PRODUCT MANAGEMENT 101 #1 How To Create Products Customers LVE Jean-Yves SIMON @jysim0n http://fr.linkedin.com/in/jysim0n

What I have observed in many companies

Everybodys got a strategy until they get hit. Mike Tyson

No Thanks! We are too busy People too busy to improve Want some help?

People Firefighting leave that job to professionals (especially Product Managers) Based on an idea from Pragmatic Marketi

1. Intro 2. Why do companies need ProductManagement? 3. The Origins of Product Management4. Product Manager: an unrecognised role5. Where do they belong in the Organisation?6. (Re)defining the Role of the Product Manager7. Methodologies to create great Products Agenda

Its Quizz time!

Which of the following is an effective source of Ideas? A: R&D department D: Users of the productsC: Customer complaints B: Competitors Products

All of the above! Which of the following is an effective source of Ideas? A: R&D department D: Users of the productsC: Customer complaints B: Competitors Products

Why do companies need Product Management?

Is this Why Companies Need Product Management?

Feature, feature, feature

Well actually, Product management may be the one job that the organization would get along fine without (at least for a good while), right?

Without engineers, nothing would get built.

Without sales people, nothing is sold.

But in a world without Product Managers, others simply fill in the gap and go on with their lives.

However, when there is a great product management function, it usually makes the difference between winning and losing.

Lets see one example

Your task is to Design me a Pen Tell me what you would do?

A pen can be A permanent marker A pen for astronauts to use in space A pen for children to use in the bath A pen for scuba divers

Everyone of us would need and design a very different pen

Thats one case where you need a Product Manager

Product Management is there to avoid this Source: http://www.projectcartoon.com

The Origins of Product Management

There is no School of Product Management*. People actually evolve into this role. * Or no school where technology product management is taught in Europe, maybe US...

Back in the Days

Source: The Origins of Product Management, onproductmanagement.net - 2010 1930 - Procter & Gamble P&G Neil McElroy creates a role called Brand Man for the Camay Soap product The origins of Product Management go back to the 1930s at P&G 1981 Intuit Scott Cook, a former P&G brand man, applies brand management principles to software products at Intuit to develop Quicken. Technology product management was born. 1991 Harvard Business Review In his article Marketing is Everything, Technology marketing guru Regis McKenna described the changes that technology was bringing to the marketing profession. This new marketing described core aspects of Product Management. 2001 Manifesto for Agile Software Development Changed the way software was being built. Birth of the Product Owner Role 2011 Lean Startup Eric Ries combined validated learning methods for developing businesses and products.

Product Manager: an Unrecognised Role

Every company has its own definition for Product Manager.

Example of a Product Manager LinkedIn Job Ad, July 2014 56 responsibilities! Among which: Coordinate crisis activities in case of escalation. Provide all useful product documentation. Conduct internal and/or customer training as needed. Contribute to RFPs as requested. Support the Delivery organization on key customer engagements. Write High-level Statement of Requirements and develop product plans that identify key market requirements. Monitor customer satisfaction. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/17521694

This company is looking for a Swiss army knife, not a Product Manager. This position is surely set for failure.

So why should Sales sell, developers code, and Product Managers be the Jack of all Trades, Master of none?

(Re)defining the Role of the Product Manager

The Product Managers Mission is to

Deliver measurable business results through product features and solutions that meet both market needs and company goals. Source: http://onproductmanagement.net/2011/03/21/differentiated-pm-roles/

Key Activities of Product Managers

Product Manager Key Activities Business Focuses on maximizing business value from his product Obsessed with optimizing his product to achieve the business goals Cares on maximizing the ROI User experience Is the voice of the user inside the business Must be passionate about the user experience. Has to be out there testing the product continuously, talking to users and getting feedback Technology Understands the level of effort involved to make the right decisions Spends time day to day with the development team

Pragmatic Marketing Framework: A market-driven model for managing and marketing technology products Pricing Buy, Build or Partner Product Portfolio Business Case Buying Process Product Profitability Buyer Personas Market Definition Marketing Plan User Personas Customer Acquisition Win/Loss Analysis Distinctive Competence Market Problems Distribution Strategy Customer Retention Positioning Program Effectiveness Lead Generation Use Scenarios Innovation Thought Leadership Presentations & Demos Product Roadmap Channel Training Event Support Sales Process Collateral Sales Tools Requirements Special Calls Status Dashboard Channel Support Technology Assessment Competitive Landscape Referrals & References Launch Plan MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMSPLANNINGFOCUS SUPPORTREADINESS Strategic Tactical Different activities, different profiles, different titles Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

Pragmatic Marketing Framework: A market-driven model for managing and marketing technology products Pricing Buy, Build or Partner Product Portfolio Business Case Buying Process Product Profitability Buyer Personas Market Definition Marketing Plan User Personas Customer Acquisition Win/Loss Analysis Distinctive Competence Market Problems Distribution Strategy Customer Retention Positioning Program Effectiveness Lead Generation Use Scenarios Innovation Thought Leadership Presentations & Demos Product Roadmap Channel Training Event Support Sales Process Collateral Sales Tools Requirements Special Calls Status Dashboard Channel Support Technology Assessment Competitive Landscape Referrals & References Launch Plan MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMSPLANNINGFOCUS SUPPORTREADINESS Strategic Tactical STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES Titles: Product Manager, Director Product Strategy, Product Line Manager TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Titles: Product Owner, Technical Product Manager, Program Manager, Business Analyst MARKETING ACTIVITIES Product Marketing Manager, Sales Enablement Different activities, different profiles, different titles Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

Pragmatic Marketing Framework: A market-driven model for managing and marketing technology products Pricing Buy, Build or Partner Product Portfolio Business Case Buying Process Product Profitability Buyer Personas Market Definition Marketing Plan User Personas Customer Acquisition Win/Loss Analysis Distinctive Competence Market Problems Distribution Strategy Customer Retention Positioning Program Effectiveness Lead Generation Use Scenarios Innovation Thought Leadership Presentations & Demos Product Roadmap Channel Training Event Support Sales Process Collateral Sales Tools Requirements Special Calls Status Dashboard Channel Support Technology Assessment Competitive Landscape Referrals & References Launch Plan MARKET BUSINESS PROGRAMSPLANNINGFOCUS SUPPORTREADINESS Strategic Tactical Product Manager Product Marketer Role split in medium-sized organisations Source: pragmaticmarketing.com

The pilars of a successful Product Manager

their productProduct Managers

Product Managers Lead through Influence Well, maybe not this type of influence

Its more this type of influence J Source: http://www.targetprocess.com/ Developer Programming Skill Blood Alcohol Concentration (%)

Product Managers are the Voice of the Customer

Product Managers are accountable for Measuring & Communicating Progress & Success Key Performance Indicators Product adoption & Usage metrics ROI & P&L metrics Feature Team Scorecard What gets measured gets done

Why measure?

Data beats opinion- Google

Product Managers do Plant Seeds To Infuse Ideas with their Stakeholders Work with stakeholders until they know the story so well they are constantly telling and retelling it themselves. - Dane Howard, eBay

PMs Create Products Customers LVE

And Want To u!

The B.O.S.S. Product Manager

Runs the product like a Business Has an Outside-In approach Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How) The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Runs the product like a Business Opportunity Assessment Build, buy or partner? Measures investment ROI Defined & Follows adoption KPIs Continuous optimization Has an Outside-In approach Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Runs the product like a Business Has an Outside-In approach Meets with Customers and prospects weekly Is the voice of the customer Brings the customer into the company Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How) The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Runs the product like a Business Has an Outside-In approach Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders Communicates progress & KPIs regularly, Include them in discovery phase Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How) The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Runs the product like a Business Has an Outside-In approach Engages & communicates with his Stakeholders Focuses on Strategic (What) rather than Tactical/Technical (How) Systematic discovery process, Competition & Market analysis, Roadmap, Product canvas The B.O.S.S Product Manager

Where do Product Managers belong in Organisations?

Product Managers Wear Many Hats FinanceTechnical Engineering MarketingBusiness And too oftenFirefighter

They generally report to the CTO or the CMO in most technology companies

Recently, especially in Tech companies, weve seen the rise of a Product function reporting directly to the CEO.

The Chief Product Officer

But whether they report to Marketing, Customer Success or R&D, Product Managers will always be driven by the departments objectives.

Methodologies To Create Great Products

Working in Feature or Pizza Teams If you can't feed a team with two pizzas, it's too large. - Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

Gathering Developers + Product Managers in Feature Teams

A typical Feature Team Core Feature Team User Experience Product Owner Product Manager Scrum Master Sr Dev Lead Developers UI+Back-end QA Analyst IT Ops Engineer Can be external shared

A typical Feature Team Core Feature Team Core Feature Team User Experience Product Owner Product Manager Scrum Master Sr Dev Lead Developers UI+Back-end QA Analyst IT Ops Engineer Extended Feature Team Product Marketing Software Architect Program or Delivery Manager Other Feature team members The Extended feature team is made up of teams who are involved at a given point in the definition, development or delivery process.

The Agile process was conceived as a development methodology.

Get it on READY to MARKET Ideate Get it PRIORITIZED Get it DEFINED with Customers Get it DONE w/ Agile Get it TESTED & VALIDATED Product backlog BUSINESS GOALS PRIORITY1 2 3 . . . . 10 TODO DONE 2 weeks Scrum Team Product, UX, Dev, QA, Ops Testing Team Internal test Pilot Customers Customer Discovery Team Product Manager User Experience VALUE Prototypes MVP Interaction designs visual designs Sprint backlog User stories Opportunity Assessment Go-to-market Plan Launch Plan User Doc, Marketing Materials Product steering committee Product managers, Stakeholders Marketing Teams MarCom/PMM Test Plans Pilot dashboard Product Delivery Chain All Iterations OwnersSupporting Documents

In Agile, PMs do things a little differently

Agile changed Collaboration Before After COLLABORATION REQUIREMENTS DEVELOPMENT DEPLOYMENT Feature Teams use Sprint to manage projects. Thee Product Owner is the voice of the customer. Up-front work to create a vision that describes what the product will roughly look like and do. Prototypes is the new Specification. Demos and retrospective bring continuous improvement and accountability with Developers Deployment is effortless enabling user feedback to be gathered instantly Source: Mendix.com Several roles. Teams were unable to collaborate effectively, resulting in frustration and miscommunication Extensive market research, product planning, and business analysis are carried out up front. Development is a black box, lots of uncertainty due to miscommunication of the heavy specs Deployment became a project in itself, requiring time and effort that stifled project flexibility Months Days prototype ?

but Agile is really just one part of a Product Managers job.

Agile doesnt guarantee that youre building the right thing

To build the right thing, there are methods

Lean Product Management http://ueberproduct.de/seminar/kanban-fuer-lean-product-management/

INNOVATION GAMES Use Innovation games in Workshops, product councils, steering committees. Makes it fun and engaging and ensures there is a deliverable at the end of the session.

INNOVATION GAME: Buy-a-feature Game: 24 cards (features) Each feature has a price from 15 to 130 credits Each participant is given 100 credits Objective Define Minimum Viable Product Roadmap prioritization

Lean Startup: Dont be perfect, but try and fail fast

Lean Startup: Build > Measure > Learn

The Minimum Viable Product VIABLEMINIMUM SWEET SPOT Weak products no one wants to use Products built by companies with more money to spend Good products that solve the problem and that users can use

Questions?

FEEDBACK? @jysimon