The document discusses methods for influencing organizations through understanding customer problems, motivating teams, and driving innovation. It emphasizes the importance of defining target customers, their pain points, and developing value propositions, while also implementing effective performance metrics to gauge success. Additionally, it outlines strategies for stakeholder management and collaboration to ensure successful product development and adoption.

2. Ken Sandy

3. LEADING
THROUGH
INFLUENCE

4. How do you influence
your organization?

6. Conceiving of a business opportunity vs. Understanding customer problems
Generating your own product ideas vs. Embracing cross-organizational ideation
Defining solution requirements vs. Validating possible solutions
Driving project execution vs. Building a motivated team
Shipping a product vs. Ensuring customer adoption

7. “Build the right
product”
not
“Build the product
right”.

8. CONTEXT
COLLABORATION
CLARITY

9. Use creative
thinking
to discover
opportunities
and potential
solutions

10. Understand
your
customer
and their
unmet needs

11. Shine a light
on contrary
data, flaws,
hidden
assumptions
to preempt
issues

12. Motivate a
team and
build
company-
wide support

13. Evaluate your “go-to-strength” and
that of your key stakeholder
Write them both together in the
chat window (yours first, theirs next)

14. HOW TO APPLY GIVEN…
• The product lifecycle?
• Product maturity?
• Stakeholder comfort
zones?
• Organization size and
culture?
• Your comfort zone?

16. DRIVE INNOVATION WITH AN EXPLORER MINDSET
1. Define your target customer, problem statement,
and a product vision.
2. Canvas broadly for opportunities and ideas.
3. Prototype potential solutions —and gather
feedback throughout the lifecycle.

17. Who is your target customer?
“For whom you are solving a problem?”
You likely have multiple, complementary
customers.
Sub-segment target customers and define their
attributes.
Create a persona to bring them to life. Validate with
existing and prospective customers.

20. What problem are you solving for your customer?
“The benefits you promise to deliver – in your
customer’s terms”
Start with a Problem Statement – make it
meaningful.
Define about three value proposition statements
per target customer.
Value propositions are the reasons people buy –
your features and functions make it possible.

22. Given these testimonials, what problem does Masterclass uniquely solve?

23. Highest-quality
Content
A class like a movie
Anywhere,
Anytime Access
At your own pace
Largest
Selection
Lowest
Price
Fastest, Easiest
Delivery
Learn from
the Best
in the world
Accessible &
Affordable
Protein, Iron &
Nutrition
Same or better than meat
Uncompromisingly
Delicious
And performs in the kitchen
DIFFERENTIATOR

24. Stuck? Abstract Your Features to Value Propositions

25. 1. Imagine you are Airbnb before it was
created. List features you would include
Airbnb’s service.
2. Group the features into buckets that
represent three key value propositions
of Airbnb.

29. DEVELOP CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING WITH AN ANALYST MINDSET
1. Set and monitor quantitative performance metrics
for your product.
2. Develop a rich qualitative perspective by observing
and interviewing customers.
3. Become your own analyst.

30. Measure What Matters
Vanity metrics are distractions, irrelevant to your
product – and can mask severe fundamental issues.
What demonstrates customers value your product?
Viability: Customer-lifetime value > Revenue
Your responsibility to define, gather, analyze,
report

31. Vanity KPIs vs. Value KPIs
• 5 million registered users
• Sales have grown by 400%
• #1 download on AppStore
• Distribution deals with 4 out of the top 6
retailers
• Grew traffic to 5 million advertising
impressions per month
• 150,000 twitter followers
• 90% product launches are on-time
• Billions and billions served
• Repeat users are 70% of all visitors to the Website
• Successful transaction completion at 78%
• 15 minutes time spent per unique user per month
• YoY contract renewals at 93%
• Monthly active users use application 7 times per
month
• Average ”half-life” per customer is 10 months
• We grew conversion rate last month from 1.0% to
1.5%
• Monthly returns are down from 0.7% to 0.5% of
units sold
• 3 Likes/Shares/Comments per follower per month

32. Attributes of SMART Value KPIs
Value KPIs pinpoint and
measure specific behaviors
customers exhibit within,
about or in response to
your product.
These demonstrate
customers find sustained,
substantial value from
using your service.
Simple, clearly defined, concise,
shared and focused.
Actionable. Moves fast enough to
establish a feedback loop.
Trackable, quantifiable, accurate
and repeatable. Comparable
period to period.
Meaningful to your product and
customer goals. Mitigates the
effects of externalities.
Motivating. Obtainable but
challenging.

33. List metrics that you
are – or would like to
be – held accountable
to…

34. Choosing Metrics
How will we measure success?
State the desired business benefits
Choose one ‘north-star’ long-term customer outcome
to guide and inspire
Augment with SMART product KPIs

35. Metrics
KPIs
OKRs
Values that are important to track and evaluate over time.
Key Performance Indicators are metrics with which
we’ve established a correlate with success
Initiative for a specific time horizon (typically
quarterly) intended to improve one or more KPIs
Metrics, KPIs and OKRs

36. North Star
% of Students who start their own Small Business
KPI 1
Course Graduation
Rate
KPI 3
LTV / CAC
ratio
KPI 2
# of Interactions
per student

37. Conversion rate increases 10% over baseline
with 80% confidence (for an A|B test)
Onboarding of new customers takes half the
time over current baseline
80% of Monthly Active Users utilize feature
Y at least once per month
The proportion of customer service tickets
triggered by issue Z are reduced by 50%
SUCCESS
CRITERIA
EXAMPLES

38. Understand Customers, First-hand
Don’t outsource the most important part of your
role.
Build empathy and discover new opportunities
Frequent, informal and lightweight engagement
Partner with research and insight teams

41. IDENTIFY AND MITIGATE RISKS WITH A CHALLENGER MINDSET
1. Approach all opportunities as hypotheses requiring
validation.
2. Embrace dissenting voices and constructive conflict.
3. Focus, prioritize, cut – say no nicely.

42. https://itamargilad.com/the-tool-that-will-help-you-choose-better-product-ideas/

43. Developing Hypotheses
“What risks and assumptions do we need to test,
evaluate and mitigate?”
Focus on those not readily in your control.
Prioritize critical risks and have a mitigation or
response plan.
Revisit infrequently to see whether things have
changed.

44. Ø Will consumers be interested in classes taught by celebrities?
Ø Can we charge consumers enough to make the business
sustainable?
Ø Will instructors agree to teach?
Ø Will instructors be any good at teaching?
Ø Will instructors be able to commit to timelines and schedules?
Ø Can we produce high-quality classes cost effectively?
Ø Can we produce and release enough regular content to keep
consumers engaged?
Ø Will competitors with deeper pockets overtake us once we
validate the market opportunity?

45. Who is this for?
What is the underlying pain-point, unmet need or opportunity?
What do we know today?
What benefit will the customer receive?
What benefit will the business receive?

46. Collaborate to Set Priorities
Prioritization: the processes is the easy bit;
the people are the hard bit.
Saying “no” is unpleasant – but “yes” can be worse
Align on user and business goals/criteria first
Use available best-data, and revisit periodically

47. saying
NICELY

48. What are some
creative ways you use
to say no to
demanding
stakeholders?

49. Stakeholder #1 – No-nonsense Nancy
Strategy
1. Respect their authority
2. Bring the conversation back to desired outcomes
3. Commit to a discovery data gathering exercise
4. Articulate the impact and resulting trade-offs
required
Habitat
Often found with senior executive
titles in corner offices
Diagnosis
• Sets deadlines or scope, or both
• Presents issues in terms of solutions
• May see PM as a service organization
“I can see this is important to you. Help me
understand the underlying data and drivers
that have led you to this conclusion – so I can
efficiently guide the team.”

50. Stakeholder #2 – Likeable Larry
Strategy
1. Listen and acknowledge their needs
2. Describe the impact on others in the organization
when you miss goals (appeal to their empathy)
3. If appropriate, put their need in the idea backlog
4. Recruit them to cheerlead existing goals
Habitat
A long-term, well-respected resident
of many departments
Diagnosis
• Approaches team directly (lacks process)
• Team desires or feels responsible to help
• Distractions lead to missed milestones
“The team has been pretty hammered lately
striving for Goal X. Can you drop-by and
acknowledge their hard work?”

51. Stakeholder #3 – Recency Ralph
Strategy
1. Understand context - use 5-whys to determine
root-issues
2. Evaluate potential workarounds – if possible,
suggest an alternative course with lower effort
3. Reiterate the value of the work already
prioritized and the outcomes on their behalf
4. Show them how work is prioritized and say-no as
nicely as you can
Habitat
Rarely sighted sales executive,
except immediately after an
important customer meeting
Diagnosis
• Left-field, urgent feature requests
• A big deal or newly identified problem
• Ignoring leads to escalation and more work
“Can you tell me about a time that you (or
your customer) wanted that and what did
you (they) do instead?”

53. BUILD MOMENTUM WITH AN EVANGELIST MINDSET
1. Communicate with your stakeholders proactively
and regularly.
2. Set context rather than prescribing solutions—lose
ownership to your team.
3. Carefully manage cross-functional collaboration
before, throughout, and immediately after launch.

54. Evangelism isn’t just just
presenting ideas and updates
How do you evangelize
your product and
priorities?

55. Invest in Relationships Before You Need Them
Trust is frequency of quality interaction plus
follow-through… minus self-interest.
Define your stakeholder group broadly
Meet with each one-on-one. Listen more, talk less.
Determine your stakeholder management strategy

56. Seek Buy-in and a No-Surprises Policy
“Prewire” group consensus by previewing
key points individually with stakeholders.
Time to digest and get onside
Forewarn you of issues might derail you later
Share the uncomfortable early – it’s inevitable

57. Deliver Proactive Concise Updates
No news might be bad news.
Build confidence, affirm alignment, engage them
Establish a cadence and structure
Bottom-line upfront – don’t keep them guessing

58. Own the Solutions to Problems
A squeaky wheel isn’t an attractive
Product Manager trait.
Provide options, and a recommendation
Escalate judiciously – be clear on needed actions
Be a low-maintenance employee – you’ll earn trust

59. Partner with, don’t Drive, Engineering
Engineering Doesn’t Work For You.
Focus on why – encourage ownership of what & how
Involve Engineering early during discovery
Hold kick-offs to share context and retrospectives to
improve process and ways of working

61. Proactively, Decisively Manage Trade-offs
Be ready to make tough calls early and throughout
execution to keep the team on-track.
No nice-to-haves – do the hard work to scope tightly
Sensitively navigate estimation and date-setting
Respect quality lest you set off a techdebt
timebomb

62. Own Outcomes, Not Projects
A product release is not the finish-line,
it’s the start of the marathon.
Communicate and engage across stakeholder group
Disciplined management of post-launch issues
Iterate and optimize until delivery of outcomes

63. KEY
TAKEAWAYS 1. Explorer drives innovation. Analyst builds
understanding. Challenger mitigates risks
and creates focus. Evangelist provides a path
to delivery.
2. Deploy the mindsets to create the context and
environment to motivate a high-performing
cross-functional team.
3. Play to your "go-to" strengths but recognize
and balance your own and stakeholders’
weaknesses.

64. linkedin/in/kensandy
kenjsandy@gmail.com
influentialpm.com
BOOK DEAL
eBook / pbk / kindle / audible:
amzn.to/39kie8i

65. APPENDIX

67. ... ...
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Reading and Instructions: https://www.metabeta.com/articles/process/problem-statement-canvas/

68. https://www.brainmates.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Brainmates-Idea-Pad-English.pdf

69. Collaboratively Identifying Big Rocks: The KJ-Method
PRO TIP: Have your contributors fill out a
worksheet ahead of time including:
1. Their version of the vision and
strategic pillars
2. Interview their stakeholders
3. Prepare a stack of “post-its” of
strategic pillar candidates ready to go
1. Recruit a stakeholder group
2. Pose the focus question for each strategic pillar in turn –
“What can we do to achieve…”
3. Individual brainstorm – write but don’t share ideas (yet)
4. Take in turns to share and place on the strategy board
5. Group and name similar items
6. Vote for groups (not items) and invite debate
7. Rank groups and observe emerging themes (themes
become the big rocks)

70. Hypothetical Photo Community Product Vision:
We motivate aspiring professional photographers to collaborate and learn new skills
from each other. We’re interesting because unlike alternatives our platform enables
real-time, credible, specific and actionable feedback on each piece of work.
North Star: # photographers who regularly provide or receive
feedback resulting in them becoming a better creator

72. TIPS
FOR
STAKEHOLDER
MANAGEMENT