Vytautas Jakštys from Adform shared how they developed proof of concept for cross-device product. He tells how they came up with a product idea, how they tested it with first clients, built their team and entered market.

1. FROM 0 TO CROSS-DEVICE
Vytautas Jakštys, Product Owner
Vytautas.jakstys@adform.com

2. AGENDA
Personal background
What’s Adform?
What is the solution?
What problem does the solution solve?
Stages & lessons learned
Overview

3. PERSONAL BACKGROUND

4. Graduated Economics & Business
Joined Adform (almost) 2 years ago
No background in IT, product, management
Doing product stuff for ~6-9 months
Product Owner for ~3 months

5. WHAT IS ADFORM?

6. ONE PLATFORM
SINGLE VIEW OF THE USER ACROSS CHANNELS

7. PROBLEM

8. THE MULTI-SCREEN WORLD PROBLEM
Users own a large number
of devices
(On average 10 per
household; ~3-5 per person,
depending on region)
90% use multiple devices
to accomplish a task
One User, Multiple Ids
Source: Cisco VNI Service Adoption Forecast 2013–2018 White Paper

9. $$$?

10. SOLUTION

12. Targeting
Recognition
Impression Impression
& Click
Video
Play
Impression Conversion

13. STAGES

14. STAGES
Evaluating
Should we do it?
How do we do it?
POC #1
POC #2
Development
Go to market
Future

15. EVALUATING

16. SHOULD WE DO IT?

17. CAN WE DO IT?

18. EVALUATING
Should we do it?
Yep
Can we do it?
Yep (how well?)
Total time spent: ~5 minutes

19. POC

20. POC #1

21. POC #1
Time taken: ~2 months
• Found 1st client
• Understood process
• First technical challenges to overcome
• Results: problems with scale

22. POC #2

23. POC #2
Time taken: 3 months
• 3 more clients
• 2+ partnerships with providers
• Internal product knowledge
• More teams involved
• Lack of resources

24. POC - LESSONS LEARNED
Negative:
Why 2 stages?
Why POC overall?
Positive:
Client expectations
Partnership management
Company-wide product awareness
Would do again? No

25. DEVELOPMENT

26. STAGE 1
2+ DEV
No domain knowledge/experience
1 Month deadline + hard requirements
Rapid Development
2 cities
Result:
Unsellable product (PM mistake)
1st steps done for the engine
1.5 months for DEV w/o sellable product (PM mistake, again)
Understanding product/domain
Would do again? No

27. STAGE 2
3 DEV
Semi-proper roadmap
Solving client problems
Result:
Usable product (1st clients kicking in)
Back-end integrations with key system parts
Possible to optimize testing workflow
Time: ~1.5 months
Would do again? yes

28. STAGE 1&2: BOTTLENECKS
No clear business benefit of V1
Hassle between cities & technologies
Multitasking
Focus on back-end
No “what’s next” definition (stage 2)

29. STAGE 3: INTEGRATIONS
Building UI on connected products (2 products)
Time spent on waiting: 1.5 months
Time spent on DEV: 1 week (MAX)
PM mistake – not defined/communicated value
Bottlenecks:
Lack of communication
Lack of value explanation for other teams
Would do again? Yes (!!)

30. DEVELOPMENT STAGE LEARNINGS
POC is not enough – vision needed
Structured start is a must
Time waste
Resource waste
Motivation waste
Business value defined & communicated
What problem do we solve?
Envision, discuss, execute

31. GO TO MARKET

32. GO TO MARKET
Lots of talk about product in media over the
year/summer
Shippable product 1st week August
-> need PR/case study/quote/etc. to get through

33. GO TO MARKET - BOTTLENECKS
Only 1 client for case study (no diversification)
Had 2 ready, didn’t pursue
Client relationship problems
Minimal understanding of product within company
Result – ~6 weeks delay in PR

34. GO TO MARKET - RESULT

35. GO TO MARKET - LEARNINGS
Key product lifecycle component
First movers own the market
Little need to do it – talk!
Diversify options, if possible
Talk early – ship earlier (!!!)
Talk inside, talk outside

36. OVERALL LEARNINGS
Vision is a must
Plan dependencies
Address dependencies
Leave space for side turns
Testing – not mandatory
Blurry line between too early & too late
Sell – internally, externally; sell everywhere
Client services are crucial for product success

37. RESULTS -
1 year start -> rollout
Product deliverable within few months from start
Unreasonable cost/benefit of V1
No vision
No strategy
No “what do we solve” approach
Not first mover
Still only key functions shipped

38. RESULTS +
Board support & priority for resources
Market interest
Actual business growing
Shipped a working product

39. FUTURE
Short term:
Market push
Integrations
UI for value proposition
Additional features
Long-ish term:
Defined vision
Defining priorities/needed resources to achieve
Communication
$$$

40. WILL IT BE A HERO?

41. @adforminsider