How can a software engineer develop a product mindset? More details at - https://aayushjain.com/engineer-product-manager-software-developers/ Every engineer or software develop should develop the product thinking mindset. It is important for any product that the development team, along with the product management team, take joint ownership of a product.

1. Developing a
Product Mindset
(with Examples)
Aayush Jain
This presentation is in my personal capacity, and has no relation with my current or previous
employers.

2. About Me
01
Product Mindset
Design Thinking
02
03
User Empathy
04

3. About Me
aayushjain.com
@AayushJain1

4. Journey
1
2
3
4
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Graduated as a CS Engineer,
with a senior year focus on
product management
First Job
Business Analyst at
Standard & Poor’s, New York
Startup Phase
Hired as the first Product Manager
at a startup in New York
Current Phase
Lead a team of Product Owners at
American Express
Write weekly at aayushjain.com

5. Product Mindset
● Take ownership
● Research the competition
● Voice your ideas
● Think about the product as a whole – not
just about your individual job

6. Bill Gates
In three years, every product my company makes
will be obsolete. The only question is whether we will
make them obsolete or somebody else will.

7. Example Scenario
Online Healthcare Startup –
• Urgent need to build a chat bot
• Must be able to handle a large number of customer queries
• Must be able to categorize and store queries based on chat
keywords

8. Watch Outs
Online Healthcare Startup –
• Urgent need to build a chat bot
• Must be able to handle a large number of customer queries
• Must be able to categorize and store queries based on chat
keywords

9. Take A Step Back
• Why are we building it?
• What is the query volume through different complaint
channels?
• What is the similar volume for our competitors?
• Has A/B testing proved this to be more useful than
other channels?
• What is the target audience?
• Does our competition have something similar?

10. Design Thinking
● Balance UI/UX and technical details
● Don’t over-engineer
● Focus on the big picture
● Solve for the use case – not the edge case

11. Steve Jobs
Design is a funny word. Some people think design
means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper,
it's really how it works.

12. Example - Design Thinking
VS

13. User Empathy
● Understand your target audience
● Embrace the Kano Model
● Get direct user feedback
● Be the solution, not the problem
● Don’t fall into the marginal utility trap

14. Kano Model – Understand User Needs

15. The Sweet Spot

16. Let’s Connect!
aayushjain.com
@AayushJain1

17. Thanks!