Saturday, April 30, 2011

Session Notes: Product Management at a Startup

Where do I start
-sell the benefits
-Define your scope
-Add to (and subtract from) the model
-Define terms
     -what is it you mean by adding features
-Decide what you're not going to do (right now)
     -based on resources
-Sanity Check
     -are we meeting expectations

Product Management Triad
     -none of this is software specific
     -Director, Product Strategy
     -Technical Product Manager
     -understanding the various tasks needed
     -color coded chart to claim responsibilities

Define Terms
     -who owns it, what's our definition, what's getting done in the next qtr
     -what we're going to do, how we're going to do it
     -terms like distinctive competence, launch plan, market research, market requirements
     -things that were done intuitively by the founders
          -how to get other people to those things the same way (scale)
          -e.g. here's how we collect information from customers
     -Sales -> define buyer personas 
          -sales said that wasn't necessary
          -if they don't buy in, they're not going to do
          -understanding what you can control

Process
     -New feature request > ticket system
          -track requests
          -tag to a release
          -helps you roadmap
          -roadmapping is critical
     -Define PM workflow
          -ticket "reviewed" to ticket "closed
          -development teams loved predictability

Positives
     -share vision
     -repeatable process
     -replaced "roadmap by gut feel"
     -increased sales with focus on market
     -fewer refactors
     -releases on schedule
Results
     -team happy
     -devs satisfied
     -team cohesion increased
     -confusion decreased


"Experiences"
     -didn't baseline current process (couldn't measure improvements)
     -didn't clearly define scope of prod mangment
     -didn't sell benefits and celebrate successes with leadership
     -didn't share enough of the challenges

Perceptions
     -too bureaucratic
     -too expensive
     -you say no too much



Question: Can you provide context about being too expensive
     -too many steps in review process, taking too long
     -hurt by not baselining to show how much that originally cost

Q: Is it hard to quantify what the PM does or justify the cost
     -these tasks are being done anyways, just not classified as PM
     -formalizing and putting a process around it is important
     -selling the benefits

Q: A lot of companies don't know how much product management costs per product
     -seems to be an impediment
     -trying to bring in a higher value proposition product is hard to convey
     -measuring time and cost is helpful
     -if lead developer doesn't buy in, hard to get that feature done
          -getting influence is hard to do

Q: Need to compare against original case
     -selection process against future case must factor in existing case
     -can find that existing case may be better

Q: How to prioritize your backlog 
     -may not resonate with the vision
     -features can come in as tactical, migrating to more strategic
     -customers view feature request as task order system
     -expressed processed helps
     -get more information to make a prioritization decision
     -managing without a roadmap is a nonstarter
     -customers don't make release every month
     -agile helps with turnaround and prototyping
     -customers don't like being interrupted with updates
     -consumers determine whether frequent updates work
     -agile > minimum marketable feature
          -is it going to generate revenue
          -is it going to provide customer satisfaction
          -is it going to provide innovation
 
Q: How much time do you invest in understanding each feature
     -focus on most strategic customers
     -strategic planning
     -tyranny of the urgent
     -getting sales to trust the roadmap
     -tactical vs. strategic
          -trying to think longer term
          -understanding what is your direction
          -do we want to be in the widget 5 years from now
     -saying no when no is the answer is important
          -setting expectation
          -customers want to know, are you going to do it or not
     -backlog/roadmap review every week
          -presenting customer needs to sales, stakeholders
          -battling opinions with market research

Q: Selling process of product management
     -there are common things that are going to happen anyway, product management is just putting a plan or name on it
     -review things that you're not going to, revisit those things in 3 months
     -be realistic about what can be implemented
          -understand the landscape and adjust accordingly
          -push but don't push too hard

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