Product vision and strategy are key components to empowering teams to act with any meaningful degree of autonomy. But is an inspiring vision and an intentional product strategy enough to guarantee success? Any Product Manager worth her salt knows that product validation is critical to building a successful product. And yet, product validation may be one of the hardest things you'll ever do in your career. During her talk, Laura shared insights on a product validation framework that will help Product Managers avoid the most common hypothesis pitfalls, learn more about their customers, and improve and refine their ideas along the way.

1. The Importance of Product Validation by
RetailMeNot Dir. of PM
www.productschool.com

2. FREE INVITE
Join 23,000+ Product Managers on

3. COURSES
Product Management
Learn the skills you need to land a product manager job

4. COURSES
Coding for Managers
Build a website and gain the technical knowledge to lead software engineers

5. COURSES
Data Analytics for Managers
Learn the skills to understand web analytics, SQL and machine learning concepts

6. COURSES
Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
Learn how to trade cryptocurrencies and build products using the blockchain

7. Laura Kelso
TONIGHT’S SPEAKER

8. CONFIDENTIAL
Laura Kelso. April 2018
Elevating Your Product Game: the
Importance of Product Vision, Strategy
& Validation
8

9. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL9
I. Product Vision
II.Product Strategy
III.Product Market Fit (aka,
Validation)

10. CONFIDENTIAL10
Product Vision

11. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL11
Be the #1 Savings Destination for our
Customers

12. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL12
“Be Stubborn on the vision, flexible on
the details” - Jeff Bezos

13. CONFIDENTIAL
Product Strategy
Features &
Innovation
Market Needs
Corporate
Goals

14. CONFIDENTIAL14
“The essence of strategy is choosing
what not to do.” - Professor Michael
Porter

15. CONFIDENTIAL
Meet Our Target Consumer
Source: comScore, Jan-March 201715
Household Size & Income
Parents
Live in 2+ person HH
Household Enthusiasts
Finds fun in shopping for the family
Looks for More Ways to Save Beyond Coupons
Segments
In the Moment Millennials
Younger shoppers focused on purchase at hand
High RetailMeNot App Usage

16. CONFIDENTIAL
Learnings & Application
16

17. CONFIDENTIAL17
“If you don’t invest in the future and
don’t plan for the future, there won’t be
one.” – George Buckley

18. CONFIDENTIAL
App ‘18
Roadmap
PI.2 ‘18 PI.3 ‘18 PI.4 ‘18
Performance
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al - Ipsum Lorem Et Al - Ipsum Lorem Et Al
UX Improvements
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
Next Gen App
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al
- Ipsum Lorem Et Al

19. CONFIDENTIALSource19
Prioritization: Sequencing Your Roadmap
Consider:
– Customer value
– Size of the opportunity
– Business model
– Prerequisite for something else
– Cost to make the product
– Competitive landscape - innovative or differentiator?
– Risks and/or dependencies

20. CONFIDENTIAL
Product Pitch
20

21. CONFIDENTIALSource21
Quest for Product Market Fit
– Term first introduced by Marc Andreesen in 2007
– No need to worry about growth and scale until
you’ve validated
– MVP: smallest possible product that customers will
buy/can use/you can build/your stakeholders will
support

22. CONFIDENTIAL22

23. CONFIDENTIALSource23
Product Validation
Feasibility Testing
- Is the Product buildable with the technology available?
Usability Testing
- Uncovers missing product requirements, as well as
requirements that may not be necessary
Desirability Testing
- Is your product something users like and value?

24. CONFIDENTIAL24
• New Bottom Nav, including
a Malls Tab
• Prioritized Nearby and In-
Store
Learnings and Iteration

25. CONFIDENTIAL
Other Types of Evaluative Research
Source25
Design
Thinking
In Experience
Surveys &
Prompts
Voice of the
Customer Analytic
s

26. CONFIDENTIAL
What Does Success Look Like?
26
RetentionEngagementNPS Revenue

27. CONFIDENTIAL
Being Lean
27

28. CONFIDENTIAL
“Getting product right means finding
product/market fit. It does not mean launching
the product. It means getting to the point
where the market accepts your product and
wants more of it.” - Fred Wilson
28

29. CONFIDENTIAL
Product
Process
Source29
Product Vision
Product Strategy
Product Working/Decision
Sessions
Global Prioritization
Release Planning
Program Increment (PI)
Sprints
GTM Review
Design Council
LAUNCH!
New Initiatives, Product Briefs
& Backlog Product Market
Fit/Product
Validation

30. CONFIDENTIALSource30
Reading List
- Inspired by Marty Cagan
- The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer
Feedback by Dan Olsen
- High Output Management by Andrew Grove
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Start with Why by Simon Sisnek
- How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products by Nir Eyal
- BadAss: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra

31. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL
Thank You
Questions?
Source31

32. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL
Appendix
32

33. CONFIDENTIAL
Measuring Success
• What are you trying to achieve?
• Standard measures:
– DAUs/MAUs
– Bounce
– CTR
– Retention curve
– Net Promoter Score
• Are we hitting the numbers?
– Review core KPIs every day
– OKRs for the Program Increment (PI)
• Feedback from customers
• Careful what you are measuring
33

34. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL
So You Want to Be a Product Manager
• Varied backgrounds
– Engineering/Technical
– Marketing
– Subject matter expert/industry knowledge
• Basics:
– Know how web and mobile apps work
– Articulate and using the correct ‘language’
to speak with different teams
– Team player
• Stand out:
– Focus on accomplishments - how did you move the needle?
– Be great at something
• Excellent resources on the Product wiki:
https://wiki.rmn.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=39455947Source34

35. CONFIDENTIAL
A Day in the Life
• Review KPIs and OKRs
• Respond to questions raised by squad and/or stakeholders
• Participate in daily standup meeting
• Write/Review stories
• Prioritize backlog
• Review designs with Design team
• Prepare for the next PI/feature/product
• <<back to top>>
35

36. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIALSource36
Execution & Ownership
• Execute
• Go To Market efforts
• Launch
• Own it: conception > birth > maintenance > sunset
• Monitor KPIs every day
• Lead, influence and motivate

37. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIALSource37
What We Don’t Do
• Think that we are the customer
• Write code
• Project management
• Design
• Marketing
• Think that we can sell it better than Sales
• Each team is comprised of professionals and each
person serves a role.
• Let people do what they are great at.

38. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIALSource38
What We Do
• Talk to customers - identify a problem to solve
• What’s it worth? - Assess the value to the customer
and the business opportunity
• Specify the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Discuss tradeoffs/level of effort (cost)
• Communicate to key stakeholders - socialize it to Mktg,
Analytics, Ops, Sales, etc. - then do it again
• Launch it! ...and monitor KPIs

39. CONFIDENTIAL39
What We’re Always Thinking about
• Acquisition (new users)
• Engagement (amount used)
• Retention (continued use)
• Conversion (business driver)
• Satisfaction (customer satisfaction)

40. CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL40

41. CONFIDENTIAL41

42. Part-time Product Management Courses in
San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New
York, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Denver,
London, Toronto
www.productschool.com