Talk for Seattle Product Camp (25 Oct 14) on minimally viable product management (just enough to avoid hindering product flow) up through great product managers/leaders/thinkers

1. Product Management:
Good, Better, Best
Rich Mironov
25 October 2014
1
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©
Rich
Mironov,
2014

2. ABOUT RICH MIRONOV
• Veteran product manager/executive
• 6 startups, including as CEO
• “The Art of Product Management”
• First Product Camp, first product tracks
at Agile conference
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3. WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?
market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, epics,
user stories, backlogs,
personas, MRDs…
Marketing
& Sales
Development Customers
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Markets &
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Executives
Product
Management
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4. HARD TO QUANTIFY PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE
• Focus on deliverables
and processes
• Engineering and
Marketing see
promptness, not
quality
• But great product management >> deliverables
• We earn our pay by making hard decisions
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5. REQUIRED SPORTS ANALOGY:
[1] LEARN THE BASICS

6. [2] TECHNICAL MASTERY
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7. [3] BRILLIANCE >> TECHNIQUE

8. GOOD, BETTER, GREAT
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
• “Minimally viable product manager”
• Learn the tools, keep the product process flowing
• Technical mastery
• Best practices, efficient processes, successful products
• Strategic brilliance
• Creative solutions, competitive advantage,
seeing around corners
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9. FOUR ASPECTS
1. Market insight
2. Agile
3. Pricing
4. Organizational thinking
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10. MINIMALLY VIABLE MARKET INSIGHT
“Daddy said that
customers will
want this.”
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11. TECHNICAL MASTERY: KNOWN
MARKETS, UNDERSTOOD NEEDS
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12. DEEPLY CHANNELING
CUSTOMER NEEDS
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13. MINIMALLY VIABLE
AGILE PRODUCT OWNERSHIP
• Choose a model
• Play your part
• Make some music
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14. TECHNICAL MASTERY OF
AGILE PRODUCT OWNERSHIP
• Teamwork
• Right-sized
stories
• Groomed
backlog
• Harmony
• Assigned
roles

15. TRANSCENDING TEXTBOOK PROCESSES
• Whole team contributes to market insights
• “Customer problems we are solving” instead of
“what customers asked for”
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16. MINIMALLY VIABLE PRICING
We have a price
• Matches competition
• Doesn’t delay launch
B2B:
$20
per
month
per
user
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17. TECHNICAL MASTERY OF PRICING
Apply well-known
models
correctly
Basic
Expanded
Advanced
Core
feature
#1
√
√
√
Core
feature
#2
√
√
√
Core
feature
#3
√
√
√
Baseline
support
(5*8,
email)
√
√
√
Baseline
capacity
√
√
√
Monthly
newsleFer
√
√
√
Major
upgrade
feature
√
√
Cool
feature
√
√
Extra
capacity
√
√
Expanded
service
hours
(6*12)
√
√
Professional
feature
√
Tons
of
capacity
√
Concierge
service
(24*7,
phone)
√
Golf
with
sales
rep
√
CEO
welcome
leFer
√

18. STRATEGIC MARKETPLACE
DISRUPTION THROUGH PRICING
New pricing model changes basis of competition

19. MINIMALLY VIABLE
ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
• Plays well with others
• Sales is willing to invite
to customer meetings
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20. TECHNICAL MASTERY OF
ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS
• Knows what motivates
stakeholders and team
• Smoothly leads without
authority
• Understands org charts and
organizational structures
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21. STRATEGIC INSIGHT INTO
PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS
• Sorts roles from personalities,
anticipates behaviors
• Coaches across all levels
and functions
• Given our executive team,
how should we be structured?
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22. SO A GREAT PRODUCT MANAGER…
Deeply understands customer needs…
Can quantify the value of solutions…
Partners to get great product built…
Gently manages the organization…
Helps customers discover/appreciate/buy
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23. WELCOME TO
PRODUCT CAMP
SEATTLE!
Rich Mironov
San Francisco, CA 94102
Rich@Mironov.com
RichMironov
@RichMironov
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