The Workflows of Product Management

Presented at the Flatiron School in New York on Thursday June 1st.

Transcript

1. The Workflows of Product Management Dasmer Singh, Product Manager at Venmo Twitter: @dasmersingh
2. My Background: Timeline iOS Engineer February 2014 July 2016 Product Manager January 2016 Strategy Associate Graduate of first Flatiron iOS class December 2013
3. My Background: Features Built at Venmo
4. My Background: Timeline iOS Engineer February 2014 July 2016 Product Manager January 2016 Strategy Associate Graduate of first Flatiron iOS class December 2013
5. Agenda • Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team • Projects: What Venmo Product works on • Process: How ideas come to life • Transitioning: How to change roles at a technology company
6. Agenda • Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team • Projects: What Venmo Product works on • Process: How ideas come to life • Transitioning: How to change roles at a technology company
7. • Product Manager • Engineer • Designer • Marketer • User Tester • QA Engineer Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team
8. • Assessing product opportunities • Defining the product requirements and user experience design that describe the project to be built • Validating the product to be built with real customers and users Responsibilities of a Product Manager Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team
9. • Providing feasibility estimates during product exploration • Writing production code • Testing production code • Reviewing code written by peers Responsibilities of an Engineer Roles on a Product Team
10. Responsibilities of A Designer Roles on a Product Team • Creating the actual views and UI look and feel, including layout, colors and fonts • Coming up with tasks, navigation, and flow that are both usable and productive • Developing a deep understanding of the target users and personas • Rapid Prototyping
11. • Telling the world about the product, including positioning, messaging, and pricing • Managing the external facing product launch • Leading key influencer programs and marketing campaigns Responsibilities of A Marketer Roles on a Product Team
12. • Recruiting test subjects • Evaluating results • Recommending Alternatives Responsibilities of A User Tester Roles on a Product Team
13. • Writing and executing manual test cases • Coding automated tests • Logging bugs Responsibilities of A Quality Assurance Roles on a Product Team
14. Agenda • Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team • Projects: What Venmo Product works on • Process: How ideas come to life • Transitioning: How to change roles at a technology company
15. Venmo Product Team Projects • Building Features • Creating Enhancements • Decreasing Tech Debt • Fixing Bugs
16. • One or more weeks of work for a team • Helps Venmo accomplish a core objective Features Tasks Of The Venmo Product Team
17. • Usually less than one week of work of work for a team • An improvement to Venmo product functionality Enhancements Tasks Of The Venmo Product Team
18. • A code refactor or improvement • Improves availability, performance and / or scalability Tech Debt Tasks Of The Venmo Product Team
19. • When product functionality is not working as expected • Usually less than one week of work of work for one engineer • When a bug is time sensitive and unplanned it is called and interruption. Bugs Tasks Of The Venmo Product Team
20. Agenda • Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team • Projects: What Venmo Product works on • Process: How ideas come to life • Transitioning: How to change roles at a technology company
21. Process: How ideas come to life 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. Measure Impact
22. • Outlines the problem being solved • Every major feature has one • Used by all stakeholders Write a narrative Process: How ideas come to life
23. • Problem • Context • Goals • Milestones • Metrics • Potential Pitfalls • Open Questions Components of a narrative Process: How ideas come to life
24. • User test to verify the problem • Have stakeholders identify issues and opportunities • Confirm metrics with leadership Share and get feedback Process: How ideas come to life
25. • A meeting with everyone working on the project • 2-3 weeks before coding is anticipated • All members should have reviewed the narrative beforehand What is A Kickoff? Process: How ideas come to life
26. • Shared understanding of goals • Brainstorm implementation approaches • Design work is outlined • Agreement on an approach + solution • Identify engineering leads Kickoff Outputs Process: How ideas come to life
27. • Detailed building blocks of work • Tickets should be separate for each platform What are Product Specification Tickets Process: How ideas come to life
28. • Summary • Assignee • Priority • Due Date • Description • Component • Points Fields in A Ticket Process: How ideas come to life
29. • Context • Opportunity • Acceptance Criteria Content of A Ticket Description Process: How ideas come to life
30. • Stands (daily) • Pre-sprint planning • Sprint Planning • Retro (every few weeks) Execute in (1-2 week) Sprints Process: How ideas come to life
31. Celebrate Process: How ideas come to life
32. • What was the impact? • Was the feature successful as defined by metrics? • What do the metrics tell us about how we need to iterate? Measure Impact Process: How ideas come to life
33. Agenda • Roles: Who makes up the Venmo Product team • Projects: What Venmo Product works on • Process: How ideas come to life • Transitioning: How to change roles at a technology company
34. How to transition roles at a technology company 1. Excel in your current role
35. 2. Take on responsibilities of the role you want to assume to the extent you can How to transition roles at a technology company
36. 3. Communicate your desire to change roles to the team you want to switch to How to transition roles at a technology company
37. Q&A @dasmersingh