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Boris Krstović - Building Product 101
Boris Krstović discusses the essential processes and considerations for building a product in the Balkans, emphasizing the importance of product strategy based on core human activities instead of mere features. He outlines challenges in product management, such as prioritizing needs and avoiding vanity in decision-making, and stresses the critical role of engineering culture in producing high-quality products. The document also highlights innovative funding approaches, such as generating revenue from customers right from the start, and iterating the product based on user feedback.
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Boris Krstović - Building Product 101
- 1. Boris Krstović, me@bocc.io BuildingProduct 101 - What are you building? - How to build a product from Balkans - Process of building product - Importance of engineering culture - Taking product outside the building
- 2. What I‟m NOTgoing to paraphrase/retell today: “10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps” –> go and watch Fred Wilson. “Startup Metrics for Pirates” -> go watch Dave McClure Customer discovery / validation –> buy and read Steve Blank …I expect you to do your homework
- 3. What are youreally building? You might think that you make things (build interfaces and features); but in reality, what you do is enable certain human activities.
- 6. What are youreally building? What are the core activities that you are pursuing? The product strategy and goals should always be defined by what activities you enable (rather than what your product does).
- 9. Can we buildthe next Google from Belgrade?
- 10. Plan as ifyou‟re NOT gonna raise any money Newscurve story: Fact #1: We were funded – by ourselves Fact #2: Balkan as a comfort zone lags at least 2-3yrs! Fact #3: We outsourced everything that wasn‟t core product
- 11. Raising $100k is more difficult than raising $2mm
- 12. How can youbuild without seed investment? FFF is extremely rare in our part of the world! Develop IP through services (that’s how Vivvo started) Have a project that‟s generating revenue (that’s how Newscurve started) Have someone to make cash while you burn it (Toshl, iStudio…)
- 13. Your customers areyour investors. Make them pay from day one!
- 14. Building product: Ownersand PMs Someone must have the responsibility for the product (does not need to be technically savvy person!) Different parts of the product can have owners, even from the very beginning (owner != PM) Roadmaps of different owners are a great source of constant conflicts and fighting - trade-offs become a daily routine
- 15. What is aProduct Manager role? A captain of the ship Biggest challenge: saying NO Remember that part about “core activities you’re pursuing” Who calls the shots in the company? Marketing/Sales or Product/Engineering?
- 17. Challenges in owninga product Prioritizing Adapting well to changes (market, company, competition) Steering the right course (despite of what investors, board, clients, engineers, marketing and mom&dad want from you) Biggest obstacle: vanity (never get in love with your idea)
- 18. Keep the minimalprocess
- 19. Product building: TheProcess Process actually needs to be fun DON’T include some PM tool/workflow in the process just because you saw/used it somewhere else: Find our what works for your team‟s DNA. Introduce new processes only to fix problems that emerge, not to look corporate! We introduced Scrum in Vivvo back in „07… and failed miserably.
- 20. From idea tofeature A specification (in my book) is iterative answer to business requirement or user story. Low-fidelity mockup & initial spec (Balsamiq) – a picture’s worth a thousand words Initial spec (no bullshit lingo – you actually want people to read this!) Refine specs (edge cases, policies…) Hi-fidelity mockup (pixel-perfect) - show it to clients Backlog / sprint planning (engineers estimate this, not you!) In between every step: iterate and iterate with all parties!
- 21. Tip #1: User story:Do NOT explain/suggest solution to a problem! Describe the need instead.
- 22. Tip #2: Never instruct developers what you want them to do. Explain them what problem they need to solve*! * This doesn‟t apply to Indians, n00bs and freelancers
- 24. Importance of engineeringculture Three things you can do to make a great product: 1. Let engineers do their job 2. Let engineers do their job 3. Just get out of the way and let engineers do their job
- 25. Fact #1: Engineers haveown standards for writing quality code. (hint: peer reviews)
- 26. Fact #2: Deadlinesare toxic! (have a good reason for crunch time) Piling up technical (code) debts will inevitably lead to engineers not giving a damn anymore (just before they find another job).
- 27. Getting outside thebuilding Feedback Remember the most important thing about “user stories”? Typically, users don‟t care what‟s good for product Metrics Understand how people actually use your product! (you may be veeeeery surprised)
- 29. That‟s all folks! BorisKrstović, @bkrstovic | me@bocc.io