Product Management 101: #1 How To Create Products Customer Love

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

101

#1 How To Create Products Customers L♥VE

Jean-Yves SIMON

@jysim0n http://fr.linkedin.com/in/jysim0n

What I have observed in many companies

“Everybody’s got a strategy until they get hit.” – Mike Tyson

No Thanks! We are

too busy

People too busy to improve

Want some help?

People Firefighting leave that job to professionals (especially Product Managers)

Based on an idea from Pragmatic Marketing

1.  Intro 2.  Why do companies need Product Management? 3.  The Origins of Product Management 4.  Product Manager: an unrecognised role 5.  Where do they belong in the Organisation? 6.  (Re)defining the Role of the Product Manager 7.  Methodologies to create great Products

Agenda

It’s Quizz time!

Which of the following is an effective source of Ideas?

A: R&D department

D: Users of the products C: Customer complaints

B: Competitor’s Products

All of the above!

Which of the following is an effective source of Ideas?

A: R&D department

D: Users of the products C: Customer complaints

B: Competitor’s Products

Why do companies need Product Management?

Is this Why Companies Need Product Management?

Feature, feature, feature…

Well actually, Product management may be the one

job that the organization would get along fine without

(at least for a good while), right?

Without engineers, nothing would get built.

Without sales people, nothing is sold.

But in a world without Product Managers, others

simply fill in the gap and go on with their lives.

However, when there is a great product management function, it usually makes the difference between winning

and losing.

Let’s see one example

Your task is to Design me a Pen

Tell me what you would do?

A pen can be

A permanent marker

A pen for astronauts to use in space

A pen for children to use in the

bath

A pen for scuba divers

Everyone of us would need and design

a very different pen

That’s one case where you need a Product Manager

Product Management is there to avoid this…

Source: http://www.projectcartoon.com

The Origins of Product Management

There is no School of Product Management*.

People actually evolve into this role.

* Or no school where technology product management is taught in Europe, maybe US...

Back in the Days…

Source: The Origins of Product Management, onproductmanagement.net - 2010

1930 - Procter & Gamble P&G Neil McElroy creates a role called “Brand Man” for the Camay Soap product

The origins of Product Management go back to the 1930s at P&G

1981 – Intuit Scott Cook, a former P&G “brand man”, applies “brand management” principles to software products at Intuit to develop Quicken. Technology product management was born.

1991 – Harvard Business Review In his article “Marketing is Everything”, Technology marketing guru Regis McKenna described the changes that technology was bringing to the marketing profession. This “new marketing” described core aspects of Product Management.

2001 – Manifesto for Agile Software Development Changed the way software was being built. Birth of the Product Owner Role

2011– Lean Startup Eric Ries combined validated learning methods for developing businesses and products.

Product Manager: an Unrecognised Role

Every company has its own definition for Product

Manager.

Example of a Product Manager LinkedIn Job Ad, July 2014

56 responsibilities! Among which:

“Coordinate crisis activities in case of escalation.”

“Provide all useful product documentation.”

“Conduct internal and/or customer training as needed.”

“Contribute to RFPs as requested.”

“Support the Delivery organization on key customer engagements.”

“Write High-level Statement of Requirements and develop product plans that identify key market requirements.”

“Monitor customer satisfaction.”

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/17521694

This company is looking for a “Swiss army knife”,

not a Product Manager. This position is surely set for failure.

So why should Sales sell, developers code, and

Product Managers be the “Jack of all Trades, Master of

none”?

(Re)defining the Role of the Product

Manager

The Product Manager’s Mission is to…

Deliver measurable business results through product features and

solutions that meet both market needs and company goals.

Source: http://onproductmanagement.net/2011/03/21/differentiated-pm-roles/

Key Activities of Product Managers

Product Manager Key Activities

Business •  Focuses on maximizing business

value from his product •  Obsessed with optimizing his

product to achieve the business goals

•  Cares on maximizing the ROI

User experience •  Is the voice of the user

inside the business •  Must be passionate about

the user experience. •  Has to be out there testing

the product continuously, talking to users and getting feedback

Technology •  Understands the level of

effort involved to make the right decisions

•  Spends time day to day with the development team

Pragmatic Marketing Framework:

A market-driven model for managing and

marketing technology products

Pricing

Buy, Build or Partner

Product Portfolio

Business Case

Buying Process

Product Profitability

Buyer Personas

Market Definition

Marketing Plan

User Personas

Customer Acquisition

Win/Loss Analysis

Distinctive Competence

Market Problems

Distribution Strategy

Customer Retention

Positioning

Program Effectiveness

Lead Generation

Use Scenarios

Innovation

Thought Leadership

Presentations & Demos

Product Roadmap

Channel Training

Event Support

Sales Process

Collateral

Sales Tools

Requirements

“Special” Calls

Status Dashboard

Channel Support

Technology Assessment

Competitive Landscape

Referrals & References

Launch Plan

MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMS PLANNING FOCUS SUPPORT READINESS

Stra

tegi

c Tactical

Different activities, different profiles, different titles

Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

Pragmatic Marketing Framework:

A market-driven model for managing and

marketing technology products

Pricing

Buy, Build or Partner

Product Portfolio

Business Case

Buying Process

Product Profitability

Buyer Personas

Market Definition

Marketing Plan

User Personas

Customer Acquisition

Win/Loss Analysis

Distinctive Competence

Market Problems

Distribution Strategy

Customer Retention

Positioning

Program Effectiveness

Lead Generation

Use Scenarios

Innovation

Thought Leadership

Presentations & Demos

Product Roadmap

Channel Training

Event Support

Sales Process

Collateral

Sales Tools

Requirements

“Special” Calls

Status Dashboard

Channel Support

Technology Assessment

Competitive Landscape

Referrals & References

Launch Plan

MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMS PLANNING FOCUS SUPPORT READINESS

Stra

tegi

c Tactical

STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES Titles: Product Manager, Director Product

Strategy, Product Line Manager

TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Titles: Product Owner, Technical Product

Manager, Program Manager, Business Analyst

MARKETING ACTIVITIES

Product Marketing Manager, Sales Enablement

Different activities, different profiles, different titles

Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

Pragmatic Marketing Framework:

A market-driven model for managing and

marketing technology products

Pricing

Buy, Build or Partner

Product Portfolio

Business Case

Buying Process

Product Profitability

Buyer Personas

Market Definition

Marketing Plan

User Personas

Customer Acquisition

Win/Loss Analysis

Distinctive Competence

Market Problems

Distribution Strategy

Customer Retention

Positioning

Program Effectiveness

Lead Generation

Use Scenarios

Innovation

Thought Leadership

Presentations & Demos

Product Roadmap

Channel Training

Event Support

Sales Process

Collateral

Sales Tools

Requirements

“Special” Calls

Status Dashboard

Channel Support

Technology Assessment

Competitive Landscape

Referrals & References

Launch Plan

MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMS PLANNING FOCUS SUPPORT READINESS

Stra

tegi

c Tactical

Product Manager Product Marketer

Role split in medium-sized organisations

Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

The pilars of a successful Product Manager

their product Product Managers

Product Managers Lead through Influence

Well, maybe not this type of influence

It’s more this type of influence J

Source: http://www.targetprocess.com/

Developer Programming

Skill

Blood Alcohol Concentration (%)

Product Managers are the Voice of the Customer

Product Managers are accountable for Measuring & Communicating Progress & Success

•  Key Performance Indicators •  Product adoption & Usage metrics •  ROI & P&L metrics •  Feature Team Scorecard

“What gets measured gets

done”

Why measure?

Data beats opinion - Google

“

Product Managers do Plant Seeds To Infuse Ideas with their Stakeholders

“Work with stakeholders until they know the story so well they are constantly telling and retelling it themselves.” - Dane Howard, eBay

PMs Create Products Customers

L♥VE

And Want To ฿u¥!

The B.O.S.S. Product Manager

•  Runs the product like a Business

•  Has an Outside-In approach

•  Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders

•  Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How)

The B.O.S.S Product Manager

•  Runs the product like a Business

•  Opportunity Assessment •  Build, buy or partner? •  Measures investment ROI •  Defined & Follows adoption

KPIs •  Continuous optimization

•  Has an Outside-In approach

•  Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders

•  Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How)

The B.O.S.S Product Manager

•  Runs the product like a Business

•  Has an Outside-In approach

•  Meets with Customers and prospects weekly

•  Is the voice of the customer •  Brings the customer into the

company

•  Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders

•  Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How)

The B.O.S.S Product Manager

•  Runs the product like a Business

•  Has an Outside-In approach

•  Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders

•  Communicates progress & KPIs regularly,

•  Include them in discovery phase

•  Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How)

The B.O.S.S Product Manager

•  Runs the product like a Business

•  Has an Outside-In approach

•  Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders

•  Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How)

•  Systematic discovery process, •  Competition & Market analysis, •  Roadmap, •  Product canvas

The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Where do Product Managers belong in

Organisations?

Product Managers Wear Many Hats

Finance Technical Engineering

Marketing Business

And too often…Firefighter

They generally report to the CTO or the CMO in most

technology companies

Recently, especially in Tech companies, we’ve seen the rise of a Product function reporting directly to the

CEO.

The Chief Product Officer

But whether they report to Marketing, Customer Success or R&D, Product Managers will always be driven by the

department’s objectives.

Methodologies To Create Great

Products

Working in Feature or Pizza Teams

If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large. - Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

“

Gathering Developers

+ Product Managers in Feature Teams

A typical Feature Team

Core Feature Team

User Experience

Product Owner Product Manager

Scrum Master Sr Dev Lead

Developers UI+Back-end

QA Analyst

IT Ops Engineer

Can be external shared

A typical Feature Team

Core Feature Team

Core Feature Team

User Experience

Product Owner Product Manager

Scrum Master Sr Dev Lead

Developers UI+Back-end

QA Analyst

IT Ops Engineer

Extended Feature Team

Product Marketing

Software Architect

Program or Delivery Manager

Other Feature team

members

The Extended feature team is made up of teams who are involved at a given point in the definition, development or delivery process.

The Agile process was conceived as a development

methodology.

Get it on READY to MARKET

Ideate Get it PRIORITIZED

Get it DEFINED

with Customers

Get it DONE w/ Agile

Get it TESTED &

VALIDATED

Product backlog

BU

SIN

ES

S

GO

ALS

PR

IOR

ITY 1

2 3 . . . . 10

TO D

O

DO

NE

2 weeks

Scrum Team Product, UX, Dev, QA, Ops

Testing Team Internal test

Pilot Customers

Customer Discovery Team Product Manager User Experience

VALUE

Prototypes MVP

Interaction designs visual designs

Sprint backlog User stories

Opportunity Assessment Go-to-market Plan

Launch Plan User Doc, Marketing Materials

Product steering committee

Product managers, Stakeholders

Marketing Teams

MarCom/PMM

Test Plans Pilot dashboard

Product Delivery Chain

All

Iterations

Ow

ners

Su

ppor

ting

Doc

umen

ts

In Agile, PMs do things a little differently…

Agile changed Collaboration Before After

COLLABORATION

REQUIREMENTS

DEVELOPMENT

DEPLOYMENT

Feature Teams use Sprint to manage projects. Thee Product Owner is the voice of the customer.

Up-front work to create a vision that describes what the product will roughly look like and do. Prototypes is the new Specification.

Demos and retrospective bring continuous improvement and accountability with Developers

Deployment is effortless enabling user feedback to be gathered instantly

Source: Mendix.com

Several roles. Teams were unable

to collaborate effectively, resulting

in frustration and miscommunication

Extensive market research, product

planning, and business analysis are carried out up

front.

Development is a black box, lots of

uncertainty due to miscommunication of the heavy specs

Deployment became a project in itself,

requiring time and effort that stifled project flexibility

Months Days

prototype

?

…but Agile is really just one part of a Product Manager’s

job.

Agile doesn’t guarantee that you’re building the right

thing…

To build the right thing, there are methods

Lean Product Management

http://ueberproduct.de/seminar/kanban-fuer-lean-product-management/

INNOVATION GAMES©

Use Innovation games in Workshops, product councils, steering committees. Makes it fun and engaging and ensures there is a deliverable at the end of the session.

INNOVATION GAME©: •  Buy-a-feature Game:

•  24 cards (features)

•  Each feature has a price from 15 to 130 credits

•  Each participant is given 100 credits

•  Objective •  Define Minimum

Viable Product •  Roadmap

prioritization

Lean Startup: Don’t be perfect, but try and fail fast

Lean Startup: Build > Measure > Learn

The Minimum Viable Product

VIABLE MINIMUM SWEET SPOT

Weak products no one wants to use

Products built by companies with more money to

spend

Good products that solve the problem and that users can

use

Questions?

FEEDBACK?

@jysimon