BECOME THE PRODUCT MANAGER YOU ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU COULD BE

ProductCamp 16Ray R Hernandez

Sponsors

Advocates

In Kind

Supporters

Overview

• How PM is supposed to work, at least in theory

• And how it really works today…The magic triangle

• What skills do you really need

• Downhill from day one (role definitions)

• Companies vs. startup

• Okay, how do you fix this?

What is Product Management?

Ideal match of skills

Solid PM Role Definition

Product-centric company structure

What every Prod Mgr. needs to know...

Market

Who is the buyer?Who is the main user?What is their journey?How big is the opportunity?What are the barriers of entry?

Product

What are the features and benefits?Strengths and weaknesses?How does it compete against others?

Business

Who is the competition?How will you charge?What is the 2-3 year plan?Is adoption or profitability more important?How are you funded?

Tools and Frameworks

Business Canvas, Lean, Business Model, SWOT analysis…

Jack of all trades, master of one!

RESPONSIBILITIES• Work with business partners to understand prioritization, so you can own and manage the

product roadmap• Gather requirements for business problems to be solved, which includes discovery

documentation, business process diagrams, user story requirements• Manage product lifecycle of an initiative, which is focused on the requirements gathering

process, iteration planning, and UAT support• Focus on asking ‘why’ to ensure we are providing solutions that meet the customer's need.• Challenge the norm if it results in a better way of operating

REQUIREMENTS• Experience with Enterprise Systems• Expert experience in requirements gathering, including GAP analysis• Very strong listening skills• Experience in an Agile environment, with focus on user story creation, backlog management,

and roadmap planning• Experience working with other product managers, developers, QA, business owners, and

upper management• Experience working with users during the UAT phase• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written• You are experienced and happy in a fast moving, continuous flow environment.

1

Primary Responsibilities • You will research, investigate, communicate, champion, evangelize, and be the

primary market expert in all relevant products and solutions;• You will define and manage assigned products and features within Education

Partners’ portfolio;• You will conduct and facilitate market analysis and strategic product planning;• You will define a forward-looking portfolio and product roadmap based on both

strategic and tactical needs;• You will clearly communicate and participate in the refinement of feature

requirements to assigned Business Analysts and the Engineering teams;• You will develop Epics, User Stories, Features, and Benefits, and supporting

materials to guide the design, development, and implementation of product features and enhancements;

• You will support Agile/Scrum development and release processes to deliver products to the market on time and within scope;

• You will work with our software Quality Assurance, Release, and Knowledge Management teams to deliver high quality, high value, low risk documented solutions, features, specifications;

• You will define and track key metrics for product feature adoption, usage, and success

2

Responsibilities:• Own the growth of the product line• Know your customers, the problems they face, and how they find solutions.• Deliver engaging and differentiated messages to drive awareness and high volume demand.• Drive your products’ success by leading a small team and collaborating with product marketing, demand generation, and sales to execute integrated go-to-market strategies.• Increase team productivity while improving results by streamlining product marketing processes that are in alignment with the company’s go-to-market model• Conduct regular market, customer and competitive research to improve go-to-market strategies, messaging, positioning, and execution.• Be a product evangelist with prospects, analysts, press, customers, partners, and employees

3

Job Duties• Determine and evaluate new opportunities to increase revenues and profits.• Drive discovery from both a qualitative and quantitative context to build solid, data driven,

business plans and strategies.• Manage appropriate ROI and related financial analysis of products. Identify product

enhancements to balance a favorable return on investment with customer needs.• Manage the coordination and analysis of market research to understand customer behavior,

product satisfaction, and emerging business opportunities.• Define product strategy and product roadmaps with clear objectives and long-term vision.

Ensure delivery of innovation and customer value through product development process. Determine clear prioritization and appropriate trade-offs regarding implementation issues based upon understanding constraints, dependencies, costs, resources and customer benefits

• Define value positioning for products to assist other areas of the organization in product marketing and positioning.

• Work with prospects, customers and partners to define product requirements and functionality. Engage in customer-facing activities such as customer conferences, customer visits and tradeshows.

• Team with product development to orchestrate the development and release process. Suggest and drive partnerships for products. Collaborate with various departments to ensure product delivery and quality goals are achieved and maintained.

• Achieve revenue goals.

Responsibilities:• Own the growth of the product line• Know your customers, the problems they face, and how they find solutions.• Deliver engaging and differentiated messages to drive awareness and high volume demand.• Drive your products’ success by leading a small team and collaborating with product marketing, demand generation, and sales to execute integrated go-to-market strategies.• Increase team productivity while improving results by streamlining product marketing processes that are in alignment with the company’s go-to-market model• Conduct regular market, customer and competitive research to improve go-to-market strategies, messaging, positioning, and execution.• Be a product evangelist with prospects, analysts, press, customers, partners, and employees

Primary Responsibilities • You will research, investigate, communicate,

champion, evangelize, and be the primary market expert in all relevant products and solutions;

• You will define and manage assigned products and features within Education Partners’ portfolio;

• You will conduct and facilitate market analysis and strategic product planning;

• You will define a forward-looking portfolio and product roadmap based on both strategic and tactical needs;

• You will clearly communicate and participate in the refinement of feature requirements to assigned Business Analysts and the Engineering teams;

• You will develop Epics, User Stories, Features, and Benefits, and supporting materials to guide the design, development, and implementation of product features and enhancements;

• You will support Agile/Scrum development and release processes to deliver products to the market on time and within scope;

• You will work with our software Quality Assurance, Release, and Knowledge Management teams to deliver high quality, high value, low risk documented solutions, features, specifications;

• You will define and track key metrics for product feature adoption, usage, and success;

Job Duties• Determine and evaluate new opportunities to

increase revenues and profits.• Drive discovery from both a qualitative and

quantitative context to build solid, data driven, business plans and strategies.

• Manage appropriate ROI and related financial analysis of products. Identify product enhancements to balance a favorable return on investment with customer needs.

• Manage the coordination and analysis of market research to understand customer behavior, product satisfaction, and emerging business opportunities.

• Define product strategy and product roadmaps with clear objectives and long-term vision. Ensure delivery of innovation and customer value through product development process. Determine clear prioritization and appropriate trade-offs regarding implementation issues based upon understanding constraints, dependencies, costs, resources and customer benefits

• Define value positioning for products to assist other areas of the organization in product marketing and positioning.

• Work with prospects, customers and partners to define product requirements and functionality. Engage in customer-facing activities such as customer conferences, customer visits and tradeshows.

• Team with product development to orchestrate the development and release process. Suggest and drive partnerships for products. Collaborate with various departments to ensure product delivery and quality goals are achieved and maintained.

• Achieve revenue goals.

RESPONSIBILITIES• Work with business partners to understand

prioritization, so you can own and manage the product roadmap

• Gather requirements for business problems to be solved, which includes discovery documentation, business process diagrams, user story requirements

• Manage product lifecycle of an initiative, which is focused on the requirements gathering process, iteration planning, and UAT support

• Focus on asking ‘why’ to ensure we are providing solutions that meet the customer's need.

• Challenge the norm if it results in a better way of operating

REQUIREMENTS• Experience with Enterprise Systems• Expert experience in requirements gathering,

including GAP analysis• Very strong listening skills• Experience in an Agile environment, with focus on

user story creation, backlog management, and roadmap planning

• Experience working with other product managers, developers, QA, business owners, and upper management

• Experience working with users during the UAT phase

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written

• You are experienced and happy in a fast moving, continuous flow environment.

1 2

3

Responsibilities:• Own the growth of the product line• Know your customers, the problems they face, and how they find solutions.• Deliver engaging and differentiated messages to drive awareness and high volume demand.• Drive your products’ success by leading a small team and collaborating with product marketing, demand generation, and sales to execute integrated go-to-market strategies.• Increase team productivity while improving results by streamlining product marketing processes that are in alignment with the company’s go-to-market model• Conduct regular market, customer and competitive research to improve go-to-market strategies, messaging, positioning, and execution.• Be a product evangelist with prospects, analysts, press, customers, partners, and employees

Primary Responsibilities • You will research, investigate, communicate,

champion, evangelize, and be the primary market expert in all relevant products and solutions;

• You will define and manage assigned products and features within Education Partners’ portfolio;

• You will conduct and facilitate market analysis and strategic product planning;

• You will define a forward-looking portfolio and product roadmap based on both strategic and tactical needs;

• You will clearly communicate and participate in the refinement of feature requirements to assigned Business Analysts and the Engineering teams;

• You will develop Epics, User Stories, Features, and Benefits, and supporting materials to guide the design, development, and implementation of product features and enhancements;

• You will support Agile/Scrum development and release processes to deliver products to the market on time and within scope;

• You will work with our software Quality Assurance, Release, and Knowledge Management teams to deliver high quality, high value, low risk documented solutions, features, specifications;

• You will define and track key metrics for product feature adoption, usage, and success;

Job Duties• Determine and evaluate new opportunities to

increase revenues and profits.• Drive discovery from both a qualitative and

quantitative context to build solid, data driven, business plans and strategies.

• Manage appropriate ROI and related financial analysis of products. Identify product enhancements to balance a favorable return on investment with customer needs.

• Manage the coordination and analysis of market research to understand customer behavior, product satisfaction, and emerging business opportunities.

• Define product strategy and product roadmaps with clear objectives and long-term vision. Ensure delivery of innovation and customer value through product development process. Determine clear prioritization and appropriate trade-offs regarding implementation issues based upon understanding constraints, dependencies, costs, resources and customer benefits

• Define value positioning for products to assist other areas of the organization in product marketing and positioning.

• Work with prospects, customers and partners to define product requirements and functionality. Engage in customer-facing activities such as customer conferences, customer visits and tradeshows.

• Team with product development to orchestrate the development and release process. Suggest and drive partnerships for products. Collaborate with various departments to ensure product delivery and quality goals are achieved and maintained.

• Achieve revenue goals.

RESPONSIBILITIES• Work with business partners to understand

prioritization, so you can own and manage the product roadmap

• Gather requirements for business problems to be solved, which includes discovery documentation, business process diagrams, user story requirements

• Manage product lifecycle of an initiative, which is focused on the requirements gathering process, iteration planning, and UAT support

• Focus on asking ‘why’ to ensure we are providing solutions that meet the customer's need.

• Challenge the norm if it results in a better way of operating

REQUIREMENTS• Experience with Enterprise Systems• Expert experience in requirements gathering,

including GAP analysis• Very strong listening skills• Experience in an Agile environment, with focus on

user story creation, backlog management, and roadmap planning

• Experience working with other product managers, developers, QA, business owners, and upper management

• Experience working with users during the UAT phase

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written

• You are experienced and happy in a fast moving, continuous flow environment.

Tech Prod Mgr

Pr Mktg

Prod Mgr Sales Engr

Role Teams Skills Environment

Large Companies

• One of many PMs• Dedicated to a piece of

one specific product.• Responsible for

increasing dedicated KPIs, writing specs, and managing all stakeholders

• Not much autonomy on product strategy

• All resources on your team - designers, developers, project manager, marketing

• Usually 6-10 developers per product. Developers typically have a manager or leader.

• Communication skills very important

• Technical skills desired

• Product strategy• Design skills not

as important

• Very structured environment

• Little interaction with upper management, most directives handed down

• Routine and patterns• May see “internal”

products

Mid-Sized Companies

• One of a few PMs• Responsible for

increasing dedicated KPIs, writing specs, and managing all stakeholders

• Not all work is consumer focused, could be technical focused.

• Most resources on your team depending on your strengths.

• Usually 4-5 developers per product.

• You will managed by VP of Product.

• Developers typically have a manager or leader.

• Technical skills desired

• Knowledge of Agile• Project management• May be more design

focused or tech focused.

• Not as structured as corporate, but more direction than a startup.

• More interaction between levels of department, working mostly with VP of Product and other PMs

• Carefully planned Product Roadmaps

Small Companies

• Only PM or one of few• Will own product• Jack of all trades• Wireframing,

communicating with stakeholders, managing developers

• The teams may be sparse, usually only a few developers working on many different things

• You will have to work with other PMs to prioritize design & development resources

• A lot of managing of day to day development activities

• You may be the only designer besides a graphic designer

• Prioritization skills• Technical skills very

desired• Product strategy and

direction crucial - you will have a lot of influence

• Wireframing skills and good design sense

• Needs to be able to work quickly and efficiently

• Unstructured environment, focused on selling anything quickly

• Will probably work closely with the CEO

• Chances to try new things and implement your own ideas

• Lots of autonomy• Direction changes

quickly (Chase bright, shiny objects)

Courtesy: General Assembly

Beware of what you ask for in a company

Company Employees

Res

pons

ibili

ty Sanity

Find out about the company org chart

Is there a head of product? (beware of “CEO” answer)Who makes product approvals? (beware of “everyone” answer)How many other product managers are there?

ROLES WITHIN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Learn about the companies (do research)

Reading job descriptions is not enough:

• Learn how the company is organized • Learn who their leaders are and their backgrounds• How big is the company? • How new is the company?• How profitable is the company?• Who does current PM report to…Product, Marketing, Development?

Most of this info can be found on: LinkedIn, SEC Filings, Crunchbase, Bloomberg, Google Finance, WSJ

“You will have executive exposure…”

Skills that you need but no one asks…

• How to break up fights• How to keep people focused• How to tell someone “yes” when you are really telling

them “no”• How to figure out the real decision makers in the company• How to keep everyone organized• How to be proactive• How to work with someone you do not like

Sponsors

Advocates

In Kind

Supporters

Thank you!

Ray R Hernandezhernandez.ray.r@gmail.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rayrhernandez @mobilitysoup