Presentation held at La Product Conference, Paris, 21st June 2016. A video of the talk can be found here: https://www.infoq.com/fr/presentations/lpc-arne-kittler-scaling-mobile-product-management See www.auftragsklaerung.com for Details on the framework for collaborative alignment presented.

1. Scaling & Aligning
Mobile Product Management
La Product, June 2016

2. Bonjour!
Arne Kittler
Director Mobile Product Management
Mobile Platforms
Product Tank Hamburg
@arnekittler

3. Professional network
People, News, Jobs
10+ Mio users, DACH focus
Competitors: LI, Indeed, Business Media, …
Founded 2003
Listed company
HQ Hamburg
> 800 employees (30+nationalities)
25 product teams
35 product people

4. 2 parts:
Learnings from scaling a
mobile product organization
&
Framework for collaborative
alignment that you can apply

5. Today’s users do not care
about Mobile!
What?

6. They expect to use services.
Wherever. Whenever.

7. It’s on us to figure this out!

8. Our Goal:
Full Stack Product Thinking
Web
iOS
Android
API
Windows
Mail
…

9. 9
+10
Legacy challenge of “web-era” companies

10. +10
Unleashing Mobile: All teams cross-platform

11. SCALING

12. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

13. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

14. Mobile Platform Teams Full Stack Domain Teams
Platform & Domain Teams: New roles
“The Mobile Teams” Web Domain Teams

15. Mobile Platform Teams Full Stack Domain Teams
Platform & Domain Teams: New roles
PO
Designer
Devs
Framew.
QA
PO
Designer
Devs
Framew.
QA
Mobile Infrastructure
PO, Devs, QA
API
PO, Devs, QA
BE
News
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
Premium
…more to come in 2016
BE FE
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
BE FE
Jobs
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
Startpage
BE FE
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
BE FE
Growth
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
PSST
BE FE
PO, Designer, Dev, QA
BE FE

16. Learnings: Staffing & Skills
Hiring beats Re-Training! :O(
P D
? !
Central onboarding helps

17. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

18. Modular Design AND Native Code

19. Learnings: Patterns & Rules
Only short-term benefits sell.
Be strict. And be open to change.
Invest in Design Toolchain!

20. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

21. Scaling needs infrastructures on all levels
Foundation
Pattern System
Overall direction
Core Features
Framework
Release Process
Build & Test
Tech libraries
Mobile Backend
Notification System
Feature Switches
Deeplinking
Platform Teams Mobile Infrastructure Team

22. Learnings: Infrastructure
Internal Tools = Products

23. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

24. Release Train every two weeks
Development QA Pre-Release Store Review (iOS) Live
QA Pre-Release Store Review (iOS) Live
Development QA Pre-Release Store Review (iOS)

25. Learnings: Common Plan
Early alignment really helps!
Mobile means planning ahead!
Organize around release-trains!

26. PATTERNS &
RULES
COMMON
PLAN
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
STAFFING &
SKILLS

27. Phases of Scaling Mobile Product Mgmt.
Initialization Learning to walk Balanced Governance

28. Takeaways
SCALING

29. Scaling Mobile Product Management
• Managing a product across several platforms is the
only way to create relevant services for today’s users
• Accept and ideally embrace the additional complexity
this brings, get ready for active alignment
• New roles are challenging but it also is your chance to
grow as a Product Manager!
• Remember: You are doing it for your users

30. ALIGNING
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT

31. One of our PM beliefs:
Autonomy
through Alignment!

32. The better a PM is aligned
about the WHY and WHAT,
the more autonomy he will
be granted with regards to
HOW exactly to build it.

33. Our Framework for Collaborative Alignment
Auftragsklärung

34. Auftragsklärung
Bring everybody on the
same page!
Understand & agree what
you really, really want!
Ask the tricky questions
early.
Different from other
alignment tools it’s not for
top-down direction, but
starts with the people in
charge.

35. Auftragsklärung: Situation
What is the starting point
for this initiative?

36. Auftragsklärung: Complication
What is the problem or
trigger for this initiative?

37. Auftragsklärung: Intent

38. Auftragsklärung: Intent
What do you really,
really want? (in a tweet)

39. Auftragsklärung: Higher Intent
How does this initiative
contribute to what your
company wants to
achieve?

40. Auftragsklärung: Boundaries
What must not happen
as a side effect?
What’s not in scope?

41. Auftragsklärung: Hypotheses
What must be true so that
your outputs lead to the
intended outcome?
How can you verify asap?

42. Auftragsklärung: Input
Who needs to work on
this? What’s the
investment?

43. Auftragsklärung: Output
What are you delivering
in front of external or
internal customers?
(think #JTBD, not features)

44. Auftragsklärung: Outcome
Which metric will you
use to measure
success?
What is the ambition
level?

45. Using Auftragsklärung
CONTEXT
INTENT HIGHER INTENT
INPUT OUTPUT
OUTCOME
BOUNDARIES
PM with key drivers Stakeholders,
involved team,
affected teams
Involved teamInitiating PM

46. Auftragsklärung: Take-away
Autonomy through
Alignment!!
Put most attention on Intent
and Outcome!
Keep it short!
Make it coherent!
It’s about dialogue, not the
artefacts!

47. Try it!
www.alignment-tool.com Canvas (soon!)

48. Merci!
Feedback welcome!!
@arnekittler