Yammer InboxBuilding MVP (Not), Listening to Customers (Too much),

and Releasing ‘Strategic’ Features (Oh no…)

Jason Shah

@jasonyogeshshahme@jasonshah.org

Product Manager, Yammer

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Startup Product Summit

• Product prioritizes. Leverages analytics. Negotiates MVP with engineering. Specs with design.

• 2-10 Weeks. 2-10 Engineers. Teams also include analytics, design, product marketing.

• Big board and weeklies. Loosely agile.• PM will be on 3-5 projects at a time.• New ‘initiative’ model aimed to scale agile

processes

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

How Yammer Builds

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Yammer Inbox• Vision: Yammer is the

best place for people to get work done.

• Problem: People have a hard time getting work done in Yammer as threads are siloed in groups and it’s hard to prioritize.

• Goal: Increase engagement (days engaged), retention (1 and 7 day retention)

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Building MVP (Not)

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

To MVP or Not

How do you determine what is actually minimum viable product and what is not?

If you overbuild, how do you know what worked and doesn’t work in a product experiment?

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

We released. We analyzed. We scratched our heads.

Spent more than a month in analysis because things were so entangled.

Eventually restarted the experiment. Saw gains, but we barely knew what worked and what did not work. So future iteration was constrained.

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

What We Could Have Done

• Be more rigorous about existing data• Build more iteratively• Begin with threads you began• Later add in threads you were

mentioned on or replied to• No read-states• No concept of following

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

OK we messed up…

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Annoying, you say?

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Sorry, deal with it.

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

But the customer is always right.

Not really. But we caved.

Negative feedback. Just got acquired. We didn’t know what we did right and what we did wrong.

So…let’s give them what they want. Filters!

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Look! We’re geniuses.

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

But it didn’t do anything.

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Not even for the vocal minority!

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

So what?• Build incrementally toward a guiding

vision, so you know where you went wrong and can course-correct.

• Listening to your customers and building what your customers prescribe are very different.

• Shipping neutral and ‘strategic’ features is how you bloat your product and lose. Don’t lose.

Don’t be shy.

@jasonyogeshshah http://blog.jasonshah.org

Q&A