ProductX2014

1. Product Management @ Startups
Neta Haiby
CTO, Microsoft Ventures Accelerators

2. About Me
• Microsoft Ventures Accelerator
• 10+ years in Product Management both in
startups and cooperates
• BSc and MBA from the Technion, with honors
• 3 Patents
• Various product management roles from new
ideas to definition and release for B2B and B2C
MV Accelerator
48 85%
Startup Grads % Funded
$1.2M 100%
Avg. Funding
124 2
Number of mentors
and experts

3. Agenda
•Who is the product Manager ?
•MVP
•Lean product management

4. Who is the Product Manager ?
Evan Spiegel Founder and CEO
Bobby Murphy Co-founder
Shahar Waiser - Founder & CEO
Roi More - Founder
Aaron Levie – CEO
Dylan Smith – CFO
Sam Ghods - Services Architect
Jeff Queisser - Chief Systems
Architect
Martin Lorentzon – Co Founder
Daniel Ek - CEO & Co-Founder

5. CEO and CTO roles
What a CEO Does
•Sets the overall vision
and strategy of the
company and
communicates it to all
stakeholders
•Recruits, hires, and
retains the very best
talent
•Makes sure there
is always enough
cash in the bank
What A CTO Does
•Sets the overall vision
and strategy of the
product and
development
•Brings a vision to
reality
•Bridge between
SalesMarketing &
Technology
•Product Development
•Managing people

6. So who is the product manager ?
Founders will inevitably have
to learn product
management but they
usually don't know that.

7. Product Manager @ startups
•Biggest PM risk  Making something NO
one wants
•Not launching is Painful, Not Learning is
Fatal
•Put something in the users hands and get
feedback ASAP
•Know your customers, speak with them,
understand their problem and need
•Does “less” is okay – flaky, ugly, confusing
is not

8. MVP – Minimal Viable Product
• MVP = learning vehicle. It allows you to test an idea by exposing an
early version of your product to the target users and customers, to
collect the relevant data, and to learn form it. It’s the smallest
possible feature set that addresses the user needs, creates the
desired user experience, and can hence be marketed and sold
successfully.

9. DropBox MVP example

10. Customers MVP feedback

11. Lean Product Management
Source: pichler consulting

12. Problem Validation - PM is Part Art Part Science
• Who is the customer ?
• Know your customer and walk in his/her shoes
• Customer Development
• What do we need to do ?
• Competitive landscape, market trends, technology roadmap, areas
of innovation
• Why should we do this ?
• Key customer value prop; key business value prop
• When should we do this ?
• Understand the short and long term
timeline
• Where is our market?
• US, Europe, Israel etc. . . .
Problem Validation is done by direct customer observation, problem
interviews, and competitor analysis and tracked in the business canvas.

13. The Business Model Canvas

14. KnowMail business Model Canvas

15. Solution Validation
•Once the PM and team have shown
that there is a problem that’s
worthwhile addressing, the focus
changes to validating the solution and
developing the actual product
•Desired User Experience
•Product Functionality
•How the product should be built

16. The Product Canvas

17. Product Management questions
• Key questions for Problem Validation
•What problem does the product solve ?
•Who are the customers and users ?
•What business benefits do you bring?
• Key questions for Product Validation
•What is the right user experience ?
•What functionality should the product provide ?
•How should the product be built ?
•What should the MVP include ?

18. Key Takeaways
• Every product needs a product manager
• Problem Validation
 “Should this product be built?"
• Product Validation
User Experience
MVP

19. Thanks !
Neta Haiby – netahw@Microsoft.com