what is product management and why should you care
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Thoughts on how early stage startups should think about product managementTRANSCRIPT
What is Product Mgmt and Why Should You Care?
By Isaac SouweineHead of Product Management @ Frank & Oak
Presented to Founder FuelFeb 26, 2014
Personal Intro● Columbia (Religion)● Scholastic● INSEAD● Yahoo● Pollenizer● Frank & Oak
Group Checkin
I. why should you care?
product managers partner with devs, design and business to bring products to market that drive business value
http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2011/10/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/
discussions of product management typically assume highly specialized organizations
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
and that diagram is a massive understatement
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BI INFCust svc Ops
HR FIN LAW M&A strat
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
the context is appropriate considering who invented product management
and who practices it at scale today
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
meanwhile, this is the context of an early stage startup
Biz co- founder
Tech co- founder
Customers
or maybe this
Biz Tech
Customers
Design
also known as
Huster Hacker
Customers
Hipster
or perhaps your hipster is more on the marketing side
Biz Tech
Customers
Mktng
whatever the case, your team is tiny.
whereas product management is about managing complex organizations.
so why should you care?
II. why you should care
market product
Early stage startups are temporary organizations in search of product/market fit
They seek product/market fit by conducting build/measure/learn cycles
market product
LEARN
MEASURE BUILD
Big company PMs are actually trying to run similar cycles
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
They just have a lot more people involved in the process
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
which means a lot more stakeholder engagement
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
and a very long and filtered learning process
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
all that complexity should not be that interesting to early stage startups
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
But the way PMs run build/measure/learn is relevant
PM
design
Eng.
MktngBD
PMO
UX
VPs
Customers
Sales
BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
III. what is product management?
so here is a list of what these big company PMs do
● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind
+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate
you can divide the list into two areas
● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind
+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate
Build, Measure, Learn
Manage complexity
of course we care more about the stuff on the left
● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind
+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate
Build, Measure, Learn
Manage complexity
a list which maps pretty well to the B/M/L triangle
LEARN
MEASURE BUILD
● understand● strategize
● prioritize ● specify
● analyze
● grind
understand
● know your market deeply● market size and dynamics● competitors● trends (macro and micro)● customer profiles● use cases
strategize
● craft a compelling vision● value proposition● feature set● KPIs● brand alignment● monetization● acquisition flow
prioritize
● decide what to build● ROI● technical understanding● speed vs. scale
specify
● describe what to build● user stories● wireframing● copy● edge cases● errors and help● success metrics
analyze
● understand what happened● web analytics● funnel analysis● spreadsheets● data integrity
grind
● do whatever it takes● customer engagement● qa● developer enablement● late nights and early mornings● wrangling of all kinds
there are a few paths to the product management role
● marketing > PM● engineering > PM ● UX > PM
IV. so should you have a product manager?
a lot of what PMs do is extremely relevant to early stage companies
● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind
Biz Tech
Mktng
but does that mean someone on your team should be a product manager?
Biz Tech
PM
of course the short answer is that it depends
Biz Tech
?
Pollenizer (AU) runs three person teams with a designated lean product manager. In this setup the LPM covers customer development and parts of growth.
Biz Tech
LPM
A designated PM role can also make a ton of sense for larger startup teams
Biz Tech
PM
Tech
MktngDesign
On the other hand, the marketing function can double as PM (reverse Pollenizer model)
Biz Tech
Mktng
In other cases, the business lead can share product management responsibility
Biz Tech
Mktng
Or simply owns it completely in a two person team
Biz Tech
In design heavy teams the designer can play the PM role, especially if she comes from a UX background
Biz Tech
Design
in the end, it doesn’t matter so much whether you have the formal role of PM
market product
LEARN
MEASURE BUILD
PM
what matters is that your team is set up to drive effective B/M/L cycles
market product
LEARN
MEASURE BUILD
THANK YOU!!