Product management is responsible for defining the right product at the right time, getting it built, and delivering it to market. An entrepreneur should focus on identifying unmet customer needs, designing minimum viable products through early customer validation, and iterating based on measurement and learning to improve the product over time. Key concepts include lean product development, defining user personas, and delivering the "whole product" to fully solve customers' problems.

1. Product Management
What Every Entrepreneur
Should Know
Laura Mariño
VP Product Management, Intapp
Stanford Technology Ventures Program – Oct 11, 2016

2. Agenda
What is Product Management ..
…and why should you care?
‘Lean’ product concepts
The Product Lifecycle
Q&A

3. What is Product Management
... and why should you care?

4. 7 out of the top
10 reasons
startups fail are
related to the
product

5. As a Product Manager you are:
Responsible for
Defining the right product at the right time
Getting the product built
Delivering the product to market
The CEO of the product
The ‘kitchen sink’

7. ‘Lean’ Concepts

8. Lean – Key Concepts
Product-Market fit UX
Feature Set
Value Proposition
Underserved Needs
Target Customer
Market
Product
Product-Market Fit
Lean PM - Dan Olsen

9. Lean – Key Concepts
Rework and pivot
Product-Market fit
Iteration and validated learning

10. The Product Lifecycle

11. Design
Solution
Build
Product
Deliver ‘Whole
Product’
Measure
Evaluate
Opportunity
Identify Target
Market/ Problem
Retire

12. Opportunity Evaluation

13. I have an idea…
Better starting point:
I have identified an unmet need …..
Opportunity Evaluation

14. Opportunity Assessment
• What is the problem we are trying to solve?
• Who has the problem and how will we reach
them?
• Do customers perceive the problem as
important?
• How big is the market and when?
• Are others trying to solve it? Why us?

15. How can you determine if the idea
is worth pursuing?
CustomerNeed/Value
High
Low
Satisfaction with Existing Alternatives
LowHigh
Greatest
Opportunity
Competitive
Market
‘Stupid’‘Dotcom’

16. Design the Solution

17. Design the Solution
(How should we solve the problem?)
Moving from the Problem Space to the
Solution Space
Minimum Viable Product
User Personas (and Buyer Personas)
Early Validation

18. Problem/ Need Solution
Manage
Client
Obligations
Manual +
Excel
Terms of
Business
How people
solve it today
The new
product
From Problem to Solution

19. Solution
Manage
Client
Obligations
Centralize
Get visibility
Enforce
Master DB
Extraction and
categorization
Search and
Reporting
API’s for integration
Next
level of
detail
From Problem to Solution
Problem/ Need
Manual +
Excel
Terms of
Business

20. From Problem to Solution
Manage
Client
Obligations
Centralize
Get visibility
Enforce
Extraction and
categorization
Search and
Reporting
API’s for integration
Review
pre-
signing
Approval &
Tracking
The scope of
the problem
can be
broader …
Notifications
& Audit
Review
Workflow
Approval
Workflow
… needing a
broader
solution
Problem/ Need
Manual +
Excel
Terms of
Business
Master DB
Solution

21. Key Risk # 1

22. Key Risk # 1

23. Key Risk # 1
Not limiting the scope of the problem for v1

24. Solution
Manage
Client
Obligations
Centralize
Get visibility
Enforce
Manual +
Excel
Terms of
Business
Master DB
Extraction and
categorization
Search and
Reporting
API’s for integration
Review
pre-
signing
Approval &
Tracking
Notifications &
Audit
Review
Workflow
Approval
Workflow
‘Deep’
integration
Automation
Analytics
There are
always more
features to
solve the
problem
better…
Problem/ Need
From Problem to Solution

25. Key Risk #2
You try to put every possible feature in v1

26. Minimum viable product:
“Minimum amount of functionality that provides
enough value to your target customer”
“Version of a new product which allows a team to
collect the maximum amount of validated learning
about customers with the least effort."

27. Once you have defined the MVP:
• Value Proposition
• Competitive Differentiation

28. User Personas
“Fictional characters,
built to identify real users’
needs, wants and limitations
in order to design best
possible experience for
them”.
u Goals: get common understanding of the user(s);
put stakeholders into the user’s shoes

29. Exercise: Identifying User
Personas and Buyer Personas
B2C B2B
B2B2C &
Marketplace
Who are the buyer personas?
Why do they matter in the design of the solution?

30. Early Validation
(Getting customer feedback early)
• Feedback on:
• Value Proposition and Messaging
• Functionality/ Feature set
• UI/UX Design

31. Early Validation
Ø‘Pretotype’
ØHand Sketch
Ø Wireframes
Ø Mock-ups
Ø Interactive
ØPrototype
You can do a lot of
validation before writing
any code!

35. Build the Product

36. The ‘Traditional’ Waterfall Model
Source: http://agilemethodology.org/

37. Iterative or Agile Methodologies
• Customer-centric ‘user stories’
• Quickly validate key hypotheses
Source: http://agilemethodology.org/

38. Deliver ‘Whole Product’

39. Distribution
3rd-Party
Add-ons
Installation
Configu-
ration
Integration
Training
Support
Your
(Generic)
Product
Everything else needed to complete the solution and deliver
on the value proposition

40. • Whole Product - critical for competitive
advantage
• ‘Whole Product’ can change based on the
stage in the adoption lifecycle
• The generic product may evolve to incorporate
more of the Whole Product

41. Measure, Learn and Iterate

42. Measure …. what?
• Business Success
• Customer Success
• Product Delivery
• Product Functionality and Performance
Build in ways
to measure the
product

43. Iterate
Design
Solution
Build
Product
Deliver ‘Whole
Product’
Measure
Evaluate
Opportunity
Identify Market/
Problem
Retire

44. Behind every successful venture there
is a great product;
and behind every great product there
is a strong product manager

45. Thank You
Laura.marino@stanfordalumni.org

46. Resources
• Martin Cagan, The Role of Product Manager
http://www.svpg.com/assets/Files/productmanager.pdf
• Ben Horowitz, David Weiden: Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager http://www.khoslaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/Good_Product_Manager_Bad_Product_Manager_KV.pdf
• Dan Olsen: The Lean Product Playbook
• Kano Model: http://www.uie.com/articles/kano_model/
• Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm
• Geoffrey Moore, Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every
Phase of their Evolution
• Tom Kosnik, Lena Rumsfeld, Gear Up: Test Your Business Model Potential and Plan
Your Path to Success
• Ken Norton: 10x not 10% https://www.kennorton.com/essays/10x-not-10-
percent.html
• Agile Methodology: http://agilemethodology.org/
• Pragmatic Marketing www.pragmaticmarketing.com
• Clean Up Your Mess (A Guide to Visual Design for Everyone)
http://visualmess.com/index.html

47. Other
• Pretotype It - Alberto Savoia
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPUu8_EXiNg
• Steven Blank Four Steps to Epiphany
• http://web.stanford.edu/group/e145/cgi-
bin/winter/drupal/upload/handouts/Four_Steps.pdf

48. Contact Information
• LAURA MARINO
laura.marino@stanfordalumni.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamarino