Product Teams

This talk was presented on October 11th 2017 at UC Berkeley for the Valley Consulting Group.

Transcript

1. Product Teams October 11th 2017 | UC Berkeley @dasmersingh
2. June 2013
3. August 2013
4. Timeline into Technology Graduated from Columbia Engineering Started at JP Morgan Left JP Morgan Learned iOS Development + Released 6 apps in the App Store Started as an iOS Engineer at Venmo May 2013 June 2013 August 2013 February 2014
5. My Background (at Venmo) iOS Engineer February 2014 July 2016 Product Manager January 2016 Strategy Associate September 2017 Moved on to GSB
6. Takeaways • Keep an open mind about your career • Trust your gut • You never know what skills will come in handy • Invest in learning about different careers and industries ◦ Intern ◦ Attend career panels and talks like this
7. Today’s Agenda 1) Roles: What positions makes up a product team? 2) Process: How does a product team collaborate on a project? 3) Hired: How can you land a PM Job?
8. Today’s Agenda 1) Roles: What positions makes up a product team? 2) Process: How does a product team collaborate on a project? 3) Hired: How can you land a PM Job?
9. Roles: What positions make up a product team? • Product Manager • Data Analyst • Designer • Engineer • Quality Assurance Engineer • User Tester
10. Responsibilities of a Product Manager • Assessing product opportunities • Defining requirements • Validating the product with real customers ROLES
11. Responsibilities of a Data Analyst • Providing data to support or reject potential projects • Establishing KPI’s • Designing A/B tests • Analyzing test results to make recommendations ROLES
12. Responsibilities of a Designer • Creating what you see in the product • Developing a deep understanding of the target users and personas • Rapid Prototyping ROLES
13. Responsibilities of an Engineer • Providing feasibility estimates • Writing production code • Testing production code • Reviewing code written by peers ROLES
14. Responsibilities of a QA Engineer • Writing and executing manual test cases • Coding automated tests • Logging bugs ROLES
15. Responsibilities of a User Tester • Recruiting test subjects • Evaluating results and recommending alternatives ROLES
16. Today’s Agenda 1) Roles: What positions makes up a product team? 2) Process: How does a product team collaborate on a project? 3) Hired: How can you land a PM Job?
17. Process: How does a product team collaborate on a project? 1. Write a narrative 2. Share and get feedback 3. Flesh out the narrative 4. Kickoff Project 5. Create Product Spec Tickets 6. Execute 7. Celebrate 8. Test & Measure Impact
18. Write a narrative • Outlines the problem being solved • Every major feature idea has one • Used by all stakeholders PROCESS
19. Components of a Narrative • Problem • Context • Goals • Milestones • Metrics • Potential Pitfalls • Open Questions PROCESS
20. Share and get feedback • User test and gather data to verify the problem • Have stakeholders identify issues and opportunities • Confirm metrics with leadership PROCESS
21. • A meeting with everyone working on the project. All members should have reviewed the narrative beforehand • 2-3 weeks before coding is anticipated • Goal to arrive at shared context and agreement on product team Kickoff PROCESS
22. • Detailed building blocks of work • Tickets should be separate for each platform Product Specification Tickets PROCESS
23. • Summary • Assignee • Priority • Due Date • Description • Component • Points Fields in a Ticket PROCESS
24. • Stands (daily) • Sprint Planning (sprintly) • Retro (every few weeks) Execute in (1-2 week) Sprints PROCESS
25. • Ship to a small cohort • Wait for a larger enough event sample • Measure KPI’s • Decide whether to ramp to 100% or pivot Test & Measure Impact PROCESS
26. Today’s Agenda 1) Roles: What positions makes up a product team? 2) Process: How does a product team collaborate on a project? 3) Hired: How can you land a PM Job?
27. Hired: How can you land a PM Job? • Practice writing product specifications ◦ For your own idea ◦ Ideas on dribbble.com • Run with an idea and start a side-project (or join one) • Learn to use basic event tracking software • Take an intro computer science and / or UX class • Read, Listen, Watch Tech Media
28. Recommended Books • “Inspired” by Marty Cagan • “Sprint” by Jake Knapp • “The Lean Startup” by Eric Reis • “Hooked” By Nir Eyal • “How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff
29. Recommended Blogs • blog.trello.com • blog.mixpanel.com
30. Recommended WWDC Videos
31. End
32. What Questions Do You Have?
33. Appendix
34. Some of the products I built at Venmo BLE Nearby Mentions Touch ID Emoji Autocomplete
35. May 2013