6. “People think focus means saying yes to the
thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not
what it means at all. It means saying no to the
hundred other good ideas.”
– Steve Jobs, Apple
7. How being a new
product manager
is like becoming
a mom
9. - The 360 Degree Leader
- Developing the Leader within You
- The 21 Irreputable Laws of
Leadership
- How Successful People Think
- The Maxwell Leadership Bible
Books to Read
10. Quick YouTube Watch
At the seventh annual BlogHer Conference,
PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi shared
with attendees her
5 C's of leadership.
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=u0DMaydBOxk
13. o Be open to a variety of topics (Think like a CEO)
o Look for a deeper meaning
o Think about how everything could be improved
o Think about the product from the perspective of the
business
o Ask ‘why?’ All. The. Time
o Apply the mirroring and labelling
Key Points
18. ClassExercise
Exercise 4
You are the PM for a streaming video
service. You come into the office and
see that one key metric has dropped
by 80%. What will you do?
19. ClassExercise
A user signs up for the service -> enters in a credit card for payment (optional) -> clicks on
a video to watch -> Watches the video -> chooses another video to watch.
This is important in narrowing down exactly when the problem first starts. For example, if a
key KPI is number of videos watched, perhaps the sign in is where most people are failing.
Was it gradual or sudden?
What Factors Contributed to the Drop? (Your Data Analytics Mindset is in play here)
Internal Factors:
New feature release
Server went down
A New bug
Narrow down by region, browser/device type and OS type.
Are we gathering the correct metrics (First)?
Is it the only KPI that dropped running through the user Journey (Did any KPI before it
dropped)?
20. ClassExercise
New feature? What was the goal of the feature, was it met? Would there be a need to trade of the
old metrics for this new metrics (If it was positioned as a replacement, a new way of doing things)
External Factors
A New Competitor Joins the market
Bad PR
Firmware was pushed outside your control
Seasons or Major events (outliers) – A Pandemic in Wuhan
Now you have identified the issue, what the next step:
Issues/Bug – Work with SysOps, Engineering and other members of the project team to resolve.
Issue a hotfix.
In summary, understand the issue thoroughly before acting and letting people know of the findings.
BIG QUESTION: Should I inform the larger team first before analyzing the problem so as to avoid a
panic. (Judgement Calls)
External issue? Quite harder to solve. Might require you to go through the normal product
development life cycle to address it.
22. Useful Links
Jesus is the Greatest Product Manager – An Atheist View
We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.
– Virginia Satir
Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/
LinkedIn Engineering Blog:
https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog
Install Slido and scan the QR Code for Q/A session or use the link.
Picking Bad Apples or Good Apples out of a Basket of Apples
A Product Manager simply thinks like a Leader. To be an effective Product Manager, you must be an effective Leader.
Why?
Because, you’ll make a lot of judgement calls.
All you’ve got to be a good Leader is to make friends with a guy I’ve come to love. – John C. Maxwell
Read Books like:
The 360 Degree Leader
Developing the Leader within You
The 21 Irreputable Laws of Leadership
How Successful People Think
The Maxwell Leadership Bible
5 Cs of Leadership with Indraa Nooyi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0DMaydBOxk
I also saw that different jobs – lawyer, accountant, customer service, sales – naturally drive the people who work in them to develop very different skills and behavior
From the Sales profession, I learned to understand and relate to people on the level of emotions and feelings, rather than only relating on the level of words and ideas.
I hope this window into a very different job from your own will provide you with valuable tips which you can put to use in your own career, however different it may be from mine.
Be Open to Variety of Topics
The activities to be aligned run the gamut from sales, marketing and market launch, through research and development, to consulting, training and customer support, with finance and strategy thrown in there as well.
Product Manager is the CEO of the product
The Product Manager learns to push his or her circle of concern out as widely as possible within the organization, and take charge of his or her piece of every activity, in order to make everything come together for the product’s market success.
Note: Have a open mind about new concepts, ideas, people, places, industry and things. Wonder/Consider about thing
A Product Manager combines a lot of things in other to make meaningful products.
Feedbacks:
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Look for a deeper Meaning
Don’t settle for thing at its surface value. Don’t Just take surface insights
Think deeper
Go to Gemba – Shop Floor (Lean Startup Knowledge)
AgroCenta (Michael Ocansey and Francis) as a case study: From Swappaholics to AgroCenta
Don’t stop on the first level of insight.
Ask the right question to get the right answers. (My struggles during Scrum Meetings & Google Search)
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Think about how everything could be improved. (October 1st Product)
Corruption
Power
Governance
Pandemic
Education
Ethnicity
Tried out a new product? think about how to make it better.
Zoom giving you trouble?
Think about what is going on that is preventing the product team from implementing a feature (A Need for scrum session).
Sometime, I might mean certain product team are more inept than others, but more often than not, a lot of product are done by smart people like yourself.
Dig deeper to know why? It might help you uncover interesting situation.
Don’t jump to conclusions
Morning Commute
Food Pickup/order
Laundry
How you deal with kids
How you go to college
The apps on your phone
The financial app
Transportation system
Scenario 1:
My Health App Product Journey. From Version 1.0 to Version 2.0.
Recruitment of Engineering Team (Lucky to influence the choice of your team)
No SME (An No Health Background as Product Manager)
The Expectation Versus the Reality (No Ideals)
Scenario 2:
The Simple FibreOne Onboarding Hack (Estate Matters)
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Think about the product from the perspective of the business
Most Importantly: Think about all these from the perspective of gaining quick wins – i.e. business side of things.
How to make the first five best improvement that can give the business the biggest impact, giving the most value to the users (Ensure you strike a balance)
I’m sure sometimes you’ve wondered how a company makes money while giving your completely free services and while some.
WHATSAPP
GOOGLE
FACEBOOK
On the other end, you’ve wondered how the below companies keep customer while providing horrible services
PHCH (Monopoly – Cost of switching is high)
GOOD MAMA
GLO & MTN
HERITAGE BANK/ZENITH
There’s a classic tension that exists when businesses create a distinction between their business objectives and those of their customers (As a product manager, you have to find the balance)
So, a product designer who IS customer-centric has to find a way to turn business-centric objectives into customer-centric features.
Scenario
The Imbalance:
Question to Audience: Identify products with imbalance in the business objective and customer objectives?
Quoted: Performance marketing company, Criteo, published a report in 2015, based on a study of 2,200 UK consumers, which found that “A third of British consumers are frustrated by large volumes of online ads”
Solution:
For instance, a customer may be looking to purchase a product from an online retailer. Rather than showing them a static advertising banner for a specific product, an online advertiser may opt to create and sponsor a useful buying guide that helps consumers make a decision.
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Ask why all the time about every thing
Why is this product building the way that it is?
Be Inquisitive.
Go deeper level of Why
Beyond why
Reflect active listening and try to grasp the perspective.
Can you tell me more about…?
What did you mean by…?
Presume positive intent
What are you planning to…?
How are you going to…?
Evoke discovery, insight, commitment, or action on behalf of the receiver of the question.
What would you do if…?
What were you thinking when…?
How can you apply…?
Challenge current assumptions
How else might you…?
What is stopping you from…?
What would happen if…?
Apply the Mirroring and Labelling
Labelling
It sounds like? It seems like you’re upset about this? It feels like?
Sounds like
Never use: What I’m hearing
Mirroring:
Repeat the last three words of what the audience says
Reference: Chris Voss – Masterclass – The Art of Negotiation
Read the Book: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
To Play the video to the class to watch
Requires participants to identify a product on which they plan to work on or they are currently working on.
The more unbiased you are, the more objective your opinion is
1. What is the key point of your product? 2. What is your advantage against competitors? 3. What are competitive disadvantages of your product?
You can start with analyzing products and services you encounter on a regular day. For instance, try to answer these three questions about the shop you drop in after work, or your favorite hair salon.
Make it your everyday habit to think about possible improvements, automation, and thus the implementation of at least one item or a process within your work environment.
You’re Lazy, Check out this guy:
https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2015/11/25/this-man-is-a-genius/#.tnw_kz45rdb6
Watch your backlog!
Our lives are big-scale projects with a huge degree of uncertainty and many “features” to implement. Thus, you can use the same approaches we use in software development. Here is what I can recommend:
1. Set your life goals and use time-boxed iterations to achieve them. 2. Prioritize. 3. Test your hypotheses and stick to what works. 4. Run retrospectives for self-observations. 5. Find vacant niches. 6. Think about how to scale your success. 7. Love people around you; they are your users
Assumptions & Questions To clarify, we want to design a:
Mobile app for best tourist places in a specific country (say Spain).
By bicycle we mean normal bicycle & e-bikes with less than 500 watt power which do not require DRIVING LICENSES.
Next step is to discuss the different user groups:
Tourists (Solo traveller/group of friends/family) - This is the main user group and their objectives are to explore the popular places in the city (museums, zoo, monuments, sightseeing) and
Guides/Travel Agency - They may want to include rented bikes to their customers and offer them this optional service.
Needs of the Tourists:
1) Native language of the tourists
2) Locate a bike
3) Get an idea of the cost
4) Start my ride & ride safely
5) Deposit the bike after completing the journey
6) Make payment for the trip
7) Get suggestions of popular places & restaurants during my journey
Solutions for the aforementioned needs: 1) Localization - Have a multi-lingual app which prompts user to select language after installation (English, Spanish, German, French etc.). Have an option to switch language in settings option 2) Locate bikes nearby - Each bike will have a GPS system installed and bikes will be displayed to the user in a map view (he can view which bikes are near him) and go to the respective location to pickup the bike.
3) Cost - User can select bike types and it will display the cost (per hour, per day basis).
When a se
4) Start my ride- To start the ride there are the following prerequisites
Setup payment - Setup a payment wallet (Paypal etc.), Credit card, Debit Card
Unlock the bicycle - Scan QR code to unlock the bike which will start the trip automatically and time will recorded and displayed to the rider
Safety - Each bike will have a attached helmet to it
5) Deposit the bike - Parking spots will be displayed to the users on app to ensure bikes are parked in high density areas of the city. (users will be provided suggestions of parking spots so that the other riders can find them easily for subsequent trips). Once a user ends his trip, an invoice/receipt will be displayed and the amount will be deducted from the wallet.
Solution Evaluation: Solution No.Freq of UsageImpact on UserImpact on BusinessDev. time1) LocalizationMediumMedium MediumLow2) Locate bikes nearbyHighHighHighLow3) Bike type & Associated CostHighMediumHighLow4) Bike Unlocking & Trip PaymentHighHighHighHigh5) Deposit Bike (Parking spots)MediumLowMediumHighBased on the above priorities, we can decide that 1 & 2 are quick wins, 3&4 are must haves and 5 is nice to have. To summarize, we want to build a bicycle renting mobile app for tourist with a goal of helping them travel the city using an efficient & clean energy solution that meets their needs. Points #1,2,3 and 4 constitute our MVP
