Breaking into product management
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What are we looking at today
1. What is Product Management?
2. Day in the Life of a PM
3. Skills Required to be a PM�4. Product Thinking
5. Activity
6. Prioritization�7. Q&A
A little about me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navshaai/
Connect with me!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zennimit/
Connect with me!
A little about Nimit
Main takeaway: product thinking and its importance
Learning outcome: how to identify right problems to solve
Product management is all about about creating value for the users. And capturing value for the business.
What is Product Management?
Gate-keepers of Time and Effort of resources in a team and an organisation
Champions of outcomes for the business teams
It’s a role in tech companies that describes people who are always customer-centric and solve for their needs
Who is a Product Manager?
Day in a life of a PM
Skills required for a PM
Product Thinking
Product Thinking
“It is the skill of knowing what makes a product useful - and loved - by people.”��Julie Zhuo, ex-VP Design, Facebook
Product Thinking
This is the first step to building a product
It’s a structured thinking exercise, it pushes you to spend more time on the problem space rather than solution space
It helps you build the right product for the right audience at the right time
Product Thinking
Albert Einstein
"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions."
Product Thinking
P.S. He obviously didn’t say this but you get what I’m saying 😬
Problem Space
Solution Space
Problem Space vs Solution Space
Problem Space
Solution Space
Product Thinking
Most of the companies follow Top Down Objective/Goal Setting
Company (Uber)
Product Group 1 (Customer Growth)
Product Group 2 (Supply Growth)
Product POD 4(Driver Retention)
Product POD 3(Driver Onboarding)
Product POD 2 (Customer Retention)
Product POD 1 (Customer Onboarding)
Objective Setting
Every pod will have a Product Roadmap consisting of multiple projects
Every project will have an objective aligned to the pod’s objective
Let’s discuss with an example
Objective / Goal Setting
User Persona
Represents a larger user base similar to them
Gives a clarity on the segment we are building for
Helps in identifying the TAM and problems to be solved
Usually covers the demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural
aspects of a user
Includes the problems and challenges faced by them as well
What is not User Persona?
Source: Warwick Allchorn (Linkedin)
PRINCE CHARLES
OZZY OSBOURNE
Example User Persona
User Persona for Pay via UPI at Fuel Stations Product
| Cab Users | Self Car/Bike Users | Public Transport Users |
Demography / Geography |
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Psychographic |
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Behavioural |
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Problems / Challenges |
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User Personas for Uber
User Journey
Macro view of how a user interacts with the product
User journey maps out all the stages in the product which a user performs start to finish to accomplish their goal
Let’s see the user journey of Cab Users
2. Enter the pickup and drop location
4. Request for a cab
3. Checks the price
User contacts customer support in case of any issue
Cabs arrives and journey starts
Driver cancels or user cancels due to long ETA
Wait till cab is allotted and reaches the pickup location
5. Opens another cab app & repeats step 1 to 4
Cab User Journey
User Problems Identification
Before building features, we need to identify the user problems / needs
This can be identified through multiple ways:
Let’s take an example:
Uber is an app which aggregates cab /taxi. Users can book a taxi through the Uber app
Post covid, people started travelling more / going back to office and demand >> supply
We need to find the pain points / needs of cab users and design Uber Pool product
User Problems Identification
You have the cab user journey
Now, discuss with your group and identify the problems / improvements in the current user journey
Live Exercise
Breakout Activity Time(15 mins)
User Journey Analysis
Prices are high with increase in demand and fuel price increase
During environmental issues like rain, prices are even higher due to surge pricing
Not getting cabs during peak time / ETA is high at times
Need to switch between apps
User Problems Identification
Problems / Needs / Improvements from user research insights & current user journey
Getting cabs but driver cancels after accepting
Need to take calls during travel / Check emails during travel
Driver behaviour / Rash driving / Safety concerns
Time - Overall travel time is high
Problems / Needs / Improvements from user research insights & current user journey
User Problems Identification
20% of drivers cancel after knowing the drop location
80% of driver cancellations are in drop locations where demand is low
45% of customers cancel cab after checking ETA
45% of users drop from the app post checking the price screen
Data Analysis
User Problems / Need Identification
Categorise Problems / Need Identification
Price:
Availability:
Time:
Safety:
Others:
Categorise Problems / Need Identification
Prioritization
Decide what to focus on
…what NOT to focus on
Be able to justify your rationale to ANY kind of stakeholder.
[Advanced]
Ability to prioritise implies you can…
[Product team]�
You will not be able to garner respect with your execution teams : design/engineering/research/marketing�
They need someone to rely on who can take the right calls for them….and be able to fight for it.
[Non-product team]�
You will likely become the “go-to guy” for non-product stakeholders : business/ops/strategy/CxOs
The guy who can blindly get anything executed for them, at any hour.
[Career]�
You will not be seen ready for end-to-end ownership.
What if you don’t become GREAT at prioritisation?
Wait, there are frameworks for this, right?
Prioritisation
Prioritisation is a mix of:
Impact vs Effort:
Live Exercise
Prioritisation in Practice
Airtribe’s story so far
Some of our successful alumni
Tanu�QA Engg -> PM @ Shiprocket
Manpreet�Product Owner -> PM @ Planview
Ruchir�Product Owner -> PM @ Byjus
Bishal�Student -> PM Intern @ Hyperverge
Karupa�Biz Analyst-> APM @ Reuters
Pragya�Sol. consultant-> APM @ Almabase
Anubhav�Product Analyst -> PM @ Purple
YOU
Our Growing Community 😍
Course Structure
Interview prep track
Execution
Product design
Product Sense
Analytical
Guesstimate
Behavioural
Product Leaders as Instructors
What’s unique about our program
Airtribe’s Scholarship for IIM-K Students
Rs. 45000
Rs. 19,999
Q & A
Who should become a PM?
Is it possible for someone without a technical background to become a Product Manager?
Thank you!