credit where it's due

Totally inspired (mostly stolen) from this medium article:

MVPM​

by Brandon Chu

Product Owner at Shopify

also follow him on twitter

Tech Stack

Layers of technology used to provide functionality in a software product.

Examples:

- Runtime: (Flash vs. HTML5, Canvas)

- Javascript

- Ruby

- PHP

- Redis dB

Tech Stack

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

•  Engineers will discuss things using this type of technical terminology.
• Generally, the more layers in the stack they need to touch, or the deeper the layer, the more complicated and risky a change will be.
• Knowing this may push you to re-consider a different way to solve the problem.

System Architecture

DEMO -- ALEX Components.pdf

The stack is technical capability -- the architecture of a product incorporates the customer’s intended behavior in its design.

System Architecture

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

•  Thinking of your product like a system lets you make better trade offs.
• More connections = more complicated to change because so many others rely on them for data or functionality.
  • The more dependencies you have, the harder the project will be to execute.
• In larger companies, the number of components you touch is synonymous with the number of teams you need to interact with.

How Do i get started?

QA and User acceptance testing

• You are ultimately responsible for the product, and that includes the product working as expected.
• You'll get a clear understanding of how it functions and what parts it touches by testing each feature.
• It will help you write better expectations, and (bonus!) you get to see the product earlier.

project management

Going to cover this at length, both for Engineering & Creative side.

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

• Shipping the product on time and budget is critical.

• It is not the most important part of your job, but it's the one that is most visible.

modelling impact

We are always making bets about the future, & goals tie our product's success to our assumptions.

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

• The exercise of building a model for your product is a great way to test your instinctual assumptions.
• Make sure that your product has enough potential to make it worth doing (potential value vs. development + maintenance)
• Enables you to justify projects in a way that resonates with your stakeholders.

Gather and analyze data

Things that aren't measured are rarely done well.

Being able to independently gather data is vital to making quick decisions. 

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

• Focus on problems instead of solutions.
• Identifying problems comes only from examining data.
• Speaking in data will give your arguments weight and heft. 

How Do i get started?

Meetings

• Project Management: Agile Facilitators, Project Managers
  • Agile, Kanban, and Sprints
  • Creative Pre-production process, Production process
• Modelling Impact: Sales, CRO, CFO, Allison
  • Identify Customer and User Goals
  • Map Stakeholder structure
• Data: Difabio, Dave Urlakis, Data Team
  • Dig into Analytics Creation, Pipeline
  • Work with Dave on stat sig and quantitative goals

Resources

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

• Money

• Staff

• Partnerships

• Learn

• Build

• Measure

• Features

• Positioning

• Marketing Materials

• Satisfaction

• Behavior Change

• ROI

• Market Share

• Brand Awareness

Resources

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

• Money

• Staff

• Partnerships

• Learn

• Build

• Measure

• Features

• Positioning

• Marketing Materials

• Satisfaction

• Behavior Change

• ROI

• Market Share

• Brand Awareness

DIFFERENT ROLES WANT INFO AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

Resources

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

Resources

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

 What are you spending resources on?

• Hiring plan
• Partnerships

 Why do you think you'll make plan?

• Reasons for retention
• Trends in customer behavior

Resources

Activities

Output

Outcome

Impact

Resources

design patterns

Consistency of visual and interactive elements of your product.

ALEX Design guide

ALEX Layout guide

design patterns

Design patterns

How does this make you a better Product Manager?

• Sticking with established design patterns makes things far faster and easier.
  • Easier for users to understand your product and get what they need quickly.
• There are times to break design patterns, but you need to have a good reason.

User Experience Research

• Before starting: test to validate there actually is a problem
  • Example: Mission Control Problem validation excel
• While building: test that it's easy to use and likely to solve the problem.
  • Example: User tests, Customer demos, A/B tests
• After launch: validating problem was solved (for the customers you wanted it solved for)
  • Example: ALEX post-launch data summary

Prototyping ideas

• Be able to communicate both with words and visually.
• We have designers who will take the brunt of it, but laying out user flow is where you can best contribute.
  • Focus on wireframing, not pixel-perfect design. 

How Do i get started?

Where to focus

• Talk to Design team, they should know these patterns cold can explain the TL;DR of why.
• User Insights: Work with Dave and Creative Team
  • How to ask unbiased, non-leading questions in surveys and interviews
  • How to synthesize results and avoid bad conclusions
• Prototyping: Grab a whiteboard, then post-its, then Jody

Soft SkiLLs

What do you look for?

1. Problem-solving ability
2. Great communication skills
3. Empathy
4. Leadership
5. Insatiable curiosity
6. Passion
7. Comfortable with failure

​Walk me through a successful major project you were heavily involved in, and tell me about your role throughout the project.”

• prioritization
• resourcing
• stakeholder management
• conflict management

• major challenges and solutions
• communication
• measurement
• outcome