Main takeaways: -Product journey is filled with predictable and unpredictable scenarios. -Breakdown the problem, identify your resources and leverage those to navigate through chaos. -Acknowledge your success. Learn from failures. Own the outcome.

1. The Predictable & Unpredictable in
PM Journey by Amazon Sr PM
www.productschool.com

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5. Nidhi Kannoujia
Sr. Product Manager, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
The Predictable & Unpredictable in Product Journey

6. About Me
15+ years in product management
Currently Senior Technical Product Manager at
Amazon Web Services(AWS)
Board Member, Program Chair and Marketing Lead
of IIT Bay Area Alumni Association
Before AWS, Principal Product Manager at Nutanix.
Longest experience - ten years at Oracle
Industry knowledge and expertise in cybersecurity,
storage and compute infrastructure, both SW and
HW products management, managing multiple
phases and multiple products in parallel

7. Agenda
Product Management
Scenarios Leading to Unpredictable Outcome
Preventing the Unpredictability
Managing the Unpredictability
Keytakeaways

8. Product Managers are product advocates - leaders and storytellers, inspiring organizations and product
communities to rally around product goals.
Product Management
Strategize and Craft product’s vision
Influence the process of bringing
product to life
Drive customer's engagement and
product adoption

9. Building 1st gen product, no previous generation product data
Entering new market space, no prior customer references
Have ideas but lack of experts to brainstorm or validate ideas
Short of resources to start product development
Have brilliant ideas but only limited time to execute
You wrote the requirements, you thought team was aligned - it seems not..
Internal teams on track but your partner/3rd party schedule causing delay
Product was ready to go, almost! Handling last minute product changes.......
(few) Scenarios Leading to Unpredictable Outcome
Product management is filled with uncertainty and unknowns around product, customer, operational impact and daily
challenges faced by PM

10. Identify the unpredictability - Start early!
Simplify the problem statement.
Breakdown the problem into smaller pieces
Know your resources.
Focus on resources you have not leveraged!
Work backwards. Stay focussed your goal.
Retrospect - Review the result.
Get feedback
Own the outcome!
Start early! Be vigilant. Identify the what you don't know!
Think from maximizing the value perspective!
Preventing the Unpredictable Outcome

11. Start early! Be vigilant. Identify the what you don't know!
Preventing the Unpredictable Outcome: Scenario
You are aware there are a lot of unknowns to handle
Grow your knowledge, know your space. Read!
Learn the company process - Listen well in meetings!
Know the people who have been involved in the process - Ask questions!
Shadow a senior employee. Get involved in the process early - give yourself a chance to try and learn from errors -
without causing damage.
You’ll not have prior product data-points - Look for alternate data-points industry reports, other products data in
similar market-space
Customers may not be aware of your product ideas space - Build a customer facing product discovery message
Scenario 1: You are new PM with a goal to deliver product on-time
Scenario2: You are building a 1st gen product in the new marketspace

12. Acknowledge the problem
Inform the key-stakeholders
Think through the short-term and long term solution. Pros and cons
Socialize the idea with core team to move fast and avoid friction
Share ideas with broader team, remove roadblocks
Work to maximize value and always decide in-favor of customer
preference
Challenges are part of product management journey, choose to respond strategically
Always work to maximize-the-value but be open to minimize-the-loss perspective
Managing the Unpredictable Outcome

13. Acknowledge the problem. Find the root cause.
Find alternate solutions - socialize with your team
Option A - Limited functionality, meet the timeline
Option B - Workaround for issue, timeline+2 weeks
Option C - Complete fix, timeline + 2 months
Find out what matters to customer the most
Evaluate pros & cons of each
What are the challenges in adding features later
What are the risks in releasing the product with workaround or delaying the
release for 2-months
Find the balance in decision and have bias for customer outcome
Retrospect after resolution. Own the outcome!
Scenario: Your product was supposed to go GA in 2 weeks but there are new
product issues discovered
Challenges are part of product management journey, choose to respond strategically
Always work to maximize-the-value but be open to minimize-the-loss perspective
Managing the Unpredictable Outcome: Scenario

14. Product journey is filled with predictable and unpredictable scenarios
Breakdown the problem
Identify your resources
Leverage the resources to navigate through chaos
Acknowledge your success
Learn from your failures
Own the outcome! IMPROVISE!
Key Takeaways

15. PRODUCTSCHOOL.COM
NIDHI KANNOUJIA
SR. PRODUCT MANAGER, AWS
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkannoujia/

16. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training