Product Management is relatively new and unfamiliar to many company stakeholders. It has never been a major in colleges, and many people often have misconceptions that Product Managers = Project Managers, or holding a belief that digital Product Managers are just doing "IT". Arguably, proper Product Management is vital to the longer-term sustainability of most companies. While visionary leaders with product-focused mindset are rare; we shall rely on no others but ourselves to pitch and convince upper management and key stakeholders the necessity to invest time and money into Product Management. In this talk, we will discuss about: - how Product Management practices can fit into the context of company strategy - the key values that Product team drives and delivers to both external (clients / users) and internal (other departments) environments - the processes that facilitate development of market-responsive products There is no single formula of success, and each company should adjust and adopt its own unique ways to set up its Product team and strategy according to their talent mixes, business priority, stage of growth and competitive landscape. As such, we anticipate active dialogue and discussions among us so that we can learn our experiences from each other!

1. How to advocate product management with stakeholders
across your company?
Product Tank Ho Chi Minh City, World Product Day 2019.5.15
Amanda Lam

2. Disclaimer
This presentation solely represents Amanda’s personal viewpoints and
it is NOT affiliated with Amanda’s current, previous and future employers.

3. Amanda Lam
● ProductTank Hong Kong Organiser
● 7-year experience in Product Management
in VF, SEEK Asia (jobsDB + JobStreet) and Walt Disney
● MSc Programme & Project Management, University of Warwick
● BSc Computer Systems Engineering, University of Warwick
● Ex-developer, tech podcaster
● @amanda_lam

4. A typical organisation
Product &
UX
Tech Sales Operations Finance HRMarketing
...
Management
Company goal for next FY:
↑ revenue by 20%
↑ double market share
...
On our roadmap, we
will build product A,
B then C...
We will rebuild
system
architecture to
support this
growth...
We will expand our
sales team & spend
more focus on
eCommerce...
We will need to
increase marketing
budget across
traditional & digital
channels...
We will improve
operation efficiency
by process
re-engineering &
automation...
We will review
accounting
practices and
enforces better
internal control...
We will review our
performance
review & hiring
procedures to
support talent
acquisition &
retention...

5. A typical organisation
Product &
UX
🙇
Tech
🙇
Sales
🙇
Operations
🙇
Finance
🙇
HR
🙇
Marketing
🙇
...
Management
Company goal for next FY:
↑ revenue by 20%
↑ double market share
...
Then every department works in silo!
KPI #1 KPI #2 KPI #3 KPI #4 KPI #5 KPI #6 KPI #7

6. After 1 year...
Product &
UX
Tech Sales Operations Finance HRMarketing
...
Management
Company goal only achieved partially…
↑ revenue by 5%
↑ 70% market share…
what happened?
We could only
launch Product A
and B, but not C, as
the system
architecture is not
ready.
Product A and B
took longer time
to develop as
“spec” was not
ready.
Product A was hard to
sell and did not make
sense without Product
C ready. We focused
on selling the old
product portfolio
instead.
Since Sales
focused on the old
product portfolio,
we shifted our
budget & efforts on
that instead.
Huge amount
complaints
received after
Product A and B
were launched.
Customers were
not happy...
Product A and B
did not achieve the
expected ROI...
we shall cut more
cost next year to
compensate that
loss.
Hey, teams, you
need to tell us who
performed well and
what more talents
we shall hire!
Sounds familiar?
KPI #1 KPI #2 KPI #3 KPI #4 KPI #5 KPI #6 KPI #7

7. Programme “eCommerce Phase 1”
Product? Features? Project? Programme?
Product A Release 1.0 Product A Release 1.1
Product B Release 1.0 Product B Release 1.1
Project “Initiator”
depends on
Feature A Feature B
Project “Unblocker”
Feature C
Project “Next-Gen A”
Feature D Feature E
Feature
F
depends on
Project “B MVP”
Feature
G
Feature H
Project “Better Core”
Feature
I
depends on Feature
J
Project “Delights”
Feature K
Feature
L
Customer
Value:
User can
purchase
online

8. Key values of Product team
To External To Internal
Develop end-to-end experiences users love
Make the great experiences available to the target
segments of the market
Best leverage cross-functional expertise to
facilitate co-creation of products
Provide valuable insights from external market
and user behaviour to inform product decisions
Prioritise products based on business impact,
effort and overall outcome
Representative of company in receiving and reacting to
customer feedback on specific products

9. Product just leads product development...
Product & UX
Tech Sales Operations Finance HRMarketing
...
Management
Company goal for next FY:
↑ revenue by 20%
↑ double market share
...
leads
Users /
Market
influences
analyses /
monitors
top-down
But is this enough?

10. Product Manager’s common T-shape skillset
Product
Tech
Sales
Ops
Finance HR
Marketing
Product
Tech
Sales
Ops
Finance HR
Marketing
A Product Manager grown up
from Tech background...
A Product Manager grown up
from Marketing background...
UX
UX

11. Product team’s comb-shape skillsets
Product
Tech
Sales Ops
Finance HR
Marketing UX
As Product Managers become more experienced, or as the
team expands, more company skillsets are acquired

12. Co-creation & Co-ownership
● Acquire domain knowledge of different departments
● Build team trust by setting up cross-functional pilot team to
work on a smaller-scale project
● Credits of product success always go to entire teams, not just Product.
Celebrate success and reflect from failures together
● Decide work priority by possible outcome / impact, effort and reliable metrics
together
● Evaluate team dynamics and product performance constantly,
and actively adjust priority, scope and members flexibly

13. Acquire domain knowledge
Stay humble as we learn;
don’t make easy assumptions
Respect each other’s expertise Active-listen their sharing
and concerns with empathy
Observe their daily work

14. Setting up cross-functional pilot project team
Product & UX
Tech Sales
Operations Marketing
Desired outcome:
1. Launch MVP of Product A in 3 months
2. Market share increase to 20% in 6 months
Pilot Team A
Users /
Market
influences
analyses /
monitors
OKR #1
OKR #2

15. Do these TOGETHER!
Who, why & how our products are built... Prioritize what to build first, next and later

16. Do these TOGETHER!
Identify what are the foreseeable risks,
flag their probability & impact
Who is responsible, accountable, consultant or
informed to do what?

17. Do these TOGETHER!
Work out high level Product Roadmap, and
review it every quarter
After each iteration,
Discuss & reflect what have we done well, what haven’t,
and work out action items to keep improve

18. Evolve a team structure & processes
that suits your company & the culture you wish to build
Jeff Gothelf @ Mind The Product Conference,
Singapore, March 26 2019
whatever methodology you
adapt, follow
these principles...

19. As a Product practitioner….
Martin Eriksson @ Mind The Product Conference,
Singapore, March 26 2019
forgive ourselves as we make mistakes along the way - learning in each iteration is more important!

20. So is your company Product-first?

21. Product-first
● Primary products / services drive
major revenue
● Product-first strategy
Non-Product-first
● Primary products / services do not drive
major revenue directly
● Products support company strategy

22. Product-first Non-Product-first
But there’s NOTHING
wrong with this!
It’s WRONG when there’s no reason to
become Product-first, or it fails to execute...
I know what users
want… users
themselves don’t!
CAUTION: “The Steve Jobs syndrome” of product leaders
● Primary products / services drive
major revenue
● Product-first strategy
● Primary products / services do not drive major
revenue directly
● Products support company strategy

23. So…
● What is your company’s current business model?
● Does your company need to be Product-first?
● What is the maturity of your Product team?
Can it support where your company is heading to?

24. Best case for Non-Product-first Companies:
Product leads the execution of Company Strategy
Product
Tech Sales Operations Finance HRMarketing
...
Management
Company goal for next FY:
↑ revenue by 20%
↑ double market share
...
Users /
Market
leads
influences
analyses /
monitors
top-down

25. Best case for Product-first companies:
Product influences Company Strategy
Product
Tech Sales Operations Finance HRMarketing
...
Management
Company goal for next FY:
↑ revenue by 25%
↑ NPS by 50%
...
Users /
Market
leads
influences
analyses /
monitors
influences

26. Thank you.