Sachin Rekhi shares the 4 dimensions of product management (vision, strategy, design, execution), discusses where product managers fit in the R&D organization, and how product management roles differ across and within companies.

1. What is Product Management?
Sachin Rekhi
@sachinrekhi
www.sachinrekhi.com
Founder & CEO, Notejoy

2. Agenda
● Where do product managers fit in the R&D org?
● What do product managers do?
● How do product management roles differ?

3. My Product Roles

4. My Product Advising Roles

5. Where do PMs fit in the R&D org?

6. Product
Manager
Software
Engineer
Designer
Tester
Product
Marketer
UX
Researcher
Sales Support
CEOVP
Product
Legal
Core Product Team

7. Product
Manager
Software
Engineer
Designer
Tester
Product
Marketer
UX
Researcher
Sales Support
CEOVP
Product
Legal
Shared Resources

8. Product
Manager
Software
Engineer
Designer
Tester
Product
Marketer
UX
Researcher
Sales Support
CEOVP
Product
Legal
Executive Stakeholders

9. Product
Manager
Software
Engineer
Designer
Tester
Product
Marketer
UX
Researcher
Sales Support
CEOVP
Product
Legal
Product Peers
Product
Manager

10. What do product managers do?

11. Product managers drive the vision, strategy,
design, and execution of their product.

12. Vision
Strategy
Design
Execution

13. Vision
Strategy
Design
Execution

14. A compelling vision articulates how the world
will be a better place if you succeed
Vision

15. Vision
Elon Musk, SpaceX
“It is important that
humanity become an
interplanetary species.”

16. The Best Format: A Customer-Centric Vision Narrative
“Full sentences are harder to write. They have verbs. The
paragraphs have topic sentences. There is no way to write a
six-page narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking.”
— Jeff Bezos
Vision

17. Vision Narrative: Amazon.com 1997 Shareholder Letter
“But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com.
Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time.
Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the
very process of discovery. Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real
value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring
franchise, even in established and large markets.”
— Jeff Bezos
Read: Jeff Bezos’ 1997 Amazon.com Shareholder Letter
Vision

18. Vision Narrative: Slack Pre-Launch Employee Memo
“That’s why what we’re selling is organizational transformation. The
software just happens to be the part we’re able to build & ship (and the
means for us to get our cut). We’re selling a reduction in information
overload, relief from stress, and a new ability to extract the enormous value
of hitherto useless corporate archives. We’re selling better organizations,
better teams.”
— Stewart Butterfield
Read: Stewart Butterfield’s 2013 Employee Memo: We Don’t Sell Saddles Here
Vision

19. The Core Challenge
A vision is valuable only if it inspires the entire team
Vision

20. Vision
Strategy
Design
Execution

21. A compelling strategy details exactly
how you’ll dominate your market
Strategy

22. Strategy
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
“Your margin is my
opportunity.”

23. Best Format: Product/Market Fit Hypotheses
Ditch the business plan; instead focus on a
few-page summary that captures each of your
critical product/market fit hypotheses
Strategy

24. The Product/Market Fit Hypotheses
1. Target Audience
2. Problem You’re Solving
3. Value Propositions
4. Strategic Differentiation
5. Competition
6. Acquisition Strategy
7. Monetization Strategy
8. KPIs
Further reading: A Lean Alternative to a Business Plan: Documenting Your Product/Market Fit Hypotheses
Strategy

25. Strategy: Google Maps Leverages Superior Technology
Dimension of Innovation: Strategic Differentiation
Google Maps unseated the ubiquitous MapQuest (which had already become a
verb) largely through a superior product that leveraged early use of technologies
like JavaScript and AJAX to bring the first smooth scrolling and zooming
experience to an online map interface.
Strategy

26. Strategy: Tesla Takes a Top Down Market Approach
Dimensions of Innovation: Target Audience, Strategic Differentiation
Tesla's primary goal was to commercialize electric vehicles, starting with a premium
sports car aimed at early adopters and then moving as rapidly as possible into
more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts. Tesla first
introduced the Roadster, a high-end luxury sports car in 2008, selling 2,400 units
up until 2012. It then followed it with the broader appeal Model S, a full-sized luxury
sedan in 2012, which has sold more than 100,000 cars globally.
Strategy

27. A vision should be stable, but your strategy
needs to be iterated on and refined until you
find product/market fit
Strategy
The Core Challenge

28. Vision
Strategy
Design
Execution

29. A compelling design delivers a useful, usable,
and delightful experience to your customers
Design

30. Design
Steve Jobs, Apple
“You have to work hard
to get your thinking clean
to make it simple.”

31. Product Roadmap
Design
What products and features are we going to
build for our users? When? Why?

32. Product Roadmap
Design

33. Product Requirements
Design
What requirements must the product satisfy to
enable our users to accomplish their goals?

34. Product
Requirements

35. Core Challenge
Design
With limited resources but endless possibilities,
how do we decide what to prioritize?

36. Start by falling in love with the problem you
are solving for your target customers
But not… with the solution
Design
Further reading: The Best Product Managers Fall in Love With a Problem

37. Increase Exposure Hours
“It's the closest thing we've found to a silver bullet when it comes to
reliably improving the designs teams produce. The solution? Exposure
hours. The number of hours each team member is exposed directly to real
users interacting with the team's designs or the team's competitor's
designs. There is a direct correlation between this exposure and the
improvements we see in the designs that team produces.”
— Jared M. Spool, Founder, User Interface Engineering
Read: Fast Path to a Great UX - Increased Exposure Hours
Design

38. Vision
Strategy
Design
Execution

39. Relentless execution ultimately determines
whether you’ll make your vision a reality
Execution

40. Execution
Stewart Butterfield, Slack
“We do it really, really
fucking good.”

41. Execution
Modern Project Management
Annual Planning / Quarterly OKRs / Bi-weekly Sprint / Daily Scrum

42. Execution Loop: Define. Validate. Iterate.
Define
Validate
Iterate
1. Define your hypotheses
2. Validate each hypothesis
3. Iterate based on what you’ve learned
Execution

43. Increase execution loop velocity
Execution
Core Challenge

44. Metrics: Learn to Read the Matrix
Build your intuition for metrics
by spending time every day
reviewing a few critical
acquisition, engagement, and
monetization dashboards
Execution
Further reading: 3 Essential Dashboards for Every Product

45. How do product roles differ?

46. Builders
Tuners
Innovators
3 Types of Product Managers
/
/

47. Product Career Ladder
● Associate Product Manager
● Product Manager
● Senior Product Manager
● Principal Product Manager ● Group Product Manager
● Director, Product Management
● Sr. Director, Product Management
● Vice President, Product Management
Individual Contributor Manager

48. Product @ Large vs Small Companies

49. Technical vs Non-Technical Product Managers

50. Product vs Project Managers

51. Enjoyed this presentation?
Check out my 125+ essays on product at
sachinrekhi.com