Ever wondered what the difference is between B2B and B2C product management? In this event, Anand discussed the core of what it is like to be an Enterprise Product Manager, drawing upon his experience at Microsoft and Checkr. Enterprise Product Management has different challenges and rewards than consumer products, and while you may find that consumer products are more exciting, think Spotify, Snapchat, Instagram,, working on an Enterprise product is extremely fascinating as well.
Aside from general Enterprise Product Management, Anand talked about what it is like to be a Product Manager at a startup vs. a large company, the exciting things happening in the background check space and his experience working with people across various disciplines.
14. “...organizational lifecycle function within a company
dealing with the planning, forecasting, and production,
or marketing of a product or products at all stages of
the product lifecycle…” (for the Enterprise)
15. ● Work with stakeholders (internal or external) to
support their business needs through a defined
product and iterate/innovate on those needs
● Examples:
○ Amazon (AWS)
○ Zenefits
○ Checkr
○ ZeroCater
Defining an Enterprise PM
16. Cohort customers to
capture requirements
One “buyer”
Roadmap can be destroyed
New vs. redefining old
Growth potential nearly
unlimited
Monetization sometimes not
obvious
Enterprise Consumer
18. ● Customers will want everything to be fully end-to-
end, tested, and production ready
● Hard to convince a customer (or buyer) to switch
to a half-baked solution without an interesting
value proposition
● Even if solution is “better” than what is existing,
have to consider switching cost, training, support,
etc.
Challenges
20. ● Slack just “blew up” in
2013
○ Missing key phase of
feedback!
● Through feedback came
discovery of how to
build a generalized chat
solution
○ Rdio, Cozy, others
Slack Overview
21. ● Slack was in “beta” for over 6 months
● Enterprise products affect entire teams, as
opposed to consumers affecting individual
users
● Customer feedback is critical not just in
beginning but continuously
Learnings
23. ● Blindly taking in customer
requests will lead to
disjointed product
● Have to have a strategy
behind product decisions
made
● Cliche warning: North Star
Strategy & Vision
27. 1. Direct, in-person interviews
2. Observing customer usage of Product
3. Getting information from Customer facing
teams
4. Just take your best guess and assume!!!
Getting Enterprise Feedback
29. Big
- “Buy-in” is name of the
game
- Decisions are mostly
top-down
- Release schedule
varies
Big vs. small company
Small
- Think fast, release
faster
- Decisions bottom-up
with approval from
leadership
- Open to different ideas
from anyone
30. ● Windows Developer
Platform
● 6 month release cycle
● Massive amounts of
testing
● Roadmaps planned out 1-2
years in advance
● Worked across
many teams
● See rapid
customer and
company growth
● Product decisions
change quarter to
quarter
31. ● Roadmaps entirely
customer driven
● Every project subject
to change
● Deal size given highest
priority
Product Process (beginning)
32. ● Strategic projects
incorporated into
roadmap
● Value of customer
considered but not
absolute
● Time set aside for
discovery vs.
implementation
Product Process (today)
33. 1. Meetings with stakeholders, customers
2. Time set aside for spec writing
3. Feedback sessions with Engineering
4. Sprint planning & reviews
5. Extra time devoted to quarter / long term
planning
Day to Day
34. ● Enterprise PM involves a lot
of customer interaction
● Take feedback and use it to
drive enhancements to
products and workflows
● Use observation to derive real
customer need for product
innovation
● Gifs make presentations
better
Key Takeaways
36. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, Austin,
Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, London, Toronto
www.productschool.com
Editor's Notes
understand web analytics, learn SQL, and machine learning concepts
Change to dark background
Add agenda
Delete Ch
(maybe) add day to day of PM
Size of the customer
Annual revenue brought in by customer
Brand
How the customer grows relative to the stage the company is at
Goals: Improve internal processes, reduce support tickets, improve customer onboarding,
Enterprise
Easier to capture customer requirements
Can build on top of initial product easily
Usually need to convince one “buyer” to use your product
Change management
Large customers can derail roadmap
Bugs can lead to customer churn
Consumer
About creating a “new” experience (i.e. Mint, Instagram, Blue Apron)
If product market fit exists, growth potential unlimited
Hard to get massive amounts of consumer feedback
Validation by a few initial customers may not be enough
Monetization model not obvious
Takes time to learn how a customer uses a product
All about minimizing risk and switching cost
Easier to try “land and expand” strategy
Slack: 10K tweets and Zendesk feedback tickets monthly
Beta tested with original company Deliv, iterated through YC
founders realized pain in BGC industry
Technology forward solution
Existing workflows not disrupted, but enhanced
PAM: Positive Adjudication Matrix
Devised after years of understanding customer behavior
Customers want to process results of background checks as fast as possible
Technology based solution to automatically classify and hide irrelevant charges
Difference between asking and observing
No customer said “I want an automated adjudication matrix”
It is possible to delight customers without satisfying their immediate wants
“I want faster background checks” -> “I want faster processing of the results of a background check”
“I want a cookie” -> “I want quick access to healthy snacks so I don’t eat cookies”
Caveat: Sometimes large customers can derail roadmap with very specific needs and wants that are not strategic
Beta tested with original company Deliv, iterated through YC
founders realized pain in BGC industry
Technology forward solution
Existing workflows not disrupted, but enhanced
Beta tested with original company Deliv, iterated through YC
founders realized pain in BGC industry
Technology forward solution
Existing workflows not disrupted, but enhanced
Beta tested with original company Deliv, iterated through YC
founders realized pain in BGC industry
Technology forward solution
Existing workflows not disrupted, but enhanced
Beta tested with original company Deliv, iterated through YC
founders realized pain in BGC industry
Technology forward solution
Existing workflows not disrupted, but enhanced