What is Product Management

What is Product
Management?
Section 1

Product vs. Service
Section 1: What is Product Management?

What a company offers to customers
Product

Different
Features Benefits
Same

• Web
• Apps
• Books
• Videos
• Email
Features

• Nanny
• Babysitter
• Grandma
• Teacher
Benefits

Key Takeaway
People don’t buy features.
They buy beneﬁts.

Q:
Think of your favourite
product.

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Product vs. Feature

Service vs. Product
variable & perishable consistent

Products come packaged
in different ways

Oracle –
Offers consulting services to help
integrate their
database software products

“Enterprise”
VS
• Higher level of support
• More integrations
• More staff accounts
• Store customizations
• Dedicated account managers
• Different pricing

“Bundles”
Combination of completely
independent products and
services

iPod + iTunes
Most beneﬁt when used together

Together…
They changed the way the
world listens to music

iPod nano &
shuffle
died
On July 27, 2017

Data-mining company in it’s early days
Web scraping product for all in it’s later days

We did things that
didn’t scale

And found people that
paid us to get them
data from websites

We offered a data on
demand service
&
Only built the product
After we had some traction

Our service turned into a self-serve product…

And offered Software as a Service plans

We still kept our data-on-demand plan for
Enterprise clients

Key Takeaway
Product offering
dictates your success metrics

Q:
What services can you turn
into a product?

Product Life Cycle – Part I

Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Innovators
Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Late
Majority
TEST IT
ITERATE
ON IT
SCLAE IT MAINTAIN IT
KILL IT or
REVIVE IT
Laggers

Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
SALESCOMPETITON
PRODUCT
PURPOSE
GROWTH
PURPOSE
Find product
market ﬁt
Find early
testers
Rapidly growing
Leveled out
DecliningLow
Very
competitive
New players
Low Slow
Prioritize &
iterate
Expand &
innovate
Sunset or revive
Put fuel on the
ﬁre
Outmatch
competition
Discount

value & proﬁtability is
maximized differently
At every stage:

Innovators Early
Adopters
Early
Majority
Late
Majority
ITERATE
ON IT
SCLAE IT MAINTAIN IT
KILL IT or
REVIVE IT
Laggers
holographic
projectors

Is the problem painful enough
for millions of users to case and
pay to get solved?

Kitchen Robot
Who likes to cook? Right…

What about driving?
Nah…not for me.

• Ethics
• Hacking
• Testing
• Tech
• Regulations
Challenges

Maybe I should get a pair of
Google Glasses.

• Safety
• Privacy
• Banned
• Prototype
• Demand
• Practical uses
Issues

Key Takeaway
Products can decline
and fail at any stage

Q:
Think of a product in it’s
infancy.

Q:
What hurdles does it have to
overcome to start growing?

holographic
projectors
tablets

A colourful, cute
messaging app
at every company?

The go to “hotel” for groups of
friends traveling together.

1. Focused on 300 listings & 100
reviewed listings in each new
city
“Do things that don’t scale”

2. A hosts home was trashed.
AirBnB quickly scrapped
together a $50,000 Host
Guarantee insurance program.
“Gain community trust”

3. Started offering professional
photography. Started tracking
shoots per month.
“Focused on quality of listings”

4. Refocused on Instant Book
and launched goest
identification and fraud
detection products.
“Improved the guest experience”

Key Takeaway
Focus on one metric at a time
for each growth phase.

Q:
Think of a product with hyper
growth.

Q:
What hacks were used to get
the product growing so fast?

Product Life Cycle – Part II

holographic
projectors
Laptops
tablets

Are all of the new iPhone
releases saving Apple?

Do you still trust Facebook
with your personal data?

Where is Facebook on the
Product Life Cycle?

That’s not how things
looked when MySpace
was alive

Does Facebook have
competition?

Looks like WhatsApp and
Instagram are!

Oh…
That’s why Facebook
acquired them BOTH

How is their other
acquisition going?

OOPS… :(
Now is the right time to
talk about…

holographic
projectors
Laptops
tablets
DVD players
CHASM

• iPhone launched
• Businesses cancelled contracts
• No apps
• No developers building apps
• Customers wanted apps and found
them on the iPhone
Competitors

• Netﬂix sent video by mail
• Cable offered video-on-demand
• Redbox rented videos for $1 a night
through vending machines
Industry Trends

Q:
Think of a product that was
super successful and then met
it’s demise.

Beyond Maturity
Stage 5
(my personal addition)

Some Product Managers
save the day

Kidding…
engineers, marketers,
designers, the CEOs
do to ;)

But it looks like we’re
stuck with you

+ many other awesome
productivity tools

3 million paying business
users + 70 million
Education users
WOW!
2017

And this new addition
A massive piece of
hardware

What about the ever
changing communications
strategy?

Google Duo
for quick one-to-one
video calls
Google Allo
for chatting with your
friends

Hangouts Meet
enterprise product
for video conferencing

Hangouts Chat
instant messaging
for businesses

It will even send you
meditation reminders

What is
Product Management?

Product Management
looks for new opportunities
&
adapts to change

VS
New
Product
Development
Product
Life Cycle
Management
Does both:

+ Delivering
Results
Validating
Ideas
Art & science of:

+
Customer
Needs
Business
Needs
Balance between:

PLAN &
DESIGN
LAUNCH &
MEASURE
BUILD &
TEST
Product
Management

Reference: Josh Elman via Mind the Product
UX TECH
BUSINESS Product
Management

Key Takeaway
Decisions should be
made in a “trifecta”
UX + Tech + Product

What is UX?

User Research
The art and science of continuously testing your idea and
product with real users and getting feedback

Why?
Know this to be the voice of the customer
and understand the user.

User Experience Design
The process of creating product that provide meaningful
and personally relevant experiences, including aspects of
branding, design, usability, and function.

Why?
Know this to build a product that has the
functionality and value your user is looking for.

User Interface Design
Reusable solutions for common design problems and
provide a common language between designers.
Design Patterns

Why?
Know this to understand what product decisions are
restricted by design and branding guidelines set by
the company brand team or systems design team.

Prototyping
Visual mock-ups that express a product idea.
Can be clickable to simulate product experience.

Prototypes+Mock-ups+Wireframes

Why?
Know this to communicate product ideas to
stakeholders and users.
Know this to unblock the team when design is absent
or behind.

Where you
shouldn’t focus?
Becoming an expert visual designer.

You should focus on
this instead…
;)

What is tech?

The “Tech Stack”
What technologies are being used to provide
functionality of your product.

Why?
Know this to understand technical constraints & the
skills + knowledge of your engineering team.

Back-end
Engineer
vs. vs.
Full-stack
Engineer
Front-end
Engineer

Systems
Architecture
How technologies are structured to work together
to deliver a product.

Why?
Know this to understand what system of components
makes up a product and where potential tradeoffs
need to be made.

APIs
Software intermediary that allows two
applications to talk to each other.

Why?
Know this to understand what integrations are
possible between products inside your company and
with external partners.

Where you shouldn’t
focus?
Becoming an expert programmer.

What is business?

Business Strategy
How does this product fit into the competitive
landscape and market trends?
What business metrics do we need to hit?

Data Analytics
How can we improve the product by looking at
data?
What new products would be the most useful?

Project
Management
How do we deliver a quality product on time and
on budget?

Product Marketing
How do we position this product in the world?

Product Growth
How do we drive product adoption, engagement,
retention and vitality?

Product Support
How do we improve the product from customer
insights and frustrations?

Where you
shouldn’t focus?
Getting an MBA just to become a Product
Manager.

Project vs. Product
Management

Project
• Plan
• Series of activities
• Deﬁned outcome
• Fixed start and end date
• Timeline and budget that needs to be met

• Something provided to a group of users
• Physical, software or service
• Metrics that deﬁne success
Product

One
Product
PROJECT
PROJECT
PROJECT
Many Projects

Product Managers
Drive the development of product. 
Make strategic decisions
Prioritize initiatives

Project Managers
Oversee the execution of plans the have already
been mapped out and approved

Product Management
Product
Requirements
Product
Strategy
Product
Vision
Rough
Timeline
Design Thinking
& User Research
Product
Launch

Project Management
Risk
Management
Task
Management
Estimations
Budget
& Time
Status
Tracking
Quality & testing

Product Development
Process – Part I

1 3 5
2 4 6
RESEARCH
PLAN
DESIGN
BUILD
RELEASE
GROW

Stage 1: Research the idea
+ Deﬁne
+ Research
+ Align
IDEA

Product Ecosystem
Company theme
Past solutions
Product group
Product positioning

Market
Market research
Competitor analysis

Problem
Data analysis
Customer support insights
Sales insights
Value proposition

Customer
User interviews
Customer surveys
User empathy maps
User personas
Usability tests

Experiment
Define A/B test
Do things manually

Alignment
Draft project brief
Pitch idea to stakeholders
Get alignment the problem is worth
solving
Get feedback from other PMs and teams
Assemble team
Onboard UX & Tech Lead

+ Deﬁne
+ Research
+ Align
MVP
Stage 2: Plan what to build

Solution
Brainstorm approaches
Evaluate tradeoffs
Pick a solution

Research
Run experiments
More quantitative research
More qualitative research
Tech design doc
Identify complexity, risks and constraints
Identity unknowns

Product
Product vision and strategy
Product requirements
MVP
Map out phases/projects
Roadmap
Success metrics

Align
Finalize project brief/plan
Hold project review with stakeholders
Get approval to design product
Amend project brief/plan
Agree on MVP
Onboard team

+ Create
+ Test
+ Align
DESIGN
Stage 3: Design the product

User interviews
User flows
Wireframes
Low and high fidelity mock-ups
Prototype
User tests
Design iterations
Design sprint

Hold a design review with stakeholders
Align on one version to build
MVP mock-ups
Full-release mock-ups

Product Development
Process – Part II

Stage 4: Build the product
+ Build
+ Ship
+ Test
MVP

Project Management
Project management tool
Agile development
Estimate
Prioritize
Milestones

Execution
Sprints
Backlog
Epics
User stories
Acceptance criteria
Planning meetings

Align
Project updates
Identity blockers
Make decisions
Amend plans and timeline
Ship small, quality components
Test

+ Release
+ Train
+ Market
MVP
Stage 5: Launch the product

Test
Q/A
Cross-device testing
Accessibility testing

Release
Roll-out plan
Data tracking & dashboards
Internal release
Invite-only release
Gradual external beta release

Training
Documentation
Internal press releases
Support training
Sales training

Marketing
Benefits and features
Communication guidelines
Launch guidelines
Marketing plan
Marketing and branding collateral
Press release

+ Iterate
+ Measure
+ Grow
RELEASE
Stage 7: Grow the product

Measure
Data analysis
Support insights
Sales insights
User interviews
Bug triaging

Iterate
Build + release next versions
Fix features
Scrap features
Pick metric to focus on

Stickiness
Activation
Engagement
Retention
Unsells

Vitality
Growth hacks
Viral loops
Referral programs
Unsells

What is Product Management

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