Talk given on 15 Nov 2013, in Hackers & Painters (http://http://hackersandpainters.sg/), Singapore @ Blk 71. Synopsis: A great product is a synthesis of technology and business thinking. How do we decide what goes into the product and determine the roadmap of the product? How do we establish the balance between the business and technology of the product? In this session, we discuss some interesting lessons learned on product management and why both business leaders and technologists don't get it.

1. New is Easy but Right is Hard
Hacking Product Management
Bernard Leong
@bleongcw
http://www.bernardleong.com
1

2. Outline
2

3. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
2

4. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
A Product Manager’s
nightmare
2

5. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
A Product Manager’s
nightmare
Good and Bad Product
Managers
2

6. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
A Product Manager’s
nightmare
Good and Bad Product
Managers
Hacking Product
Management:
How do we decide the
product roadmap?
2

7. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
A Product Manager’s
nightmare
Hacking Product
Management:
How do we decide the
product roadmap?
Good and Bad Product
Managers
My Three Tales on
Product Management
2

8. Outline
Product Management
in a nutshell
A Product Manager’s
nightmare
Good and Bad Product
Managers
Hacking Product
Management:
How do we decide the
product roadmap?
My Three Tales on
Product Management
Q&A
2

9. What does a product manager do?
3

10. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
3

11. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
3

12. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
Product Development,
Engineering &
Roadmap
3

13. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
Product Development,
Engineering &
Roadmap
Financials
Management
Profit & Loss (P&L)
3

14. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
Financials
Management
Profit & Loss (P&L)
Marketing
Product Development,
Engineering &
Roadmap
3

15. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
Product Development,
Engineering &
Roadmap
Financials
Management
Profit & Loss (P&L)
Marketing
Team Execution
3

16. What does a product manager do?
Business Strategy,
Market Analysis &
Segmentation,
Risks & Competitor
Analysis
Customer Sales,
Growth & Feedback
Product Development,
Engineering &
Roadmap
Financials
Management
Profit & Loss (P&L)
Marketing
Team Execution
In a startup, the CEO is the product manager.
3

17. The Chasm of Product Management
Chasm
Business
Technology/
Engineering
4

18. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
Business
Chasm
Technology/
Engineering
4

19. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
Business
Chasm
I build & they
will come.
Technology/
Engineering
4

20. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
Chasm
I build & they
will come.
It should be
easy to build X
features.
Business
Technology/
Engineering
4

21. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
It should be
easy to build X
features.
Business
Chasm
I build & they
will come.
I insist that X
has to be built
this way.
Technology/
Engineering
4

22. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
Chasm
I insist that X
has to be built
this way.
It should be
easy to build X
features.
Business
I build & they
will come.
We need X
features by
tomorrow!
Technology/
Engineering
4

23. The Chasm of Product Management
Customers say
that we need X
features.
Chasm
I insist that X
has to be built
this way.
It should be
easy to build X
features.
Business
I build & they
will come.
We need X
features by
tomorrow!
It’s just too
much work for
my engineering
team.
Technology/
Engineering
4

24. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
5

25. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
5

26. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
5

27. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
5

28. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
6

29. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
6

30. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
6

31. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
6

32. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
7

33. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
7

34. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
7

35. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
7

36. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
8

37. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
8

38. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
8

39. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
8

40. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
9

41. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
9

42. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
9

43. A Product Manager’s Worst Nightmare
Source: Project Cartoon http://www.projectcartoon.com
9

44. But where’s the balance?
10

45. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
11

46. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
11

47. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
11

48. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Takes full
responsibility
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
11

49. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Takes full
responsibility
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
Makes lots of
excuses when things
fail
11

50. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Takes full
responsibility
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
Makes lots of
excuses when things
fail
Good Execution
according to Plan &
disciplined in
updating everyone
11

51. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Good Execution
according to Plan &
disciplined in
updating everyone
Takes full
responsibility
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
Makes lots of
excuses when things
fail
Always fail to meet
timelines &
milestones
11

52. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Takes full
responsibility
Lack of knowledge
about the market
Good Execution
according to Plan &
disciplined in
updating everyone
Figures out the
direction of the
product
Makes lots of
excuses when things
fail
Always fail to meet
timelines &
milestones
11

53. Good Product Manager
Understands the
market, product &
competition
Good Execution
according to Plan &
disciplined in
updating everyone
Takes full
responsibility
Figures out the
direction of the
product
Bad Product Manager
Lack of knowledge
about the market
Makes lots of
excuses when things
fail
Always fail to meet
timelines &
milestones
Have no clue to
where the product
should go & lack of
discipline not to
provide status
updates to everyone
11

54. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
12

55. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
12

56. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Bad Product Manager
Lost all the time to
firefighting
12

57. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Bad Product Manager
Lost all the time to
firefighting
12

58. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Bad Product Manager
Lost all the time to
firefighting
Thinks
documentation is a
waste of time, and
expects the others to
do it
12

59. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Bad Product Manager
Lost all the time to
firefighting
Thinks
documentation is a
waste of time, and
expects the others to
do it
Communicate
accurately & precise
with all teams
12

60. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Communicate
accurately & precise
with all teams
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Bad Product Manager
Lost all the time to
firefighting
Thinks
documentation is a
waste of time, and
expects the others to
do it
Does not know what
he or she wants and
confuse everyone in
the process
12

61. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Communicate
accurately & precise
with all teams
Bad Product Manager
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Lost all the time to
firefighting
Gathers information
informally and works
around the system
Thinks
documentation is a
waste of time, and
expects the others to
do it
Does not know what
he or she wants and
confuse everyone in
the process
12

62. Good Product Manager
Manages time for
different aspects
appropriately
Communicate
accurately & precise
with all teams
Bad Product Manager
Prepares good
documentation:
marketing collaterals,
FAQs, presentations
& white papers
Lost all the time to
firefighting
Thinks
documentation is a
waste of time, and
expects the others to
do it
Gathers information
informally and works
around the system
Does not know what
he or she wants and
confuse everyone in
the process
Complains all the
time and blames the
system
12

63. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
13

64. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
13

65. Good Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on what
competition is doing
13

66. Good Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on what
competition is doing
13

67. Good Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on what
competition is doing
Be too
accommodating &
keeps letting the
product get bloated
with features
13

68. Good Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on what
competition is doing
Be too
accommodating &
keeps letting the
product get bloated
with features
Prepares how to
engage the press &
dictate how the story
is written
13

69. Good Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Prepares how to
engage the press &
dictate how the story
is written
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on what
competition is doing
Be too
accommodating &
keeps letting the
product get bloated
with features
Lets the press write
whatever they want &
end up fighting with
them when things go
wrong.
13

70. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Focus team on what
competition is doing
Prepares how to
engage the press &
dictate how the story
is written
Decomposes
problems into small
chunks to solve
them.
Be too
accommodating &
keeps letting the
product get bloated
with features
Lets the press write
whatever they want &
end up fighting with
them when things go
wrong.
13

71. Good Product Manager
Bad Product Manager
Focus team on
revenues and
customers
Knows how to reduce
features & say no
when necessary
Focus team on what
competition is doing
Be too
accommodating &
keeps letting the
product get bloated
with features
Prepares how to
engage the press &
dictate how the story
is written
Decomposes
problems into small
chunks to solve
them.
Lets the press write
whatever they want &
end up fighting with
them when things go
wrong.
Conflat all the
problems into one
and have no idea
how to resolve them.
13

72. Most products fail because ...
14

73. Most products fail because ...
Too much emphasis on
(business/technology) &
lack of focus on
(technology/business).
14

74. Most products fail because ...
Too much emphasis on
(business/technology) &
lack of focus on
(technology/business).
Too much features & too
little room for
experimentation or
patience to work for the
long haul.
14

75. Most products fail because ...
Too much emphasis on
(business/technology) &
lack of focus on
(technology/business).
Too much features & too
little room for
experimentation or
patience to work for the
long haul.
Lack of integration
between marketing, sales
& product development &
that’s why growth hacking
is important.
14

76. Most products fail because ...
Too much emphasis on
(business/technology) &
lack of focus on
(technology/business).
Too much features & too
little room for
experimentation or
patience to work for the
long haul.
Lack of integration
between marketing, sales
& product development &
that’s why growth hacking
is important.
Execution limited to
specific points of time and
not over arching.
14

77. How do we decide the product roadmap?
15

78. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
15

79. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
Align team on product
development, sales,
marketing & customer
data collection to
business objective
with timeline &
milestones
15

80. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
Align team on product
development, sales,
marketing & customer
data collection to
business objective
with timeline &
milestones
Do not be distracted by
your competitors’
product or say no to
adding new features or
total perfection.
15

81. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
Align team on product
development, sales,
marketing & customer
data collection to
business objective
with timeline &
milestones
Do not be distracted by
your competitors’
product or say no to
adding new features or
total perfection.
Hold yourself
accountable to a set of
metrics
15

82. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
Align team on product
development, sales,
marketing & customer
data collection to
business objective
with timeline &
milestones
Hold yourself
accountable to a set of
metrics
Ensure that everyone
is on message.
Do not be distracted by
your competitors’
product or say no to
adding new features or
total perfection.
15

83. How do we decide the product roadmap?
Determine the
business objective of
the product
Align team on product
development, sales,
marketing & customer
data collection to
business objective
with timeline &
milestones
Hold yourself
accountable to a set of
metrics
Ensure that everyone
is on message.
Do not be distracted by
your competitors’
product or say no to
adding new features or
total perfection.
Relentless execution
from pre, during &
post-launch
15

84. Product Roadmap
Minimum Viable
Product
Beta Product
Iterated Product
for customers
The ideal
product does
not exists
Infinity
Time
Day 0
What you can
build within
30-60 days?
What you can
build with an
initial investment
& some
customers
What you can build
with more
investments &
more customers
(includes feedback)
What is the
ideal product
you will like to
have?
Write the ideal press release before you start ...
16

85. How many downloads,
users, impressions?
(Vanity)
How many monthly active
users performing actions
with your app or website?
Construct metrics,
on how many
actions per user or
how much time user
spend and
benchmark against
known metrics.
Measure data but find the killer metric that addresses virality & potential /real revenues.
(the one you pitched to investors)
17

86. Day
30
60
90
Product
Development
Product
Management
Product
Marketing
Build feature 1 & 2
Test trial for feature 1 & 2
Figure out where
your customers get
the product.
Build feature 3 & 4
Test trial for feature 3 & 4
Prepare seeded content
Figure out how to educate users
Prepare the setup
for the distribution
Prototype ready for
testing
Prepare and starts
Get users to try the complete
sending invites to
prototype & see what they thinks
alpha or beta users
Let everyone knows the plan and start your execution.
Do keep each other in check.
18

87. Tale 1: Customer Feedback vs “Cool” Visualization
19

88. Tale 1: Customer Feedback vs “Cool” Visualization
Business Objective:
To sign up small and
medium business owners
with physical stores to
advertise on our solution.
19

89. Tale 1: Customer Feedback vs “Cool” Visualization
Business Objective:
To sign up small and
medium business owners
with physical stores to
advertise on our solution.
Our First Prototype:
A small ad unit on mobile
& web with a “View Map”
that leads to Google Street
View upon click.
19

90. Tale 1: Customer Feedback vs “Cool” Visualization
Business Objective:
To sign up small and
medium business owners
with physical stores to
advertise on our solution.
Our First Prototype:
A small ad unit on mobile
& web with a “View Map”
that leads to Google Street
View upon click.
150 Customers Feedback:
“View Map” looks “cool”
but I prefer a button that
tells users how they can
come to my physical store.
19

91. Tale 1: Customer Feedback vs “Cool” Visualization
Business Objective:
To sign up small and
medium business owners
with physical stores to
advertise on our solution.
Our First Prototype:
A small ad unit on mobile
& web with a “View Map”
that leads to Google Street
View upon click.
150 Customers Feedback:
“View Map” looks “cool”
but I prefer a button that
tells users how they can
come to my physical store.
Product Manager:
We change “View Map” to
“Directions” & customers
prefer our solution & our
customers love it.
19

92. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
20

93. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
Business Objective:
Our customers use web
interface, twitter or SMS to
web to update their
promotions. We have to
offer all three in the US.
20

94. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
Business Objective:
Our customers use web
interface, twitter or SMS to
web to update their
promotions. We have to
offer all three in the US.
Problem: Twilio does not
exist in 2010. For
Singapore & Malaysia, we
built our SMS servers to
allow users to pair their
mobile to our web servers.
20

95. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
Business Objective:
Our customers use web
interface, twitter or SMS to
web to update their
promotions. We have to
offer all three in the US.
Problem: Twilio does not
exist in 2010. For
Singapore & Malaysia, we
built our SMS servers to
allow users to pair their
mobile to our web servers.
Financial constraint:
We can’t fly an engineer to
US or use a SMS server
solution there which is too
expensive.
20

96. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
Business Objective:
Our customers use web
interface, twitter or SMS to
web to update their
promotions. We have to
offer all three in the US.
Problem: Twilio does not
exist in 2010. For
Singapore & Malaysia, we
built our SMS servers to
allow users to pair their
mobile to our web servers.
Financial constraint:
We can’t fly an engineer to
US or use a SMS server
solution there which is too
expensive.
Product Manager: Figure
out a cheap solution that
we can develop and test
whether US users really
need to update their
promotions via SMS.
We save a lot of financial
resources & use 2 days of
one developer’s time.
20

97. Tale 2: SMS solution in Customer Discovery
Business Objective:
Our customers use web
interface, twitter or SMS to
web to update their
promotions. We have to
offer all three in the US.
Our US customer
sends us an
update via SMS to
our US number
Problem: Twilio does not
exist in 2010. For
Singapore & Malaysia, we
built our SMS servers to
allow users to pair their
mobile to our web servers.
Financial constraint:
We can’t fly an engineer to
US or use a SMS server
solution there which is too
expensive.
Pre-Paid US SIM Card
receiving free incoming SMS
Product Manager: Figure
out a cheap solution that
we can develop and test
whether US users really
need to update their
promotions via SMS.
We save a lot of financial
resources & use 2 days of
one developer’s time.
We pair the pre-paid number
with Google Voice & use
Google Voice API to extract
the message & push to
Chalkboard platform
replicating a SMS server for
the US
20

98. Tale 3: How to grow 4x users in Indonesia
21

99. Tale 3: How to grow 4x users in Indonesia
Business Objective:
We have a mobile solution
to build websites on a
phone, and grow quickly in
Indonesia market.
21

100. Tale 3: How to grow 4x users in Indonesia
Business Objective:
We have a mobile solution
to build websites on a
phone, and grow quickly in
Indonesia market.
Mobile data from analysts
show that Indonesians like
using Facebook and prefer
to access services with
Bahasa Indonesia
language.
21

101. Tale 3: How to grow 4x users in Indonesia
Business Objective:
We have a mobile solution
to build websites on a
phone, and grow quickly in
Indonesia market.
Mobile data from analysts
show that Indonesians like
using Facebook and prefer
to access services with
Bahasa Indonesia
language.
Product Manager: Make
login not by classical
signups, but by Facebook
connect and also localise
the login in Indonesia with
their local language.
21

102. Tale 3: How to grow 4x users in Indonesia
Business Objective:
We have a mobile solution
to build websites on a
phone, and grow quickly in
Indonesia market.
Mobile data from analysts
show that Indonesians like
using Facebook and prefer
to access services with
Bahasa Indonesia
language.
Product Manager: Make
login not by classical
signups, but by Facebook
connect and also localise
the login in Indonesia with
their local language.
Results: went from 2x with
Facebook connect and
then 4x growth of users by
localisation to Bahasa
language.
21

103. 22

104. The One Thing I believe that no one else do ...
22

105. 22

106. Product managers with science & engineering
backgrounds have stronger advantages against
product managers with business backgrounds.
22

107. 22

108. But to be successful, technology based product
managers need to keep an open mind, learn the
business side and move towards user-centricity
than technology-centricity.
22

109. Thank You!
“New is Easy. Right is hard” - Craig Federighi, Apple
23

110. References
•
Ben Horowitz, "Good Product Manager/Bad Product
Manager"
•
•
Ken Norton, "How to hire a product manager".
•
•
•
Jeff Weiner, How to Spot the Five-Tool Superstar
Ian McAllister, What distinguishes the top 1% of product
managers from the top 10%?
Jack Dorsey, The CEO as Chief Editor.
Eric Ries, The Product Manager's Lament.
24