Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote
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Transcript of Brian Fitzgerald Product Camp 11 Keynote
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Brian Fitzgerald VP, Product Development
September 17, 2011
Product management… an evolution.
Product Camp NYC, 2011 !"
My last 16 years!
Paying my bills
Lea
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I like to make things!
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Established 2008
Product Camp NYC, 2011
To be the data platform powering the world’s education.
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Long on vision!
Product Camp NYC, 2011 %"
Decent sized industry!
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Knewton: B.P.M. (before product management)
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Former Kaplan exec • “Change agent” for the Kaplan test prep
product • Brut-force adaptive learning - early 90’s • Slightly rebellious…“Broke the code” for a
certain standardized testing question type, forcing ETS to pull revise their tests; earned the name “the antichrist.”
• Knewton was percolating in his head for ~15 years…
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The founder
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A legend among legends!
Meeting #1…
Meeting #2…
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Young • Exceptionally bright • Hungry • Tireless
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A team who just might be able to pull it off!
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Product was purely CEO’s vision • A willing team building on demand • Real time cycles • No direct customer input/revisions for v1
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Start up style
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• v1 of the adaptive learning platform • Live streaming classroom • On demand student experience • Develop all of the content • A content management system • Pre-market • Launch a GMAT course • …in 6 months!
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The build goal
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Knewton: A.P.M. (after product management)
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• April, 2009 • 1st product person • 740 feature ideas in the hopper
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My arrival
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• CEO’s perception: “move faster, do more things!”
• CTO’s desire: “need a buffer, let’s move slower so I can scale this”
• New head of research: “we’re almost at rung #1 on a very tall adaptive learning ladder”
• Academic team: “finally, we can fix course development tools and broken student features”
• Me: “focus, brian, focus…”
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So!now what?
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Balance Synthesis Decisiveness
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A healthy tension
The product minded techy
The consumer app guy
The disruptive visionary
The academic pragmatist
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Collective view of the landscape • Agreement on the business strategy? • Validate with customers • What are we committing to for resources? • What is core to our business?
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Align on goals
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Acquire new customers • Generate meaningful data • Engage existing customers • Gain operational efficiency
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Business drivers
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Long term roadmap
• Focus projects
• Roadmap review
• Lightweight requirements/user story templates, backlogs, retrospectives, 5-whys
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Introducing tools
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• 1 page pitch (“vision and scope”)
• Anyone can do one • Aligning with focus
projects for a better chance at daylight
• ROI/metric driven is essential for making the business case
• Feedback is promised
!)"
1 Pager
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Uncompromising on hiring • Varied skillsets; cross-training • Data driven • Consistent coaching • Ideas from everywhere • Product managers spread the
culture throughout the org
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A Well-rounded product team
Product Camp NYC, 2011 !!"
UX!it matters (a lot)
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Product before revenue • Customer centric • Creating space vs. churning features • Iterative process – customer feedback • Sketchstorming • What is the 1 feature customers will
remember?
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Building Product Culture
Product Camp NYC, 2011 !*"
Hack days
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• What are we working on, and why? • What are we choosing not to pursue? • Pre-release sharing • Exposing decisions (teachable moments) • Acknowledgement of success • Brown bags
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A word about transparency!
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Parallel tracking • Product groups • Staffing • Knowledge transfer
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Scaling Challenges
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• It’s painful • It’s especially hard once you’ve built a
participatory culture • But, it matters more than anything • Card sorting
!+"
The F word (focus)
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Product stages
Product Camp NYC, 2011 !'"
Pivot: Test Prep
• Proof of concept • Direct to consumer • Immediate revenue generation
Product Camp NYC, 2011 #)"
Pivot: Higher Education
• Math Readiness, Blended Learning • Big data • Institutional customers • Use of API
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• Self Paced Environment
• Game-like flow dynamics
• Social learning • Personalized
UX
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• Atomic-concept-based learning objects
• # of practice items
• Difficulty level • Format & media • Time of day • Bite size/
Frequency • Retention
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• What students know
• How students learn best
• Content efficacy • Cohort analysis
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• RESTful interface
• Course creation • Personalized
recommendations
• Analytics
Pivot: Open Platform
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Which brings us to today…
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Adaptive learning, adaptive tutoring, adaptive engagement unique lifelong learning profiles
33
Individual profile data
Learning path optimization
Network Effect
Evolutionary algorithm
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1000s data/day
Knewton platform transforms education
Combined power of millions of users
Product Camp NYC, 2011
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Knewton Adaptation
• Knewton Knowledge Graph • Proficiency Estimation • Activity Selection • Machine learning, data mining • Delivering optimized learning
content
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Knewton Knowledge Graph
!
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Big data meets the world’s biggest data industry
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Product Camp NYC, 2011 #+"
What does it mean for students?
Product Camp NYC, 2011
• Refuse to start running without goals; alignment may
bring conflict, but don’t avoid it
• Transparency takes time, but matters – trains the org
• Process should be like pajamas – on, but not tight
• Committing to a customer-driven, iterative process is
not at odds with innovating
• Expect that building product for scale will lead you down
a different path
• Don’t underestimate people’s fear of shipping – but
make them do it
• Focus is really, really hard when you work with creative,
convincing people #&"
My most important lessons
Product Camp NYC, 2011
Brian Fitzgerald [email protected] 19 Union Square West New York, NY 10003 212-KNEWTON
thank you.