Technology products today collect billions of signals from users, and Product Managers are increasingly responsible for shaping features based on a dynamic flow of data — as opposed to traditional static UI design. How can we most effectively build for the content and data that flow into our products? What is the right way to design machine learning features to jump the expectation gap users experience? Keren Baruch answered key questions about building products in a data-rich world derived from her experience running growth for Yahoo Mail and leading LinkedIn Salary.

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7. Keren Baruch

8. Data is the New UX
Keren Baruch, Senior Product Manager at LinkedIn

9. Hi! I’m Keren
@Kerenbe
linkedin.com/in/kerenbaruc
h

10. @Kerenbe

11. @Kerenbe

12. Provide access to opportunity at
scale through data and technology
Keren’s WIP Mission Statement
@Kerenbe

13. Marketing —> Product
Realized technology
was cool
Became a leader
Ate Kale for
the first time
Became a data nerd
and experimentalist
Made it!
Solving
salary
transparency
Fell in love with
Economics
Grew up, tap
dancing and
playing the cello
@Kerenbe

14. @Kerenbe

15. Imagine…
• First time PM
• Solving “Growth” for Yahoo Mail, a mature flagship product that has been
around for 16 years
• 8 engineers + designer + analyst
• Complete autonomy
…what do you do first?
@Kerenbe

16. What number are you
trying to move?
@Kerenbe

17. How can you set up to fail
quickly?
@Kerenbe

18. How can you set up to fail quickly?
• Build experimentation infrastructure
• Learn great experiment design
• Start with hacky designs and UX research
• Have a decision making framework
• Keep your learnings together
@Kerenbe

19. Doubled experiments every quarter for a year
@Kerenbe

20. What did we test?
• Can we get new users to use the product more by having them import
their contacts and see cool features?
• Can we get existing users to use the product more by showing them the
awesome tools we have for writing and organizing email?
@Kerenbe

21. …
@Kerenbe

22. @Kerenbe

23. Yahoo Mail is not a tool, it’s a
content experience
@Kerenbe

24. Let’s break it down
@Kerenbe

25. Medal
Counter
= Lift in Days Visited, Compose,
Send, Read, Reply, and Delete
for users who interacted
The first test…
Olympics medal counter
@Kerenbe

26. Help people add content
= Material improvement in new
user activation rate, leading to
greater retention
@Kerenbe

27. Questions to ask:
• What kind of data or content is flowing into the product?
• What parts of that content are members already interacting with?
• What rhythms to members already have around that data?
• How can we create new rhythms for that data to get members to come
back
@Kerenbe

28. Need new tools
@Kerenbe

29. Athena: take any number of
signals (defined by business)
and use them to target
members
@Kerenbe

30. Content-centric experimentation
platform
@Kerenbe

31. Focus on the number that you
are trying to move and the value
that is created from it
@Kerenbe

32. What Yahoo Mail Needed
• Content-based levers that separate signal from noise
• Machine-learning based features that serve content-based
recommendations
• Content experimentation platform for testing dynamic features versus
tool-like static features
@Kerenbe

33. Clip your coupons
@Kerenbe

34. Why LinkedIn Salary?
@Kerenbe

35. Building the worlds largest and
most up-to-date compensation
data to help LinkedIn members
make better decisions
@Kerenbe

36. Approaching the end…
@Kerenbe

37. Questions you should ask yourself
• To what extent is a technology product a function of its creator?
• How are the products that I use every day underpinned by a flow of data?
And how is that data flow being curated for a particular purpose?
• How am I, by being here, changing the character of this product or
project?
@Kerenbe

38. Sent an email to a relative -
opened up a coupon
@Kerenbe

39. Content-centric experimentation
platform
@Kerenbe

40. Hi!
@Kerenbe
linkedin.com/in/kerenbaruc
h

41. A Product Manager leads a technology product
or feature working with engineers, designers,
analytics, and marketing to design and execute
on a product strategy
What is a PM?
@Kerenbe

42. Characteristics of a PM
• Execution
• Product Sense
• Leadership
• Analytics
• Tech
@Kerenbe

43. My favorite PM framework
Artist
Scientist Politician
@Kerenbe

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