Did this year’s product roadmap deliver value? Is your backlog out of control? Did you meet all of your goals? As 2017 comes to an end, it’s time to reflect on this past year and start fresh in the new year. This slide deck was put together by The Product Stack, a coalition of product manager allies focused on helping you plan, execute, and measure your way to customer-centric products.

1. Getting in Shape for 2018:
Product Management Best Practices

2. Who is joining us today?

4. Brought to you by The Product Stack, a group of like-minded organizations
that offer practical solutions for modern product teams. Our quest is to shine
a light on the challenges everyday product teams face and offer up real
advice and solutions that address these challenges head on.
Join the conversation at www.TheProductStack.com.

5. Kevin Steigerwald
Notion Founder, CPO
Today’s Panel
Dan Podsedly
VP, Pivotal Tracker
Annie Dunham
ProductPlan,
Director of Product
Submit questions at anytime during the webinar!

6. Let’s get ready for 2018!

7. Agenda
1. Better product planning
2. Better team management
3. Better time management
4. Live Q & A
Submit questions at anytime during the webinar!

8. 1. Better Product Planning

9. How far out do you roadmap?

11. 2018 Product Planning: Retrospective
• Retrospective
– What went better than expected?
– What did we not anticipate?

12. • Retrospective
• Analysis
– Set your current roadmap aside
– Opportunities
– Challenges
2018 Product Planning: Analysis

13. • Retrospective
• Analysis
• Aspirations
– What do we want to accomplish?
– Do X even over Y
2018 Product Planning: Aspirations

14. • Increase Market Share even over increased ARPU
• Product priority examples:
– Increase referrals
– Address 20% of sales lost
– Decrease time in other tools
2018 Product Planning

15. 2018 Product Planning

16. • Updated Roadmap
• Customer Benefits | Business Objectives
• Prioritization Framework
2018 Product Planning: Outcomes

17. 2018 Planning: The Team

18. 2018 Planning: Your Career

19. 2. Better Team Management

20. How often does your team hold retrospectives?

22. Retros: Recipe for Happy Teams
• Your weekly / monthly internal feedback loop
• Turn your action items into chores
• Make it fun: Whine-and-cheese, ice cream
• Retro all the things!

23. • Old stories a health hazard!
• Common pattern - stories get
prioritized quickly or sit on ice forever
• Export, archive, make a new project
• Set the right stakeholder expectations
Do You Know What’s in Your Icebox?

24. Balanced Team: The Startup Within
• Multi-disciplinary (product + eng + design)
• Organized around roadmap goals
• Empowered & trusted to find solutions, iterate
• Talks to customers, makes decisions
• Pushes code to production!

25. Beware Conway’s Law
• Hard to scale teams with monolithic products
• Can team boundaries mirror those of your product?
• More empowered teams, reduced dependencies, easier decision
making and communication -> better customer outcomes
(thanks to Martin Fowler)

26. Team Communication
• Standups for connection, not status
• Do your tools help or distract?
• Co-located or distributed by design

27. Collaboration Doesn’t Just Happen
• Make it your culture, hire for it
• Pairing - not just for programming
• Breakfast: not just a perk!

28. 3. Better Time Management

29. What methods do you use to measure and
improve your professional development?

31. While you’re worrying about the
product and your team, who is
looking after you?

32. Creativity and productivity are
crucial to your success as a PM.
So how can you foster productivity?

33. So how can you foster productivity?
With frequency.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

34. Let your goals—not tools—dictate
your process.

35. Start the Day: The 1-3-5 Rule
● Write out 1 big, 3 medium, & 5 small daily goals
○ Size by priority, not necessarily effort
○ Complete the big or a medium before lunch
○ Put creative work first over reactive work
■ Work on wireframes, user stories,
workflows while you are energized.
Save emails and managing tickets for
after lunch.

36. End the Day: Stand-up
● Write down answers to
have a reviewable archive
● Review list the following
morning when making your
next 1-3-5 list

37. Best Tools to Get the Job Done
● Like everything else a good PM does, experiment to find the right tool and
process for you. Consistency is all that matters.
● 135list.com
● Slack, Evernote, Notes, Things, OmniFocus, Paper, Sheets, Tracker, your
Calendar
● Anything that lets you maintain a running archive and lets you check things
off as progress is made

38. In Summary
● Take time to step back and look at the past, present, and future
● Align behind high level goals for a successful 2018 and…
● ...organize your team(s) around your product goals
● Retrospect on your feedback loops and revisit old priorities
● Frequency fosters creativity and productivity
● Setting a habitual routine for yourself benefits your product and team

39. Questions?
Continue the conversation at www.TheProductStack.com
Free Product Trials:
www.productplan.com
www.pivotaltracker.com
www.usenotion.com

40. Thank You.
Continue the conversation at www.TheProductStack.com
Free Product Trials:
www.productplan.com
www.pivotaltracker.com
www.usenotion.com