PT Toronto #9: Breanna Hughes (Senior Product Manager at League) shares her talk “I've Made A Huge Mistake." Breanna has worked as a Product Manager for almost 10 years and has made many mistakes along the way. She's a big believer in growing from missteps, and wants to have a candid discussion highlighting where she went wrong, and how we all can learn from her mistakes to become better Product Managers. Breanna's passion for tech started when she was just 10 years old, when she created an online business selling Canadian chocolate to Americans. Since then, she has been a Salesforce.com Consultant, a Product Manager at Xtreme Labs (acquired by Pivotal Labs), lead the Growth Team at Wattpad and most recently ran the Product Team at Universe (acquired by Ticketmaster). She was also one of the four female co-founders of Ladies Learning Code and HackerYou.

1. @ProductTankTO | #ProductTank |
SPONSORED BY
TWEETS AWAY! producttankto.com
A MEETUP FOR PRODUCT PEOPLE,
BY PRODUCT PEOPLE

2. A COLLECTION OF MISTAKES I’ VE MA D E IN MY CA RE E R AS A
PRODUCT MAN AG E R
I ’ V E M A D E A
H U G E M I S T A K E
#PRO DUCTTANKTO @UN BRELIEVABL E

3. Butfirst,whoamI?. Second,whowasI?.

4. I’vefeltlikethisin
myjob.
Alot.

5. Don’tbesmug.You’ve
probablymade,andwill
make,alotofmistakestoo.
Let’slearnfrommine.

6. 01Think you know
your users.
MI STA KE

7. You can’t change behaviour of your users and
force them to do what you want. Spend time
with them, understand how they use your
product, and how they use other products.
Create a focus group of users to supplement
what you can’t be, because who wants to be 14
again, anyways?
Iwas14yearsold
once,butthat
doesn’tmeanI
knowwhat14year
oldswantnow.

8. 02Listen to your users
too much.
MI STA KE

9. Qualitative user research is great for understand
why someone uses your product and to get a
deeper understanding of their problems. It
should not be used for testing two options
against each other to see which performs
better.
Just because your users say they like it, doesn’t
mean it will succeed.
A/B test or release incrementally and measure.
“Watchwhatthey
do,notwhatthey
say.”

10. 03Use a/b testing to
solve arguments.
MI STA KE

11. A/B testing is powerful, but can be costly to
your organization. They aren’t meant to be a
tiebreaker or mediator of egos and opinions.
Only A/B test decisions that can impact
conversion, or key metrics of your business.
Also, never run an test variant that you don’t
want to win.
Noteverythingis
worthyofana/btest.

12. 04Be too prescriptive
with requirements.
MI STA KE

13. Set the direction and outline business
requirements, but if your find yourself saying
“clicking this button does this”, you are
prescribing too much.
Give your team the freedom to determine the
“how”. Teach them your thought process, and
empower them to make decisions. Let go of
total control.
Let go of the 20 page requirements docs.
Youdon’thavea
teamofrobots.
(Well,maybe).

14. 05Use a process just
because Google uses it.
MI STA KE

15. Not all problems are equal, and so we shouldn’t
treat them as such when it comes to coming up
with solutions.
Ask yourself “what is the bare minimum
validation I need?”. Sometimes it’s a
conversation, a data point, a few hours of
research, or sometimes you need to dive in
head first.
DO WHAT WORKS.
Noteverythingneedsa
weeklongdiscovery.

16. 06Listen to blog posts.
MI STA KE

17. Other companies should be a source of ideas
and inspiration, but you always need to test
and measure yourself.
When you do get positive results, document
them and share internally so others can learn
from your success.
Justbecauseit
workedforone
company,doesn’t
meanitwillworkfor
you.

18. 07Roll your eyes at your
sales team requests.
MI STA KE

19. More importantly, your sales team is talking to
prospects and customers much more than you. They
hear what areas your competitors have you beat, and
why customers leave you.
The better the sales team understands your product,
the better they can sell.
Set up regular 1:1s with them, show them product
progress, and don’t keep them in the dark.
And don’t discount their feedback.
Youwon’thavea
paychequewithout
yoursalesteam.

20. 08Think you have
all the answers.
MI STA KE

21. Say it out loud: I don’t know.
You have a lot of smart people on your team, and
you are doing yourself, your team, and your users a
disservice by taking it all on and having all the
answers.
Hold regular brainstorms, involve other parts in the
business in coming up with solutions, and guide
ideation by outlining problems.
Ask questions. A lot.
Don’tbeahero.

22. 09Think you have
none of the answers.
MI STA KE

23. Listentoyourgut.
With access to all the data, blog posts, feature
requests, slack messages and emails coming at you
all day, you can get easily get hit with “Analysis
Paralysis”, where you are analyzing things so much
you get to the point in which you are paralyzed and
can’t make a decision.
If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong.

24. 10Think you aren’t
good enough.
MI STA KE

25. Some days I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.
Product Management is generally a thankless job, so
we need to support one another and share wins and
failures.
Check your ego, accept and admit failure and it will
make you a better PM, and a better person.
Theimposter
syndromeis real.

26. Now, it’s
your turn.

27. At your table, take 5 minutes to think
about some of the mistakes you have
made in your career.
Go around the table and share one
mistake, and what you learned from it.
It’stimeforproduct
managertherapy.

28. T H A N K Y O U
@UNBRELIEVABLE