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Similar to Product Director Shares Tips for Leading Successful Product Teams
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Product Director Shares Tips for Leading Successful Product Teams
- 2. ● Director of Product at Discuss.io ● Lead product, design, and project management ● Formerly at ModCloth, Crowd Interactive, and BearingPoint/Deloitte
- 3. Property of Netflix Property of George Washington
- 4. When people who know they want your product are happy with your offering - Andrew Chen ”
- 6. 1. Learn your customers 2. Confirm the vision 3. Evaluate and prioritize 4. Adjust at set intervals
- 7. of PMs don’t spend enough time on user interviews 86%
- 8. In an early-stage company, product leaders have as much a say in the company direction as do the founders.
- 9. 1. When you don’t have the metrics, work backwards 2. Focus on what matters 3. Prepare to disappoint
- 10. That’s a great idea, and we’re not going to build it.
- 11. ● Yearly - Goal setting, outline the general roadmap for the year ● Quarterly - Review yearly goals, plan projects for upcoming quarter ● Biweekly - Plan and execute sprints ● Daily - Realign at standups
Editor's Notes
- Andrew Chen has a great presentation on product/market fit: https://andrewchen.co/zero-to-productmarket-fit-presentation/ Other definitions I’ve heard Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. Marc Andreessen However you want to define it, it is “the only thing that matters,” according to Marc Andreessen.
- CEO is responsible Should be a shared vision between product leader and founder Product leader should take it from the one point vision statement and validate the product offering. Story: going from reluctance to owning this. We had p/m fit, but not with a sustainable business model. Were trying to pivot away from something that worked into something where the financials made more sense. Floundered about what to do next. Didn’t want to step on toes. But then we spent 6+ months doing useful stuff but not making any real progress. So once I saw this as my problem, I started driving to executive alignment.
- B2B product with an opinionated sales team, an opinionated CS team on the front lines, and an opinionated set of founders who don’t want to lose the vision to chase sales. I also have clients directly asking for things. That’s a lot of input, and a lot of noise.
- Stat: 2019 Product Management Insights Report - Alpha http://insights.alphahq.com/2019 When I started at Discuss.io, the first thing I did was learn everything I could about our existing customers and target market. I asked our sales people. I asked our customer success reps. I traveled onsite to our largest client and interviewed half a dozen people at various levels of seniority. What I discovered was a web of conflicting priorities - conflicts between budget holders and users, conflicts between one client and another, and conflicts between the founders’ vision and what clients were asking for. I use this example to highlight just how important, and how hard, it is to truly get to know your customers. We are a company that enables market research interviews, and we hadn’t been prioritizing our own market research. And we’re not alone. Alpha, a testing tool for product managers, put out their 2019 insights report and 86% of PMs self-reported as not spending enough, or not spending any time, on user interviews. The risk of hubris in this situation is tremendously high. We’ve all heard it before - “you are not your customer.” Really getting to know your customers requires you to set aside assumptions and agendas. It requires coming in with an open mind and really watching and listening to see what is happening rather than looking for the answers you want. How many of you have talked to a user of your product in the last month? The last week? How to do it: Find your users - existing customer base, Reddit, LinkedIn, industry associations, online panels like discuss.io, usertesting.com, respondent.io, etc Create a discussion guide and ask the same questions of each person - stay disciplined so you can compare answers across users Don’t let geography be a barrier; use online tools to connect
- Discuss.io story - moving to alignment with exec team on insights vs DIY My struggle with this, and learning that I’m in a unique position bridging executive strategy, all the business areas, customer feedback, and the sales process. Though I’m not a founder, I have more visibility than they do into how the company actually works The move to leadership - put forward a direction and ask “why not” rather than “what do you think we should do?” Tactical lessons on how to drive alignment Understand how your stakeholders process info - visual learners? Skeptical without data? Gut feel? Take them on the journey - where you started, what you learned, how it influenced your direction Propose a way forward - with enthusiasm and full-throated support Take questions, feedback, and come back with answers to each one Repeat until alignment
- Pre-metrics and post-metrics If you have metrics, use them! Find the one that leads to the most valuable behavior, and put that front and center If you don’t have metrics, base decisions on the vision - does this request/idea help marketers make informed decisions faster? Does it make it easier to connect with their consumers? If not, it’s the wrong thing in the beginning Stay grounded in reality Scale doesn’t matter if you can’t acquire customers. If you’re not offering the right thing, doing it beautifully doesn’t matter Know that you will let people down Not all customers will have the same priorities or needs. B2B PMs also need to remember that you drive the product, not the customer. Just because they want something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to build, now or possibly ever. Prepare to disappoint internally, also. People have pet ideas, projects they’ve championed, Resources: https://firstround.com/review/classpass-founder-on-how-marketplace-startups-can-achieve-product-market-fit/
- As a product leader, one of the most important influences you have on your company culture is in the way that you either shut down or make space for creativity. We could spend a whole talk just on how to gather and evaluate ideas, but I’d rather focus now on how to build that culture internally and how to communicate your product decisions in a way that leaves room for new ideas. How do you know that you have fostered creativity in your organization? Customer service agents feel comfortable bringing you ideas and questioning how what you are designing is intended to impact the users they interface with Failure is normalized and learnings are shared Your PMs approach requests and suggestions with openness, not defensiveness Your team uses “yes, and” language rather than “ok, but”
- Do you need to be at planners and standups as a PM? Absolutely. As a leader? Sometimes. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stopped an engineer from over-investing in something because I caught it at standup. Easiest, lowest-risk place to make decisions and ask for help. The PM needs to know where the team is struggling, what work is harder than expected, and factor that into the roadmap.