Often it seems the product manager role is different depending on where you work, who you work with, what stage the company is in & the current understanding of the value of product management. Three companies shared how they work and manage product - their structure, how they work with other teams, their challenges and how the team brings value to the business. Each company will gave a short presentation on their area before we threw to questions from the audience.

1. How do *you* manage products?
16th April 2015

2. productanonymous.com
bit.ly/productanon
#prodanon
Find us

3. Start-up session with xLabs
March 21st
At Xero
Upcoming events

4. Saturday August 22nd
pcampmelbourne.com
@pcampmelb

5. Redbubble - Nick Cust
Vicki Stirling
Zendesk - Aaron Cottrell
Envato - Luke Meehan
Stewart Boon
Our panel

6. Product Management @Redbubble
Vicki Stirling - Product Director (Physical)
Nick Cust - Product Director (Digital)

7. Redbubble
● Online retail marketplace
● Crowd-source designs from
artists
● Produce physical products
individually, on- demand
● We are the anti-brand!
● We empower people to reflect
their individuality
Products

8. About us
● Started in 2007, with a handful of
artists, attracting freelances
● 350,000 Artists
● 13 Million designs
● Delivering to 236 countries
● 2 global head offices in Melbourne
& San Francisco
● 120 people

9. Two Customer Groups
Artists
● Ability to earn a living doing what they love
● Gain more fans and deeper connection
● We are able to do many great things, for our artists
Consumers
● 90% outside of Australia
● Core Market is USA, Europe growing
● Attracting Creative Individuals from around the
world.

10. Marketplace vs Retail
● Hold low stock
● Low capital costs
● Handle logistics & customer
service
● New designs created
everyday
● New product launch every
month

11. Fulfillers

13. Trending
4 stickers sold every minute 3000 t-shirts
sold a day
60,000 new designs
uploaded per week

14. Digital Product Process
Teams
Product Vision & Strategy (Product Managers)
Teams Teams Teams Teams
Concept Exploration
Execution
TeamsTeams
UX PM
● Flexible Agile
Model
● Responsive
Website
● Continuous
Release
● No QA

15. How Digital Product Has Evolved
Build
Test
Learn
Measure/
Evolve
Release
Rapid exploration of problems with
customers
Get into the Customers’ head / Analyse user behaviour
Ideas to meet
Strategic goals
Concepts to persevere
with
Optimisation
AB Test
MVP
Life
Improving

16. Evolving into 4 Categories
Wear
T-Shirts
Leggings
Skirts
Scarves
Dresses
Live
Art
Cushions
Duvets
Stickers
Mugs
Carry
Device Cases
Skins
Bags
Accessories
Laptop Cases
Work
Journals
Calendars
Cards
Postcards

17. Similar Paths to Growth
Business
Strategy
Brand
Strategy
Personas
Financial Plan
KPIs/Metrics
Review,
Learn &
Adjust
*1
Customer
Product /
Concept
Development
Market
Assessment
Portfolio
Manage
Product
Strategy
Product
Launch

18. 1. Speed to market
● Physical - Planning, Development, Sampling, Product that works for 13M
artworks
● Digital - Instant feedback - AB tests, quick and dirty versions
2. Validation of opportunity
● Physical - Based heavily on external market, trend insights (Macro)
● Digital - Analytics, effect on user behaviours (Micro)
3. Data/Measurements
● Physical - Sales & Profit.
● Digital - Numerous KPIs, different ways to cut data can be paralyzing
Key Differences

19. Some Examples of Work
Same stuff as everyone
else
Designed and Developed
Bespoke just for RB
Point of Purchase
Developed through
data/customer insight

20. Thanks For Listening
Vicki Stirling @sunrisejunction
Nick Cust @ncuste
Cameos - red
by Fabio Mancini

21. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
How we manage product at Zendesk
Aaron Cottrell
Product Manager, Customer Engagement

22. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
• What we do
• Structure
• Challenges & how we overcome them
Outline

23. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly

24. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
How Product is structured
CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
CUSTOMER
SELF-SERVICE
CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
PLATFORM

25. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
SAN FRANCISCO
COPENHAGEN
MELBOURNE
DUBLIN
SINGAPORE
Mobile
Voice
Help Center
Customer Support
Customer
Engagement
Platform
Infrastructure
Chat (Zopim)
Apps
Embeddables
Data

26. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
Ongoing challenges
• Growing (product & engineering) org
• Collaboration w/remote teams is hard
• Priority alignment amongst teams
• Shared resources e.g. infrastructure

27. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly

28. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
How do we work as a product org?
• Global alignment, local autonomy
• Co-locate scrum teams - PM, UX,
eng (& travel)
• Quarterly planning across teams
• Dogfood own products

29. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
Some challenges as a PM

30. © 2012 Copyright Zendesk Inc - Strictly
Questions?
Also, feel free to email me:
acottrell@zendesk.com

31. Product Director
Stewart Boon
Product Manager
@lukasm
Luke Meehan

32. Establishing Product in a community driven,
bootstrapped company.

33. Our Mission
To Help People Learn and Earn Online.

35. Aug 2006 Late 2008 Late 2009 Nov 2011
At the end of 2011 there were 6 developers and the
founder doing “Product Management”

36. Product People Product & Eng People
Product went from 3 small streams to 8 full ones,
while new strategy and marketing functions were introduced and all other
teams were growing as well.

37. There was not much in terms of...
Governance structures/processes
Honed and co-ordinated working practices (agile was new)
Clearly defined/delineated areas of responsibility
Web analytics function
A team that knows each other
Stable teams
An organisational understanding of “Product”
Clear understanding of who the Community were and how to engage with them.

39. We’ve come a fair way
Consistent (but always improving) agile practices
Prod Mgr and UX embedded in every stream
Stable teams
Role/value of product is clearer
Engagement and relationships within the Community through research, testing
and our forums

40. When the community succeeds,
we succeed
Envato Values #1

41. Our
Forums
“One negative response made me
think the world was ending and I
freaked out, but now it’s really
normalised. Now I don’t have to take
things so seriously.”

43. Tell It Like It Is
Envato Values #3

44. We’re still growing.

45. Obligatory “We’re Hiring Soon” slide
envato.com/careers

46. Thank you

48. How do *you* manage products?
16th April 2015