What is Product Mgmt and Why Should You Care?

By Isaac SouweineHead of Product Management @ Frank & Oak

Presented to Founder FuelFeb 26, 2014

Personal Intro● Columbia (Religion)● Scholastic● INSEAD● Yahoo● Pollenizer● Frank & Oak

Group Checkin

I. why should you care?

product managers partner with devs, design and business to bring products to market that drive business value

http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2011/10/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/

discussions of product management typically assume highly specialized organizations

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

and that diagram is a massive understatement

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BI INFCust svc Ops

HR FIN LAW M&A strat

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

the context is appropriate considering who invented product management

and who practices it at scale today

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

meanwhile, this is the context of an early stage startup

Biz co- founder

Tech co- founder

Customers

or maybe this

Biz Tech

Customers

Design

also known as

Huster Hacker

Customers

Hipster

or perhaps your hipster is more on the marketing side

Biz Tech

Customers

Mktng

whatever the case, your team is tiny.

whereas product management is about managing complex organizations.

so why should you care?

II. why you should care

market product

Early stage startups are temporary organizations in search of product/market fit

They seek product/market fit by conducting build/measure/learn cycles

market product

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MEASURE BUILD

Big company PMs are actually trying to run similar cycles

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

They just have a lot more people involved in the process

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

which means a lot more stakeholder engagement

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

and a very long and filtered learning process

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

all that complexity should not be that interesting to early stage startups

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

But the way PMs run build/measure/learn is relevant

PM

design

Eng.

MktngBD

PMO

UX

VPs

Customers

Sales

BUILD

MEASURE

LEARN

III. what is product management?

so here is a list of what these big company PMs do

● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind

+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate

you can divide the list into two areas

● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind

+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate

Build, Measure, Learn

Manage complexity

of course we care more about the stuff on the left

● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind

+ ● communicate● negotiate● motivate

Build, Measure, Learn

Manage complexity

a list which maps pretty well to the B/M/L triangle

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MEASURE BUILD

● understand● strategize

● prioritize ● specify

● analyze

● grind

understand

● know your market deeply● market size and dynamics● competitors● trends (macro and micro)● customer profiles● use cases

strategize

● craft a compelling vision● value proposition● feature set● KPIs● brand alignment● monetization● acquisition flow

prioritize

● decide what to build● ROI● technical understanding● speed vs. scale

specify

● describe what to build● user stories● wireframing● copy● edge cases● errors and help● success metrics

analyze

● understand what happened● web analytics● funnel analysis● spreadsheets● data integrity

grind

● do whatever it takes● customer engagement● qa● developer enablement● late nights and early mornings● wrangling of all kinds

there are a few paths to the product management role

● marketing > PM● engineering > PM ● UX > PM

IV. so should you have a product manager?

a lot of what PMs do is extremely relevant to early stage companies

● understand● strategize● prioritize ● specify● analyze● grind

Biz Tech

Mktng

but does that mean someone on your team should be a product manager?

Biz Tech

PM

of course the short answer is that it depends

Biz Tech

?

Pollenizer (AU) runs three person teams with a designated lean product manager. In this setup the LPM covers customer development and parts of growth.

Biz Tech

LPM

A designated PM role can also make a ton of sense for larger startup teams

Biz Tech

PM

Tech

MktngDesign

On the other hand, the marketing function can double as PM (reverse Pollenizer model)

Biz Tech

Mktng

In other cases, the business lead can share product management responsibility

Biz Tech

Mktng

Or simply owns it completely in a two person team

Biz Tech

In design heavy teams the designer can play the PM role, especially if she comes from a UX background

Biz Tech

Design

in the end, it doesn’t matter so much whether you have the formal role of PM

market product

LEARN

MEASURE BUILD

PM

what matters is that your team is set up to drive effective B/M/L cycles

market product

LEARN

MEASURE BUILD

THANK YOU!!