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I was the guest speaker at SVPMA (Sept 3, 2014) and discussed how Product Managers play a profound role in creating the environment around product development teams. I explored various ways they can influence these products to move up from mediocrity and how to avoid micromanagement and “flavor of the month” feature ideas. I discussed specific ways to set clear goals and establish the right metrics. Dipping into my eBay days, I shared a little known story of the importance of asking for forgiveness rather than permission in driving innovation (eBay iPhone app). Some other takeaways from this talk include: How to focus on the right, few, customer adoption metrics (e.g. AAARR). More is often not better and can distract from the main goal How defining your product’s purpose often improves working relationships with designers and engineers so you aren’t left arguing about the “what” or the “how How to avoid getting in the executive micromanagement web especially if they are distracted by the “flavor of the month” or “pet feature” ideas How to drive stealth projects or go through quick business case or product prototyping within a big company The event was held at the Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center where I work.
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Getting Products out from under the
MIDDLE of the Bell Curve and Exceeding Expectations
Preston SmalleySVPMA September Meeting!
!Comcast Silicon Valley
Innovation Center!!
prestonsmalley.com @prestons
Cable Communications Cable Networks Broadcast Film Parks
App Store Launch
Karlyn Neel!UX Designer!
Preston Smalley!
Alan Lewis!Product Manager!
Ken Sun!Product Manager!
Max Mancini!
Ask for Forgiveness Not Permission
Frequently heard when products aren’t exceeding expectations: • My team often ends up building “pet” features
requested by our <big shot execs>.
• We can’t agree on what we should be building OR my designers/engineers don’t support me.
• We can’t get analytics support OR we track everything—but it doesn’t impact decisions.
• We don’t have time to sketch or prototype and are actually already behind in building v1.
If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.
- Ed Catmull
“
Don’t do their homework for them!
Avoiding Exec “Pet” projects
• Exec: “I think you should build <feature>” • PM follow up questions:
1. What customer problem does it solve for? 2. What key metric would that feature drive? 3. May I work with the team to look at other
solutions to that problem to drive that metric? 4. How does this compare to <top priority y>?
How the “why” helps you as a PM
• Aligns UX Design on the purpose behind the customer problem they’re solving
• Motivates engineers on why they should care about your project
• Helps you as the PM stay focused on what matters to your product
USING LEAN CANVAS!
Adapt Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas to fit within your company Problem
Solution Unique Value Prop
Customer Segments
Unfair Advantage
Metrics Channels
Cost (adapted)
Revenue (adapted)
Strategic Fit (added)
Life is too short to keep building something nobody (or not enough people) want.” - Ash Maurya
“
EX: Plaxo Personal Assistant • Started out okay… User Research in
indicated customers wanted help keeping their address books current.
• A series of engineering setbacks turned a 4 mth project into > 1 year
Missed opportunities: • Gauging customer value early (pay $) • Understanding product “substitution” • Focusing on an easier MVP
Measuring customer value
Keep using this !<product>?! OR!
How would you feel if you could no longer use this <product/feature> ?!1. Very Disappointed "2. Somewhat Disappointed!3. Not disappointed (it isn’t that useful) 4. N/A I don’t use!
Question #1 by Ash Maurya (Running Lean)!
? ? Ideation “Seed” “Series A” “Series B” or
“Acquisition”
?
Don’t just swing for homeruns
Hack Days
METRICS & ANALYTICS!
Mediocre Approaches to Metrics
OR ?!• Our analytics team is “busy”!• We’re adding metrics… next sprint!• I don’t know, that’s another team!
• We already track EVERYTHING!• We just added Google Analytics tags
to every page, figure it out later!
PMs cannot “outsource” analytics
• You must define your key metrics. !• You must know how they are doing and
what did or did not impact them.!• You must share these metrics with your
team and your execs. !
Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics
Ash Maurya (practicetrumpstheory.com)!
Retention as a Cohort
Retention chart as produced by MixPanel!
SKETCHING & PROTOTYPING
EX: Storyboarding @ eBay
24
• Integrated dozens of plans across org to create one vision
• Leverage comic sketching to communicate actual fidelity
• Shared with VPs across corp.!and 600 employee all hands
RESULT: Alignment on the “Why”
Sketching as a core competency INFORMAL! FORMAL!
Lots of Pens!& Paper!
Part of Job!Professional tools!
Sketch as Deliverable!(scanned / wireframes)!
Software: Comic Life!
Sketching to Prototyping
Sketched !Storyboards!
Mockups !Linked Together!
Interactive!Prototype!
MVP!“Test”!
CO
ST!
LOW FIDELITY! HIGH FIDELITY!
“Benjamin Button Prototyping”!
Mature!Young!
MVP!Test!
10X Product Launch
10,000 !
1,000 !
100 !
10 !
# Customers!
SOURCE: 10X Product Launch by Ash Maurya (Running Lean) !
• High Touch!• Market Risk!• Qualitative!
• Self Serve!• Technical Risk!• Quantitative!
MVP!Test!
MVP!
Problem!Interview!
Solution!Interview!
Testing your ideas with real users is probably the single most important activity in your job as product manager.
- Marty Cagan
“
Avoiding the MIDDLE of the Bell Curve
3. Adapt Lean Canvas for your company
6. Leverage Sketching & Prototyping
1. Ask for forgiveness, not permission
4. Don’t just swing for homeruns 5. Create focus using AARRR metrics
2. Avoid “pet” projects—start with “why” !
prestonsmalley.com!
Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.
- Eric Ries
“
Getting Products out from under the
MIDDLE of the Bell Curve and Exceeding Expectations
Preston SmalleySVPMA September Meeting!
!Comcast Silicon Valley
Innovation Center!!
prestonsmalley.com @prestons
