Roles of a PM in a fast-shipping startup

In this presentation, I shared my personal experience to shift my career from software development to product management. I tried to explain in which conditions a developer might be a good fit for product management. Then, I talked about "jobs to be done" approach to product management which I think is the most efficient and fast way of building up a product from scratch. I then compared my personal experience in three different types of company in which I worked as a PM.

Transcript

1. www.productschool.com Part-time online Product Management courses and Corporate Training
2. +10,000 alumni graduated worldwide
3. COURSES Product Management Learn the skills you need to land a product manager job
4. COURSES Corporate Training Level up your team’s product management skills
5. Emrah Şamdan TONIGHT’S SPEAKER
6. Roles of a PM in a fast-shipping start-up Emrah Şamdan @emrahsamdan
7. Who am I? • METU CENG, Bilkent MBA Alumni • Developer @Tubitak,Arcelik, TCMB • PM @Comodo, OpsGenie, Thundra • Organizing committee of Serverless Turkey
8. Today’s agenda • Motivations to become a PM for a software developer • Real story: What I do at Thundra? • How it differs to be a PM in different sized companies? ◦ Comodo (International corporation) ◦ OpsGenie (Grown-up startup) ◦ Thundra (Baby company)
9. https://slideplayer.com/slide/3200519/11/images/3/What+Does+A+Product+Manager+Do.jpg What Does A Product Manager Do? No, seriously. What does a product manager actually do?
10. https://image.slidesharecdn.com/what-does-a-product-manager-do-sandeep-grover-feb-2016-160215213741/95/what-d oes-a-product-manager-do-5-638.jpg?cb=1455572384
11. https://brainmates.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/What-does-a-Product-Manager-d o.jpg
12. Why did I decide to be a PM as a developer? • Will I be able to catch up with the trending technology as a developer? • Will there be a job for me when I’m 40? • So, I’m making an MBA, I should manage something, right? • I would manage this “project” if I were to manage so I can manage some other things. • How different it can be from project management after all?
14. You should think to become PM, if • You naturally can think about the values that you can provide the customers. • You sometimes find yourself dreaming what would you do if you were the customer facing with the bug you just created. • You feel excited to tell about the project/product that you are in. • You understand what modules can be brought together to bring a value.
15. Thundra: A remarkable story.
16. What I do in Thundra?
17. Briefly • Project Manager • Sales Manager • HR • Customer Success • Technical Writer • Product Marketing Manager • QA • Booth person And yes, Product Manager.
19. The trick is • Don’t try to do everything yourself. ◦ Ask for help of developers. They are friends. Sometimes.. • Motivate the team that you are startup • Keep the team updated with the long term and short term objectives • Talk about the competition, talk it, a lot! • Full dedication!
20. How do I spend a day at Thundra? • Create requirements • Get it done • Promote it like there is no tomorrow
21. A life saver for a startup PM: Jobs to be Done • Products are not bought by specific sets of people but can be hired for a specific job by many different types of people. • Motivate on struggles rather than needs ◦ Start from need because people tend to talk about need naturally ◦ Question the need, dig into pain points. ◦ Propose alternative cures to the pains. ◦ Find the best cure that pays off. Go back to step 1 or 2 a)
24. Intercom Example
25. How to apply this to Thundra? • Struggles: ◦ Can’t dig into CW logs easily ◦ Can’t aggregate the logs and traces ◦ Can’t understand the performance problems. ◦ Can’t trace an event all the way between nanoservices ◦ Can’t detect the bottlenecks in the architecture easily. ◦ Can’t get preemptively warned about the issues in my serverless stack. ◦ Can’t configure alarms for my SLAs with specific set of customers.
26. • International Company • Trying to build the next big thing • Communication Barrier • Conflict of Interests • Process Oriented • Great school of product engineering relation • International company • Strong follower to beat the first • Team spirit • Result oriented • Great school of product market relation • Trying to be international company. • Small company. Hot technology. A lot higher personal reputation. • Team spirit FTW • Competition and customer oriented. • Great school of entrepreneurship
27. How to develop features • Competition, customer tickets, sales prospects • Mockups, wireframes • Use cases • Flexible prioritization • QA Check • Marketing Demo in the time of release • Competition, team using product, customer research • Simple mock-up, include UX early, technical feasibility discussion. • Rigid prioritization • Last checks • Weekly Sync with Marketing team • Competition, team using product, customer research • Simple mock-up, communication with devs and go! • Very flexible prioritization • Work as QA • Be a member of Marketing Team
28. How to interact with executives • Indirect communication • Unperiodic meetings • No visibility over budgets or executive level targets • Direct communication • Periodic meetings about roadmap • Full visibility and inclusion on the company level yearly quarterly targets • Oops.. • Talk every single day about the roadmap and the things that we’ll achieve together. • Full visibility
29. Thanks! We’re hiring devs. Hit emrah@thundra.io with your CV!
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31. MORE INFO To find out more about the courses visit our website www.productschool.com