This document summarizes an introductory presentation about product management. It discusses both hard skills like using metrics and analytics tools, understanding user experience, and having business acumen. It also discusses soft skills like being solution-oriented, communicating effectively, context switching, having passion for the work, and leading without authority. The document provides a use case from Trunk Club about prioritizing a product strategy and roadmap, and how seemingly small decisions can have major impacts. It emphasizes understanding how customers actually use products.

1. Intro to Product Management by Trunk Club
Product Manager
www.productschool.com

2. FREE INVITE
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3. COURSES
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7. Matt Holihan
TONIGHT’S SPEAKER

8. Intro to Product Management
Matthew Holihan

9. My Background
Trunk ClubPeapodGrouponFamily Business

10. What makes a good pm? What do I need to succeed?
● “Hard” skills
● “Soft” skills
Trunk Club Use Cases
● High level strategy & roadmap alignment
● Seemingly small decisions… major impact

11. Hard Skills- Know Your Way Around Metrics
● Use of Analytics Tools
○ Tableau, SQL, Excel, Domo
○ Speed vs Strength
● Interpretation of Data
○ Understand your core KPI’s
○ When is it appropriate for new
data analysis

12. Hard Skills- User Experience Obsessed
● Understand user context & user
expectations
○ Focus on “goal of user”
○ Quan & Qual tools
● Know your product inside & out
○ Dogfood!
● You’re not a designer… but...
○ Understanding of UX & UX design
informs & assists in design decisions
○ Partner with & empower
the design team

13. Hard Skills- Business Acumen
● Understand how your business
makes money
● “Contribution to the business”
● Synthesize ambiguity back to
business goals & product
decisions

14. Soft Skills- Solution Oriented, Problem Obsessed
● Solutioning is fun… but fall in love with
the problem
● Constant Curiosity
●

15. Soft Skills- Communication
● Tailoring the message to your audience
● Use communication methods that work for your
stakeholders, colleagues, partners, client, etc.
● Transparency & Accountability
○ Good news takes the stairs, bad news takes the
escalator
○ When delivering bad news…
What happened, why, impact, & go forward plan
○ Socializing plans
● Tell the story. Take your org along the journey

16. Soft Skills- Context switching
● Ability to change gears quickly &
effectively
○ 1 day-> interviews, focus
groups, COO catch up,
analytical breakdown,
engineering card grooming.
● Tools I use-
Slack, Evernote, Rocketbook
● It’s ok to say no!

17. Soft Skills- Passion
● Emotions are contagious.
Team will take their cues from
you.
● What motivates you? What
about this product resonates?
● Easy to get bogged down.
Celebrate the wins.

18. Soft Skills- Leading without Authority
● Persuasion
○ What matters to this
person?
● Lead with empathy.
Let voices be heard.
● Share the success.
Shoulder the blame.

19. Trunk Club Use Case-
Product Strategy & Roadmap Prioritization

20. How can you get to a strategy?
● Can be done with KPIs, Business goals,
projects, etc.
What is the right framing for our product?
● We rally behind the following premise…
● To build & maintain a platform that matches the
right product, to the right customer, at the right
time.

21. Three things to remember...
GOAL
STRATEGY
TACTIC

22. Why even have a catalog?
Why not just shop on nordstrom.com?

23. Optimize for personalization

24. Nordstrom.com can’t assume anything
20s, Winter Park, FL
Business Casual
30s, Waco, TX
Casual
40s, Washington, DC
Business Professional

25. TC can provide definitive context into
who and what we are shopping for.
20s, Winter Park, FL
Business Casual
30s, Waco, TX
Casual
40s, Washington, DC
Business Professional

26. Trunk Club Use Case-
Product Strategy & Roadmap Prioritization
Three things to remember...
GOAL
STRATEGY
TACTICS

27. Goal: Match the right customer, with the right product, at the right time
Prioritization
- What problem is this solving?
- Increase in kept items
- Increase in CSAT
- Increase in revenue
- Increase in stylist efficiency
- What is the contribution to the business?
- Revenue generation
- Worker efficiency
- Demand forecasting
- What are we going to do?
- Partner w/ data science & engineering on
feasibility
- What changes are necessary for the stylist?
- Balance scope & iteration
Strategy: Expansion of DS recs will lead to a better stylist & customer experience
Tactics: Suggest categories, suggest brands, surface similar suggestions

28. Trunk Club Use Case-
Seemingly Small Decisions… Major Impact

29. A 2+ year old solution was in place as a way to
surface to a stylist items insights into kept or
returned product.

30. Red Dot = “returned”
Green Dot = “kept”

31. Since then, we’ve surfaced this info in new & more
impactful ways.
- Full product history in customer profile
- Banner + reason code on matched search result
- Increased influence in recommendations

32. The calls made to surface this information we
deemed to be unnecessary overhead.
Validated use by minimal usage of stylist “clicking
in” to dots to see feedback.

33. Removed the dots.
Reduced overhead in calls.
Made catalog a faster platform. Yay!

34. AND

35. PEOPLE

36. GOT

37. REAL
ANGRY!!

38. What did we miss?
How did we not know it was so helpful?

39. What decision do I make as a PM?

40. Quick change that’s “better than today”
Spend some time getting to the heart of
using a quick guide as a heuristic.

41. Parting Thought...
You don’t get to choose how a customer
uses your product… they do.

42. grazie!

43. Part-time Product Management Courses in
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York, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Denver,
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