PRODUCT MANAGEMENTwith focus on

a few words about

HOW TO TALK TO CUSTOMERS

YOUR HOST

Bartek Gatz

bartek.gatz@spartez.com bgatz@atlassian.com

IT EDUCATION VS

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

technology

coding efficiency

project management

product

goal

customers / market

process

schedule

team

project management product management

product

goal

customers / market

process

schedule

team

project management product management

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

customers sales

marketing the lab

product manager

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

How to become an effective information hub?

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Let’s focus on Customers today

customers

Why do we want to talk to customers?

Do we want to talk to customers?

How do we talk to customers?

Rule of thumb #1

Customers are experts in the domain they operate in.

BUT

when customers speak about solution features they want you to deliver

YOU SHOULD NOT LISTEN

speak about pains

avoid GUI discussions

speak about how customers work

speak about features

speak about GUI

speak about how they want to use the product

Customers will PM should

Rule of thumb #2

Don’t give customers options to chose from.Instead validate the complete solution

and see if the pain was removed

the conversation with customersWILL LOOK DIFFERENTLY

depending on multiple factors

more feature focused

might have good ideas

avoid bug discussions

more willing to describe pains

good insight of competitive data

new customers existing customers

process driven

checklist powered

prefer to talk to large suppliers

lots of ass covering will happen

need driven

aware of their pains

super happy to talk to you

honest and avoiding bullshit

small customers large customers

small customers large customers

Rule of thumb #3

When speaking with customers always make sure who you talk to: users, power sponsors or buyers.

this will not always be users

power sponsors and buyers are equally important

users are usually not buyers

WHO DO YOU TALK TO?

Rule of thumb #4

Words are powerful.Some words are magical.

the checklist always exists

understand the domain in order to uncover the magic words

be aware of the pressure

things will not always be rational

magic words work for sponsors and power sponsors,

users are immune

MAGIC WORDS

platform users will build solution for them

you can steer platform users too

jump on calls to learn true pains

better platform translates into more positive noise

use the features directly

this is a simple case

indirect customersdirect customers

multiple voices

difficult to find the pain

always a compromise

multiple conversations+

extrapolation

one happy customer =

goal achieved

this is a simple case

direct contractboxed solution

Rule of thumb #5

Financial institutions are always special.

extremely process focused

security paranoia

multiple checklists in place

will ALWAYS complain about money

usually end up building their own toys

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Rule of thumb #6

Forget all you have just heard.

areTHE RULES

FUZZY

areCUSTOMERS

PEOPLE

areCUSTOMERS PEOPLE

picture yourself in their shoes

feel their pain

be their friend

help them and you will both win

Suggestion #1

Unhappy customer will drag 50 other customers away from you.

Happy customer will bring 2 new customers.

Truly happy customer will infect others with passion to your products.

Suggestion #2

Be honest.

If you do not know, admit that fact openly.

Suggest follow ups.

Suggestion #3

Like people.

They will like you back.

People who like you are more open with you.

Suggestion #4

Don’t f#@k your customers!

Suggestion #5

Product Management is

90% listening

10% talking

THANK YOU