Christine Itwaru - Embracing Product Operations

Transcript

1. as the product management landscape matures
   Embracing Product Operations
   CHRISTINE ITWARU, PRINCIPAL STRATEGIST AT PENDO
   

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2. Do you know what Product Operations is?
   

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3. Who here has product operations
   in their organization?
   

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4. A look at the person in front of you:
   Background
   
   
   • NYC born and raised
   
   
   • St. Johns University
   
   
   • Services —> Finance —> Fintech —> SaaS
   Passion:
   
   
   • Strong Healthy Teams & Collaboration
   
   
   • Identifying Problems
   
   
   • Connecting People & Connecting the Dots
   
   
   

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5. Holtz/
   
   
   Baker Tilly
   Marketing Coord
   
   
   Biz Dev
   Self
   Event Planning /
   
   
   Arts
   *PMM*
   
   
   Product
   
   
   Management
   
   
   Management
   PM
   
   
   Management
   
   
   Strategy
   PM
   
   
   Management
   
   
   Product Ops
   
   
   Strategy
   Professional Path:
   

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6. Associate Product Manager
   
   
   Product Owner
   Product Manager
   Senior Product Manager
   Lead Product Manager
   Principal Product Manager
   
   
   Distinguished Product Manager
   Group Product Manager
   Dir/Sr. Director of Product Management
   VP/SVP of Product Management
   Chief Product Of
   fi
   cer
   Individual Contributor
   Leadership
   

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7. UX Research Designer Analytics Engineer
   Empathy
   
   
   Curiosity
   
   
   Customer Experience
   
   
   Data Driven
   Empathy
   
   
   Customer Experience
   
   
   Data Driven
   
   
   Business Outcome
   
   
   Customer Experience
   
   
   Curiosity
   
   
   

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8. -business landscapes change
   -opportunities arise
   -we evolve
   

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10. Becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or
    achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as
    forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to
    reach continuously toward a better self.
    The journey doesn't end.
    Michelle Obama
    

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11. The same holds true for
    product management
    

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13. 1930’s
    P&G Call for Brand Men
    Free up time for Sales
    1940’s
    HP follows
    Focuses on PMs getting
    
    
    closer to Customer
    1950’s
    Toyota & Kaizen
    Continues development
    
    
    Center around customer
    

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14. 1960’s
    Rise of brand management
    Emotional Attachments
    
    
    & Sentiment matter
    1970’s
    PM & PMM split
    Separate focus on build
    
    
    vs. marketing activity
    1980’s
    Software at Home
    Increasing presence in home
    
    
    Closer to customer
    

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15. 1990’s
    PM & Engineer Split
    Increased focus for PM
    
    
    On customer engagement
    2000’s
    Agile & Cloud
    Depart from waterfall
    
    
    Move to incremental delivery
    2010’s
    Data-driven Product Team
    CPO rises
    
    
    PM gains seat at the table
    

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16. Consistent need: Product Managers
    must spend their time and energy with:
    Customers
    
    
    Engineers
    
    
    Stakeholders
    

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17. State of Product: Last 5-10 years
    Digital transformation efforts
    
    
    Increased pressure and focus on business metrics
    
    
    Transparency is critical
    
    
    Increased competition
    
    
    Qualitative and quantitative data overload
    
    
    Remote working
    
    
    Product-led growth
    
    
    Macroeconomic conditions - focus on ef
    fi
    ciency
    

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18. So they ended up taking on more work…
    RESEARCHER
    TECH WRITER
    ANALYTICS GURU ENABLEMENT
    MANAGER
    VOICE OF
    CUSTOMER
    MANAGER
    HERO ON THE
    DEAL
    BETA AND
    RELEASE
    MANAGER
    DESIGNER
    GROWTH EXPERT
    PROJECT
    MANAGER
    PROGRAM
    MANAGER
    PRODUCT
    MARKETING
    MANAGER
    

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19. …and burnout is real
    

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22. Burnout attributed to the following:
    Lack of autonomy
    
    
    Insuf
    fi
    cient reward
    
    
    Lack of fairness
    
    
    Breakdown of community
    
    
    Value con
    fl
    ict
    
    
    Unmanageable workload
    

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23. A storm of change has brought on
    Product Operations
    

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24. UX Research Designer Analytics Engineer
    Empathy
    
    
    Curiosity
    
    
    Customer Experience
    
    
    Data Driven
    Empathy
    
    
    Customer Experience
    
    
    Data Driven
    
    
    Business Outcome
    
    
    Customer Experience
    
    
    Curiosity
    
    
    Product Ops
    Transparency
    
    
    Empathy
    
    
    Data Driven
    
    
    Customer Experience
    
    
    

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25. What is Product Operations?
    

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26. 1. it’s a thing we’ve always done
    It’s systems we’ve created in some form for the Product Manager and the Product Team to
    work in
    It’s usually shared work across different individuals on the Product Team, who are first and
    foremost responsible for delivering product that solves customer pain and drives business
    outcomes
    

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27. 2. human(s) who create the system
    and focus on internal and external outcomes
    They’re strong partner(s) to the PM
    They’re advisors to product leadership
    They’re focused on enabling outcomes through a strong system for the PM
    

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28. Product ops is about
    setting up a system in
    the product organization
    to get the right data —
    both quantitative and
    qualitative — from the
    right places into the
    process for creating better
    products.
    I de
    fi
    ne product ops as
    building the connective
    tissue between the
    teams building your
    technology and the
    teams who interact with
    your users.
    If you’re building an audio
    system and the volume
    knob is the product, then
    the equalizer settings are
    the product ops
    function. You can turn up
    the volume, but the
    settings — the tweaks, the
    con
    fi
    gurations needed for
    that perfect product
    experience — is what I
    de
    fi
    ne as product ops.
    Melissa Perri, Founder
    Blake Samic, former Head of Product Ops
    Varun Ramamurthy Dinakur, Founder & CEO
    
    
    

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29. What do people in the role do?
    

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30. Common Focus Areas
    Transparency & Alignment
    
    
    Beta & Release Management
    
    
    Planning
    
    
    Internal Readiness
    Systems & Tools
    
    
    PM Toolstack management
    
    
    Systems integrations
    
    
    Education & Docs
    
    
    Technical Documentation
    
    
    In-app messaging strategy
    Data Management
    
    
    Standards for releases &
    measuring adoption/
    retention
    
    
    Voice of Customer programs
    General Ops
    
    
    Product provisioning
    
    
    Customer issue and incident
    management
    

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31. Different needs for
    different businesses
    

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32. Common Pain - Early/Mid - Tech
    Reporting & Communication
    
    
    Enablement
    
    
    Planning
    
    
    Data Collection
    
    
    Content & Education
    
    
    Systems Integrations
    
    
    

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33. Common Pain - Older/Mature - Non-Tech
    Coaching & Development
    
    
    Best Practices & Centers of Excellence
    
    
    Data Management
    
    
    Content & Education
    
    
    Tools & Systems Management
    
    
    Digital Transformation Efforts
    

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34. Common Pain / Signals
    

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35. You never want to be
    unprepared and misaligned
    in front of customers
    

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36. Image source: the business journals
    

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37. NPS: Would you recommend Product Management to a friend?
    

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38. Let your product ops partner be the Dale to your Brennan
    

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39. Make sure you’re taking care of
    your Product Managers,
    as they take care of your business.
    

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40. Thank You!
    theproductheart.com
    Feedback!
    

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