building faster horses: taking over an existing software product

Building Faster Horses

Taking over an existing software product

About Me

Technical Product Manager for Prime Occupational Medicine 10 years in software development and design

Six of those years in software development consulting Certifications:

Professional Scrum Master (PSM-I) Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Numerous Microsoft certifications in .NET development and ALM

Volunteer for SCORE and SQL Saturday Baton Rouge

About SCORE and SCORE BR

Nation’s largest network of free expert business mentors Free mentoring sessions with SCORE volunteer mentors Free and paid seminars and workshops

Simple Steps to Starting Your Business Held monthly and free to attend

Simple Steps for Growing Your Business Currently being held at the Central Library every other Wednesday

http://scorebr.org

About SQL Saturday Baton Rouge

August 6th, 2016 at the LSU Business Education Complex Annual free to attend all day technology conference, lunch provided Includes tracks on IT Management and Career Growth

This year trying to form a Project Management track! If you have a topic to present, please submit it by the end of the month! If you don’t, make one up! If you still don’t, register to attend and see you there!

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/515

Agenda

What is Product Management? A Case Study: EME

The Backstory The Approach Lessons Learned Planning for the Future

Resources and References

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”Henry Ford (supposedly.)https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast

What is Product Management?

What is Product Management?

Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, and production, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. (“Product Management”, 2016, para. 1)

The product manager is often called the product "CEO." The product manager investigates, selects, and drives the development of products for an organization, performing the activities of product management. (“Product Manager”, 2016, para. 1)

The Product “CEO”

Product Manage

r

Project Management

Requirements Gathering

Backlog Management

Marketing Assistance

Sales Assistance

User Experience

Quality Assurance

Application Support

Financial Reporting

Product Strategy

The Technical Product “CEO”

Technical Product Manager

Project Management

Requirements Gathering

Backlog Management

Marketing Assistance

Sales Assistance

User Experience

Quality Assurance

Application Support

Financial Reporting

Product Strategy

Business Intelligence

Software Development

A Case Study: EME

The Backstory: The Product

EME is a web-based software product developed for Prime Occupational Medicine

The EME product facilitates the lifecycle and document management for occupational medicine encounters

Pre-Placement Screenings Fit for Work Evaluations Employee Injury or Illness Random Drug Screens Etc.

Has been in production for over a year 10,000+ authorizations

Designed to be employer centric

The Backstory: The Team EvolutionPGS Owners Software Consultants

Domain Knowledge Product Vision Product Strategy

Requirements Gathering Lifecycle Management Implementation Support

The Backstory: The Team Evolution

Domain Knowledge Product Vision Product Strategy

Requirements Gathering Lifecycle Management Implementation Support

PGS Owners Software ConsultantsMe

Going Into Day One

The Opportunities Can trust the design and

implementation Have a network of folks who

have worked with the product and people

The product is in active use by clients!

The Obstacles Will take time to transition

ownership due to active development

No personal experience with the product

No real knowledge of what’s already in place and what isn’t At the Product level At the Product Strategy level

The Approach

The Approach: 30 – 60 – 90 Day Plan

30: Learn

• Learn the Business

• Learn the Product

60: Evaluate

• Determine KPIs

• Determine Opportunities

• Establish Processes

90: Execute

• Create Roadmap

• Migrate Control

• Deliver!

The First 30 Days: Learn

Learn the business and how it operates Services Locations Org Chart

Learn the product Key stakeholders and users What does it do? What doesn’t it do?

The Second 30 Days: Evaluate

Usability Testing

A/B Testing

& Analytics

User Interviews Surveys

Behavioral

Attitudinal

Direct(Qualitative)

Indirect(Quantitative)

Research Methods Framework from Dan Olsen (2015)

The Second 30 Days: Evaluate

Usability Testing

A/B Testing

& Analytics

User Interviews Surveys

Behavioral

Attitudinal

Direct(Qualitative)

Indirect(Quantitative)

Watch the users

Talk to users

Establish KPIs

NPS, etc.

Research Methods Framework from Dan Olsen (2015)

The Second 30 Days: Establishing KPIsAARRR Metrics Framework from Dan Olsen (2015)

The Second 30 Days: Establishing KPIsAARRR Metrics Framework from Dan Olsen (2015)

Optimization starts here!

The Second 30 Days: Activation KPIs

Number of Authorizations Total Monthly

Number of Patients Total Monthly

Number of Employers Total Monthly

The Second 30 Days: Retention KPIs

System Performance Optimization (Request Duration * Frequency) Feature Usage

Are our clients actually using X? Are some clients using X more than others?

Operational Efficiency (Avg. Duration of Key Metrics) Cradle to Grave Time to Grab Time to Review

Retention – How is our product-market fit?

The Second 30 Days: Revenue KPIs

Cost Per Unit (Infrastructure costs + Labor costs) / # of Authorizations Invoiced

Labor costs relate back to operational efficiency measures

The Third 30 Days: Backlog Prioritization Prioritization formula is similar to Return On Investment (ROI) The return can be tangible and intangible

Retention, Revenue, Referral Investment is fairly tangible

Estimated Effort

The Third 30 Days: Backlog Prioritization

(User Value + Financial Value + Technical Value)Estimated Effort

Value: 1 to 10Effort: 1 to 4

(6 + 2 + 10)2

= 9

Also… the first internal push to production!No pressure…

Some Lessons Learned

Don’t Make Faster Horses When a Car Will Do.Look for the goal beyond the request.

Translators shouldn’t need translators.Foster an environment open to communicating the fact that we aren’t actually communicating.

Trade Sandbags for Idols.Work is “instead of” not “in addition to”. Do the 20% that yields 80%.

Planning for the Future

Let’s play a game…

Speed ABC’s

Timed 20 seconds Write upper case block letters

No cursive! Write the alphabet starting at A and ending at Z

If you reach the end, start over and keep going!

Speed abc’s

Timed 20 seconds Write lower case block letters

No cursive! Write the alphabet starting at A and ending at Z

If you reach the end, start over and keep going!

Speed AbC’s

Timed 20 seconds Alternate upper and lower case block letters

Start with upper case No cursive!

Write the alphabet starting at A and ending at Z If you reach the end, start over and keep going!

Planning for the Future: Scaling

Technical Product Manager

Project Manage

ment Requirements

Gathering

Backlog Manage

ment

Marketing

Assistance

Sales Assistan

ce

User Experien

ceQuality Assuran

ce

Application

Support

Financial Reportin

g

Product Strategy

Business Intellige

nce

Software Develop

ment

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@#$%^&*()!@#$%^&…

Planning for the Future: Scaling

Build a Future Org Chart Fill in the areas with your name for now Actively build job descriptions from your responsibilities Prioritize the growth based on biggest impact

References

References Olsen, D. (2015) The Lean Product Playbook. Hoboken, New Jersey: John

Wiley & Sons, Inc. Product Management. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 16, 2016, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_management Product Manager. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 16, 2016, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager

Additional Resources https://www.score.org/resources/simple-steps-workbooks http://www.slideshare.net/dan_o