Early stage founders at their core are product managers. They have the opportunity to leverage a handful of key insights from product managers to make their early product successful. Latif Nanji, CEO & Co-founder of Roadmunk, will outline what those key insights are so founders and those working with innovations within their companies can rise above the noise in their market.

2. WHO AM I
• Co-founder @ Pokerspace.com, Lush Apparel
• Senior Product Manager @ Miovision
• Co-Founder @ Roadmunk
Bookworm, rock climber, improv enthusiast & skier

3. Startup Product Management
• Early ideation
• MVP vs MSP
• Design is not a luxury
• Delighting early audience
and its tradeoffs
Entrepreneurs
Product
Managers
Let’s talk here, about the
subtle differences.

4. What starting can look like.

5. Early Ideation: How to Choose and Validate
Eg: Bookxor was a tool for students to read and annotate
lecture notes. In return, professors could see usage and
readership analytics on their course notes.

6. Early Ideation: How to Choose and Validate
● Student & Professor
○ Have you searched for a tool that does this?
○ How much do you love current offering (1-10)?
○ Problem 1-10?
Eg: Bookxor was a tool for students to read and annotate lecture notes. In return,
professors could see usage and readership analytics on their course notes.
“7 means they’re being Canadian polite and it’s probably a zero.”

7. Real interview questions from PM
1. Do you have a current offering that’s easily displaced
even if you don’t like it? (ie. BANT)
2. If you didn’t have this product for another year, what how
would you feeling?
3. If our product / service did this, how often would you use
it? If not daily, what would make it daily?
4. How much would you pay and if it’s fully featured how
much do you expect the organization to commit? How
much can you put down now?
If they’re not very excited, then assume they’re not interested at all.

8. Early Ideation: Where we started
We started out as a requirements management
platform.
Even though we did 3 months of interviews, we did
not ask the right questions and left it open-ended.
It wasn’t until I opened up my new idea in a P2P
roundtable and someone said:
“I’ll pay for that, seriously!”

9. Early Ideation: Two-Week Validation for Roadmapping
1. Spent $500 on Google AdWords
1. Got 120 sign-ups and people messaging us
asking questions
1. Let’s just make a few people very very happy
Product manager - Let’s validate the market even more!
Entrepreneurial PM- We have one customer and 4 months of runway, let’s go!
“Nail the problem first and if you can, the market”

11. MVP vs MSP

12. Minimal Viable Product

13. Minimal Viable vs Saleable Features
MVPs MSPs
● Enable Conversation ● Drive a Sale
● Feedback after release ● Driven by Design
● Difficult for investors ● Feedback required prior to
● Investors can see results

14. Examples for MVP & MSP
MVPs MSPs
● Google Chrome only ● Fit to PowerPoint
● Deletion of account ● Export to Private /
Password protected URL
● Simple permission system ● Corporate branding and
colours
● Drag-and-droppable UI
everywhere

15. Design is not a Luxury.

16. “Design is the fastest way to differentiate
and capture market attention.”

17. Design Principles & Language
● 3-click mentality
● Cognitive Load
● Play within the lines
● Tactful transitions
RelateIQ, Dribbble, Google Drive, Slack

18. How does the Kano Model differ for
startup product managers?

20. Traditional PM
Startup PM

21. But my sales guy just closed a six-figure deal and
they want us to build the moon?

22. Want
Delighters and
will pay!
Show adoption/growth
in their org
Raising $ seed
becomes
easier
Tell sales to
avoid these
people