This workshop is about building an effective and nimble user centred product team building great products for a global audience. It’s about deciding what a Minimum Viable Product really is and [the hard part:] what to do once you’ve got one. I’ll go behind the scenes at Optimal Workshop to discuss our design and development process, how we handle customer support and how the two are intertwined for the good of our customers.

1. User-Centred
Product Manager
Being a Successful

2. Hi, I’m Andrew and I’m
pleased to meet you.
This is a conversation
PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS

3. My Context
In-house design and development
Design & development services
Installed software with licensing and support
Software as a service
Andrew Mayfield
nz.linkedin.com/in/andrewmayfield
@andrewfantastic

7. frustrations!
!
please write 2 or 3 things you’d like
to discuss today on post-it notes
!
2 minutes

8. What does a
Product Manager do?

9. What does a
Product Manager do?
!
!
Please discuss as a group.
!
5 minutes.

10. Align and prioritise activities that influence
product design, development and positioning

11. Align and prioritise the wants and needs of
people who use the product, and
people who work in or on the business

12. A Product Manager is responsible for making sure
that a team ships a great product

14. …assessing product opportunities, and defining the
product to be built

16. Product ecosystems
Systems thinking
Holistic thinking
Complexity theory

17. As
Product Manager
you own
The Roadmap

18. How a Roadmap Works

19. Inputs to
The Roadmap
!
How do things get onto your
roadmap?
!

22. trello.com

23. agile?
!
lean?
!
kanban?
!
waterfall?
!
iterative?

24. Stay nimble.

25. MVP

26. viable
minimum
product

27. viable!
feasible
usable
useful
doable

28. ok, next?

29. COMMUNICATING
The Roadmap
As clear as you can for 3-12 months
As fuzzy as you can after that for 3-5 years

31. Roadmap
from where?
!
to where?

32. Roadmap
from … the PROBLEM
!
to … your VISION

33. problem
Your product exists to solve a

34. Quantifying
the effectiveness of
information architecture
is hard work
PROBLEM:

35. vision
Your product needs a

37. stories

38. Product Vision

39. Product Vision
For (target customer)
Who (statement of the need or opportunity)
The (product name) is a (product category)
That (key benefit, compelling reason to buy)
Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
Our product (statement of primary differentiation)
!
!
from the book: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore

40. For information architects (IAs)
!
Who want to make websites and intranets
easier to navigate for their users
!
Treejack is a tree testing tool for IA testing and validation
!
That provides quantitative user research to prove or disprove
terminology and hierarchy choices by isolating the IA from any
other visual concerns
!
Unlike other methods and tools on the market
!
Our product is inexpensive, easy to use and has great looking
charts that management can read for themselves.
Treejack
TREE TESTING

41. Help experience designers understand where
and why people get lost on their website.
Treejack
TREE TESTING

42. One Sentence

43. How does a
Product Manager
differ from a
Project Manager

44. How does a
Product Manager
differ from a
Senior UX Designer

47. User-Centred
Input
Ideas for Ensuring

48. empathy
the ability to understand and
share the feelings of another

52. Building team
empathy
Can you think of a way you could
do this in your workplace?
!
Discuss.

54. Dog food day

55. Dog food day
A day where you are the user.
!
Invite a user, or a team of spend time with
you and your product team.
!
You work with the user(s), or for them,
to achieve their goals using your products.

57. User research
What methods are used at your workplace?

59. User research
Mix of methods
Mix of people

60. Customer Support
Have you, personally, ever worked in
customer support at your workplace?

61. Aim to be rid of
customer support
Take action, don’t create more process
Roster everyone onto support

62. “BTW - I love your products.
I enjoy using them so much that I sometimes
get frustrated when I have to do other parts
of my job.
Mike

63. Work in pairs

64. PODS

67. SNIPER SQUAD

68. Who prioritises
the work?
ok, but

69. Someone else?
Development team
Marketing team
Customer support
The Board

70. it’s your job.
You’re the product manager,

71. He who screams
the loudest
Watch out for:

73. Synthesise
!
Analyse
!
Decide

74. Prioritising
as a group
ABC
Important vs Urgent
Impact vs Difficulty

75. kano model
Ideas for being

76. kano model
Delight, Performance or Basic needs

77. kano model
kano.io

80. Know what to
do next, why,
and who for.

81. THANK YOU,!
YOU’RE AWESOME
Andrew Mayfield
nz.linkedin.com/in/andrewmayfield
@andrewfantastic