Some learnings and tips garnered from my experiences in the Consumer Internet Space at companies such as Amazon, Yahoo!, Times of India and my own tiny startup. Use this presentatin to learn more about product management or as a guide to identify key skills in potential product management candidates. Visit : http://linkd.in/sumitchugh in case you want to get in touch with me.

1. How to be an Effective Product Manager
Presented by Sumit Chugh at
Institute of Product Leadership, Bangalore Nov’18

2. What is a Product?
Anything that solves a customer problem….
Platform (Collection of Customer and Seller facing applications- Uber)
App or a Website (Myntra, Zomato Restaurant Order Management App)
Category (Fashion on Amazon)
Feature (Product Search, 1 click checkout)
Device
Button on the device
Operating System or Software feature that runs on a device
And so on……….

3. Who is a Product Manager?
Owner of the Product
Voice of the Customer
 Jack of All Trades

4. What role does she/he play in the
organization?

5. A PM plays many roles

6. Mini CEO

7. A chef

8. Guardian of Customer Experience

9. A Janitor !
And for times when shit hits the fan …..

10. What does a Product Manager do?
Conceptualize> Plan> Build> Operate> Scale> Improve> Repeat

11. Works with
Technology and Design
Marketing, Sales & Business Development
Operations & Logistics
Customer Service
Public Relations
Senior Management
External Partners

12. Basic Competencies
Good understanding of the space
Business and Technical Acumen
Good with Logic and Data
Excellent Communicator
Basic Program Management Skills
Customer orientation

13. The X Factors
Qualities that separate great PMs from the rest

14. Hustle

15. Thinks Big. Thinks Different
Challenge existing norms
Bring in some Creativity and Imagination in your day to day work
Read
Watch
Use
Discuss ideas/problems with other people
Do anything else that gets your creative juices flowing

16. Thinks like a consultant. Executes like a Ninja.
 Has a 10,000 foot view of the business, product and her/his own role
 Connects the dots
 Defines a vision. Breaks it down into a realistic roadmap
 Executes fast. Delivers tangible results

17. Invent/Re-Invents Constantly
Think of New Features
Constantly improve existing features
Not just features/products………..
 New Skills
 New Responsibilities

18. Should be comfortable with Ambiguity…..
- “By how much will our sales go up, if we introduce product X? How much should
we invest?
Tech team – “We will not pick up projects till you gjve us a one year roadmap”
Sales Team - “1 year feature requests? We don’t even know what will happen
next month!”
Boss - “This is not working. We need to pivot…
Me – “To what”?
Boss- “I don’t know. Go figure”
Leadership –
- “You delivered a product. Great! Now how can we make this a Billion Dollar
business in 5 years?"
Some anecdotes…

19. Should have an opinion……
And be able to defend it!
Rely on -
Logic
Data
Insights

20. Some Tips

21. Invest in User Experience and Design
• Hire a kickass design team!
• Empower your designers to challenge the entire team’s thinking –
across functions.

22. Get your hands dirty
Get your basics right
Learn to code (Coursera, Udemy)
Build something yourself

23. Insist on Goals
• Make sure they move the needle on your organizations goals
• Align them with all your stakeholders
Type of goals
• No/type of features/products to be launched
• Launch timelines
• Business or Impact of each launch
• Quality metrics – Zero P0 Bugs

24. Mechanisms matter. Invest in them.
Mechanism - “a natural or established process by which something
takes place or is brought about”
Roadmap Intake Meetings
Product Update Emails
Leadership Roadmap reviews
Office Hours
Stakeholder 1:1s

25. Listen to customers – first hand
Participate in Focus groups/interviews
Use social media
Talk to your friends/family

26. Sometimes you have to be a prick
…. And its’s ok!
“a prick is an incessantly annoying or obnoxious person who
escalates their behavior the more they are ignored “
Continuously audit Voice of Customer and Key Business Metrics –
• Be a prick if things are going wrong and no one is doing anything about it
• Be a prick if customer experience or organizations interests are getting impacted
• Highlight the elephant in the room and hold other people accountable
• Make sure you are being a prick for the right reasons! Don’t be a random prick.

27. Prioritize.
“Not just the Requirements. But Your Life”
• A PM’s role can get very demanding and can send Work Life Balance for a toss -
Weekend sprints, late night releases, outages, customer escalations, odd hour
meetings with international stakeholders etc.
• Just like requirements for your product, you need to identify and hold true to the
P0s and P1s in your life.
• Learn to effectively delegate, audit and put in processes/mechanisms in place so
your workload is distributed.
• Switch off sometimes – Don’t burn out!

28. Thank You!
www.linkd.in/sumitchugh
chugh.sumit@gmail.com