Marty talks about the hard parts of Product Management - People, Process, Product and Culture. For more detail about the talk, see our Meetup page here: https://www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Auckland/events/248013722/ Want to sharpen your Product Management Skills and network with awesome people from the Auckland Product Management Community? Then join us at ProductTank Auckland: https://www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Auckland/

1. Product is Hard
An Open Discussion of Difficult Product Topics
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Marty Cagan, SVPG
About Me
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The Silicon Valley Product Group was created to share senior level
experience and best practices with technology companies

2. People Topics
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People Topics
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• As a PM, what do I actually get to decide?
• PM vs. Product Team
• PM vs. VP Product
• PM vs. Stakeholders
• PM vs. CEO

3. People Topics
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• I’m in meetings all day long and finding no time to work.
Four Hour Per Day Reality
People Topics
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• We can’t find enough engineers or designers locally.
• Remote Employees
• Contractors
• Agencies

4. People Topics
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• We want diversity on our teams, but we get so few resumes.
• Won’t happen on it’s own.
• The talent is out there.
• Start early.
Process Topics
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5. Process Topics
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• Why haven’t I seen the term “Dual-Track” much?
Objectives
Discovery
Delivery
Process Topics
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Also Known As:
• Build The Right Product vs. Build The Product Right
• Fake It Before You Make It
• Move Fast and Don’t Break Things
• Build Things That Don’t Scale then Build Things That Do Scale
• Customer Development vs. Product Development
• Design Sprints vs. Delivery Sprints
• Continuous Discovery and Continuous Delivery

6. Process Topics
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• My engineers think Dual-Track is really just Waterfall.
What really defines Waterfall?
• Requirements drives design which drives code
• Result is output
• All risk is at the end
Process Topics
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1. Tackle Risks Up Front
2. Define Collaboratively
3. Outcome not Output
Objectives
Discovery
Delivery

7. Process Topics
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• Why isn’t conventional (aka “Single Track”) Agile sufficient?
Process Topics
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Objective
• Value
• Usability
• Feasibility
• Viability
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Performance
• Maintainability
Discovery
Delivery

8. Process Topics
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• My engineers just want to build.
• They should be building ~90% of the time
• Don’t shelter them from the ugly
• Even 15 minutes a day of updating learnings
Process Topics
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• We’re in a regulated industry; how can we do experiments?
• Leverage opt-in techniques
• Lower expectations on level of confidence
• Lean more on qualitative learning

9. Product Topics
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Product Topics
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• Our execs are addicted to roadmaps.
• Outcome-based Roadmaps

10. Product Topics
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• Jared Spool says everyone is a designer. WTF?
"Anyone who influences what the design becomes is the designer. This
includes developers, PMs, even corporate legal. All are the designers."
- @jmspool on Twitter, March 1, 2017
• Requirements vs. Constraints
Product Topics
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Constraints come from everywhere:
• legal
• pricing strategies
• competitive landscape
• sales channel capabilities
• government compliance
• privacy laws
• marketing strategies / brand promise
• financial budgets
• security / data protection
• partnership contracts
• time to market considerations

11. Product Topics
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• Our technical debt has overwhelmed us.
• Needs to be treated as a business continuity issue
• Dial up engineering capacity and down product and design
• Pick your battles
Product Topics
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• If OKR’s are so great, why are they so painful?
• It’s really a cultural change
• It’s about truly empowering teams
• It brings to the surface hidden issues and conflicts

12. Culture Topics
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Culture Topics
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• Our culture is getting more risk-averse as we grow.
• Realize there’s much more to lose
• CEO of the Product concept much more important
• Business Viability risks become more serious

13. Culture Topics
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• My engineers just aren’t excited about what we need to do.
• Bring them to see users and customers in person
• Share the full business context
• Encourage them to invent and not just build
Culture Topics
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• My CEO tells me what to build and to just “trust him.”
• Be smart and pick your battles
• Do your homework
• Be transparent and generous with your learnings
• Use prototypes and data

14. Culture Topics
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• Is it even possible to really change culture?
• Product culture vs. company culture
• Culture lives in middle management
• Be patient but persistent
Learning More:
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cagan@svpg.com
www.svpg.com/articles
www.svpg.com
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