The document summarizes a presentation given by Lucy Meadow, a Senior Product Manager at Expedia, about her day-to-day work. It discusses the key roles of a product manager, including leading teams, executing on visions and strategies, and using data and the scientific method to validate product decisions. It also outlines Meadow's process for identifying customer opportunities, gathering stakeholder input, developing roadmaps, and continuously measuring results to refine products. The presentation was given on the website Productschool.com to provide information to students in their online product management courses.
How to Break Into Product Management by Uber Product ManagerProduct School
Darrell focused on how he broke into product. He walked through his career and some of the lessons that he learned on the road to becoming a Product Manager at Uber.
How to Prioritize as a PM by Google's Product ManagerProduct School
In order to build the best possible solution, a product manager needs to understand why they are building. Once the problem and stakeholders have been identified, how does a PM tackle solving it? Jeff Betts, a Product Manager at Google, covered this problem-solving framework and share insights and anecdotes from his user-first approach to product development and prioritization strategy.
How to Effectively Onboard as a Product Manager by LinkedIn PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
- Your onboarding period as a Product Manager can determine your effectiveness for the duration of your time on a team.
- Learn the “3 P’s” that the onboarding framework is based around: People, Product, and Process.
- Set up a 30–60–90 day plan that will allow you to maximize results for years to come.
Managing Conflicting Stakeholders by Deliveroo Sr Product Manager (1).pdfProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Alignment on overall goals and outcomes is key
- Build empathy for diverse points of view
- If in doubt escalate in the spirit of seeking input on "hotly contested" topics
What Are the Basics of Product Manager Interviews by Google PMProduct School
Ankit walked through an intro to the Product Manager role, the skills needed, and how the role differs between small and large companies. He wrapped up with some advice that's helped him in his Product Manager interviews over the years.
He gave a structured approach to thinking about what a Product Manager actually does (structured, meaning no "top 10" lists) and what are the skills you need to do well as a Product Manager.
Feature Prioritization Frameworks by Spotify Sr PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
-Why Feature Prioritization is Important?
-Overview of the popular prioritization frameworks: Rice, Value vs. ---Effort, The MoSCoW Method, Kano, Opportunities
-How to use frameworks?
-Tips and Tricks
The product roadmap is a plan of action that outlines of tactical steps to execute the product strategy pushing the product ahead in the trajectory of planned direction in alignment with the product vision while accomplishing short-term and long-term product objectives
How to Break Into Product Management by Uber Product ManagerProduct School
Darrell focused on how he broke into product. He walked through his career and some of the lessons that he learned on the road to becoming a Product Manager at Uber.
How to Prioritize as a PM by Google's Product ManagerProduct School
In order to build the best possible solution, a product manager needs to understand why they are building. Once the problem and stakeholders have been identified, how does a PM tackle solving it? Jeff Betts, a Product Manager at Google, covered this problem-solving framework and share insights and anecdotes from his user-first approach to product development and prioritization strategy.
How to Effectively Onboard as a Product Manager by LinkedIn PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
- Your onboarding period as a Product Manager can determine your effectiveness for the duration of your time on a team.
- Learn the “3 P’s” that the onboarding framework is based around: People, Product, and Process.
- Set up a 30–60–90 day plan that will allow you to maximize results for years to come.
Managing Conflicting Stakeholders by Deliveroo Sr Product Manager (1).pdfProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Alignment on overall goals and outcomes is key
- Build empathy for diverse points of view
- If in doubt escalate in the spirit of seeking input on "hotly contested" topics
What Are the Basics of Product Manager Interviews by Google PMProduct School
Ankit walked through an intro to the Product Manager role, the skills needed, and how the role differs between small and large companies. He wrapped up with some advice that's helped him in his Product Manager interviews over the years.
He gave a structured approach to thinking about what a Product Manager actually does (structured, meaning no "top 10" lists) and what are the skills you need to do well as a Product Manager.
Feature Prioritization Frameworks by Spotify Sr PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
-Why Feature Prioritization is Important?
-Overview of the popular prioritization frameworks: Rice, Value vs. ---Effort, The MoSCoW Method, Kano, Opportunities
-How to use frameworks?
-Tips and Tricks
The product roadmap is a plan of action that outlines of tactical steps to execute the product strategy pushing the product ahead in the trajectory of planned direction in alignment with the product vision while accomplishing short-term and long-term product objectives
Taking Your Product From 0 to 100 by Facebook Product ManagerProduct School
Key takeaways:
- Taking your product from 0 to 100 (and everything in between). Depending on the product/ initiative stage in the lifecycle: Alpha (0 to 1), Beta (1 to 10) or Growth (10 to 100)
- What are the success criteria and KPIs to focus on
- Which common pitfalls should be avoided
Prioritization Method for Every Case by fmr Atlassian Principal PMProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Prioritization is about understanding each other and making alignment.
- Choose an appropriate prioritization method depending on your project situation and stakeholder group.
- Find a way to scale up or down your prioritization method and balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches.
A talk I gave at Google on Strategy and Product Discovery
We discussed:
Discovering Features and Products (Product Strategy)
Discovering Products and Product Lines (Product Line / Company Strategy)
Marty Cagan: Using High Fidelity Prototypes for Product Discovery
Intro to Data Analytics with Oscar's Director of ProductProduct School
The Director of Product at Oscar, Vasudev Vadlamudi, went over key types of quantitative analysis that B2C product managers use on the job including: funnels, cohorts, and a/b testing. For each one he looked into when and why they are used, and used examples.
How We Reorganized Our Entire Post-Sales OrganizationGainsight
One of Gainsight's principles is to "Carry the Torch" for the Customer Success industry. We've shared a lot about innovations in our processes, but not as much about our organization. In this session, Allison Pickens, VP of Customer Success and Business Operations at Gainsight, will share the story of how we re-organized post-sales to drive success for our customers.
Behind every great product is a great team doing work in a way that guarantees results. They are following a roadmap from the starting point to the end product. But a product roadmap can be elusive. This talk addresses why it is important and presents an approach to make one.
How to Use Data to Drive Product Decisions by PayPal PMProduct School
Product Managers spend a lot of time thinking about our product metrics, determining which KPIs best describe our progress and what measures we can take to accelerate our success. As a new Product Manager, parsing through the ocean of data can be overwhelming and using this data to make product decisions can be a challenging task.
Deb talked about how you can incorporate data through out your product life cycle to drive product decisions, feature prioritization and long term roadmap strategy. She walked through simple use cases where data has helped Product Managers break down complex problems and arrive at simple product decisions that directly impacted their KPIs. The industry is increasingly hiring data driven Product Managers.
How To Optimize Your Product Using Analytics by Dan OlsenProduct School
Product Management Event Held at the Product Conference in Silicon Valley.
Dan talked about what to do after you've launched your product to the market and how to use analytics to improve and optimize it. He shared his process for how to think about this approach. He also discussed the importance of identifying the metric that matters the most.
Finding the one growth metric that mattersSean Ellis
From social media to website analytics, there are literally hundreds of things you could track, measure and try to improve. But what is the one metric that if improved would mean a big win for your business?
This deck will help you hone in on the metrics that really matter to your business. You’ll get their insights on the tools and strategies you need to find, prioritize and grow the numbers that will result in big wins for your business.
Intro to Data Analytics with EA's Director of ProductProduct School
Building an analytics strategy is crucial for every product manager. How do you build and implement an effective product analytics strategy that quantifies and drives product success and iteration? Director of Product at Electronic Arts, Bertram Chan, talked about how data analytics is no longer a luxury, its a competitive and integral need for Product Managers. He also discussed ways to understand not only who your users are but how they behave.
Customer to Product Idea Iteration by Amazon's Product ManagerProduct School
In this talk, Akshay Kerur from Amazon explored working backwards from the concept/customer to an initial product idea.
Main takeaways:
1. Why it's so important to put your product on paper.
2. Questions you need to know and answer about a product prior to any engineering commitment.
3. Ratifying your product idea through proper customer and internal stakeholder identification.
The Types of Product Management Roles by PayPal Sr Product ManagerProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Each Product management role is unique. What are the various types of product management roles and how to identify the right one for you.
- Overview of types of PM roles - growth, platform, data, mobile applications, product marketing, internal tools, API, etc.
- How to use your background to make your job search targeted and position yourself for success.
Building an SEO Exponential Growth model by closing your content gapsRazvan Gavrilas
Content Gap Analysis, Keyword Research & Content Optimization for SEO is one of the most powerful techniques to achieve continuous SEO growth. It will allow you to discover new opportunities & optimize to achieve top rankings in Google for both existing & new content. BrightonSEO April 2019.
How to Cooperate in Product by Extrahop Product Marketing LeadProduct School
In this talk, Isaac focused on the cooperation between the different actors included in product. Some key takeaways of the presentation include:
- Align your GTM engine across product, marketing, and sales
- Making product decisions from an engineering & market point of view
- How to successfully partner with product marketing and sales teams
How to launch a NEW product successfully on Amazon | BrightonSEO | Prabhat ShahDaytodayebay
There are millions of products on Amazon, and launching a new product can be challenging. This talk at BrightonSEO is about learning the steps to launch products successfully and getting things right the first time.
Key topics:
// Product Listing Optimisaiton
// Infographics and Videos
// Product Promotions
// Accelerating Product Reviews
// Amazon Branding Pages ( A+ )
// External Traffic and Tracking Success
Contact: https://www.daytodayebay.co.uk/contact-us/
What is a Product Manager? by Datank.ai's Product ManagerProduct School
Main takeaways:
- What is a Product Manager?
- What are some Product Manager archetypes?
- What does a day in the life of a Product Manager look like?
- How do you become a Product Manager?
Your Roadmap, Your Product Story & Datadriven Product ManagementProduct School
From this presentation you will find out more about becoming a Data-Driven Product Manager.
Get a FREE copy of our Product Book here: https://prdct.school/2BSES8J
How to Build a Product Vision by Spotify Product ManagerProduct School
In this episode, Matt Williams talks about building a product vision and getting stakeholder buy in. He also covers 'managing up' and how to navigate within your organization, whilst fostering an understanding of vision and user empathy with engineers.
Taking Your Product From 0 to 100 by Facebook Product ManagerProduct School
Key takeaways:
- Taking your product from 0 to 100 (and everything in between). Depending on the product/ initiative stage in the lifecycle: Alpha (0 to 1), Beta (1 to 10) or Growth (10 to 100)
- What are the success criteria and KPIs to focus on
- Which common pitfalls should be avoided
Prioritization Method for Every Case by fmr Atlassian Principal PMProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Prioritization is about understanding each other and making alignment.
- Choose an appropriate prioritization method depending on your project situation and stakeholder group.
- Find a way to scale up or down your prioritization method and balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches.
A talk I gave at Google on Strategy and Product Discovery
We discussed:
Discovering Features and Products (Product Strategy)
Discovering Products and Product Lines (Product Line / Company Strategy)
Marty Cagan: Using High Fidelity Prototypes for Product Discovery
Intro to Data Analytics with Oscar's Director of ProductProduct School
The Director of Product at Oscar, Vasudev Vadlamudi, went over key types of quantitative analysis that B2C product managers use on the job including: funnels, cohorts, and a/b testing. For each one he looked into when and why they are used, and used examples.
How We Reorganized Our Entire Post-Sales OrganizationGainsight
One of Gainsight's principles is to "Carry the Torch" for the Customer Success industry. We've shared a lot about innovations in our processes, but not as much about our organization. In this session, Allison Pickens, VP of Customer Success and Business Operations at Gainsight, will share the story of how we re-organized post-sales to drive success for our customers.
Behind every great product is a great team doing work in a way that guarantees results. They are following a roadmap from the starting point to the end product. But a product roadmap can be elusive. This talk addresses why it is important and presents an approach to make one.
How to Use Data to Drive Product Decisions by PayPal PMProduct School
Product Managers spend a lot of time thinking about our product metrics, determining which KPIs best describe our progress and what measures we can take to accelerate our success. As a new Product Manager, parsing through the ocean of data can be overwhelming and using this data to make product decisions can be a challenging task.
Deb talked about how you can incorporate data through out your product life cycle to drive product decisions, feature prioritization and long term roadmap strategy. She walked through simple use cases where data has helped Product Managers break down complex problems and arrive at simple product decisions that directly impacted their KPIs. The industry is increasingly hiring data driven Product Managers.
How To Optimize Your Product Using Analytics by Dan OlsenProduct School
Product Management Event Held at the Product Conference in Silicon Valley.
Dan talked about what to do after you've launched your product to the market and how to use analytics to improve and optimize it. He shared his process for how to think about this approach. He also discussed the importance of identifying the metric that matters the most.
Finding the one growth metric that mattersSean Ellis
From social media to website analytics, there are literally hundreds of things you could track, measure and try to improve. But what is the one metric that if improved would mean a big win for your business?
This deck will help you hone in on the metrics that really matter to your business. You’ll get their insights on the tools and strategies you need to find, prioritize and grow the numbers that will result in big wins for your business.
Intro to Data Analytics with EA's Director of ProductProduct School
Building an analytics strategy is crucial for every product manager. How do you build and implement an effective product analytics strategy that quantifies and drives product success and iteration? Director of Product at Electronic Arts, Bertram Chan, talked about how data analytics is no longer a luxury, its a competitive and integral need for Product Managers. He also discussed ways to understand not only who your users are but how they behave.
Customer to Product Idea Iteration by Amazon's Product ManagerProduct School
In this talk, Akshay Kerur from Amazon explored working backwards from the concept/customer to an initial product idea.
Main takeaways:
1. Why it's so important to put your product on paper.
2. Questions you need to know and answer about a product prior to any engineering commitment.
3. Ratifying your product idea through proper customer and internal stakeholder identification.
The Types of Product Management Roles by PayPal Sr Product ManagerProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- Each Product management role is unique. What are the various types of product management roles and how to identify the right one for you.
- Overview of types of PM roles - growth, platform, data, mobile applications, product marketing, internal tools, API, etc.
- How to use your background to make your job search targeted and position yourself for success.
Building an SEO Exponential Growth model by closing your content gapsRazvan Gavrilas
Content Gap Analysis, Keyword Research & Content Optimization for SEO is one of the most powerful techniques to achieve continuous SEO growth. It will allow you to discover new opportunities & optimize to achieve top rankings in Google for both existing & new content. BrightonSEO April 2019.
How to Cooperate in Product by Extrahop Product Marketing LeadProduct School
In this talk, Isaac focused on the cooperation between the different actors included in product. Some key takeaways of the presentation include:
- Align your GTM engine across product, marketing, and sales
- Making product decisions from an engineering & market point of view
- How to successfully partner with product marketing and sales teams
How to launch a NEW product successfully on Amazon | BrightonSEO | Prabhat ShahDaytodayebay
There are millions of products on Amazon, and launching a new product can be challenging. This talk at BrightonSEO is about learning the steps to launch products successfully and getting things right the first time.
Key topics:
// Product Listing Optimisaiton
// Infographics and Videos
// Product Promotions
// Accelerating Product Reviews
// Amazon Branding Pages ( A+ )
// External Traffic and Tracking Success
Contact: https://www.daytodayebay.co.uk/contact-us/
What is a Product Manager? by Datank.ai's Product ManagerProduct School
Main takeaways:
- What is a Product Manager?
- What are some Product Manager archetypes?
- What does a day in the life of a Product Manager look like?
- How do you become a Product Manager?
Your Roadmap, Your Product Story & Datadriven Product ManagementProduct School
From this presentation you will find out more about becoming a Data-Driven Product Manager.
Get a FREE copy of our Product Book here: https://prdct.school/2BSES8J
How to Build a Product Vision by Spotify Product ManagerProduct School
In this episode, Matt Williams talks about building a product vision and getting stakeholder buy in. He also covers 'managing up' and how to navigate within your organization, whilst fostering an understanding of vision and user empathy with engineers.
Intro to Product Management by Trunk Club Product ManagerProduct School
Ever wondered what it’s like to work as a Product Manager? What about as a Product Manager at Trunk Club?
Matt Holihan, Product Manager at Trunk Club, discussed what it’s like to work in this dynamic role and what it takes to get your foot in the door. He also gave the inside scoop on the day-to-day work as a Product Manager, the challenges of the job and personal insight.
The Product Management Journey by Adobe & PayPal PMsProduct School
Speakers from Adobe and PayPal, have spent a good number of years as Product Managers in their respective companies. Their stories give you an idea of how the role of a Product Manager evolves with time.
How to Differentiate B2B vs. B2C Product Management by fmr Microsoft PMProduct School
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.
How to Leverage Your Skill Set for Product by Google Product ManagerProduct School
Product managers love to apply frameworks to solving big thorny business challenges in their day to day. Interestingly enough, one can use a framework for the PM job itself to abstract away the details and optimize for success. Learn about the most important advice on how to leverage your skills here
How to Make Your Resume Product Friendly by Ticketmaster PMProduct School
How to transform your resume to apply for a Product Management position?
Are you trying to break into Product Management and having a hard time getting called in for an interview? Thinking your resume may be affecting your chances? In this session, Haydee gave tips on how to transform your resume so that it highlights the experience and skills to get you in the door. This session is ideally suited for User Experience professionals, Business Analysts, or Developers seeking to transition into Product Management.
Webinar: How to be Data Driven with Product by Carbon Five Sr PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
- How to balance decision making between qualitative and quantitative metrics
- Developing your first data strategy
- Creating a lean analytic process to build, measure, learn
How to Break Into Product Management Role by fmr Adobe PMProduct School
Main takeaways:
- Are Product Managers really mini-CEO's as people claim
- How to acquire the Product Management skills while working in your current role
- Networking is key
How to Manage a Mixed Portfolio of Products by Salesforce PMProduct School
Major Takeaways:
- Conduct meaningful buy vs. build assessments: total cost of ownership, using 3rd parties to prove an internal build investment, influence their road maps
- Think big and take on risk: bring internal engineers the challenge of building better than what's out there
- Look w/in the business: Salesforce on Salesforce and other internal partnerships
How to Run a Data Driven Product Dev Organization by Skedulo CPMProduct School
In this presentation, learn about where to start in the data & analytics journey or, if you’re already on this journey, tips on making it more successful so your good product can become great with data & analytics.
Main takeaways:
-The vast majority of Product Managers don't have the knowledge or direct experience using data to inform development
-Learn how companies evolve from an idea in a garage to data juggernauts
-Understand the data tools available to Product Managers and how to adapt your organization to use them
Presented at Agile Singapore 2016
https://confengine.com/agile-singapore-2016/proposal/2632/user-experience-for-product-managers
Why is UX important for Product Managers? Gain an understanding of the concept and discipline of user experience - defined, explained and made actionable for Product Managers.
Learn how UX tools and artifacts can help you make better product decisions, and how to overcome common objections to UX processes.
Outline/structure of the Session
- The Value of User Experience (UX) beyond screens and interfaces
- Discover how UX is Critical to your business and bottom line, including ROI of UX
- Developing a UX Strategy Blueprint
- Learning to Integrate UX Data points into your product development decision-making process using personas
- Learn how to overcome common business objections to implementing UX processes
Learning Outcome
Takeaways
- Understand the value of user experience, beyond just screens and interfaces
- Discover how user experience is critical to your business and the bottom line, including the ROI of UX
- Learn to integrate UX data points into your product development decision-making process using personas
- Learn how to overcome common business objections to implementing UX processes
Target Audience
Product Heads, Product Managers, Product Owners, Developers, Team Leads
Digital Product Management Overview - Dubai Digital & Tech at AstrolabsAngela Govila
Are you interested creating products that your customers can’t stop talking about? Well this talk is for you! Angela Govila is a seasoned product management executive with leadership experience from Fortune 50 companies. She provided an interactive and engaging session in Dubai that covered these slides. You can find the videos on her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxyk2cEjkeAbM25RtoC-ygg?
How to Get a PM Role w/ Non-Tech Background by Salesforce PMProduct School
In this presentation, Tanvi Dali discusses how to position yourself so that your dots will connect to land you a PM opportunity in the future. For those who are already in PM, she also discusses a few tips on how to make a good first impression (within the first 90-days as a new PM) and what a typical day or week looks like as a PM at Salesforce.
Why And How to Transition into Product Management by Google PMProduct School
Nabil Shahid walks through their journey to Product Management in the world of tech, talking about how to market your skills and how to get into the industry. He also touches on balancing knowledge and personal experience with what's best for a wider user group.
Similar to A Day in the Life of a Product Manager by Expedia Senior PM (20)
Webinar How PMs Use AI to 10X Their Productivity by Product School EiR.pdfProduct School
Explore AI tools hands-on and smoothly integrate them into your work routine. This practical experience is here to empower you, offering insights into the mindset of successful Product Managers. Learn the skills to become a more effective Product Manager.
Main Takeaways:
Hands-On AI Integration:
Learn practical strategies for integrating AI tools into your workflow effectively.
Mindset Insights for Success:
Gain valuable insights into the mindset of successful Product Managers, unlocking the secrets to their achievements.
Skill Empowerment for Growth:
Acquire essential skills that empower your evolution toward becoming a more effective and impactful Product Manager.
Webinar: Using GenAI for Increasing Productivity in PM by Amazon PM LeaderProduct School
In this webinar, you will learn how AI can take work off your plate, allowing you to focus on deep thinking or critical work. Cut out the drudge work in Product Management and get more out of your day.
Learnings:
Improve workflows that are high frequency - "manual tasks"
Increase the quality of output that has high importance - "brainy tasks"
Put GenAI to work today
Unlocking High-Performance Product Teams by former Meta Global PMMProduct School
Main Takeaways:
- High-Performing Team Dynamics: You’ll gain insights into fostering high-performance teamwork.
- Unveiling Team Personas: You’ll learn about different personas in the team and how to foster these differences.
- Decoding the Team Needs x Productivity Equation: You’ll learn about different team needs and how they correlate with engagement and productivity.
The Types of TPM Content Roles by Facebook product LeaderProduct School
Product Managers come from all kinds of backgrounds. Those who want to pursue this path often stumble upon it by chance or discover it during their well-established careers. If you are one of those looking to make a conscious transition, there are a few things you must consider first!
Main Takeaways:
- The different types of roles that exist and what they do
- Which role is best suited for you?
- How to succeed in your role
Match Is the New Sell in The Digital World by Amazon Product leaderProduct School
Main takeaways:
- What is Platform business model - present and future of digital products
- Characteristics and key to success of Platforms - not sales but effective matching
- Metrics to measure performance of Platforms - accumulation, connection and interaction
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
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9. A Day in the Life of a Product Manager
What would you say you do here?
Lucy Meadow
Sr. Product Manager
Expedia Group
www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-meadow
10. Agenda
● What defines Product Management?
● High level Product Development process
● Product Manager roles
● The Synthesis of Product Development Process and
Product Manager Roles
● Agile Product Methodology
● The Scientific Method
● Let’s recap
● Questions
11. What would
you say you
do here?
“The role of a product
manager is to
discover a product
that is valuable,
usable and feasible”
- Marty Cagan, Inspired: How to
Create Products Customers
Love
12. How do we
get all this
done?
Technology
User
Experience
Business
Product
Manager
15. CEO
●Emotional intelligence
●Relationship building
●Wits and influence to get sh*t done
●Combo of instincts, energy and decisions
●Buck stops with you
●Get none of the glory and all of the blame
●Satisfaction comes from knowing you’ve
created and driven a good product
16. Coach
● Product Managers might not “do”
anything but still “in the mix”
● KYP (know your personnel)
● Understands how people work together
● Intuits which plays to call in the crucial
moments
● Inspire, motivate, and convince their
team
17. Janitor
● Do as much dirty work as possible so
everyone else doesn’t have to
● Unblock the team so can keep the
engine running
● Fade into the background when
needed
● Making unsexy little decisions that
need to be made by someone
18. Hammer
●Decisive decision making
●Influence and persuasion to gain alignment
●Force, grace and authority to gain trust and
respect
●Confidence and humility
●Make people commit to a clear position and
establish course of action
●Drive to resolution
19. Expert User
●Know the product better than anyone
●Use the product every day
●Can speak the language of the
engineering team
●This helps drive vision and
prioritization as well as conversations
with stakeholders and partner teams
20. At the end of the day…
…you’re the product itself.
21. How do these
roles overlay
onto the
Product
Development
process?
LEAD
DO
THINK
PARTNER
Identify the
opportunity
Validate
opportunity
Get the required
buy-in
Build out a
vision, strategy &
plan
Execute on the
vision, strategy &
plan
Assess
performance and
decide on next
steps
22. Make the customer’s experience better
and make $$$
Be measurable
Consider scalable product loops
23. Engage the partner teams to size,
validate and refine the problem and/or
opportunity
24. Identify, engage and influence key
stakeholders and sponsors about the
value of investing in solving the
customer problem
25. Identify key stakeholders and align vision, strategy
and goals to address the opportunity
Obtain feedback and refine the vision, strategy and
plan from the key stakeholders and sponsors
Publish and evangelize the final vision, strategy and
plan for the broader audience
26. Build roadmap and prioritized backlog to show how
and when you plan to deliver key results
Set expectations and establish workflow with core
working teams
Provide detailed product requirements and make
necessary trade-off decisions
Communicate status to all stakeholders
27. Measure and validate accuracy of performance
Use data, observations and insights to validate the
success of investments
Use this information to define next steps
31. And how do
you know if
you’re building
the right
product?
32.
33.
34. Observations
• Search Landing Pages display the
same content to returning visitors
• Repeat visits represent almost half
of all visits
• Returning visitors are worth almost
2x as much as new visitors
• Our competitors display more
relevant and personalized
information to returning visitors
35. Hypothesis
By adding different yet relevant
content to returning visitors on SEO
Landing Pages based on information
we analyzed from their first visit;
They will keep our brand top of mind
when they are ready to purchase;
By being more likely to click, engage
and return throughout the various
phases of their travel purchasing
process
37. Success Metrics
• Primary: Click Through
Rate
• Secondary: Do no harm to
Traffic/Visits, Repeat Visitor
Rate, Conversion, Bounce
Rate, Gross Profit (GP)
38. Conclusion
• Inconclusive
• Not enough traffic
• Learned a lot about
underlying technical
platforms
• Used connection built to run
3 more tests, 2 of which
were winners
46. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management, Coding, Data, Digital
Marketing and Blockchain courses in San Francisco, Silicon
Valley, New York, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Austin, Boston,
Boulder, Chicago, Denver, Orange County, Seattle, Bellevue,
Toronto, London and Online
Editor's Notes
Hello and welcome to A Day in the Life of a Product Manager.
I’m Lucy Meadow, a Sr. Product Manager currently working at Expedia and I’ve been working in Product Management for the last ten years.
The goal of today’s presentation is to provide a high level overview of the Product Management development process and better understand the different roles that a Product Manager assumes within each step. Product Management is a murky role. It varies from company to company, and even from team to team. My hope is that you take away a better understanding of what it means to be a product manager and how product managers engage in cross functional teams. Please hold your questions till the end.
So what does a Product Manager do? Marty Cagan, who is widely recognized as the primary thought leader for technology product management, says that the role of a product manager is to discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible.
Considering this definition, there are two main parts of a Product Manager’s role. The first is knowing the customer and understanding what is valuable and usable to them. And the second is deciding what you’re going to build and how, which determines what is feasible.
And we certainly don’t do it on our own. One of the most important jobs of a Product Manager is establishing relationships with the many teams that help us execute on our vision. Simply stated, it’s our job to properly understand the customer problem, confirm with the business that we are meeting their needs, and then work with User Experience and Engineering to understand how to solve it.
In order to understand what a Product Manager does, it’s really important to understand the Product Development process.
The first part of the process is Identifying the Opportunity. Product Managers do so through competitive analysis, internal product teardowns and direct customer engagement.
To validate this opportunity and get the required buy-in, Product Managers must partner across other groups. Other groups might include stakeholders, other Product Managers, Legal and even Finance. Product Managers need alignment across all relevant teams in order to secure the help to successfully build out their product.
The next part is often the hardest. Thinking. And lots of it. Once Product Managers have validated the opportunity and gotten the necessary buy-in, they need to translate it into something that can be built. That vision or strategy needs to be shared across teams to further solidify alignment and buy-in.
Product Managers then work with their internal engineering teams to flesh out an executable plan. This includes a Backlog and Roadmap consisting of Engineering Tasks that can be developed, tested, released to production and then quantified and measured.
As development begins Product Managers will take a step back to let engineering do their thing, but will be in close communication to understand progress and help unblock the team so as to not slow down development.
Finally, after the process is completed and something has been shipped, Product Managers will need to understand the overall impact of the effort and determine next steps. Success will need to be evaluated in understanding what comes next.
https://medium.com/all-things-product-management/product-manager-you-are-664d83ee702e
So that’s a lot of things on a Product Manager’s plate. But how does this boil down and what kinds of mind sets enable Product Managers to get this all done?
One of my favorite articles on Product Management was sent to me by the former Chief Product Officer at Orbitz. In the article, Mat Balez, a Product Manager who has worked at Google as well as several start ups, breaks down a Product Manager’s role into different more recognizable “jobs”. I like using this as a framework for discussions on Product Management because I think it helps provide recognizable analogies to better understand the job. As I mentioned earlier, Product Management is a “murky” role, changing drastically from company to company and even between teams within the same company. My role as a Product Manager on a platform team varies greatly from someone who works on the mobile app. As you’ve probably seen from the first several slides, Product Managers wear many “hats” and there is a lot of “dark art” to the role. My hope is through these comparisons you’ll see that there are many different facets of Product Management, but they all connect together to help us build successful products.
The CEO analogy is a popular one, as Product Management requires a lot of emotional intelligence, relationship building and using one’s wits and influence to get stuff done. Those relationships are what make a CEO, and Product Manager, successful. Additionally, Product Managers are often the “face” of the Product itself, and are responsible for showcasing its capabilities, marketing its strengths, and road showing its functionalities to partner groups. Furthermore, the “buck stops” with the Product Manager, meaning we have the final say in terms of prioritization and which features get developed.
It is also a bit of an overstatement. In reality, Product Managers drive forward relatively small dimensions of the product with little meaningful control over resourcing, zero actual reporting authority over anyone, nor much, if any, say in the budgeting process. Our primary satisfaction comes from knowing we’ve created and driven a good product.
Another appropriate analogy is that Product Managers are like coaches. Product Managers, in the development sense of the word, don’t really “do” anything. Instead Product Managers, like Coaches, know which team members to put into which situations. Coaches and Product Managers alike understand that teams are composed of people and the relationships between each member influence the effectiveness of the team. Product Managers, like coaches, need to be motivational and rally their team members to find ways to inspire.
This is my favorite analogy for Product Management because it couldn’t be more true. A Product Manager rolls up his or her sleeves to do
as much dirty work as possible so that the rest of the team can keep their heads down and focus on the end results. Some examples might
be finding a meeting slot that works for 14 different people across 5 different time zones on a Friday before a long weekend, or triaging 300 low priority bugs that
remain in the backlog. Product Managers make a million unsexy little decisions to keep the engine running every day.
Additionally, like a Janitor, Product Managers often need to fade into the background and not interfere with the day to day goings on if
they aren’t needed. An instrumental role of Product Managers is unblocking their team while remaining unseen.
As I previously mentioned, one of the most important parts of a Product Manager’s role is alignment and partnership across multiple teams. Without that alignment, we can’t actually get anything done. We need to convince other people to do what we need them to do for the good of the product. Sometimes forcefully. Like a hammer.
With hammer-like confidence sprinkled with humility, Product Managers need to influence, persuade and communicate a passion for our product. To do this we blend data with argument, fact with opinion, and logic with emotion. We are a force that makes things happen. We don’t let people waver in their decisions; we make people commit to a clear position and establish a course of action. We are decisive.
Finally, Product Managers are the product’s most experienced and avid user. We use our tools daily and often are its most prolific bug reporters. Think about it: how can you build a valuable, usable and feasible product if you don’t know that product inside and out? Not only must Product Managers know everything there is to know about their product, but they also need to work closely with users and stakeholders to understand how they use the product and what their pain points are.
But at the end of the day, you’re the product itself…The product your team builds and ships is the most faithful representation of your success as a Product Manager. It is the sum product of all your effort. Your success in making your product greatly hinges on your ability to be, at every moment in time, the most valuable thing your team needs you to be at that very moment.
So that’s all fine and good, but how does that help to better understand the Product Development process? My hope is that by better understanding what it means to be a Product Manager, we can overlay that new understanding onto the Product Development Process and understand how these roles can enable Product Managers to be their most successful.
The first step in the Product Development process is identifying the opportunity. This involves working closely with stakeholders to identify customer needs and business opportunities. The main point here is that at this stage it is important to understand opportunity across all groups using established relationships. Here, the Product Manager operates as a CEO, using emotional intelligence across these relationships, as well as instincts and energy to make sure no stone is unturned. At Expedia, this can take the form of competitive analysis, internal product and workflow teardowns, and direct customer engagement often spearheaded by UX. At this stage a Product Manager, operating like a CEO, takes a leadership role to drive the process.
The next step is to validate the opportunity, which involves engaging the partner teams to size, validate and refine the opportunity. This part of the process is difficult because we mostly rely on theoretical validations rather than analyzing something in production. We sometimes write code first and then use it to validate the original hypothesis when ideally, we should validate the opportunity prior to development efforts. This can be done with smoke testing or other projections. An example we sometimes use at Expedia is including a link to an “in development” page for a new feature or functionality to measure click through and understand end customer interest. In this part of the process, Product Managers should act as a hammer with CEO tendencies, working his or her relationships to help validate across various teams. This means beginning to persuade and convince partners to take the opportunity seriously. In parallel, the Product Manager will market and showcase the opportunity and how it can benefit the product and company as a whole.
Next in the process is getting the required buy-in and support, which involves identifying, engaging and influencing key stakeholders and sponsors. Product Managers need to be a hammer and convince them it is valuable to invest in solving the customer problem. For this part in the process there is no handbook or framework. While requiring a lot of data to support the opportunity, it also requires a ton of emotional intelligence. This is where a Product Manager’s role as a hammer comes into play. In this phase, Product Managers need to be convincing to make sure everyone is in alignment. We have to be persuasive in getting that alignment and drive other people to do what we need them to do for the good of the product. Sponsorship and support across all stakeholders is required for a successful product. This is the turning point in the process as without this required buy-in, there is no way to eventual success.
Once the required buy-in is achieved, the Product Manager can move forward with building out a strategy. This will need to be shared with key stakeholders to obtain feedback. This strategy will need to be buildable and contain a cohesive roadmap and backlog that the engineering team will be able to execute on. At this part in the process a Product Manager acts mainly as an Expert User, understanding their product more than anyone else. They use this expertise to filter the ideas and requests coming in from various sources into a realistic plan. They also need to consider technical impacts so that they can create a plan that enables them to understand value quickly, sometimes in the form of quick smoke tests.
As the Process reaches the execution phase, the Product Manager builds the roadmap and prioritizes the backlog to identify when key results will be delivered. They set expectations on timelines and create a workflow with the core working teams. In my experience, this has manifested as bi-weekly planning sessions with engineers as well as syncs with stakeholders to update them on progress. Additionally we hold envisionings to flesh out requirements prior to the beginning of a sprint and retrospectives at the end to improve efficiency. Product Managers also make any trade-offs in terms of features and prioritization to always build towards value and solving the customer problem.
After completing this, the Product Manager’s role is mostly hands off as the engineering team takes over to execute on the plan. Acting like a coach, the Product Manager rallies their team and find ways to inspire and motivate. This might be with positive feedback or even donuts or snacks after a particularly grueling sprint. Additionally, it is crucial that the Product Manager works to unblock the team so that they have as few distractions as possible. Like a Janitor, the Product Manager works behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Finally, once the product has been shipped, the Product Manager steps back into their CEO role in order to assess performance and decide on next steps, often using analytics along with customer and stakeholder feedback. As the CEO, the Product Manager is on the hook for the success of the product. In reality, we often get none of the glory if the product is a success (with that rightfully going to the team that actually built it), and all of the blame if it doesn’t perform as expected (since it was our job to validate the opportunity in the first place). We do, however, get satisfaction from knowing we’ve created and driven a good product. And with that, we will need to assess the performance of what has been shipped and determine next steps. Do we iterate? Are we done? And how do you know if you’re done?
That is a great and difficult question. It is difficult to know when to sunset a product and let it go into maintenance mode enabling us to move onto a different problem. The biggest questions a Product Manager needs to ask his or herself at the end of each Product Development Cycle is What’s the next big thing? Should I continue investing in this product because there’s still impact? Or move onto to something else? This definitely differs from product to product and team to team. There are some forums at Expedia we use to identify where we are. There are internal product reviews done on a team level, as well as a larger portfolio review that happens at a leadership level. But it is definitely important for a Product Manager to constantly be asking themselves if the product needs continued investment or not. And that is not always an easy question to answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE
So we’ve been talking really high level, and that’s OK because Product Management is often times theoretical. But how does this shake out in the day to day? This is where the Agile software development cycle comes into play. Agile takes the Product Development lifecycle to a whole new level. It requires constant communication and feedback to ensure alignment while the teams builds out the plan. This means that stakeholders will never be surprised with what’s being built and Product Managers can constantly assess the impact of the engineering effort.
So what is Agile and how does a Product Manager fit in?
We start with our PM (CLICK) who has a vision (CLICK CLICK).
Stakeholders and users (CLICK) are supported by the product being built from the Product Manager’s vision. And their needs and vision are expressed in terms of user stories (CLICK). These Stakeholders and users often times have lots of ideas, and it’s the job of the Product Manager to turn these (CLICK CLICK) into concrete stories.
But somebody has to build the product (CLICK). This is a small collocated self organizing development team.
This team releases early and often (CLICK) – let’s say 4-6 stories per sprint (CLICK X 4). Some of these stories are big and can count as 2 (CLICK). So for the sake of argument we’ll say their capacity is 4-6 stories.
So the problem arises when the stakeholders have a ton of ides (CLICK) that aren’t limited to 4-6 per sprint (CLICK X 11) and we know this will be the case.
Every time the team delivers something to the stakeholders, they want MOAR.
So let’s say the team starts working on 10 new stories (which would be their input), and delivers 5, their output. This means there is an overflow of 5 stories (CLICK X 5), which start to build up and can become overwhelming for the team.
This is where the PM steps in to filter (CLICK) the next 4-6 stories for the team to work on (CLICK X 2). The side effect is that there is a queue that forms (CLICK X 11). This is the backlog that needs to be managed (CLICK) by the Product Manager.
The only way from stopping the queue from getting out of control is for the PM to say NO (CLICK X 3). The PM decides what goes in and out of the backlog, as well as what gets worked on in what order, including determining how long the backlog needs to be.
But, as I’ve stated many times already, they don’t do it alone (CLICK). There is constant (CLICK) communication between Product (CLICK X 3), development and stakeholders.
The PM also needs to understand the value and size of requests being made – some stories are bigger than others, some have a higher value than others, and there is no correlation between the two. The Product Manager will need to work with both engineering and stakeholders to understand how big a story is vs. how much it will return in value.
So let’s say there are two stories of the same size but one will provide more value than another (CLICK CLICK)? That one will be prioritized higher (CLICK CLICK). Two stories of differing size but providing the same value (CLICK CLICK)? The smaller story goes first (CLICK).
So how does PM know the value and size? Well they don’t, it’s a guessing game that everyone is involved in. The PM is constantly talking to stakeholders to understand value, and talking to the dev team to understand size. At the beginning of new project guesses will inevitably suck but that’s OK, because the value is in the conversations – and it will get better over time. That’s why we need a feedback loop so that we are constantly understanding what’s important to the stakeholders and project and how big things actually are so we can continue our prioritization efforts.
So great. We’ve built something and delivered it. But how do we know if it’s the right thing? This is where it gets even more complex.
That’s where at Expedia the Scientific Method comes into play. The scientific method allows us to calculate value for incremental changes that we make across our products. It is defined by Dictionary.com as “consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.” So let’s break that down.
There are several steps.
First we observe a customer problem which is where we identify opportunity, and that can come from internal observations as well as competitive analysis.
Then we turn these observations into a hypothesis in the form of the following statement:
By [making a change]
We will [accomplish the following]
By [achieving pre-defined success criteria]
Then we flesh out a test design, which is how the test will get implemented and measured.
And finally we define success criteria, which is how we will determine whether this particular effort is a winner, loser, or often times (and most disappointingly) inconclusive.
The importance of the Scientific Method is to not stop there, and to make sure to always learn from the output of a test so that you can iterate within the process, always refining your hypothesis and driving towards measurable impact.
So how does that look at Expedia? We’ll walk through an example of a test that we ran as part of an effort to increase engagement among returning visitors to the website. The goal of this test was to target users we identified as less likely to book a hotel room by showing them more relevant information the second time they visited the web page. So, let’s see why and how we chose to pursue this opportunity.
These are real observations that came from working closely with our analytics team to understand customer behavior as it related to the website experience, as well as looking at our main competitors in the same space:
Search Landing Pages display the same content to returning visitors regardless of what we know about them or how they have interacted with the site previously
Repeat visits have been steadily growing and represent almost half of all SEO visits
Returning visitors are worth almost 2x as much as new visitors
And our competitors display more relevant and personalized information to returning visitors
We then turned those observations into a hypothesis:
By displaying different yet relevant content to returning visitors on SEO Landing Pages based on information we analyzed from their first visit, they will keep our brand top of mind when they are ready to purchase by being more likely to click, engage and return throughout the various phases of their travel purchasing process.
We then broke that hypothesis into a test design:
There are 2 variants. The control is the same list of hotels that a user sees regardless of how many times they have visited the page. The variant, displayed to returning visitors, features an additional image relevant to the destination, which links them to more information for that location.
The test is split 50/50 meaning visitors will be bucketed evenly into either the control or the variant.
Finally, in order to under whether the test is successful or not, we will track the following metrics:
Our primary success metric is the percentage of click through rate in the variant versus control.
We also track secondary metrics to make sure that we do no harm to other traditional markers of success. These include doing no harm to Traffic and Visits, our Repeat Visitor Rate, Conversion, Bounce Rate, and Gross Profit (GP).
Unfortunately this test was inconclusive because we were unable to generate enough traffic to reach significance. Despite this, we did learn a lot about the underlying technology that we needed to connect to in order to power the test in the first place. This enabled us to run 3 more tests over the course of the year to provide more relevant information to returning visitors, 2 of which were winners. Our ability to learn from the test and iterate on that learning is one of the most important parts of the Scientific Method. This is an example of where we decided to invest in the technical implementation rather than do a quick smoke test because we felt the underlying technology was important to us and future endeavors.
The reality of the situation is that Product Managers generally work on a portfolio of products that span across many different stakeholders. This means that they have multiple products at different parts of the development process, which are often times related, but can also be spread out across different parts of the business. It’s very much a balancing act and understanding of how much attention to give each one depends on the level of maturity of each product, as well as other players in the space.
As you can see, Product Managers are responsible for a lot of things. We’ve gone through the various roles and how they relate to each part of the Product Development Process. But what job and personality skills are crucial to being a successful Product Manager?
My hope is after everything we’ve talked through up until this point, these won’t be much of a surprise, but more of a recap of everything discussed so far.
I know this has been discussed already, but listening, communicating and influencing are incredibly important skills for a successful Product Manager. These skills help Product Managers develop relationships, identify, validate and get buy-in for opportunities and then showcase their plans to stakeholders. Product Managers must also have presentation and organizational skills so that they can properly articulate their vision and plans while balancing multiple across their portfolio. As previously mentioned, Product Managers must also use data to influence stakeholders to buy into their vision, as well as strategic thinking to tie all of these skills together and drive a product vision forward.
Speaking of a Product Vision, Product managers must continually ask “What If?” What if we could build anything without constraints? This is always where Product Managers should start when building their vision. They must also have customer empathy or compassion when identifying customer problems. This allows them to build products that solve actual problems. They must also be well versed in competitive analysis to understand the problem area. When building this vision, they must think broader in terms of system engagement and how to make things scale. One cannot build a product vision in a silo.
Finally, when executing on this product vision, Product Managers must use all their skills to do the following:
Define measurable milestones and maintain their roadmap. Prioritize the backlog using agile product management methodology, unblock teams so things run smoothly without distractions. Make trade-offs using their analytic skills and ability to convince others that they’re right. And finally, report on status to stakeholders so that no one is ever surprised.
As you can see, Product Managers are responsible for a whole hell of a lot. I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you. My goals have been to broaden understanding of what Product Managers do and how they fit into cross functional teams to drive business value while solving customer problems. I’d like to now open it up to questions.