Main takeaways: -Avoid the tyranny of a blank page (or a blinking cursor) - start with something (which is better than nothing) then edit, open for comments and learn -Answering "What to build" is good but generating "Why we are doing this" is awesome -Context is a product manager's superpower

1. Finding Your Superpower in Product
Management by Disney Sr PM
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5. Finding Your Superpowers
Greg Newman Senior Product Manager Disney Streaming

6. Greg Newman
S P E A K E R
Senior Product Manager - Disney Streaming

7. About Me
Early Life
● Grew up in Brooklyn, NY
● Studied Political Science in college
● Researched sports analytics and media bias

8. About Me
Journalism
Career
● Online editor on high school and college newspapers
● Wrote and edited news stories, analysis and blogs
● Full-time editor for ESPN’s digital media properties

9. About Me
The Move To
Product
● Worked on multiple media company’s redesigns
● Re-imagined editorial suite of tools
● Developed scalable platforms that multiple lines of business
could use to create content and fulfill their needs

10. About Me
Current Job
● Working for Disney Streaming’s Consumer Experience
Management Product Team
● Focus on Content Experiences
● Member of Disney+ launch team

11. Journalism-Product
Interviewing someone for a
story is very similar to
conducting a user discovery
interview.
Interviewing
1.
Having clear and impactful
writing is paramount in both
roles.
Writing
2.
As a Product Manager, you are
often reviewing somebody
else’s work and advising them
on how to improve. This is
remarkably similar to editing an
article written by someone else.
Editing
3.
Journalism’s Parallels To Product
The same type of thinking
applies if you are determining a
content or product strategy.
Strategizing
4.

12. Writer’s Block Is Still The Enemy

13. ● Outline
● Drawing
● Chart
You can always make improvements. At the very beginning, having something on paper/on a screen is MUCH
better than having nothing at all.
So You Have To Start With Something

14. ● Does this provide more information or does it add to confusion?
● Is this the best method to convey this information?
● Could I make this more clear?
This is where you get your piece of writing to the point where you are comfortable with others reading it. It does
NOT need to be the greatest thing you have ever written -- but should be understandable to someone familiar
with the subject area. Oftentimes, done is better than perfect.
But Then You Have To Edit/Constantly Improve

15. The Write Stuff
Emails/Instant
Messages
Requirements Meeting Notes Release Notes
Training Guides Product Briefs Strategy Memos Bug Reports
Things You
Might Write
Status Reports

16. ● What should we do?
● What just happened?
● What do you need from me?
This is a good thing! Defining the “what” you is going
to be built is very important. It’s a crucial part of a
product manager’s job.
Most Of Those Attempt To Answer One Thing

17. But I Want To Talk About Super Powers

18. A Secret Weapon

19. ● Development team knows the ins and outs of the codebase better than I do
● Designers are able to put together user interfaces in ways that I would never think of
● Data analysts can dissect the results of very complex experiments in stunning ways
● Project and Program Managers are able to manage dependencies and schedule complex
launches to work perfectly
● Disney’s content librarians know more about the content on Disney+ than I will ever
Product Managers As Generalists

20. How To Provide Context
● Provide a business justification/reasoning as often as possible
● Share research, information, testimonials and data whenever useful
● If I feel like I’m under communicating, that’s a giant problem. When I feel like I’m over
communicating, I’m probably communicating just enough.
● Give background on your thinking and what factors are top of mind for you
● Allow people to have a synthesis of your discovery process in a consumable, asynchronous way

21. Context Leads To Why
● How we got here and what decisions were made impacts what we are doing next
● Builds your case as to why doing this is important
● Helps inform key measures of success
● Allows forward-looking thinking of what would come next

22. How “Why” Works - Everyone rowing together

23. Why I’m Obsessed With The Why
● It serves a need that product manager’s are uniquely qualified to give
● Allows the translation of all the discovery efforts into something consumable
● Connects the product features to the overall vision and strategy
● Allows room for creativity
● Some of the most fun I’ve had as a product manager has been discussions about the why

24. And Because It Has Worked
● I’ve noticed a correlation between successful products I’ve worked on and the rigorous
explanations as to why we are building this
● Conversely, when the “why” is missing or is not clear is often when the feature doesn’t end up as
imagined
● Stops teams from building non-worthwhile things
● It allows you to deliver your opinions asynchronously
● It has a longer life cycle

25. And It Allows You To Save The World

26. Thank You!
WWW.PRODUCTSCHOOL.COM

27. www.productschool.com
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