5/13/2016 © 2016 CareerBuilder

Abdel Tefridj, Chief Innovation Officer

How To Run Your Product Like a

Business Owner –

A Product Manager’s Playbook

A little about me…personally and professionally

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One of my passions is travel

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My Team of Product Managers

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1. Find Your Market Fit

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Market Fit is all that matters

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What is Market Fit?

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What is the product?

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Product vs. Market

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Solve The Right Problem

Many will come to you and complain, but exercise caution:

• Is it a problem?

• Is it a big and growing problem?

• Can we solve it cost effectively?

• Is the timing right to solve it now?

• Do we have the data within our ecosystem?

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2. Keep It Simple

Simplicity Trumps Functionality

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Simplicity

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Sir Richard Branson

Complicated vs. Simple

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3. Talk to Customers

Talk to Customers Regularly

• Get out of the office!

• Visit them where they use your product and observe their behaviors

• Ask for positive and negative feedback – “Good, Bad and Ugly”

• Listen very carefully

• Share feedback with entire team

• Have your team join the client feedback meetings or record them

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Host Client Events

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Get Out and Observe

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4. Deliver Value Before Growth

Deliver Value Before Growth

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Deliver Value Before Growth

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Serve the Customer Need and Work Backwards

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5. Know Your Numbers

What are Your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?

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KPIs to Consider

• Sales

• Usage

• Quality

• Production/output

• Labor cost

• Delivery performance

• Total cost

• Material cost

• Safety

• Reject/scrap

• Equipment utilization

• Downtime

• Total cycle time

• Overtime

• Backlog, Open Orders

• On Time Delivery

• Maintain Inventory Level

• Safety Recordables, Near Misses

• Stock outs

• Turnover

• YTD Sales, Invoiced sales, Sales vs. Budget

• New Revenue from Existing Customers

• Revenue from New Customers

• Training hours

• Internal Quality, DPPM

• # of Customer Issues

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6. Create a Business Plan

Business Plan Ingredients

• KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

• Revenue, Usage, Renewals, Quality, Production, On time delivery, etc. -- all metrics that define success

• Market Fit

• Goals: short term and long term

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Continue to Update Business Plan

• Don’t let your plan go stale

• Review and update on a regular basis

• Always be ready to present to anyone who wants to know more about your business

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7. Communicate with Your “Village”

It Takes A Village to…

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Meet with Your Village Regularly

• Bi-weekly meetings

• Share:

• Client complaints/feedback

• KPIs and Goals

• Marketing/sales initiatives

• Make as interactive as possible

• Everyone has a voice when it comes to product

• Great ideas can come from those building the product

• Use video calling if anyone is remote

• Join.me, Google Hangouts, Zoom, etc.

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8. Rapid Prototyping

You Must Iterate and Enhance Your Product

• Look at trends in complaints or feedback and adjust accordingly

• Research the competition

• Don’t be left behind by maintaining the status quo

OR Your competition will eat you for dinner!

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Conduct Pilots and Tests

• Talk to your village to get ideas

• Manually pull something together and get quick feedback from customers

• Try new things and see if response is high enough to move forward

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9. Go Back to the Basics

Make Great Products by Cutting Down the Roadmap

• Look at product roadmap

• Not enough focus

• Get rid of 70%

• Get simpler and better

• Focus on 30% of gems

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The Key to Success

1. Don’t innovate. Solve problems.

2. Think bigger, earlier.

3. Innovate beyond new products.

4. Listen with your eyes.

5. Be resilient. The first idea is rarely the best idea.

6. Set yourself up for success.

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10. Read, Read and Read Some More.

Leaders Are Readers

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Mark Cuban: Reads 3 hours per day

Larry Page: asked how he learned to run a company, his response “I read a lot.”

Bill Gates: read 112 books during one “Think Week”

Recommended Book:

QUESTIONS?

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