MindTheProduct

Product Management conference, community. See also ProductTank.

My notes: MindTheProduct conf 2019

Martin Eriksson (founder) https://twitter.com/bfgmartin
- Everyone's biggest question: are we building the right thing?
- If SoftwareIsEatingTheWorld, we are writing the menu
- must focus on what's valuable, usable, feasible
  - (MartinCagan)
Denise Jacobs https://twitter.com/denisejacobs
- Banish Your Inner Critic
- Imposter Syndrome
- What blocks us from doing our best work?
  - Maybe it's Us (internal)
    - InnerCritic
- (Hmm how much "confidence" is appropriate under real uncertainty?)
- FlowState <-> Creative IdeaGeneration
- (crumpled-snowball-fight of biggest fears)
- tactics
  - neuroplasticity
    - adjust, learn
  - mindfulness
    - shift focus
      - from negative to positive ideas
  - SelfCompassion
- 2 parts
  - Reclaim Your Brain and Stop Self-Sabotage
    - beware ANTs: Automatic Negative Thoughts
    - swap phrases
      - I have to -> I choose to
      - I ought to -> I want to
      - I must -> When can I?
      - take back power/Agency
    - Recognize when yo Awful-ize
      - future-fears
      - "And then" - everything is a series, forking possibilities
  - Own Your Own Expertise and Unblock Your Creativity
    - You can only have Imposter Syndrome if you're capable
    - "Expert Enough" Manifesto https://expertenough.com/538/the-expert-enough-manifesto
    - "Creativity is about recognizing patterns and making connections": Bruce Nussbaum https://www.business-standard.com/article/management/creativity-is-all-about-knowing-what-is-meaningful-to-people-bruce-nussbaum-113112400606_1.html
    - Self-Distancing
      - coach yourself as intentional SelfTalk
  - Step Into Your Power
    - "What would you do if you didn't have an inner critic?"
Michael Sippey https://twitter.com/sippey
- Medium; was TalkShow, SixApart
- FoxTheater
  - LocalNatives band
    - crowd-surf
  - live performance is an act of optimism
- You have to be an optimist to make things and put them into the world
- Bank app podcast streaming?!? https://twitter.com/goldman/status/1149868330292924418
- Ray Dalio's Principles
  - Medium team read it together last year
    - they picked 7 principles
      - Think Big
        
        IdeaGeneration
      - Create Clarity and Focus
        
        This is the PM's job
- Grand Unified Theory of Work https://medium.com/stating-the-obvious/a-grand-unified-theory-of-work-1223f74808
  - banish unordered lists
    - from your whole life
      - this is how to Practice at Product Management
    - you're probably under-investing in Prioritizing (Prioritize)
  - Let go of needing to be Right
    - any process of Prioritization is probably "wrong" but still better than not doing it at all
      - "all models are wrong, some are useful"
    - do Strategy doc every 6mo (him with EvWilliams)
      - "it's probably wrong, we just don't know where/how yet"
        
        be vulnerable with your team
  - Enlist your team
    - Martin Cagan, Inspired: 10 questions, wow that's huge!
      - ask your team most of these
        
        marketing
        
        sales
        
        engineering
      - you have to keep these 3
        
        what problem are we solving
        
        who are we solving it for
        
        how will we measure success
    - (listen to Song Exploder podcast)
      - Lorde, Sober
        
        "tiger's roar"
        
        you want your team to give that
- private question
  - (I've known Michael online for 20yrs, this is 1st f2f)
  - with ThinkBig company like Medium, how do you know you're making progress?
    - it's really hard
    - taste/theory (trust)
    - get some adoption (Early Adopter)
      - what do these people have in common?
      - talk to them, make them happier
      - then figure out how to grow that segment
BrandonChu https://twitter.com/brandonmchu
- Shopify
- many companies moving from Product to Platform focus
- types of platforms
  - developer
    - Stripe, Twilio
  - marketplace
    - AirBnb, Uber, YouTube
  - product-extension
    - Salesforce, Shopify
    - open your product so 3rd-party devs can add experiences
      - each has specialty
- Shopify
  - Shopify is #3 ecommerce engine
    - after Amazon, Walmart
  - Brandon sells mirrors
    - (two-way acrylic mirrors) (smart mirrors) (infinity mirrors)
  - merchants use avg of 7 3rd party apps each
    - $7M/yr paid to 3rd party devs
- accelerating the flywheel
  - different gaps to fill
    - identify, instrument
    - team for each!
  - trust is key
    - Apple vs Chrome webstores: customers trust Apple more
    - exit vs voice
  - Platform PMs need specific skills
    - Software Engineering
    - Economics
      - micro: supply/demand, pricing
    - Operations
      - quality, safety
      - instrumentation, automated administration
- earning trust with devs
  - devs not happy with Apple
  - Policy, BusinessModel, Purpose
    - they could safely share their app-ranking criteria
    - they forced GDPR on whole world of merchants
  - invest in community
    - early, have to pitch each dev
    - scale to MeetUps
    - scale more, to Developer Conference
  - treat devs as business partners, not users
- be patient
  - takes a long time
  - long tail of delight
  - some big winners
    - Oberlo drop-ship
      - Shopify acquired them
  - takes 2-5x the build time
  - stay Open as long as Possible
David J Bland https://twitter.com/davidjbland
- testing/validating BusinessModel-s
- what dead product do you miss?
  - (GoogleReader)
  - Clearly Canadian
    - $155M/yr in 1993
- innovation framework
  - desirable
    - do they?
  - feasible
    - can we
  - viable
    - should we
      - moral
      - economic
- Product -> BusinessModel -> Organization
  - BusinessModelCanvas
    - it's a System
    - it's a set of Assumptions
    - combine with Innovation Framework https://medium.com/precoil/the-perils-of-crowdfunded-innovation-10a812be649f
- Build/Measure/Learn loop
  - start with Learn
    - ask the questions
    - build just what/enough to answer some questions
    - measure: qualitative, quantitative
- How do I know which experiment to run?
  - learnings have to be tied to Risks
  - partner interviews -> viability, feasibility
  - LetterOfIntent
    - non-binding, but written
    - with customers
    - with partners
  - pop-up store
  - WizardOfOz (invisible concierge)
  - Explainer Video -> Concierge -> Data sheet -> Partner interviews -> Letter of intent
- As a PM you can run experiments that bleed from product out to business model, have broader effect
- book coming: Testing Business Ideas https://www.strategyzer.com/books/testing-business-ideas-david-j-bland
TriciaWang https://twitter.com/triciawang
- ethnographer
- how PMs and researchers can become BFFs
- Gravity Assist (slingshot)
- Shipping a product is harder than Gravity Assist
  - big unknown: customers
    - so we need User Centric process
- But then Why Aren't PMs and Researchers already BFFs?
  - validation vs discovery
  - PM already feel like they own the Voice, because they integrate everything
  - also designer, also marketing
    - and execs
- Only One person can be the voice of the customer: the Customer!
- Actions
  - have lunch
    - PM/Researcher need trust/relationship
      - over a meal
  - researcher become discovery guide: facilitate
  - always include voice of the customer in all communication
    - laundry detergent experience
      - targeting city
      - had execs move to brooklyn apartment for 3 days and go do laundry in laundromats and talk to people
      - scrapped their entire plan
    - airplane Crew Resource Management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management
      - structured process of dialogue
        
        cf CheckList?
      - hmm do you need a hyper-repeatable process for this?
Fareed Mosavat (Slack) https://twitter.com/far33d
- ProductDevelopment has become increasingly complex
  - teams/roles have become more complex
- learn from traditional Management
  - David McCallum 1850s railroad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_McCallum
- but we want experts thinking for themselves
  - "management" is the wrong framing
  - Fareed was at Pixar
    - Ed Catmull book: Creativity Inc
- 3 lessons for product team leading
  - (film/game director like PM)
  - tell a great story
    - enthusiasm
    - just enough framing to let you fill in details yourself
    - define the tension
    - Mission
  - unlock creative freedom
    - "creativity must be present at every level of every artistic and technical part of the organization"
    - spec it loose
      - (or should it be more Mobbed?)
    - get to the next hill
      - (incremental, iterative)
    - "plus" at every touch
      - each person expected to add their own spark
  - connect the dots with feedback (from PM)
    - review before it's ready
    - frequent, easy, safe
      - daily?
        
        add to StandUp?
    - find the right zoom level
      - AntiPattern: GoogleDocs nudges toward micro feedback
    - review in public
      - open-door
      - everyone watching learns
- be a Product Director, not a Product Manager
Steve Portigal https://twitter.com/steveportigal
- Research for Non-Researchers
  - PWDR (People Who Do Research)
- Planning
  - Goal: learning from customers
    - not just usable, liked
    - business question -> research objective -> participant questions
  - who you LearnFrom vs BuildFor vs SellTo
  - see big map of research methods
- Doing
  - in-person (in their space) has big value
  - start from specific question to go to general
    - ask them about specific real most-recent case
    - any time user makes vague/general question, ask follow-up seeking specificity
  - don't suggest answers (options) within questions
  - don't talk about yourself, leave space for them to talk about themselves
    - if they seem uncomfortable, can share a little to normalize their fears
  - deflect roadmap questions
    - "I'm going to act like a researcher, and turn that around: why is that important to you?"
  - hold advice/corrections until then
    - don't explain your product
    - no "we already have that"
  - speak their language
    - reflect their own language
      - and write it down
  - hope to get them telling stories, not giving direct tight answers
  - have lots of questions prepared, but should be emergent follow-ups
    - make meta statements to clarify direction-switching, etc.
  - don't just show your designs
    - show things you build just to trigger conversation
      - "provoke reflection"
  - beware of attacking satisficing
    - people are pretty happy with GoodEnough
    - doing better has costs: money, cognitive
  - make a recording
    - your notes are Biased
      - BusterBenson CognitiveBias Codex
    - get a transcript!
  - empathy and judgment
    - hear yourself making judgments
    - question/refute them
    - seek new data
    - empathy overcomes judgment
    - stress limits empathy
      - don't kill yourself
- Acting On Research
  - analysis, synthesis
  - maybe talk to stakeholders before customers: identify the gap
Kathy Pham https://twitter.com/kathytpham
- Product, Society, and Ethics
- (GoogleHealth)
- code has power, makes things happen
- decisions can have wide side-effects
  - data storage -> timeliness
- Product Practitioner's Oath from 2018 https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2018/09/first-do-no-harm-by-mariah-hay/
- honor expertise
  - lots of disciplines have been thinking about this stuff for ages
Elizabeth Churchill https://twitter.com/xeeliz
- Material DesignSystem
  - Generative
- 2014
  - Designers were driving it
    - Engineering 2nd, little research
  - not-flat, perspective, to "draw in" user
    - physical 3D prototypes to play with lighting/shadow
  - maps layers
- 2015
  - thousands of users
- 2016
  - started formal research team
  - gathered data which pulled in accessibility team
- 2017
  - material as service, with great touchpoints
    - StevePortigal was involved
  - drove explosion in demand for research
    - request-form as moat
  - got Program Manager: Zanah?
    - process of prioritization
      - resources
      - impact
      - partnership (with design, dev)
      - execution
    - no project is done until outcome is summarized, archived
  - more Product Managers
- 2018
- 2019: Google scale
  - billions of users
  - 20 people in "Material Experience Research" team
Teresa Torres https://twitter.com/ttorres
- Show Your Work
- math: multiplication to algebra to TravelingSalesman
- "not just about finding the right answer"
  - like building a product
- PMs find comfort in artifacts/plans
  - fill that roadmap/backlog
- but then we don't get to do that
  - "my perfect solution"
  - blame the boss/Hippo
- can't get alignment at the end
- share model with stakeholders
  - (bah these numbers are kinda bogus)
- they could make their own model
  - how prove whose model/idea is best? can't
- maybe no best/perfect answer
- co-create with stakeholders
  - we all have excuses not to do this
- example
  - Opportunity Solution Tree
    - or other approach that helps people visualize
    - Outcomes not Outputs
  - Opportunities
    - Opportunities
      - customer need/pain
    - too often we jump on first Problem we hear about
    - need to identify lots of opportunities: "landscape"
    - John Dewey
      - HowWeThink
    - collect stories
    - time to involve stakeholders
      - 4 common practices
        
        send out recordings
        
        send out pages of notes
        
        make research deck, review in meeting
        
        just cherry-pick to support your downstream argument
    - OST good way to communicate
      - ok to structure
        
        higher-level easier to prioritize
        
        pick 1
        
        then prioritize its children
      - "what else would you add?"
  - Solutions
    - IdeaGeneration
      - generate Lots of ideas
    - prioritize candidate-subset with stakeholders to drive experiments
  - stakeholder process
    - OST gives you baked context, so you don't keep revisiting older discussions
- summary
  - don't keep thinking you have the right answer
  - you're not 1 feature away from success
    - and you never will be
    - ProductMarketFit is a moving target

Summary (Agile Product Development)

ProductManagement is inherently hard, no silver bullet
Always struggling to decide What to Build (Next)
need incremental/IteratIve ("you're not 1 feature away from success"), starting from experiments
always be prioritizing
needs everyone's involvement, everyone's whole brain
so need communication; so need trust
principles/mission provide aligned context
ProductManager brings the clarity/focus

Edited: 2022-06-15 11:07:53.601894 | Tweet this! | Search Twitter for discussion

Bill Seitz