Deflect Praise, Take The Blame | Balaji Gopalan | ProductTank Toronto
We are excited to have Balaji Gopalan, talk to us about deflecting praise and taking the blame when it comes to product management - one of the principles in the Manifesto. Balaji is an experienced and well-known member of the Toronto technology community. Building off his extensive career in Product Management at companies such as BlackBerry (where he launched and built the initial roadmap for BlackBerry Messenger, and where he mentored many local business leaders), D2L, Nymi and EventMobi, he created and now teaches the Intro to Product Management course at Brainstation, a unique 30-hour curriculum that extends from product culture to customer research to product development to roadmap management. Balaji is now a passionate advocate and active member of the Toronto entrepreneurial scene, as co-founder and CEO of healthcare app enabler company MedStack, member of the selection committee at the Ryerson DMZ and advisor and mentor to a number of local startups. Thanks to our generous sponsors: The Working Group (TWG), Hover, and LoyaltyOne. --------------------------------- Join us in the #toronto channel on Slack: http://slack.mindtheproduct.com/
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Deflect Praise, Take The Blame | Balaji Gopalan | ProductTank Toronto
- 2. Who is this guy? Balaji Gopalan @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 5. Product: •A thing of value that is created •and delivered •to customers •in competition against alternatives Product: •A thing of value that is created •and delivered •to customers •in competition against alternatives @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 6. USD $60M 950 kph+ 12,000 km range 30m length Assembled in Toronto @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 15. Find out what people want Find out what people want Build itBuild it Sell itSell it Get feedbackGet feedback @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 17. CustomersCustomers ChannelsChannels CompetitionCompetition Technology trendsTechnology trends Core competenciesCore competencies Corporate strategyCorporate strategy Functional talentsFunctional talents Functional tasksFunctional tasks DiplomacyDiplomacy ConfidenceConfidence InterpersonalInterpersonal HumilityHumility Technical acumenTechnical acumen Attention to detailAttention to detail AnalyticalAnalytical LeadershipLeadership External data Internal data Skills and talents DECISIONS | DIRECTIONS | EVANGELISMDECISIONS | DIRECTIONS | EVANGELISM @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 19. Risks Technical Requirements Technology Complexity and Interfaces Performances and Reliability Quality External Regulatory Subcontractors and Suppliers Weather Market Customer Organizational Resources Project Dependencies Funding Prioritization External Estimating Communication Planning Controlling @balajigopalan73 / 2016
- 20. Engineering wants to: • Work on fun stuff that people will see • Finish what they’ve started Marketing wants to: • Access opportunities for big messages • Play off the latest trends Support wants to: • Keep call volumes low • Avoid large changes in portfolio Sales wants to: • Look like heroes to Customer • Offer stuff that “sells itself” Operations wants to: • Keep risk to a minimum, avoid changes • Reduce ongoing costs
- 21. It’s not about the products. It’s not about technology. It’s about PEOPLE: Your colleagues. Your Customers. You work for THEM. @balajigopalan73 / 2016
Editor's Notes
- Demonstrate Product experience of the speaker. Highlight that one doesn’t always have the title “Product Manager” to do PdM work.
- Demonstrate Product experience of the speaker. Highlight that one doesn’t always have the title “Product Manager” to do PdM work.
- Here’s a dictionary definition. Read it to the group, but then show the highlight.
- Ref previous slide, ask what they all have in common.
- It’s PdM’s role to orchestrate the efforts of all these functions to optimize vs market dynamics
- How do products typically get built? Seems very simple? What could go wrong?
- How do Product Managers close this gap between market dynamics and functional focus? Through Data and Relationships. Show the kinds of data PdMs work with, say these are just some examples. Then show the skills. Highlight: technical skill and its importance is something we’ll discuss shortly. Most importantly, you have to be able to engage with the functions you work with. Also here mention RACI chart and its importance to the role. Product typically has overall accountability for success, but rarely authority to command. Get blamed if anything goes wrong, give credit to functions when it goes right.
- So sometimes things go well by accident, sometimes very badly, and occasionally there are big opportunities to be captured. Why does it seem so random? Because functions each have their own motivations. Here are examples.