Inside the Minds of Product Managers

Catherine Shyu

Product @ FullContact

Previously at SendGrid, BandPage

@cthrin

What do Product Managers Do?

Solve customer problems Hold and communicate the vision of the product

Research, spec, and prioritize scope of new features

Work cross-functionally to ship features

Source: MindtheProduct

The Problem

The product process starts with a core user problem the PM is trying to solve.

The Product Process

RESEARCH STRATEGIZEGATHER

CONSENSUSBUILD MEASURE

80% 20%

Step 1: ResearchIs the problem worth solving?

Interview Customers

Interview Stakeholders

Market Research

Usage Analytics

Support Tickets

Qualitative Research

1. Interview Customersa. User research

b. Customer development

c. Usability tests

2. Interview Stakeholdersa. People who know the

context of the problem

well

Quantitative Research

Usage Analytics

Competitive Research

Market Research

Support Tickets / Deals Lost

Sample Interview Questions

● How do you stay up-to-date on market trends?

● What are some of the activities you do to understand your product’s core user?

● What is your process for uncovering user needs?

Research Stage

Step 2: StrategizeWhat’s the best approach?

1. Problem Statementa. Articulates the problem

and whether it is worth

solving

2. Spec Doc / PRDa. Use cases

b. Detailed requirements

c. Flowcharts/wireframes

Sample Interview Questions

● How do you prioritize among competing features?

● How do you decide what not to build?

Strategy Stage

Step 3: Gather Consensus

Get buy-in from stakeholders

Estimate of Work

Negotiate Product Scope

Dependencies on Other Teams

Consistent Product Behavior

Sample Interview Questions

● How do you say no to people?

● Who are your product’s stakeholders?

● What is your current role on your team: who else do you work with and in what capacity?

Consensus Gathering Stage

Step 4: Build Work with Engineering and Design to ship the feature.

Phase 1: Engineering & Design

Phase 2: Marketing, Sales, Support

Build (Engineering)

Waterfall, Agile, Kanban

Agile: Standups, Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning

Prep Work for Engineers

Test Features

Build (Go to Market)

Manage Release Plan

Marketing Materials

Support FAQs

Sales/Support Training

Sample Interview Questions

● What are the most important elements of working with engineers?

● What steps do you take when preparing to launch a feature?Build Stage

Step 5: MeasureTrack how the feature is used.

Usage of Feature

Contribution to Business Goals

Measure

Sample Interview Questions

● What metrics do you think are important to track for our products?

● What would you measure to decide if one of our features was successful or not?Measure Stage

Meet Austin, a Product ManagerWorks at Artichoke, an email marketing tool for small businesses.

Customers have been writing in asking for “more data.”

Problem

Users of Artichoke aren’t getting the data they need from their email marketing

campaigns.

Austin Learns From Research...

Data export doesn’t cover enough time for customers and is one size fits all

Competitors offer reports based on custom queries

Support gets complaints about this 10x per month

Synthesizes His Data...

Problem statement to facilitate conversations

Spec doc outlining requirements for the solution

Wireframes for design / engineering

Austin Builds Consensus

Negotiates scope of feature with engineering

Negotiates UX flow with design

Makes sure no infrastructure, billing, legal needs

Then Helps the Team Ship

Reviews and tests feature with engineers

Sets launch date with engineering and marketing

Works with marketing, support, etc to execute launch

Finally, Measures Impact

Download rate of custom reports

Time spent in app

# support tickets

Where Do Product Managers Come From?

Product Design, Psychology, Human

Factors, HCI, UX Research

Business, Economics, Marketing, Consulting,

Support

Software Engineering, QA, Business Intelligence

Success Is...

Building products that are loved by users

Achieving business goals

Beating competitors!

Thanks!@cthrin