Product Managers come from a variety of backgrounds, bringing with them different skills, and unique thoughts about how to take ownership and manage a product. During this meetup, Kristen Waeber, Head of Design Innovation at Zoona, will talk about the different skills of product management that are key during different times in a product lifecycle and how a better self-understanding of what you love doing can make you even more valuable to your team and to the business.

1. WHAT KIND OF PRODUCT
MANAGER ARE YOU?
Kristen Waeber
Head of Design Innovation, Zoona

2. ABOUT ME
• I am the Head of Design Innovation at Zoona
• Previously Head of Consumer Experience
• Research, Marketing, & Strategy background
• Microfinance, Telecommunications, Mobile Money
• Also, an Entrepreneur (kidogo kidogo)
• I am not a Product Manager
• I hire and manage Product Managers

3. INNOVATION SETUP AT ZOONA
STAGE
ONE:
DESIGN
STAGE
TWO:
BUILD
STAGE
THREE:
PILOT
STAGE
FOUR:
SCALE
Research, Ideating,
Prototyping, Designing
Developing, Testing,
Process Creation
Rolling Out, Measuring,
Learning, Improving
Operationalizing,
Revenue Driving

4. UNDERSTANDING PRODUCT MANAGERS
WHAT TYPE OF PRODUCT MANAGER ARE YOU?
• Customer Focused
• Engineering Focused
• Design Focused
• Ops Focused
WHERE ARE YOU IN FLOW ON THE JOURNEY?
• Design
• Building
• Pilot
• Scale

6. Money Transfer Product Manager:
This product is the core product that brings in the majority of our revenue. It has been around
for 7 years, is in a competitive market, and is built on a legacy system.
Technical Product Manager:
This role is responsible for speaking both business and technical language. Once something is
live in the system, this person is responsible for understanding, diagnosing, and prioritizing
problems, opportunities, and bugs.
Credit Product Manager:
This product is being explored as an opportunity for our future. This person is responsible for
coming in to fully understand what customers needs are with respect to credit, and spec a
product.
Android Product Manager:
This role is responsible for owning the experience and usability of our Android application and
devices for our agents. In our change from a mobi-site to an app this person is responsible for
the devices, usability of the application, and flows.
EXAMPLES OF PRODUCT MANAGERS

7. WHAT TYPE OF PRODUCT MANAGER ARE YOU?
I prefer to communicate in…?
STORIES
Who would you rather spend time with…?
DEVELOPERSCUSTOMERS
I like to…?
ELEVATE TO BIG PICTUREDIVE INTO THE DETAIL
What Matters Most to You?
EXPERIENCEEFFICIENCY
FLOW DIAGRAMS
WIREFRAMES EXCEL
My brain works best in…?

8. IF YOU SAID THINGS LIKE… YOU MIGHT BE…
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
• Customers
• Elevate to the Big Picture
• Stories
• Wireframes
• Experience
ENGINEERING FOCUSED
• Developers
• Dive into the Details
• Flow Diagrams
• Wireframes
• Efficiency
DESIGN FOCUSED
• Customers
• Dive into the Details
• Flow Diagrams
• Wireframes
• Experience
OPS FOCUSED
• Customers
• Elevate to Big Picture
• Stories
• Excel
• Efficiency

9. FOUR MAIN TYPES OF PRODUCT MANAGERS
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
• Loves Interacting with Customers
and will be their advocate
• Heavily Research Driven
• Loves Discovering Needs
ENGINEERING FOCUSED
• Process oriented
• Loves thinking about flows and
efficiencies
• Very detail orientated
• Loves improving internal metrics
DESIGN FOCUSED
• Loves exploring individual
decisions
• Enjoys bringing user design and
visual design together
• Gets excited by experience
improvements
OPS FOCUSED
• Enjoys Competitive Markets
• Loves Analysis and Data
• Loves thinking about how to work
with partners
• Good at making unemotional
decisions and seeing tradeoffs

10. NOW WHAT DO WE HAVE…

11. SOME STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
Strengths:
• Customer Advocacy
• Marketing Messaging
Weaknesses:
• Too Close to Customer
• Knowing Product Limitations
• Technical Tradeoffs
ENGINEERING FOCUSED
Strengths:
• Process Mapping
• Fixing Things that are Broken
• Improving Internal Processes
Weaknesses:
• Future Thinking
• Understanding the Customer
DESIGN FOCUSED
Strengths:
• User-centric
• Functional
• Detail Oriented
Weaknesses:
• Understanding Business Tradeoffs
OPS FOCUSED
Strengths:
• Sees the Big Picture
• Good at Business Tradeoffs
• Cares about Bottom Line
Weaknesses:
• Understanding the Customer
• Attention to Technical Detail

12. Money Transfer Product Manager:
This product is the core product that brings in the majority of our
revenue. It has been around for 7 years, is in a competitive market,
and is built on a legacy system.
Technical Product Manager:
This role is responsible for speaking both business and technical
language. Once something is live in the system, this person is
responsible for understanding, diagnosing, and prioritizing
problems, opportunities, and bugs.
Credit Product Manager:
This product is being explored as an opportunity for our future.
This person is responsible for coming in to fully understand what
customers needs are with respect to credit, and spec a product.
Android Product Manager:
This role is responsible for owning the experience and usability of
our Android application and devices for our agents. In our change
from a mobi-site to an app this person is responsible for the
devices, usability of the application, and flows.
EXAMPLES OF PRODUCT MANAGERS
Ops
Focused
Engineering
Focused
Customer
Focused
Design
Focused

13. DESIGN BUILD PILOT
RESEARCH
STRATEGY
BTL MARKETING
PRIORITIZING DEVELOPMENT
UI DESIGN
CUSTOMER CARE TRAINING
PROCESS MAPPING
COMMUNICATION
WHERE ARE YOU IN FLOW ON THE JOURNEY?
UAT
SPEC-ING DASHBOARDS
UX DESIGN
WRITING SPECS & USER
STORIES FOR AN MVP
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DATA ANALYSIS
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
BUSINESS CASE
DEVELOPMENT
PRIORITIZING OTHER
DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
PRODUCT ADJUSTMENTS
SCALE
OPERATIONAL ROLL OUT
TRAINING SUPPORT STAFF
REVENUE MODELING
ATL MARKETING
DATA ANALYSIS
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
When I Get
to Make
Assumptions…
(IDEATE & PROTOTYPE)
When I Get
to See Something
Come to Life…
(DEVELOP & CONSTRUCT)
When I Get
to Test My
Assumptions…
(MEASURE & LEARN)
When I Get
to Prove it
Works…
(OPERATIONALIZE & MANAGE)

14. QUESTIONS?
Want
to
Follow
Up?
Email
me
at
kristen@ilovezoona.com