Ken’s a senior technology Product Management exec from the SF Bay Area including online education companies, MasterClass and lynda.com (Linkedin Learning). He pioneered the first Product Management course offered in the Engineering school at UC Berkeley, which has over 400 PM alumni practicing in industry, and recently released “The Influential Product Manager – How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products” a guide to navigating the challenging collaborative aspects of the product manager’s role. Speech Overview: Product managers are under pressure to drive results, but cannot wield direct power or authority to achieve their objectives. If you don’t know how to influence people at all levels of the organization, how will you create the best possible product? In this interactive “cliff-notes” talk, I introduce ten techniques from The Influential Product Manager that product managers can immediately apply at each stage of the product life cycle to achieve the best outcome for the customer and their organization.

2. Ken Sandy

3. 10 STEPS
TO LEADING
THROUGH
INFLUENCE

5. CONTEXT
COLLABORATION
CLARITY

6. 1. Own the Product Ideas
“Build the right product” not “Build the product right”.
Encourage and embrace ideas from everywhere
Relentlessly collect data and challenge assumptions
Ruthlessly prioritize and evangelize the best ideas

7. 2. Build 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

8. 3. 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

9. 4. Focus on the Problem, not the Solution
Don’t rush into defining solutions –
you don’t understand the problem well enough yet.
Define and validate from your customers’ viewpoint
Set hypotheses and seek to test possible solutions
Context is clarity; it motivates and empowers teams

10. 5. 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

11. 6. 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

12. 7. 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

13. 8. 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

14. 9. 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

15. 10. 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

16. 10 TIPS
TO LEADING
THROUGH
INFLUENCE
1. Own the Product Ideas
2. Build Relationships Before You Need Them
3. Seek Buy-in and a No-Surprises Policy
4. Focus on the Problem, not the Solution
5. Collaborate to Set Priorities
6. Understand Customers, First-hand
7. Partner with, don’t Drive, Engineering
8. Proactively, Decisively Manage Trade-offs
9. Own Outcomes, Not Projects
10. Measure What Matters

17. linkedin/in/kensandy
kenjsandy@gmail.com
influentialpm.com
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