PT Toronto #12: Latif Nanji (Co-founder and CEO of Roadmunk) shares his talk “Design Communication in Product Management."
Design is a specialized skill, and as a PM, it can be intimidating—especially if it’s not your natural inclination. (Plus, there’s usually a design team to deal with that stuff, right?) But that mentality is a missed opportunity; it’s equally important for PMs to keep design top-of-mind when making decisions. Having spent most of his career as a product manager, Latif strongly believes that design should always be a priority for product managers. In this TKTK talk, Latif shares essential and actionable design principles that can be implemented in any product setting, and breaks down how PMs can put design at the forefront of their product strategy.
Latif Nanji is the co-founder and CEO of Roadmunk, a product roadmapping platform that enables organizations such as The Coca-Cola Company, Citibank, MasterCard and Adobe to visualize and collaborate on strategic plans.
Latif’s entrepreneurial chops extend beyond Roadmunk. He co-founded Pragmatic CEO, a Toronto meetup for tech entrepreneurs, and Pokerspace.com, an online social network for poker players. As an entrepreneur, he has raised over $3 million in venture and angel funding.
Latif’s background spans all things startup: from leadership and sales to product management and design. In his off-time, Latif is an avid reader, rock climber and skier.
Cracking the Product Manager Interview with Gayle McDowellProduct School
In this talk, Gayle McDowell, author of the book "Cracking the PM Interview", taught people how to prepare for Product Manager interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems.
She talked about how the role of a Product Manager varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great Product Manager resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the Product Manager interview questions.
Aligning Quantitative Analytics for Better Product DecisionsProduct School
This was an Introduction to decision making processes for people who work in Product Management by the Senior Product Strategist at Philosophie, Chris Butler. This talk covered how to align qualitative research with quantitative analytics for better product decisions.
Building High-Growth Products with Jobs-to-be-DoneProduct School
Jared Ranere, a Growth Partner at thrv, talked about how Jobs-to-be-Done answers questions like "what is a customer need?" "Who is your real competition?" and "What does it mean to be "satisfied?" in a way that aligns your development team around your customer. It also gives you precise, measurable customer needs, and helps you know if your feature idea will deliver customer satisfaction before your team writes a line of code.
Consulting to Product Management - How to Make a Successful TransitionProduct School
Jordan discussed the transition from Consulting into Product Management. He walked through the key consulting skills that transfer across and those that don't, as well as unexpected areas that will require a steep learning curve. Based on his experience and lessons learned, Jordan provided insights on how to make this transition as frictionless as possible.
3-5 Main Points / Key Takeaways:
Some consulting skills are important and transferable: analytics, logical presentation of information, communication/presentations
Many consulting norms and behaviors must be thrown out the window: politics, powerpoints, attitude
There will be a learning curve both in culture and in how to spend your time
Cracking the Product Manager Interview with Gayle McDowellProduct School
In this talk, Gayle McDowell, author of the book "Cracking the PM Interview", taught people how to prepare for Product Manager interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems.
She talked about how the role of a Product Manager varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great Product Manager resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the Product Manager interview questions.
Aligning Quantitative Analytics for Better Product DecisionsProduct School
This was an Introduction to decision making processes for people who work in Product Management by the Senior Product Strategist at Philosophie, Chris Butler. This talk covered how to align qualitative research with quantitative analytics for better product decisions.
Building High-Growth Products with Jobs-to-be-DoneProduct School
Jared Ranere, a Growth Partner at thrv, talked about how Jobs-to-be-Done answers questions like "what is a customer need?" "Who is your real competition?" and "What does it mean to be "satisfied?" in a way that aligns your development team around your customer. It also gives you precise, measurable customer needs, and helps you know if your feature idea will deliver customer satisfaction before your team writes a line of code.
Consulting to Product Management - How to Make a Successful TransitionProduct School
Jordan discussed the transition from Consulting into Product Management. He walked through the key consulting skills that transfer across and those that don't, as well as unexpected areas that will require a steep learning curve. Based on his experience and lessons learned, Jordan provided insights on how to make this transition as frictionless as possible.
3-5 Main Points / Key Takeaways:
Some consulting skills are important and transferable: analytics, logical presentation of information, communication/presentations
Many consulting norms and behaviors must be thrown out the window: politics, powerpoints, attitude
There will be a learning curve both in culture and in how to spend your time
Product interviews can be nerve-wrecking and stressful, especially if you aren’t properly prepared. However, if you know exactly how to get ready, the experience can be incredibly rewarding. We cover what research you should do before the interview, how to craft the best possible answers, ways to distinguish yourself from other candidates and discuss what's required to get the job offer you really want.
- An overview of the types of questions to expect
- Best ways to prep for a Product Manager interview
- Do's and Don'ts for the actual interview
- A comprehensive list of books, online training, and other online resources related to product interviews
How to Crack the PM Interview by Gayle McDowellProduct School
Product Management Event Held at the Product Conference in San Francisco.
Gayle McDowell taught how to prepare for Product Manager interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems.
She also discussed how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great PM resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the PM interview questions (estimation questions, behavioral questions, case questions, product questions, technical questions, and the super important "pitch").
What Companies Look for When Hiring PMs by Spotify Product LeadProduct School
This presentation provides insight into: what a company like Spotify focuses on when hiring Product Managers, day-to-day life as a Product Manager at Spotify, tips on how to grow and succeed as a Product Manager.
Mock Interviewing with Salesforce's Product ManagerProduct School
Priyanka Kumar, Product Manager at Salesforce, talked about how to prepare for PM interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems. She discussed how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate and what a great PM resume and cover letter look like.
Product School: Growth Explained by Facebook's Core Product ManagerProduct School
Understanding your users and how they discover and adopt your products is very important in building a product. Join Facebook's Core Product Manager, Yaron Fidler, as he discusses tactical techniques in gaining and retaining a strong user base.
Webinar: What Product Managers Should Never Do by Twilio Product LeaderProduct School
Main Takeaways:
Three traits to actively avoid as a PM
Real-life examples of why they are detrimental to a PM career
How to negate these negative traits
Ask me Anything, with Product Managers from Twitter, VMWare, and BoxProduct School
Ever wondered what it’s like to work as a Product Manager? This was an exclusive Q&A session with Alex Shih, former Twitter Product Manager, May Allen, Product Manager @ Projector and Jeremy Glassenberg, VP of Platform Product @ Pypestream.
They discussed what it’s like to work in this dynamic role and what it takes to get your foot in the door. They also gave the inside scoop on the day-to-day work as a PM, the challenges of the job and personal insight from their experience at working at different companies in the valley.
How to Use User Science to Your Product's Benefit by XO Group PMProduct School
Successful Product Managers help their organizations identify and build products that solve their users’ needs. The perfect user-product fit is rarely easy. Trained Product Managers can find the right fit consistently with User Science–the craft of understanding user needs; identifying which problem to solve, and user behaviors; understanding how and why users react to products. It's this craft that arms Product Managers with the data to make informed decisions.
Use Your Background to Be a Better PM by Spotify Product LeaderProduct School
Main takeaways:
-Diversity in product teams makes companies and products stronger
-Understanding how your background fits into your career path will unlock your special skillset
-Using this understanding will help you create highly functional teams and better products
Storytelling: Building Trust as a Product Ldr by Klaviyo Sr PMProduct School
- Storytelling should be proactive: By crafting a strong story that you share early and reinforce often, you can eliminate the need for more heavy handed stakeholder management tactics.
- Storytelling should be planned: To own the end-to-end narrative about your product and how you work, you need to plan ahead and develop consistent themes that help you tell this story.
- Storytelling should be personal: Spend time learning who key stakeholders at your organization are, what each stakeholder group wants to hear, and how they want to hear it.
"Ask Me Anything" with Facebook's Product Manager & Product School Instructor Product School
This was an exclusive Q&A session to give you a chance to ask every question you’ve ever had, with Inbal Reichman Cohen, Facebook's Product Manager.
She answers questions from "How did you become a Product Manager?" to Facebook vs. Amazon - How do they compare?" This is for the curious minds who want to break into product and hear from someone who already has.
"Ask me Anything" with Hearsay's Product ManagerProduct School
This was a presentation about what it’s like to work as a Product Manager in the valley and about knowing the difference between being a PM at a 4000 employee company vs. 300. Hearsay's Product Manager, Meghbartma Gautam, answered the audience's questions in this exclusive Q&A session. He discussed what it’s like to work in a dynamic PM role and what it takes to get your foot in the door.
Mock Interview Workshop w/ Product School Founder & CEOProduct School
The founder and CEO of Product School, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, held a mock interview workshop, discussing the lay of the land in terms of some of the most commonly asked questions, and group sessions for practicing interview questions.
He gave an overview and things you should do for prep and the kind of PM questions you should expect.
Main takeaways:
- Having a computer science degree isn't required but a thirst for technical knowledge absolutely is
- It's all about connection vs conviction - knowing when to put on which hat will go a long way in building trust with your engineering colleagues
- Proactively ask for help - you'll be surprised how much wisdom your colleagues are willing to share
Why Product Managers Should Think Like Marketers by Amazon PMProduct School
Learn about transitioning into Product Manager roles and taking it a notch up by thinking like a marketer. Ashwini Lahane, Product Manager at Amazon Web Services, discussed the importance of marketing tactics for Product Managers.
She talked about what you should know when transitioning to a Product Manager role, what are the traits of a good Product Manager and how product management and product marketing fit together.
Empowering Data-Driven Marketers: How UX Research & Usability Testing Can Pos...UserZoom
As a marketer, driving loyalty through each section of your customer funnel is imperative. In the modern world, we can attribute things like smarter spending decisions, more effective campaigns, and ultimately increased customer engagement to data-driven marketing. View this webinar with Jeff Sauro & learn more!
Product interviews can be nerve-wrecking and stressful, especially if you aren’t properly prepared. However, if you know exactly how to get ready, the experience can be incredibly rewarding. We cover what research you should do before the interview, how to craft the best possible answers, ways to distinguish yourself from other candidates and discuss what's required to get the job offer you really want.
- An overview of the types of questions to expect
- Best ways to prep for a Product Manager interview
- Do's and Don'ts for the actual interview
- A comprehensive list of books, online training, and other online resources related to product interviews
How to Crack the PM Interview by Gayle McDowellProduct School
Product Management Event Held at the Product Conference in San Francisco.
Gayle McDowell taught how to prepare for Product Manager interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems.
She also discussed how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great PM resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the PM interview questions (estimation questions, behavioral questions, case questions, product questions, technical questions, and the super important "pitch").
What Companies Look for When Hiring PMs by Spotify Product LeadProduct School
This presentation provides insight into: what a company like Spotify focuses on when hiring Product Managers, day-to-day life as a Product Manager at Spotify, tips on how to grow and succeed as a Product Manager.
Mock Interviewing with Salesforce's Product ManagerProduct School
Priyanka Kumar, Product Manager at Salesforce, talked about how to prepare for PM interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems. She discussed how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate and what a great PM resume and cover letter look like.
Product School: Growth Explained by Facebook's Core Product ManagerProduct School
Understanding your users and how they discover and adopt your products is very important in building a product. Join Facebook's Core Product Manager, Yaron Fidler, as he discusses tactical techniques in gaining and retaining a strong user base.
Webinar: What Product Managers Should Never Do by Twilio Product LeaderProduct School
Main Takeaways:
Three traits to actively avoid as a PM
Real-life examples of why they are detrimental to a PM career
How to negate these negative traits
Ask me Anything, with Product Managers from Twitter, VMWare, and BoxProduct School
Ever wondered what it’s like to work as a Product Manager? This was an exclusive Q&A session with Alex Shih, former Twitter Product Manager, May Allen, Product Manager @ Projector and Jeremy Glassenberg, VP of Platform Product @ Pypestream.
They discussed what it’s like to work in this dynamic role and what it takes to get your foot in the door. They also gave the inside scoop on the day-to-day work as a PM, the challenges of the job and personal insight from their experience at working at different companies in the valley.
How to Use User Science to Your Product's Benefit by XO Group PMProduct School
Successful Product Managers help their organizations identify and build products that solve their users’ needs. The perfect user-product fit is rarely easy. Trained Product Managers can find the right fit consistently with User Science–the craft of understanding user needs; identifying which problem to solve, and user behaviors; understanding how and why users react to products. It's this craft that arms Product Managers with the data to make informed decisions.
Use Your Background to Be a Better PM by Spotify Product LeaderProduct School
Main takeaways:
-Diversity in product teams makes companies and products stronger
-Understanding how your background fits into your career path will unlock your special skillset
-Using this understanding will help you create highly functional teams and better products
Storytelling: Building Trust as a Product Ldr by Klaviyo Sr PMProduct School
- Storytelling should be proactive: By crafting a strong story that you share early and reinforce often, you can eliminate the need for more heavy handed stakeholder management tactics.
- Storytelling should be planned: To own the end-to-end narrative about your product and how you work, you need to plan ahead and develop consistent themes that help you tell this story.
- Storytelling should be personal: Spend time learning who key stakeholders at your organization are, what each stakeholder group wants to hear, and how they want to hear it.
"Ask Me Anything" with Facebook's Product Manager & Product School Instructor Product School
This was an exclusive Q&A session to give you a chance to ask every question you’ve ever had, with Inbal Reichman Cohen, Facebook's Product Manager.
She answers questions from "How did you become a Product Manager?" to Facebook vs. Amazon - How do they compare?" This is for the curious minds who want to break into product and hear from someone who already has.
"Ask me Anything" with Hearsay's Product ManagerProduct School
This was a presentation about what it’s like to work as a Product Manager in the valley and about knowing the difference between being a PM at a 4000 employee company vs. 300. Hearsay's Product Manager, Meghbartma Gautam, answered the audience's questions in this exclusive Q&A session. He discussed what it’s like to work in a dynamic PM role and what it takes to get your foot in the door.
Mock Interview Workshop w/ Product School Founder & CEOProduct School
The founder and CEO of Product School, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, held a mock interview workshop, discussing the lay of the land in terms of some of the most commonly asked questions, and group sessions for practicing interview questions.
He gave an overview and things you should do for prep and the kind of PM questions you should expect.
Main takeaways:
- Having a computer science degree isn't required but a thirst for technical knowledge absolutely is
- It's all about connection vs conviction - knowing when to put on which hat will go a long way in building trust with your engineering colleagues
- Proactively ask for help - you'll be surprised how much wisdom your colleagues are willing to share
Why Product Managers Should Think Like Marketers by Amazon PMProduct School
Learn about transitioning into Product Manager roles and taking it a notch up by thinking like a marketer. Ashwini Lahane, Product Manager at Amazon Web Services, discussed the importance of marketing tactics for Product Managers.
She talked about what you should know when transitioning to a Product Manager role, what are the traits of a good Product Manager and how product management and product marketing fit together.
Empowering Data-Driven Marketers: How UX Research & Usability Testing Can Pos...UserZoom
As a marketer, driving loyalty through each section of your customer funnel is imperative. In the modern world, we can attribute things like smarter spending decisions, more effective campaigns, and ultimately increased customer engagement to data-driven marketing. View this webinar with Jeff Sauro & learn more!
Marqana Digital Presents: Bringing Your Company's Web Presence Into 2015Andrea Cochran
Bringing Your Company's Web Presence Into 2015: We share our secrets on how your website's design, focus, and content can truly impress and dazzle anyone, anywhere.
Web Design 2016: Top 10 Trends to Attract New CustomersAIS Media, Inc.
What drives change in web design? Users. Your website shouldn’t make users think. It should make them act.
2016 will be a very exciting year for web design. It’s no secret that web design is fast-paced and ever evolving. It’s more important than ever for marketers to stay ahead of the curve.
In this presentation, you’ll learn how to take your current website and turn it into a well-oiled machine to attract, engage and convert new customers better than ever before.
UXPA 2016 - Using UX Skills to Shape Your CareerAmanda Stockwell
These are the slides from Amanda Stockwell's 2016 UXPA workshop, "Using UX Skills to Shape Your Career."
This presentation covered the unique challenges that UX professionals face when crafting their career path and finding roles that are both appropriate fits for their existing skillsets and offer opportunities to grow. It helps the attendees understand UX career options and craft their work samples and personal interactions to maximize their chances for success, whatever that looks like to them. Participants will learn to use the core concepts they utilize for their project work to how they present themselves and their work.
We covered:
The varying career paths within UX and definitions of success
Information on what employers are looking for in UX professionals
Ways to utilize existing UX skills to illustrate strengths and articulate value within a work environment or to potential employers
Tips to improve work samples to demonstrate expertise
How do we measure the value of social media?Helge Tennø
By referencing several of the current changes as social media we limit the perspective and reach of our ideas. We see these activities as satellites outside of core business, insignificant flirting with customers compared to the bigger commercial changes happening.
Our job is to become ambassadors and show the rest how customer insight and involvement can be increasingly valuable to the future of the business.
Using New Forms of Analytics - Slide DeckLora Cecere
There is no debate that the amount of data collected by companies is increasing. By tracking transactions, customer data, supplier costs, and other business metrics companies can understand what’s really happening inside the organization. But how do you ensure you’re tracking the right data, and in the right way to create a winning strategy? In this webinar we spoke with Kyle Hamm, VP, Chief of Staff to CSCO and EVP GSC at Schneider Electric, where he shared his thoughts around maximizing the value of big data.
Matt Rideout, from iBec creative, doesn't want you to redesign your website. Instead he wants you to fix all the things that are underperforming, as you learn about your customer's likes and dislikes until you end up with a fresh site that is working at it's highest potential. Think high impact + low investment. Sound like a fresh, awesome and really effective strategy for web design? We think so too.
Iterative Design
This information packed Pub Talk begins with some good old common sense advice, and some compelling stats on how to reorient your web design efforts from the high risk launch and fail model of the past, to a more comfortable, and effective, iterative design model. Matt shares lots of great examples of how some small changes added up to big impact.
3 Step process
Matt breaks the iBec iterative design process down into parts. This straight forward approach shows you how to target your problem areas, develop a hypothesis about what's wrong, and then test it. He shares some real world examples that show how they uncovered areas that could be improved, then walks you through how they tackled the problem, and finally shares the results.
Online testing tools you will use
Did I mention that most of the tools they use are either free or very inexpensive? Matt shared tools for funnel visualization, heat mapping, scroll tracking, and getting feedback from visitors. He also explained how they used those tools to answer some important questions about why customers where abandoning the checkout, bouncing on the homepage and generally not understanding the offer.
Test, Test, Test
Always be testing—that's the mantra. By understanding where the roadblocks or bottlenecks are, measuring the changes and then refining the site, Matt and his team have been able to dial up some serious improvements in their client's e-commerce sites.
This was a terrific class with lots of actionable advice and some really cool tools.
UX is often misunderstood - or worse, it's seen as another ambiguous buzzword. Teaching others the value of UX can be a frustrating/challenging/lonely journey. I'll share some of the experiences I've faced when posed with the challenge of building buy-in and how to help shift company attitudes and culture towards UX.
How to Succeed in a Mobile World - Use the Growth of Mobile to Better Serve Y...WebLink International
The growth of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is changing the way people find, review, and share your information online. But is your organization ready to serve your members and others who are utilizing these mobile devices? Benji Craig, Senior Web Designer at WebLink International, will share how your organization can better present your messages and content to a growing mobile audience.
Webinar Attendees Will Learn The Following:
- Current mobile trends, and what it means for your association now and in the future.
- How to look at your mobile data to make informed decisions that will drive the greatest impact.
- Real life examples and best practices of organizations going mobile.
- The best resources for expanding your knowledge.
Nissan and College Sports: Connecting to PassionMediaPost
Nissan recently penned the widest-reaching sponsorship deal in the history of collegiate sports, the "Nissan College 100." Learn how Nissan leveraged the latest mobile tech and an omni-channel strategy to create the Diehard Fan App — allowing college sports fans to unleash their inner fanatic and connect to the brand with meaningful actions beyond the usual KPIs.
Qualitative Intelligence: The art of qualitative data turned powerful insight...Product Tank Toronto
PT Toronto #26: Mitchell Gillespie (Director of Product Management at Wave HQ) shares his talk “Qualitative Intelligence: The art of qualitative data turned powerful insight."
Intelligence is defined as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge." When it comes to leveraging qualitative insight the difficult and consistent fallacy of any person acting as the Voice of the Customer is a struggle to successfully "acquire" and "apply" without hours of tedious, painful, and isolated effort. Every audience member will leave the talk understanding how to assess/score their organization's ability to acquire and apply qualitative insight by reflecting on 4 critical dimensions (with recommended approaches):
1. People & Teams
Is your cross-functional organization participating in building qualitative insight?
2. Strategic Frameworks
Is your cross-functional organization using appropriate strategic frames of thinking to parse and isolate qualitative insight?
3. Automation & Facilitation
Is your cross-functional organization facilitating people's ability to easily capture, analyze, and share insight?
4. Tooling
Is your cross-functional organization using the appropriate tools to empower everyone in the company? (e.g. NomNom Insights)
Throughout this discussion Mitch will highlight his ideological belief in the power of qualitative insight, some hypotheses being experimented at Wave, and some examples of success he's experienced. Also, if you haven't caught on already, you'll also leave with the appreciation of how building qualitative intelligence is a team sport. Product departments alone (incl. product design) could never achieve optimal results without the participation of many other cross-functional peers.
Mitch is inspired by engaging with people who are passionate about making an impact in any shape or form. He believes internal optimism, grit, and resilience is critical to succeed in today's digital product industry. Currently, as the Director of Product Management at Wave, Mitch is responsible for supporting & sharpening the organization’s ability to deeply empathize and collectively solve the needs of the brave small business owner. As the number of competitive entrants grows Wave (and the product group specifically) is acutely focused on optimizing the strengths and motivations of every employee as a competitive advantage. Mitch has taught numerous 10-week cohorts at BrainStation in product management because he thoroughly enjoys every light bulb moment observed. When Mitch is not raving about Wave, customer’s pains, or the role of product managers you will likely find him lost in the backcountry of Algonquin Park or some beautiful mountain range.
Get out of the way! The Product Manager's Identity Crisis | Mitchell GillespieProduct Tank Toronto
PT Toronto #21: Mitchell Gillespie (Director of Product Management at Wave HQ) shares his talk “Get out of the way! The Product Manager's Identity Crisis."
As a product manager, your entire job revolves around deciding what you need to do next, in other words, having a product strategy. Successful product strategy means balancing all factors such as internal capabilities, competitive landscape, user needs and available opportunities. Moharyar discusses these challenges and provides a few simple frameworks one can apply to assess which direction to take to ensure the overall success of their product.
Moharyar has over 5 years’ experience as a product manager, working for companies such as Apple, Bell and Loblaw Digital. Moharyar is passionate about early stage start-ups and is a lead instructor for Product Management at BrainStation. His background in engineering, combined with his Master's in Business Administration from Queen's University, has allowed him to develop a deep understanding of product management. Moharyar blogs on popular Product concepts and at one point was the number 1 “Most Viewed Author” on Minimum Viable Product on Quora.
You can find Moharyar on Twitter @MoeAli454
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Join us in the #toronto channel on Slack: http://slack.mindtheproduct.com/
Deflect Praise, Take The Blame | Balaji Gopalan | ProductTank Toronto Product Tank 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/
Janna Bastow & James Mayes | Theme-based Roadmapping | ProductTank Toronto Product Tank Toronto
We're excited to welcome Janna Bastow and James Mayes from Mind the Product to Toronto for this month's discussion. We'll be discussing how to move to a theme-based roadmap by 2017 and learning more about Mind the Product's global product community.
Janna Bastow is co-founder of ProdPad, product management software that helps product managers build a product roadmap everyone understands and solve problems flexibly. She's also co-founder of Mind the Product, a global community of product managers, and the ProductTank series of meetups. She likes to inspire great product conversations by asking: “What problem are you trying to solve?”
James lives at the intersection of Product, Startupsand Talent. As one of the Co-Founders of Mind The Product, he has specific remit now for partnerships throughout the product world in order to ensure the sustainability of the events. He’s always looking for new ways to add value to the community and while not always being a product person historically, loves the opportunity to experiment! James is a dad, gadget-geek, and frequent flyer.
Thanks to Shopify for hosting us!
Competitors, Comparables & Corpses | Tom Walsham | ProductTank TorontoProduct Tank Toronto
PT Toronto #4: Tom Walsham (Director of Product at TWG) shares his talk “Competitors, Comparables & Corpses : A framework for exploiting the competitive landscape."
Storytelling For The Web: Integrate Storytelling in your Design ProcessChiara Aliotta
In this slides I explain how I have used storytelling techniques to elevate websites and brands and create memorable user experiences. You can discover practical tips as I showcase the elements of good storytelling and its applied to some examples of diverse brands/projects..
Technoblade The Legacy of a Minecraft Legend.Techno Merch
Technoblade, born Alex on June 1, 1999, was a legendary Minecraft YouTuber known for his sharp wit and exceptional PvP skills. Starting his channel in 2013, he gained nearly 11 million subscribers. His private battle with metastatic sarcoma ended in June 2022, but his enduring legacy continues to inspire millions.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Connect Conference 2022: Passive House - Economic and Environmental Solution...TE Studio
Passive House: The Economic and Environmental Solution for Sustainable Real Estate. Lecture by Tim Eian of TE Studio Passive House Design in November 2022 in Minneapolis.
- The Built Environment
- Let's imagine the perfect building
- The Passive House standard
- Why Passive House targets
- Clean Energy Plans?!
- How does Passive House compare and fit in?
- The business case for Passive House real estate
- Tools to quantify the value of Passive House
- What can I do?
- Resources
Fonts play a crucial role in both User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design. They affect readability, accessibility, aesthetics, and overall user perception.
Maximize Your Content with Beautiful Assets : Content & Asset for Landing Page pmgdscunsri
Figma is a cloud-based design tool widely used by designers for prototyping, UI/UX design, and real-time collaboration. With features such as precision pen tools, grid system, and reusable components, Figma makes it easy for teams to work together on design projects. Its flexibility and accessibility make Figma a top choice in the digital age.
28. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
50% of firms focused on designed acquired since 2004,
happened in the last 2 years.“
Data on Design
29. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
89% 6X
42 36%
of companies believes that
customer experience will be
their primary basis for
competition by 2016, versus
36% four years ago.
more likely to buy with a
positive emotional experience.
12x more likely to recommend
the company, and 5x more
likely to forgive a mistake.”
-Terskin Group
design firms have been
acquired since 2004, ~50% of
which have been acquired in
the last year alone
of the top funded startups are
co-founded by designers, up
20% from 2015
30. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Silicon Valley didn’t think a designer could build and run a company.
They were straight up about it. We weren’t MBA’s, we weren’t two PhD
students from Stanford. Being designers they thought we were people
that worked for people that ran companies.
- Brian Chesky Co-founder of AirBNB
Graduate from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
“
36. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Summary
Tell the user what to think
Minimize cognitive load
3 click mentality
Reversible design
Use verbs with context
White space is your friend
38. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Discussion
What principles have worked for you?
Where is design broken in your team?
How have you overcome friction about design?
How do I make myself an expert?
How can I avoid design slowing product dev down?
What tools should becoming familiar with?
What can I be doing today to invest in design as a PM
64. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
50% of firms focused on designed acquired since 2004,
happened in the last 2 years.“
Data on Design
65. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
89% 6X
42 36%
of companies believes that
customer experience will be
their primary basis for
competition by 2016, versus
36% four years ago.
more likely to buy with a
positive emotional experience.
12x more likely to recommend
the company, and 5x more
likely to forgive a mistake.”
-Terskin Group
design firms have been
acquired since 2004, ~50% of
which have been acquired in
the last year alone
of the top funded startups are
co-founded by designers, up
20% from 2015
66. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Silicon Valley didn’t think a designer could build and run a company.
They were straight up about it. We weren’t MBA’s, we weren’t two PhD
students from Stanford. Being designers they thought we were people
that worked for people that ran companies.
- Brian Chesky Co-founder of AirBNB
Graduate from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
“
72. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Summary
Tell the user what to think
Minimize cognitive load
3 click mentality
Reversible design
Use verbs with context
White space is your friend
74. roadmunk.com | @roadmunkapp
Discussion
What principles have worked for you?
Where is design broken in your team?
How have you overcome friction about design?
How do I make myself an expert?
How can I avoid design slowing product dev down?
What tools should becoming familiar with?
What can I be doing today to invest in design as a PM
Editor's Notes
Chat about design and how it can more engrained in our days as product managers.
I suspect people have had varying degrees of success with design in their organizations, my goal today is give you some tactile principles and examples you can leverage for yourself and organizaiton
Quick about me
Majority software startup, product roles (both internal tools, hardware, software)
Product Designer
50%, empathy, language of design (get into gritty examples, I’m more self-taught, so I’ve learned bottoms up, observed then applied), data around design (they say its non-tangible, I’m hoping to disprove that), how you use the first two and some other tips to get executive buy-in.
And how design can be introduced in the early stages of minimum saleable products.
Core foundation for driving product & design.
Therefore we need to instill in our team’s more ambitiously across our culture
If you want to feel their pain, have them yell at you.
1: Support cases – 75 cases over 2 weeks. Half days. Even if this wasn’t man-dated organizationally, anyone on my PM team would have to do this STAT. This also means revisiting them constantly.
2: Prototyping, its easy to get feedback internally, but there is nothing better than having your customer do the work. They will tell you what’s really necessary.
3: Quarterly visits. Get on a plane mandidate
4; My latest fav, is getting them to demo the product to a prospect with sales. You’ll start realize while sales so much.
Result:
Confidence for more senior and experienced people – saying: “GM, Oracle, Coke” – and this is what they all said.
Frequency > priority (frequency inside that feature is what designer’s care about – that next level)
Product management has it’s on jargon like agile, kanban, prioritization on theme.
You’ve probably heard -- don’t make the user think (they’re talking about something else)—
but something that is critical is that if those use cases are important enough you’ll know how to prioritize the design in a single feature.
WHY during beta, we ask ‘what were you thinking” (and does it match what you WANT them to think)
Kayak, a simple and well used interface. Very successful company.
Great UI. UX is actually pretty good,
But here is an opportunity where not UI design can win but UX.
What I’m personally thinking: important to select my preferences, telling me to buy now (top right), drill down
Now look at Google Flights!
Not at well designed, but it says ‘here are the best flights’ (its the priority by hiding: Costs, arline, time and wifi and type.)
They didn’t add the supplementary information (and the filters are tucked away at the top)
Show: if its not primary, its secondary
Secondary, reduce the clutter
UX can sometimes trump UI
Don’t make the user the think! (What we make is given them less to think about, and tell give them an obvious choice).
No focal point on the page
Priority has to be given!
Lastpass (Priority, focal, consistency just became our enemy in this context)
A lot of icons and different colors (many things fighting for attention!)
It doesn’t really explicit give you a place of focus because everything is the same size (so while this may be consistent -- an engineers argument)
Focus on the light area
Determined that cognitive people search for websites not by URL’s by brands, and they need to stand up.
Primary action is to usually dig into an account which when you hover you get icons (this is a perfect example of where use case is FIND, then EDIT/grab password or SHARE.
I wanted to mention them, because everyone in our office got excited because of a new navigation
I had sales/CS coming over saying “did you say with they did, that was unbelievable” - it looks so slick.
NPS
What to think (familiarity, as we see the black as a trend) -- diff than last pass is they used a hover here, because they knew that you’re not switching often enough to see the whole name (more real esate!)
They removed all that secondary information (# of cases, conversation, # of customers etc)
Show: if its not primary, its secondary
Secondary, reduce the clutter
UX can sometimes trump UI
Counter (ERP)
Contstraints / creativity
every option should be less than 3 clicks away (does include sub-workflows)
Hovers / drags count as halves.
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be barried
A hover is a half click,
This calms people don’t so they don’t get scared!
People can easily be afraid
A lot of the times its an undo button or clicking back (for simple websites)
What happens when you apply a filter / sort? Move a file to a new location with different permissions? Delete something?
Determine what needs to be reversible is again (recall: Empathy / Use Cases)
Emotional ease
Yes, No, Save, Okay in your app – easy opportunity to reduce cog load.
No ambiguity
This has to do with emotional ease
Clarity in action
Let me get the right content up, tags/social widgets (emotional ease); cognitively, less interference
This is a PURE case of DESIGN disruption, tangibly and economically
Now you’ve hopefully got a few principles you can toute
But now you need to convince executives
First column is 8 years.
What is uniteresting is google / shopify buying, what gets me is that McKinsey, Captial One, Ernest & Young.
That is a strong signal corporate enterprise who create presentations for a living are finally making moves.
6x more likely to buy with a positive experience (this was our early success at Roadmunk)
More forgiving (pretty iphone doesn’t work, you’ll wait)
VC POV, design is critical
10% of fortune companies have put it as an executive priority
Sums it nicely, when designers funded their company selling Obama O’s as cereal to start this, make sure design was part of their culture.
Now you’ve hopefully got a few principles you can toute
Lets make this a priority, get me the resources I need.
Education gap between people who’ve embraced these principles and those who have not
Love, reliability – powerful.
Executive 10% (fortune, design an executive)
Prototype – bring in a higher fidelity
Stay away from MVP
Start with how they enter, they often think about the feature from top to bottom in their mind
Going to go in thie order invest in those two areas, because they will be more forgiving (especially if they’re on the early part of the chasm)
Again, starts with empathy -> turning into use cases
They speed up your time over the chasm?
Why: Early majority need something reliable, better designed products are more referenceable (because people seem to be more forgiving towards them)
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be buried
A hover is a half click,
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be buried
A hover is a half click,
Quick about me
Majority software startup, product roles (both internal tools, hardware, software)
Product Designer
50%, empathy, language of design (get into gritty examples, I’m more self-taught, so I’ve learned bottoms up, observed then applied), data around design (they say its non-tangible, I’m hoping to disprove that), how you use the first two and some other tips to get executive buy-in.
And how design can be introduced in the early stages of minimum saleable products.
Core foundation for driving product & design.
Therefore we need to instill in our team’s more ambitiously across our culture
If you want to feel their pain, have them yell at you.
1: Support cases – 75 cases over 2 weeks. Half days. Even if this wasn’t man-dated organizationally, anyone on my PM team would have to do this STAT. This also means revisiting them constantly.
2: Prototyping, its easy to get feedback internally, but there is nothing better than having your customer do the work. They will tell you what’s really necessary.
3: Quarterly visits. Get on a plane mandidate
4; My latest fav, is getting them to demo the product to a prospect with sales. You’ll start realize while sales so much.
Result:
Confidence for more senior and experienced people – saying: “GM, Oracle, Coke” – and this is what they all said.
Frequency > priority (frequency inside that feature is what designer’s care about – that next level)
Product management has it’s on jargon like agile, kanban, prioritization on theme.
You’ve probably heard -- don’t make the user think (they’re talking about something else)—
but something that is critical is that if those use cases are important enough you’ll know how to prioritize the design in a single feature.
WHY during beta, we ask ‘what were you thinking” (and does it match what you WANT them to think)
Kayak, a simple and well used interface. Very successful company.
Great UI. UX is actually pretty good,
But here is an opportunity where not UI design can win but UX.
What I’m personally thinking: important to select my preferences, telling me to buy now (top right), drill down
Now look at Google Flights!
Not at well designed, but it says ‘here are the best flights’ (its the priority by hiding: Costs, arline, time and wifi and type.)
They didn’t add the supplementary information (and the filters are tucked away at the top)
Show: if its not primary, its secondary
Secondary, reduce the clutter
UX can sometimes trump UI
Don’t make the user the think! (What we make is given them less to think about, and tell give them an obvious choice).
No focal point on the page
Priority has to be given!
Lastpass (Priority, focal, consistency just became our enemy in this context)
A lot of icons and different colors (many things fighting for attention!)
It doesn’t really explicit give you a place of focus because everything is the same size (so while this may be consistent -- an engineers argument)
Focus on the light area
Determined that cognitive people search for websites not by URL’s by brands, and they need to stand up.
Primary action is to usually dig into an account which when you hover you get icons (this is a perfect example of where use case is FIND, then EDIT/grab password or SHARE.
I wanted to mention them, because everyone in our office got excited because of a new navigation
I had sales/CS coming over saying “did you say with they did, that was unbelievable” - it looks so slick.
NPS
What to think (familiarity, as we see the black as a trend) -- diff than last pass is they used a hover here, because they knew that you’re not switching often enough to see the whole name (more real esate!)
They removed all that secondary information (# of cases, conversation, # of customers etc)
Show: if its not primary, its secondary
Secondary, reduce the clutter
UX can sometimes trump UI
Counter (ERP)
Contstraints / creativity
every option should be less than 3 clicks away (does include sub-workflows)
Hovers / drags count as halves.
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be barried
A hover is a half click,
This calms people don’t so they don’t get scared!
People can easily be afraid
A lot of the times its an undo button or clicking back (for simple websites)
What happens when you apply a filter / sort? Move a file to a new location with different permissions? Delete something?
Determine what needs to be reversible is again (recall: Empathy / Use Cases)
Emotional ease
Yes, No, Save, Okay in your app – easy opportunity to reduce cog load.
No ambiguity
This has to do with emotional ease
Clarity in action
Let me get the right content up, tags/social widgets (emotional ease); cognitively, less interference
This is a PURE case of DESIGN disruption, tangibly and economically
Now you’ve hopefully got a few principles you can toute
But now you need to convince executives
First column is 8 years.
What is uniteresting is google / shopify buying, what gets me is that McKinsey, Captial One, Ernest & Young.
That is a strong signal corporate enterprise who create presentations for a living are finally making moves.
6x more likely to buy with a positive experience (this was our early success at Roadmunk)
More forgiving (pretty iphone doesn’t work, you’ll wait)
VC POV, design is critical
10% of fortune companies have put it as an executive priority
Sums it nicely, when designers funded their company selling Obama O’s as cereal to start this, make sure design was part of their culture.
Now you’ve hopefully got a few principles you can toute
Lets make this a priority, get me the resources I need.
Education gap between people who’ve embraced these principles and those who have not
Love, reliability – powerful.
Executive 10% (fortune, design an executive)
Prototype – bring in a higher fidelity
Stay away from MVP
Start with how they enter, they often think about the feature from top to bottom in their mind
Going to go in thie order invest in those two areas, because they will be more forgiving (especially if they’re on the early part of the chasm)
Again, starts with empathy -> turning into use cases
They speed up your time over the chasm?
Why: Early majority need something reliable, better designed products are more referenceable (because people seem to be more forgiving towards them)
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be buried
A hover is a half click,
This is a great one for scale, bigger the app, more complexity, use cases that are secondary but still important should not be buried
A hover is a half click,