Main Takeaways: -Get comfortable with making gut decisions -Obsess about the customer experience -Ruthlessly prioritize

1. Leading Innovation as a PM
by Pandora Sr PM
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5. 1
LEADING
INNOVATION AS A
PM
Ananya Sharan
Sr PM @ Pandora SXM

6. Hello!
I AM ANANYA SHARAN
I started as an software engineer, aspired to become a banker,
and now a PM for 10+ years.
I solve ambiguous problems through innovative products that
improve customers’ lives.
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7. IN THIS SESSION...
● CHALLENGES OF INNOVATING
● TACTICS TO MANAGE A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH
● TAKEAWAYS
3

8. THE PRODUCT ROADMAP PROCESS
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Source : https://jefago.medium.com/how-do-you-create-a-product-roadmap-d41a42b4a543

9. VOICE MODE : THE “WHAT” & THE
“WHY”
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10. WHAT IS VOICE MODE?
◦ A native voice-assistant in the app that lets
you control your listening experience in a
natural, conversational way.
◦ Most beneficial in hands-free contexts such
as driving, cooking, and cleaning.
◦ Can tap the mic or say “Hey Pandora!”
◦ Offers personalized recommendations for
ambiguous and thematic request such as
“play more like this” or “play relaxing music”
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11. THE CHALLENGES OF INNOVATION (AS A PM)
◦ Learning a new problem
space.
◦ No well-established
benchmarks
◦ Unpredictable timelines
◦ Getting alignment and
communicating effectively
◦ Managing risk
...And the dreaded “unknown
unknowns!”
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12. START AT THE END
Work backwards
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13. Be customer obsessed
Describe how the product
will feel, how it is
differentiated, the benefits
of using it.
WRITE THE PR/FAQ
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14. ◦ What features do you
need for a successful
launch?
◦ What do you need to
know before you
launch?
◦ What can you learn
post-launch?
DEFINE YOUR MVP (OR COMPELLING V1)
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15. How to get there (Deliver, Learn, Adapt)
An example :
THE PATH TO MVP
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Team
Beta
VIP
Beta
Employee
Beta
Limited
Launch*
General
Availability*
*Public facing
- Feature
works!
- No bugs
- Repeat use
- Favorable
NPS
- Performance
metrics
- Uncover edge
cases
- Positive
feedback
- Uncover
product gaps
- A/B test
efficacy of
onboarding
funnel
- Neutral/positive
retention metrics.
- Positive feedback
from UXR Studies.

16. DEFINE SUCCESS
Determine thresholds
12

17. Well defined go/no-go criteria will help...
◦ Align with stakeholders on your decision making criteria
◦ Track and Report on progress
◦ Identify risks and create mitigation plans
GO/NO-GO CRITERIA
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18. BE FLEXIBLE
Plan for the “unknown”
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19. USE MILESTONES INSTEAD OF TIMELINES
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It’s ok to delay!

20. IN SUMMARY
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21. CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION TACTICS (WITH EXAMPLES!)
LEARNING A NEW PROBLEM SPACE
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Look outward and inward to familiarize yourself with the problem space.
● Competitive Analysis and Market Research to understand the Voice UI space
and determine differentiators at launch.
● Reached out to Eng and Science partners to learn about Voice technologies -
Automatic Speech Recognition, Natural Language Understanding, and Text To
Speech.
● Read and followed experts in the field.

22. CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION TACTICS (WITH EXAMPLES!)
LACK OF BENCHMARKS
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Lean on UXR and qualitative feedback in the early stages to determine quality
thresholds.
● Leveraged UX Research to determine differentiators at launch.
● Did a blind test to compare Pandora’s Text To Speech voice with competitors’.
● Recruited employees to rate the personalization and relevance of our responses
vs competitors’.
● Recruited employees to compare our Automatic Speech Recognition accuracy
with competitors’.
Use benchmarks from comparable features to set thresholds
● Assessed conversion funnels from prior feature launches to define success
for Voice Mode onboarding flow.
● Created new metric to measure End to End accuracy for Voice by comparing
text search behaviors and metrics.

23. CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION TACTICS (WITH EXAMPLES!)
UNPREDICTABLE TIMELINES + EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
19
Use Milestone-driven goals instead of timeline-driven ones
● Instead of targeting a release, used calendar year Quarter.
● Stoplight reporting on each go/no-go criteria to report progress and
call out risk.
● Extended planned limited launch phase from 1 month to ~3 months
because accuracy metrics dipped with real world usage.

24. CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION TACTICS (WITH EXAMPLES!)
MANAGING RISKS AND PLANNING FOR UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS
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Take a pessimistic view and plan for undesired outcomes
● Kept the “BETA” label 3 months post launch to manage user
expectations.
● Extending the limited launch phase from 1 month to 3 months meant
that we missed our Q2 2019 target. But that was ok because using
go/no-go criteria forced us to plan for this eventuality early on.
● De-risked revenue impact by testing “bold” features on paid users first,
then rolling out to ad-supported.

25. LAUNCH STORY
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26. A win for Pandora and the Voice Team!
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27. TAKEAWAYS
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28. ● Obsess about the customer experience.
● Work backwards.
● Identify the launch phases and the go/no-go (or entry and
exit) criteria.
● Define thresholds for those criteria. Get creative!
● Evangelize!
● Trust your gut.
● Ruthlessly prioritize.
REMEMBER TO...
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29. Thanks!
ANY QUESTIONS?
You can find me at
linkedin.com/in/ananyasharan/
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