Main takeaways: - Making decisions with imperfect information - Not being results-oriented with decision making - How to handle pressure in your product role

1. www.productschool.com
Webinar: How Pro Poker Made Me a
Better PM by fmr Yahoo Sr PM

2. Join 50,000+
Product Managers on
Free Resources
Discover great job
opportunities
Job Portal
prdct.school/PSJobPortalprdct.school/events-slack

3. CERTIFICATES
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Product Leadership
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Full Stack Product
Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™
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5. Corporate
Training
Level up your team’s Product
Management skills

6. Bet, Build, Go
How Professional Poker Made Me
a Better Product Manager
Derek Kwan - COO, Retention Science, Former
Yahoo! Product Manager, Author

7. What we’ll cover
1. Game of skill vs game of chance
a. Poker basics
2. Making decisions with imperfect information
3. Not being results oriented
4. How to handle pressure

9. Game of chance
vs
Game of skill

15. Making
decisions with
imperfect
information

16. Hand reading: it’s not magic
1. Observation
2. Pattern recognition
3. Structured hand analysis
4. Math
5. Critical thinking / probabilistic thinking

17. PMs: Good Decision Making
1. 80% of the info > 100% a month later
2. Cost / benefit analysis + risk / reward
3. Secondary and tertiary effects
4. The virtue of POCs (but don’t be lazy)

18. Risk / Reward

19. Not being
results
oriented

20. Poker: running “bad”

21. PMs: be process oriented

22. A better way
1. Focus on decision making, not outcomes
2. Opportunity cost / trade-offs
3. Go long
4. Have big picture context (mission, vision)
5. Be disciplined

23. Thank you!
Handling
pressure

24. Beating pressure
1. You are a de facto leader in your
organization
2. Your job is to turn chaos into structure
3. Focus on decision making, not outcomes
a. Do not fear failure
4. Focus on solutions, not emotions
5. Go long
6. Practice mindfulness

25. Thank you!Going long

26. Thank you!

27. Bet, Build, Go - Some Topics
● Exploitative poker strategy
● The downfall of Blockbuster
● Users are your lifeblood
● Uber vs the taxi monopolies
● Probabilistic thinking
● Leadership
● Setting your mission
● The software development lifecycle
● Mixed strategies in poker
● Opportunity cost
● The resiliency of Airbnb
● The startup curve
● Sam Hinkie and the 76ers
● The process and outcome matrix
● Opportunity cost
● Making big bets

28. Connect with me!
Book (Bet, Build, Go: Build Startups Like a Poker Player):
https://www.amazon.com/Bet-Build-Go-Startups-Player-ebook/
dp/B085ZN2S2L
LinkedIn (Derek Kwan, ReSci):
https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-kwan-00bbb21/
Twitter (Kwansfull): https://twitter.com/kwansfull
Blog (Bet, Build, Go): https://betbuildgo.com/

29. Thank you for joining!

30. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training