Talk I gave at ProductTank Edinburgh as an introduction to product management based on my own definition and great quotes from others.

1. What is
Product
Management?
#ProductTank

2. rik
in

3. E tin sson
M art fgmar
@b

4. dressmart.co

6. What is
Product Management?

7. Customer Technology
Business

8. Customer Technology
You

9. are
here
Business

10. “ the role of a product
manager is to discover a
product that is valuable,
”
usable and feasible

11. “ the role of a product
manager is to discover a
product that is valuable,
”
usable and feasible
Marty Cagan, Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love

12. “
It’s in Apple’s DNA that
technology alone is not
enough - it’s technology
”
married with liberal arts

13. “
It’s in Apple’s DNA that
technology alone is not
enough - it’s technology
”
married with liberal arts
Steve Jobs

14. But what do you actually do?

15. Customer

16. Cu
st
om
er
s
company

17. s
er
om Product

18.
st
Manager
Cu
company

19. s
er
om Product

20.
st
Manager
Cu
company

21. Who is it for?
What problem does it solve?
How do we solve that problem?

22. Who? What? How?
Psychographics Research Problem/Solution
Demographics Ethnographics Vision
Behaviour Heuristics Design

23. Business

24. Product
vision

25. Founders
Customer Services Market Research
Sales Trends
Product
vision
Marketing Users
Technology Competitors
Metrics

26. Define a product vision

27. Define a product vision

28. Define a product vision Figure out how to build it
x 12
= +
x1

29. 1. Vision
2. Communicate
3. Prioritise
4. Build it

30. 1. Vision
2. Communicate
3. Prioritise
4. Build it

31. 1. Vision
2. Prioritise
3. Communicate
4. Build it

32. Metrics

33. Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue

34. Acquisition
Activation
Aarrr
Retention
Referral
Revenue
Dave McClure, Startup Metrics for Pirates

35. Acquisition Visit Site
Doesn’t abandon
Activation Happy 1st Visit
Sign up
Retention Clickthrough from email
Repeat visit
Referral Refer 1+ user who visit site
Refer 1+ user who activates
Revenue User generates revenue

36. Quantitative rather than Qualitative
metrics over heuristics
Comparative A/B testing
compare against history
Actionable don’t measure it unless
you’re going to action it

37. Technology

38. Cu
st
om
er
te s
am
ex
ec
Developers
s

39. s
er
om
st
Cu
am
Product

40.
te Manager
s
ec
ex
Developers

41. Product
Define the Design the
Research Development
problem solution
Development

42. Agile Lean

43. “ Fact : In the real world, most
companies do too much
development and spend too
”
much money too early
Fred Destin, Atlas Ventures

44. Agile manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

45. Analysis Design Development Testing
ADDT ADDT ADDT ADDT ADD T ADDT
Release,

46. Test,

47. Re-prioritise

48. “ Most start ups fail because
they didn’t develop their
market - not because they
”
didn’t develop their product
Steve Blank, Author of Four Steps to the Epiphany

49. Pivo

50. “
product

51. manager
Your job as a founder is to quickly
validate whether the model is correct
by seeing if customers behave as
your model predicts.
Most of the time the darn customers
”
don’t behave as you predicted.
Steve Blank, Author of Four Steps to the Epiphany

52. but beware of
dogma

53. “ To me, lean is a state of mind
that a founder and his/her
team needs to have across all
”
aspects of the business.
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

54. “ Don’t fail fast.
learn
”
fast
Tom Chi, Google X

55. Agile manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

56. “ We own the process.
The process doesn't own us.
”
We call it Agile Jazz.
Tom Loosemore, Gov.uk

57. It’s about the team, stupid.

58. “
Products today – it’s not
some product manager that
has an epiphany. That’s not
how it works. Product,
design, engineering, [work]
”
side by side.

59. “
Products today – it’s not
some product manager that
has an epiphany. That’s not
how it works. Product,
design, engineering, [work]
”
side by side.
Marty Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group

60. Keep learning

63. Thank you
martineriksson.com | mindtheproduct.com
@bfgmartin