Date post: | 12-Nov-2014 |
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Technology |
Upload: | jason-shah |
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Yammer InboxBuilding MVP (Not), Listening to Customers (Too much),
and Releasing ‘Strategic’ Features (Oh no…)
Jason Shah
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