12 rules for building your product management playbook

12 RULES FOR BUILDING YOUR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT PLAYBOOKIAN MOULTON - JANUARY 10, 2016

• 12 years of experience building products

• 9 years in product management roles

• 5 different organizations

ABOUT ME

Organizations:

1. Startup: 60 employees – NYC, CA & WI – founded 2003

2. Cooperative: 3,200 employees – NYC, DC & CA – founded 1846

3. Digital: 200 employees – NYC – founded 1953

4. Startup: 7 employees – NYC – founded 2008

5. Hybrid: 250 employees – NYC & Montreal – founded 1998

ABOUT ME

Products:

• Consumer web (news websites, video players, YouTube channel)

• Business web tools (CMS for news and video publishers)

• Consumer mobile (iOS and Android apps)

• Consumer web (college guide, “Ask an Alum” service on websites)

• Business web tool (“Ask an Alum” admin tool for organizations)

• Consumer app/hardware (digital jukebox)

• Business web-based tools (jukebox management tools)

ABOUT ME

“Mini-CEO”

CEO vs. Product Manager:

• All employees under authority of CEO

• PMs have no direct authority; opportunity to lead

• CEO make decisions without the burden of proof

• PMs have to be more persuasive

• “Mini-CEO” can hurt how your team perceives you

• People may doubt your interest in collaboration

• PMs still have to influence the build/buy/partner/integrate

• Accountable for the end-to-end success

RULE #1: MIND YOUR ANALOGY

http://techproductmanagement.com/ceo_of_the_product/

“Quarterback” or “Coach”

• Game plan/strategy

• Working well as a member of a team

• Adapting to your opponent, the playing field, and the conditions.

• Motivate others

#1: MIND YOUR ANALOGY

Sports

• Clear winners and losers

• Rules rarely change

• Stable cast of characters (teams, leagues, etc.)

• Focuses on real-time execution

• Customer needs and expectations not a focus – only winning


Organizational teams

• Be creative and adapt to shifting environment

• Meeting customer expectations more than beating competition

• Successfully satisfying customers is the way to beat the competition

Rock bands

• Create new products (e.g. concerts, recordings) sold in marketplace

• Satisfy stakeholders (e.g. audience and critics)

• Recognize and create revenue-making opportunities


http://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/01/10/sick-of-sports-why-rock-bands-are-a-

better-metaphor-for-work-teams/

1. Understand and work within the business context

2. work with engineers

3. think strategically AND get into the details

4. estimate the impact of a feature

5. know when to say no

6. make the case of why something should be on the roadmap

7. predict release schedules with unreliable engineering estimates

#2: BUILD YOUR EXPERIENCE

http://www.producttalk.org/2012/07/you-dont-need-experience-to-become-a-product-manager/

8. use data to inform

your decisions

9. know when talking to

someone trumps data

10. find another way

when you hit a

roadblock

11. advocate for the user

12. focus on benefits not

features

13. know the difference

between your user

and your customer

14. conduct an ad hoc

usability test

15.get to the root cause of

feedback

16.be the product expert on

customer and prospect

calls

17.distinguish between

bugs you can ignore and

bugs that must be fixed

18.be ruthlessly focused on

your product’s core

value

19.guide a designer to not

just create your vision

but build upon it

20. write user stories that

communicate the what and the

why

21. ensure high product quality

even if you don’t have any QA

support

22. understand what drives

revenue, if not manage the

P&L for your product

23. identify the most important

thing to do right now (not

always the most urgent)

24. experiment with everything

25. get in the heads of your users

/ customers

26. identify a pricing strategy

27. iterate until the end of time

• Tackle right away

• Intermediate

• Interview question

• Comes with time

#3: KEEP YOUR RESUME IN MIND

#3: KEEP YOUR RESUME IN MIND

http://www.jobhero.com/resume-samples/senior-product-manager

• Focus on skill-building vs. credentials (sizzle vs. steak)

• Complete meaningful tasks and add bullet points to your resume

Product Manager Résumé Examples:

• Increased new customer acquisition by 44% by streamlining e-commerce listing creation process.

• Reduced average listing creation process time for new customers by 35%.

• Recaptured $76K in revenue by re-aligning sales territories.

• Delivered customer reports which increased customer satisfaction 25%.

• Reduced costs and enhanced development flexibility to meet market demands by designing and implementing iterative development and delivery mechanisms.

• Coordinated landing page optimization efforts to update the UI on 40+ landing pages in less than two months, experiencing conversion lifts between 15-35%.

#4: INTERVIEW

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interview-techniques-star-dayna-l.

• Interviewing: Take-home test.

• The hypothetical scenario whiteboard session

• Providing work samples

• Portfolio

• Interview

• STAR (Situation, Thinking, Action, Results)

• S -- Situation; describe a specific situation;H -- Hinderances; identify any hindrances or challenges faced;A -- Action; explain the action(s) you took in response;R -- Results; discuss the results or outcomes from your action(s);E -- Evaluate; explain and evaluate what you learned from the experience.

#5: KEEPUP ON

PRODUCT

https://medium.com/@johnpcutler/8-

trends-shaping-modern-product-

management-

29953562e5f0#.m39yl7x9n

#5: KEEP UP ON PRODUCT

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/interview-techniques-star-dayna-l.

Track down sources to check up on.

Books:

• Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager

• http://www.khoslaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/Good_Product_Manager_Bad_Product_Manager_KV.pdf

• Lean Start Up (Eric Ries)

• Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love (Marty Cagan)

Other publications:

• Harvard Business Review

• Forbes, Fast Company, Inc.

• TechCrunch

• Product Hunt

#6: KEEP STRATEGY IN MIND

• Define the problem.

• Though it is the exception, it cannot be a problem, but simply be customer delight.

• “People hate [problem]. Our team exists to create [service that solves problem] and make it accessible to [large group]. We will achieve this by [doing this and this] which makes sense because [rationale]. We will measure success by [metric that matters].”

#7: TELL STORIES

http://www.producttalk.org/2012/07/you-dont-need-experience-to-become-a-product-manager/

• Identify intended product value, share and evangelize this story throughout their organizations.

• This is important because it ensures that the entire team understands the why behind what they are doing.

• Without a firm understanding of the why, the team risks becoming task focused, losing sight of the big picture, and deflating any sense of empowerment or excitement that once existed.

• The Press Release

• The Presentation• Bob Dylan shows that content matters

• Take a stance – differentiate yourself

• Be authentic

• Be confident

#8: IDENTIFY ANALOGS AND ANTILOGS

https://hbr.org/2010/08/what-can-we-learn-from-ninten

.

• Both in the entertainment space (in-home vs. in-venue)

• Similar hardware release cycles (3+ years)

• Similar strategy:

• Competing Against Non-Consumption

• Associated Press:

• Intel Inside

• Unigo:

• Udemy

http://www.productbookshelf.com/2011/08/getting-to-plan-b-analogs-antilogs-and-leaps-of-faith/

#9: MAKE YOUR TEAM A GREAT PLACE TO WORK

• Brandon Chu: Contribute to making our product development organization a productive and enriching place to work.

• Brainstorm

• “Own” Lunch

OPENSTAGE 2 CONCEPT MAP

VISUALIZATIONS

EFFORTHIGH

LOW

$$ BUSINESS IMPACT

HIGHLOW

MOBILE DJ OF THE DAY

SWYPE KEYBOARD

IBEACON / PROXIMITY LOGIN

LINKS TO

ARTIST PAGE INCREASE

PLAY NEXT

PRICE

FUN STATS

PAGE

‘SPONSORED’

INTERNAL

LIGHSHOW VIRTUOFB ADS

w/ MUSIC

CONTENT

STAFF

PICKSMOBILE USER

PLAYLISTS,

LEADERBOARD

JUKEBOX

EASY CHECKIN

REVERSE QR CODE

FACIAL RECOGNITION

PUSH

NOTIFICATION

TO MOBILE

SONG

GIFTING

DEDICATIONS

END OF SESSION

GAMES WACK

A MOLESEE OTHERS

PLAYLISTS

ATARI GAMES

RECOMMENDED

PLAYLIST

ANIMATED

PHOTOBOOTH

SONG QUEUE

UPGRADE

2 PLAYER

TRIVIA

1 CREDIT

ROULETTE

INTERACTIVE

PLAY QUEUE

#10: BRAINSTORM

#11: BUILD AN ADVISORY BOARD

• Set an expiration date

• Weigh feedback from the underepresented groups

#12: ORGANIZEYOUR DAY

https://image-store.slidesharecdn.com/3e21c9c9-80da-44f0-928d-eb8cf36e33a4-original.jpeg

• Usability Testing

• SWOT Analysis

• Themes for every day