Write one thing you want to know about Agile Product Management on the White Board
Blockbuster Product Management @dneighbors
My Journey
Mobile Web Desktop Physical B2B B2C
How do I make great products?
SCRUM Guide has the answer!
Get a Product Owner!
A Product Owner Does • Backlog items clearly expressed • Backlog prioritized (sic) to achieve mission/goals • Development work optimized for value • Backlog visible, transparent and clear • Backlog understandable to development team
Sole person responsible for managing product backlog.
So What Makes Good Product People?
Multi-Disciplined
Leader / Influencer
Creator
Build the Right Thing vs. Build the Thing Right
Big Picture vs Minding Details
Ability to Dream
Ability to be Pragmatic
Willing (and Able) to Delegate
Trusts Team/Experts Accordingly
Loves the customer as much or more than the product.
Some Things I Learned
1. Alignment is everything. Unify the masses.
2. You have to be able to tell a story.
3. Strategy vs Tactics
4. Your Gut vs Data
5. Being wrong is okay. Being indecisive isn’t.
6. When everything is a priority. Nothing is a priority.
7. All documentation and process sucks.
8. Conversations and collaboration kick ass.
9. Creating products people love is where it is at. SF vs LA.
10. Decomposition is a bitch.
11. Eating your own dog food, is key.
12. Know your customers.
13. Market research is good, execution with results is better.
14. Get out of your bubble.
15. What gets measured, gets done.
16. Get good before trying to get big.
17. Roadmaps. Ugh. Hate them.
18. People flail without a path. Damn you roadmaps.
19. You need a to have vision.
20. You need to communicate your vision.
21. You need a strategy for that vision.
22. You need to have a plan of execution.
23. Plans shouldn’t be at the feature level.
24. Execution team has to own the feature plan.
25. The plan will change a lot. The vision shouldn’t.
26. The plan needs to stay current.
27. Six weeks is an eternity.
28. We tend to over estimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in five years.
29. Treat your products according to the stage of life they are in. (Infancy -> Senior Citizen)
30. Good ideas come from everywhere.
31. Growth, Revenue (Profit), Retention. DAILY!
How do we get from status quo to magnificence?
What does it look like?
Vision 5+ Year Horizon
Strategic Initiatives 1 Year Focus
3. Execution Roughly Six Week Cycle
Step 1: Script Pitch
Good ideas come from anywhere.
Get pitched twice a month to executive team.
Mini Startup Pitch • Strategic Value • Problem / Opportunity • Implementation Effort • Solution • Operational Costs • Product / Feature Concepts • Risk • Revenue • Customer Value
Prioritized based on rubric.
EXAMPLE:
Improve Tanga Network Mobile Experience “Make Mobile Great Again”
Problem / Opportunity Mobile E-Commerce sales will account for nearly all E-Commerce sales growth in the next 3 years. The mobile device shopper demographic is an untapped market for The Tanga Network. The mobile experience of Tanga Network Sites do not currently lend themselves to high E-Commerce conversion. The Tanga Network user experience is fragmented and inconsistent throughout our sites.
Solution Modernize all Tanga Network sites to be mobile first. Implement responsive mobile web positioning, which allows for future native app if necessary. (No more separate layout for mobile) Optimize mobile experience for current best practices (social onboarding, faster checkout, less user input, etc.). Tune performance for high latency networks. Improve ability to navigate to products of most interest.
Product/Feature Set All Sites on The Tanga Network will have a Modern Web Experience Responsive Design Social Login/Signup Faster Purchase Path (Mobile Payments) Loading Speed Optimize for Thumb Zone Navigation Context Keyboard (Screenshot of Amazon vs Tanga)
Responsive and Mobile Optimized Experience for All Sites
Thumb Comfort Zone
Loading Speed
Navigation Some examples of how things could be -----> Where we are currently at ----->
Social Login/Signup
Faster Purchase Path Product Page Complete Purchase
Revenue Increased conversion Acquisition of new user segment Improved Experience will increase customer lifetime value
Customer Value Reduced frustration when shopping on mobile Make experience delightful enough to share with friends
Strategic Value Will improve our ability to acquire customers coming to us via mobile devices Creates pathway for mobile marketing opportunities Reduction in development cost by not having to maintain separate mobile layouts
Implementation Effort Design - will have to conduct research, plan vision, ensure quality and responsiveness, build our design system Operations - will have to add support for new mobile payment provider(s) such as Apple Pay Development - will require some new tooling and core changes to site architecture/ infrastructure Marketing - (possible) develop a campaign promoting new functionality and mobile experience, help with verbiage and user experience
Operation Costs Increase in design cost moving forward because we will have to make sure everything that is built is optimized for mobile and works on all platforms and browsers Moving to responsive, will significantly decrease development efforts
Risk If we don’t do this, we will fall further behind best practices
Step 2: Pre-Production
Executive Producer Assigned
Director Assigned
Technical Director Assigned
Success Metrics Defined
Story Work Shop
Cast Decided
Location Scouting (Competition)
Step 3: Production (Six Weeks)
Weekly Planning
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