$30 off During Our Annual Pro Sale. View Details »

Product Management: Philosophy & Practices

Jess Martin
January 23, 2013

Product Management: Philosophy & Practices

What's product management? And what's it got to do with me? We'll talk through the basic principles behind building an unbelievably great product, and then walk through the practices we use at CloudFactory to make that happen.

Jess Martin

January 23, 2013
Tweet

More Decks by Jess Martin

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. Product Management:
    Philosophy & Practices
    Jess Martin & Kailash Badu

    View Slide

  2. What the heck is
    product management?

    View Slide

  3. Sounds BORING.

    View Slide

  4. Product management

    View Slide

  5. Product management

    View Slide

  6. Product management
    design

    View Slide

  7. Product design.
    Better.
    ...but what’s that?

    View Slide

  8. View Slide

  9. You are
    not
    Steve.

    View Slide

  10. Product design is
    PEOPLE
    PROBLEMS
    PRIORITY

    View Slide

  11. Know WHO you are
    building for.
    PEOPLE

    View Slide

  12. Know WHAT they
    need.
    PEOPLE

    View Slide

  13. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients

    View Slide

  14. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients
    Workforce

    View Slide

  15. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients
    Workforce
    Solutions
    (Production Managers)

    View Slide

  16. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients
    Workforce
    Solutions
    (Production Managers)
    Cloud Seeders

    View Slide

  17. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients
    Workforce
    Solutions
    (Production Managers)
    Cloud Seeders Data Scientists

    View Slide

  18. Lots of users @ CF...
    PEOPLE
    Clients
    Workforce
    Solutions
    (Production Managers)
    Cloud Seeders Data Scientists
    Cloud Workers

    View Slide

  19. PROBLEM
    Software exists to solve
    people's problems.

    View Slide

  20. Design focuses FIRST
    on problem definition.
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  21. PROBLEM

    View Slide

  22. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  23. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?

    View Slide

  24. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?
    It’s too slow.

    View Slide

  25. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?
    It’s too slow.
    When do you notice?

    View Slide

  26. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?
    It’s too slow.
    When do you notice?
    When I’m entering data.
    It’s really slow moving between fields.

    View Slide

  27. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?
    It’s too slow.
    When do you notice?
    When I’m entering data.
    It’s really slow moving between fields.
    Where is data coming from?

    View Slide

  28. I need a faster site.
    PROBLEM
    Why?
    It’s too slow.
    When do you notice?
    When I’m entering data.
    It’s really slow moving between fields.
    Where is data coming from?
    Excel. I copy it.

    View Slide

  29. Problem: Manually
    copying data into the
    website from Excel.
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  30. Problem: Manually
    copying data into the
    website from Excel.
    PROBLEM
    I know! CSV import!

    View Slide

  31. Not so fast...
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  32. PROBLEM

    View Slide

  33. What do you use the data for?
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  34. What do you use the data for?
    How does it get into Excel?
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  35. What do you use the data for?
    How does it get into Excel?
    Who else needs to see it?
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  36. What do you use the data for?
    How does it get into Excel?
    Who else needs to see it?
    Who else works on it?
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  37. What do you use the data for?
    How does it get into Excel?
    Who else needs to see it?
    Who else works on it?
    PROBLEM
    Why do you need the data on your site?

    View Slide

  38. What do you use the data for?
    How does it get into Excel?
    Who else needs to see it?
    Who else works on it?
    PROBLEM
    Why do you need the data on your site?
    How often do you do this import?

    View Slide

  39. Don’t jump to
    solutions too early.
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  40. Make sure you fully
    understand the problem.
    PROBLEM

    View Slide

  41. You can’t build it all.
    PRIORITY

    View Slide

  42. When to build is as
    important as what.
    PRIORITY

    View Slide

  43. Sometimes that means
    saying NO to features.
    PRIORITY

    View Slide

  44. PEOPLE
    PROBLEMS
    PRIORITY

    View Slide

  45. Getting sleepy yet?

    View Slide

  46. Thinking about the
    dal bhat you just ate?

    View Slide

  47. Who are the product
    designers at CF?

    View Slide

  48. This is not the product.

    View Slide

  49. This is not the product.

    View Slide

  50. This is not the product.

    View Slide

  51. sales process
    Cloud Worker onboarding
    character principles
    workflow engine
    worker interface
    client contracts
    Facebook app comments
    QA test plans
    server configurations
    logo
    worker payroll
    client interface
    task forms
    work accuracy
    Cloud Worker support

    View Slide

  52. sales process
    Cloud Worker onboarding
    character principles
    workflow engine
    worker interface
    client contracts
    Facebook app comments
    QA test plans
    server configurations
    logo
    worker payroll
    client interface
    task forms
    work accuracy
    Cloud Worker support
    This is the product.

    View Slide

  53. Each of you shapes the
    product every day.

    View Slide

  54. HOW?
    HOW?
    Ok...

    View Slide

  55. Let’s talk process.

    View Slide

  56. View Slide

  57. TALK to users
    #1

    View Slide

  58. TALK to users
    #1
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions
    #2

    View Slide

  59. TALK to users
    #1
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions
    #2
    DECIDE what to do
    #3

    View Slide

  60. TALK to users
    #1
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions
    #2
    DECIDE what to do
    #3
    DO (build) it
    #4

    View Slide

  61. TALK to users
    #1
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions
    #2
    DECIDE what to do
    #3
    DO (build) it
    #4
    REPEAT
    #5

    View Slide

  62. TALK to users

    View Slide

  63. Ask good questions.
    TALK to users

    View Slide

  64. TALK to users
    What do you need in order to
    accomplish your goals?
    What's painful about your
    process these days?
    When have you thought “I wish
    our product would ____”?
    Have you noticed any
    problems this week?

    View Slide

  65. Don't suggest
    solutions too early!
    LISTEN
    TALK to users

    View Slide

  66. Listening tip:
    Repeat back what they just said
    to make sure you heard correctly.
    TALK to users
    “So what I hear you saying is...”

    View Slide

  67. Use your own product.
    (eat your own dog food, or as Evan says, gourmet meal)
    TALK to users

    View Slide

  68. DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions

    View Slide

  69. Sketch.
    Wireframe.
    Discuss.
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions

    View Slide

  70. Involve the user in
    the design process.
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions
    ANYONE CAN DRAW!

    View Slide

  71. Write up your solution
    with a user story.
    DESIGN and DOCUMENT solutions

    View Slide

  72. DECIDE what to do

    View Slide

  73. Different for each
    team...
    DECIDE what to do

    View Slide

  74. Census
    John delegated to Sarwagya & Safal
    DECIDE what to do

    View Slide

  75. Platform
    Trying out a larger meeting with all
    the stakeholders....
    DECIDE what to do

    View Slide

  76. DO (build) it

    View Slide

  77. ...and finally

    View Slide

  78. REPEAT

    View Slide

  79. Talk to users.
    See if your solution
    worked.

    View Slide

  80. So...

    View Slide

  81. “I thought this presentation was
    about product management?”

    View Slide

  82. What exactly IS
    product management?

    View Slide

  83. Making sure product design gets done well
    PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

    View Slide

  84. Listen up, engineers.

    View Slide

  85. No matter how good we are at “engineering”
    we won’t succeed
    if we build
    the wrong product.

    View Slide

  86. How can we become a product-focused team?

    View Slide

  87. Understand the WHY
    as well as the WHAT.

    View Slide

  88. Design solutions rather
    than just raising issues.

    View Slide

  89. Nothing
    (or very little)
    is impossible.

    View Slide

  90. We need YOU.
    How do I become a product manager?
    • Top-notch communication skills
    • Passion for nicely designed products
    • Ability to put yourself in your user shoes and
    empathize with their needs
    • Know the industry (rivals, competing products,
    industry trends)
    • Eye for design
    • Awareness of technology
    • Creativity

    View Slide

  91. You are already a product designer.
    TAKE AWAY / HOME PACK
    You should be improving the product every day.
    Think about it: is product management for you?

    View Slide