Startup Vs. Big CompanyAccessing whether you want to be a PM

At a large or small organization

/Productschool @ProdSchool /ProductmanagementSF

Startup vs. Big Company

Shanu Trehan- Senior Product Manager,

Sephora- Worked both at startups

(Swappable, Rental Affairs, Stirring Minds) and big companies (Restoration Hardware, Sephora)

Startup vs Big Company

Assessing whether you want to be a PM at a large or small organization

Shanu G. Trehan

Guliani’s• 7yrs, Retail Diamond Jewelry & Manufacturing business, 800K Revenue during worst economic downturn

Lemon Interactive� Simplistically put a design house where I learned the ins and outs of various open

source as SaaS (Personalization & Recommendation Engines), PaaS (Gamification, Loyalty Programs) CRM’s (Salesforce, Merkle), and new mobile initiatives.

Swappable� Mobile app that allowed you to give, receive, manage, and swap gift cards

Rental Affairs• Mobile maintenance request app

Restoration Hardware• First Senior ecommerce Product Manager hired to grow the team, create

processes, manage my own product with P&L visibility.

Sephora• Own the Loyalty Platform: Beauty Insider, manage, hire, and mentor a team

Startup vs Big Company

Assessing whether you want to be a PM at a large or small organization

Shanu G. Trehan

Agenda� Introduction

� Marshmallow Challenge

� Ted Video Snip-it

� Analyze/Relate the Marshmallow Challenge with Questions From Audience

� Similar Pattern: Small vs Big

� Start-Up Pros & Cons

� Corporate Pros & Cons

� QA

The Marshmallow Challenge

Group Size:

No more than 3-5 people to a group

Time:

• 5 minutes of introductions within group

• 18 minute activity

• 5 minute video

• Discussions

The Marshmallow ChallengeMaterials:

Tape, String, 20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti, 1 marshmallow, Scissors for sharing

Activity:

� Divide groups into teams of 3-5

� Each team to receive the materials and location of “scissors to share”

� Each team has 18 minutes to build the tallest, free-standing structure using the materials supplied to each group. The marshmallow must be attached to the top of the structure you build. After 18 minutes, I will measure the height of each structure that remains standing with the marshmallow on top. The winner is the team whose free-standing structure is the tallest

� I will give you all a 1 minute warning. Reminder: the marshmallow must be on the top of the structure, and that the structure itself must be free-standing when the activity concludes. Questions?

11

TED: Marshmallow Challenge

Takeaways & the ComparisonTakeaways

� A simple team-building exercise

� What makes for the most successful teams hopefully surprised youo Design truly is a contact sport o It demands that we bring all of our senses to the job, and that

we apply the very best of our thinking, our feeling and our doing to the challenge that we have at hand

Why I chose this exercise?

� What startups can take away from the MC is that bigger teams and higher incentives are no substitute for having the right skillsand the right process in place.

� Wujec found that larger teams performed increasing worse than smaller teams, and incentivizing them with a reward did not make up for the fact that they were not using the right process.

The PatternAsk product managers in large companies about their frustrations and challenges, and they complain about:

v too many processes

v too many checkpoints and people involved in decisions

v poorly defined roles

v too much to do

v too much time spent on current “legacy” customers

v too much focus on new “cool” technology, and no time for strategic planning

Ask product managers in start-up companies, and they complain about:

v the lack of defined processes, checkpoints, and roles

v their feeling of being buried

v lack of customers and a regular revenue stream

v too much focus on new “cool” technology, and no time for strategic planning

But, the grass isn’t always greener in a startup

Size Agnostic: PM Processes/ResponsibilitiesCorporate:

• Define the roadmap for your area/assigned product

• Ensure roadmap meets goals/objectives of company

• Responsible for prioritization of roadmap and that there are clear specifications

• Work closely with team that builds (engineering), designs (UX/UI), and launches; as well as key stakeholders in the company

• You will iterate to get desired quality while working collaboratively

Startup:

• Fundamentals remain the sameo PM could be the CEO as company

grows CEO shifts into their role and hires a true PM

• Might have to be a “jack of all trades”

o Ex: User research yourself

• Flexibilityo Ex: Ever changing roadmap

• More time doing the worko Ex: Less territory wars, or

evangelizing your team, etc

Same Pattern & Process: Why so different?

A startup is building a product as their lifeblood

An established company is building products under the claim that the new product will not make or break the company

In my opinion; neither a startup nor an established company is a scaled version of the other. But instead, the entire ideology behind building products is distinct to each; therefore each has has its own “product management style/feel”

The Ideology Behind the Two

Start-Ups: The Pros� Momentum/Urgency

o Essential operating with a gun to their heado Want to make products quickly, so they can measure and adapt

� Responsibility, accountability, impacto Put in a position to make a huge impacto If you do amazing work; entire company and all of its customers will benefit from it. You’ll

be loved for it.

� Ownership & Leadershipo High visibility; if you’re awesome you’ll be able to grow and move up in your career far

faster. Your career will be accelerated in a major way by joining a startup.o (BC-Years and years to become a leader with big ownership); hierarchy

� Communication directly with customers & Transparencyo Closer to the customer, quicker insightso Customers can provide support but more importantly to solicit feedbacko One goal, one mission, fewer layers

� Be a part of something bigger than youo Making something from nothing, with people who are in it for the same reasons you areo Might become something big, something meaningful and different. Excitement is

amazingly powerfulo Idea to reality, thinking outside the box, breaking boundaries

Start-Ups: The Cons� Multi-tasking, Jack of all Trades, Many Hats

o Room for few Specialists: Don’t need you to be really, really good at that little thing you spend all your time on

� Being a creative, innovative force inside the orgo Your it! Can’t learn from others in the company

� Comfort with rapid failureo Can’t be afraid to failo Failing is a way to learn

� Decisions made on conserving/growing capitalo Minimum quality control, ex Swappable: X Amount Fraudo Release earlier with fewer features than they are comfortable with

� Lack of Resources, Time Commitment, Little to no Work-Life Balanceo Cash constrained resourceso Operating with a gun to your head (aka pressure)

� Risko Financial or career risk is debatable; just ask anyone who’s been laid off from a

large company

Big Company: The Pros� Repeatable Products, Revenue, and Profits

o Significant resources to launch complete products in large markets

o No one losing job if a product fails

� Financial Incentiveso You: Base pay highero Company: Making money

� Securityo Pretty damn hard to get fired if your doing your job

� Your not aloneo Team of product managers from whom a new person could learn

� Success of your product is clearly defined and agreed upon by others before you even hear of the projecto Growing what is already successful

o Brand Prestige

Big Company: The Cons� Government/ “VP” Regulation

o Hire Smart People yet their telling them what to do every minute

� Politics, Layers of Decision Makers, & Red Tapeo Need approval for everything b/c your executing someone else’s plan

� Comfort with slow, often frustrating, progresso Don’t iterate continuously

� Creativity Killers

� Earn Authority and Lead by Influenceo Product managers are usually leaders in their organizations. But they typically

don’t have direct line authority over others.

� Presentationso Decks

QA

Can you blaze new trails, or do you like a well-worn and defined path?

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