependencies on Other Teams
Consistent Product Behavior
Sample Interview Questions
● How do you say no to people?
● Who are your product’s stakeholders?
● What is your current role on your team: who else do you work with and in what capacity?
Consensus Gathering Stage
Step 4: Build Work with Engineering and Design to ship the feature.
Phase 1: Engineering & Design
Phase 2: Marketing, Sales, Support
Build (Engineering)
Waterfall, Agile, Kanban
Agile: Standups, Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning
Prep Work for Engineers
Test Features
Build (Go to Market)
Manage Release Plan
Marketing Materials
Support FAQs
Sales/Support Training
Sample Interview Questions
● What are the most important elements of working with engineers?
● What steps do you take when preparing to launch a feature?Build Stage
Step 5: MeasureTrack how the feature is used.
Usage of Feature
Contribution to Business Goals
Measure
Sample Interview Questions
● What metrics do you think are important to track for our products?
● What would you measure to decide if one of our features was successful or not?Measure Stage
Meet Austin, a Product ManagerWorks at Artichoke, an email marketing tool for small businesses.
Customers have been writing in asking for “more data.”
Problem
Users of Artichoke aren’t getting the data they need from their email marketing
campaigns.
Austin Learns From Research...
Data export doesn’t cover enough time for customers and is one size fits all
Competitors offer reports based on custom queries
Support gets complaints about this 10x per month
Synthesizes His Data...
Problem statement to facilitate conversations
Spec doc outlining requirements for the solution
Wireframes for design / engineering
Austin Builds Consensus
Negotiates scope of feature with engineering
Negotiates UX flow with design
Makes sure no infrastructure, billing, legal needs
Then Helps the Team Ship
Reviews and tests feature with engineers
Sets launch date with engineering and marketing
Works with marketing, support, etc to execute launch
Finally, Measures Impact
Download rate of custom reports
Time spent in app
# support tickets
Where Do Product Managers Come From?
Product Design, Psychology, Human
Factors, HCI, UX Research
Business, Economics, Marketing, Consulting,
Support
Software Engineering, QA, Business Intelligence
Success Is...
Building products that are loved by users
Achieving business goals
Beating competitors!
Thanks!@cthrin