How to Hack Your Company for Product Management

COPYRIGHT © 2017 PRODUCT PEOPLE LIMITED ● PRODUCTPEO.PL
HOW TO HACK
YOUR COMPANY FOR
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
IT ARENA 2017, L’VIV
@JOCKBU
JOCK BUSUTTIL
PRODUCT PEOPLE LIMITED

This talk is for people:
new to product management
building a new product team
rebooting a product team
@JOCKBU

Outsourcing
company to
product company?
@JOCKBU

ABOUT JOCK
Freelance head of product
Writer, speaker, mentor and trainer
Author of The Practitioner’s Guide To
Product Management
@JOCKBU
amzn.to/2tnHacR

COPYRIGHT © 2017 PRODUCT PEOPLE LIMITED ● PRODUCTPEO.PL @JOCKBU
Photo: Cpl Graham Taylor (RAF) / MoD

Help us to change
the way we work
@JOCKBU

(but we don’t really
want you to change
anything)
@JOCKBU

WATERFALL
DISCOVER
DESIGN
BUILD
TEST
REQUIREMENTS
TECH SPECS
CODE
QUALITY
ASSURANCE
LAUNCH

Product management
is not only about
managing products
@JOCKBU

Product management
is really about
working with people
@JOCKBU

At the beginning:
#1 Permission
#2 Team
#3 Direction
#4 User research
at same
time
@JOCKBU

Later:
What to build
Process and tools
@JOCKBU

GET
PERMISSION
#
@JOCKBU

You (usually) need
permission to:
@JOCKBU

make your own
decisions
@JOCKBU

work in a
different way
when you need to
@JOCKBU

try out ideas
(Some will work, some won’t.
That’s okay.)
@JOCKBU

talk to users
directly and often
@JOCKBU

A TRACK RECORD EARNS TRUST
Photo: Leon Neal / AFP
@JOCKBU

How do you get a
track record without
permission?
@JOCKBU

Start small
@JOCKBU

Meet the needs of
your main
permission-giver
@JOCKBU

A government minister should
look at the alpha and say:
‘I want one of those’.
There was no way we’d get
permission for the real thing
unless the customer had that
reaction.
TOM LOOSEMORE
DIGITAL SERVICES DIRECTOR,
THE CO-OPERATIVE, UK
Photo: Mind The Product

Permission comes
from trust
@JOCKBU

How to get permission:
Earn the trust of your
influential stakeholders
Start small#
1
@JOCKBU

BUILD
YOUR TEAM
#
@JOCKBU

ASSEMBLE THE RIGHT SKILLS
Photo: Marvel Studios
@JOCKBU

HIRE BRILLIANT PEOPLE
@JOCKBU

Photo: Paul Downey
@JOCKBU

CULTURE IS REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT
Photo: MOJ Digital
@JOCKBU

RETROSPECTIVES
@JOCKBU
Photo: Paul Downey

Team space is
also important
@JOCKBU

Photo: Andrew Dunn - CC BY-SA 2.0

Nope

Sit together
@JOCKBU

WE LEARN FROM OUR PEERS
@JOCKBU

If you see lots of people
experimenting with an idea
– people with whom you
have strong social ties –
there is a high likelihood
you’ll adopt that behaviour.
ALEX PENTLAND
PROFESSOR AND DATA SCIENTIST,
MIT, USA
Photo: MIT

Make stuff visible
@JOCKBU

PHYSICAL SPACES
@JOCKBU
Photo: MOJ Digital

DIGITAL SPACES
@JOCKBU
Source: Government Digital Service

CODE IN THE OPEN
@JOCKBU

We don’t really
value talking
about what we’re
going to do.
We value showing
what we’ve done.
LEISA REICHELT
HEAD OF RESEARCH,
ATLASSIAN
Photo: Mind The Product

SHOW THE THING
@JOCKBU
Photo: Jock Busuttil

Show, don’t tell
@JOCKBU

How to build a team:
Sit together in mixed teams,
in an open space, with
a culture of collaboration
#
2
@JOCKBU

SET
DIRECTION
#
@JOCKBU

You need an idea
of where your
product’s going
@JOCKBU

Your team should
care about getting
to the destination
@JOCKBU

The destination
should be easy to
remember
@JOCKBU

Destination
= product vision
@JOCKBU

Not this:
@JOCKBU

“achieve X%
market share”
@JOCKBU

“become the
market leader in Y”
@JOCKBU

“make $$$ in
revenue”
@JOCKBU

“continually foster world-class
infrastructures as well as to quickly
create principle-centred sources to
meet our customers’ needs”
@JOCKBU

Better examples:
@JOCKBU

make people happy
DISNEYLAND
@JOCKBU

a world
free of
malaria
BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION @JOCKBU

make people’s lives
easier, safer and better
VOLVO CARS
@JOCKBU

A product vision is
deliberately far off
and hard to complete
@JOCKBU

A GOOD VISION MOTIVATES AND ALIGNS
@JOCKBU

The big steps to get
there
= product roadmap
@JOCKBU

You expect your
roadmap to change
as you learn more
@JOCKBU

The smaller steps
= weekly objectives
= daily tasks
@JOCKBU

EVERYTHING IS ALIGNED
@JOCKBU
COMPANY GOALS
PRODUCT VISION
PRODUCT ROADMAP
WEEKLY OBJECTIVES
DAILY TASKS

Each task, goal
and roadmap
item is an
experiment
@JOCKBU

Focus on what users
are trying to achieve
@JOCKBU

Not on building
widgets or features
@JOCKBU

Focus on outcomes,
not on outputs
@JOCKBU

How to set direction:
Choose a simple vision people
care about
Focus on outcomes, not outputs
#
3
@JOCKBU

UNDERSTAND
YOUR USERS
#
@JOCKBU

To begin with, you
know nothing about
your users
@JOCKBU

But you may have
some guesses
@JOCKBU

What is the running
man in the video
doing?
@JOCKBU

Photo: The Guardian / YouTubeSource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h-T3KQNxU

Learning about your
users will change
your perspective
@JOCKBU

Credit: Roman Pichler

Learning reduces
your risk of building
the wrong thing
@JOCKBU

You must be able to
change your product
easily as you learn
@JOCKBU

Photo: Government Digital Service

PROBLEM DEFINED SOLUTION DEFINED
Credit: Design Council (with adaptations)
BUILD
TRENDS EMERGING TESTS SUCCEEDING
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
WHO HAS IT?
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
WHAT’S THE BEST SOLUTION?
WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN’T?
WHAT CAUSES WHAT?
GUESS
@JOCKBU

Always be learning
@JOCKBU

How to understand users:
Meet real users often
Change your product based on
what you learn
Repeat#
4
@JOCKBU

RECAP
@JOCKBU

HOW TO HACK YOUR COMPANY
@JOCKBU
GET PERMISSION
BUILD YOUR TEAM
SET DIRECTION
UNDERSTAND YOUR USERS

THANKS!
INTERIM PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
WWW: productpeo.pl
BLOG: imanageproducts.uk
@jockbu amzn.to/2tnHacR

QUESTIONS?
INTERIM PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
WWW: productpeo.pl
BLOG: imanageproducts.uk
@jockbu amzn.to/2tnHacR

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