brian fitzgerald product camp 11 keynote

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Product Camp NYC, 2011 Brian Fitzgerald VP, Product Development September 17, 2011 Product management… an evolution. Product Camp NYC, 2011 ! My last 16 years! Paying my bills Learning

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Brian Fitzgerald came to Knewton with 15 years of experience developing digital media consumer products and services. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Education for Audible.com (an Amazon.com company), where, among other initiatives, he created AudibleKids and VangoNotes. Prior to joining Audible, Fitzgerald worked at Yahoo as an original member of the Yahoo Mail team. He spent 8 years at Yahoo in product management roles in Silicon Valley and Europe, building and managing more than 50 Yahoo products such as Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Small Business. He served on the Board of Directors of the Just Think Foundation. He received an M.A. in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University’s Teachers College and a B.S. in Entrepreneurship from Babson College.Knewton (www.knewton.com) is the world’s leading adaptive learning company. Knewton’s cloud-based platform uses concept-level data to create uniquely personalized learning plans, allowing educators to tailor their content to the exact needs of individual students. The company was named a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum at Davos.Educational technology has recently become an extremely hot area. Though in the early days, Knewton was perceived as building a better mousetrap for test prep and facing off against companies like Kaplan (Knewton CEO Jose Ferreira is an alum), the underlying strategy is far more ambitious. Knewton’s team is an A-list of hardcore techies building a scalable platform, using data science to disrupt an enormous industry, and hoping to bring wide-scale improvement to how anyone in the world learns just about anything.Join us at ProductCampNYC 2011 for Brian’s fascinating talk about the challenges and opportunities facing this exciting venture-funded company and its product team.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Brian Fitzgerald VP, Product Development

September 17, 2011

Product management… an evolution.

Product Camp NYC, 2011 !"

My last 16 years!

Paying my bills

Lea

rnin

g

Page 2: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011 #"

I like to make things!

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Established 2008

Page 3: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

To be the data platform powering the world’s education.

$"

Long on vision!

Product Camp NYC, 2011 %"

Decent sized industry!

Page 4: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Knewton: B.P.M. (before product management)

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Former Kaplan exec •  “Change agent” for the Kaplan test prep

product •  Brut-force adaptive learning - early 90’s •  Slightly rebellious…“Broke the code” for a

certain standardized testing question type, forcing ETS to pull revise their tests; earned the name “the antichrist.”

•  Knewton was percolating in his head for ~15 years…

&"

The founder

Page 5: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011 '"

A legend among legends!

Meeting #1…

Meeting #2…

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Young •  Exceptionally bright •  Hungry •  Tireless

()"

A team who just might be able to pull it off!

Page 6: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Product was purely CEO’s vision •  A willing team building on demand •  Real time cycles •  No direct customer input/revisions for v1

(("

Start up style

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  v1 of the adaptive learning platform •  Live streaming classroom •  On demand student experience •  Develop all of the content •  A content management system •  Pre-market •  Launch a GMAT course •  …in 6 months!

(!"

The build goal

Page 7: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Knewton: A.P.M. (after product management)

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  April, 2009 •  1st product person •  740 feature ideas in the hopper

(*"

My arrival

Page 8: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  CEO’s perception: “move faster, do more things!”

•  CTO’s desire: “need a buffer, let’s move slower so I can scale this”

•  New head of research: “we’re almost at rung #1 on a very tall adaptive learning ladder”

•  Academic team: “finally, we can fix course development tools and broken student features”

•  Me: “focus, brian, focus…”

($"

So!now what?

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Balance Synthesis Decisiveness

(%"

A healthy tension

The product minded techy

The consumer app guy

The disruptive visionary

The academic pragmatist

Page 9: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Collective view of the landscape •  Agreement on the business strategy? •  Validate with customers •  What are we committing to for resources? •  What is core to our business?

(+"

Align on goals

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Acquire new customers •  Generate meaningful data •  Engage existing customers •  Gain operational efficiency

(&"

Business drivers

Page 10: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Long term roadmap

•  Focus projects

•  Roadmap review

•  Lightweight requirements/user story templates, backlogs, retrospectives, 5-whys

('"

Introducing tools

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  1 page pitch (“vision and scope”)

•  Anyone can do one •  Aligning with focus

projects for a better chance at daylight

•  ROI/metric driven is essential for making the business case

•  Feedback is promised

!)"

1 Pager

Page 11: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Uncompromising on hiring •  Varied skillsets; cross-training •  Data driven •  Consistent coaching •  Ideas from everywhere •  Product managers spread the

culture throughout the org

!("

A Well-rounded product team

Product Camp NYC, 2011 !!"

UX!it matters (a lot)

Page 12: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Product before revenue •  Customer centric •  Creating space vs. churning features •  Iterative process – customer feedback •  Sketchstorming •  What is the 1 feature customers will

remember?

!#"

Building Product Culture

Product Camp NYC, 2011 !*"

Hack days

Page 13: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  What are we working on, and why? •  What are we choosing not to pursue? •  Pre-release sharing •  Exposing decisions (teachable moments) •  Acknowledgement of success •  Brown bags

!$"

A word about transparency!

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Parallel tracking •  Product groups •  Staffing •  Knowledge transfer

!%"

Scaling Challenges

Page 14: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  It’s painful •  It’s especially hard once you’ve built a

participatory culture •  But, it matters more than anything •  Card sorting

!+"

The F word (focus)

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Product stages

Page 15: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011 !'"

Pivot: Test Prep

•  Proof of concept •  Direct to consumer •  Immediate revenue generation

Product Camp NYC, 2011 #)"

Pivot: Higher Education

•  Math Readiness, Blended Learning •  Big data •  Institutional customers •  Use of API

Page 16: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011 #("

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• Self Paced Environment

• Game-like flow dynamics

• Social learning • Personalized

UX

-$-)"+.%'/%-*&+&0'

• Atomic-concept-based learning objects

• # of practice items

• Difficulty level • Format & media • Time of day • Bite size/

Frequency • Retention

-&-/1"+,!'

• What students know

• How students learn best

• Content efficacy • Cohort analysis

-)+'

• RESTful interface

• Course creation • Personalized

recommendations

• Analytics

Pivot: Open Platform

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Which brings us to today…

Page 17: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Adaptive learning, adaptive tutoring, adaptive engagement unique lifelong learning profiles

33

Individual profile data

Learning path optimization

Network Effect

Evolutionary algorithm

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1000s data/day

Knewton platform transforms education

Combined power of millions of users

Product Camp NYC, 2011

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Knewton Adaptation

•  Knewton Knowledge Graph •  Proficiency Estimation •  Activity Selection •  Machine learning, data mining •  Delivering optimized learning

content

Page 18: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Knewton Knowledge Graph

!

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Big data meets the world’s biggest data industry

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Page 19: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011 #+"

What does it mean for students?

Product Camp NYC, 2011

•  Refuse to start running without goals; alignment may

bring conflict, but don’t avoid it

•  Transparency takes time, but matters – trains the org

•  Process should be like pajamas – on, but not tight

•  Committing to a customer-driven, iterative process is

not at odds with innovating

•  Expect that building product for scale will lead you down

a different path

•  Don’t underestimate people’s fear of shipping – but

make them do it

•  Focus is really, really hard when you work with creative,

convincing people #&"

My most important lessons

Page 20: Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote

Product Camp NYC, 2011

Brian Fitzgerald [email protected] 19 Union Square West New York, NY 10003 212-KNEWTON

thank you.