1-0 Product Management

SILICON VALLEY PRODUCT CAMP 2011

 

SESSION INFORMATION

• Session ID:          1597529
• Session Title:       1.0 Product Management   
• Presenter:            Kapil Raina / bmw_applepie@yahoo.com 
• Note Taker:          Al Yeh / al_yeh@yahoo.com 
• Date:                   April 2, 2011
• Location:              eBay Town Hall / San Jose, California

 

YOU ARE

• PM/Inbound ~ 30
• PM/Outbound ~ 30
• PMM/Pre-Sales ~ 7
• Other ~ 10-15

 

KAPIL’S BACKGROUND

• Engineering/Development > Technical Product Management
• Experience: 15+ years in enterprise and consumer technology
• Companies: VeriSign, VMWare, IronKey and various startups

 

1.0 DEFINITION

1.0 IS ~	1.0 IS NOT ~
New product in new market   New product in existing market  Market maker “game changer”  New service  Highly risky	New feature Change in product mix Change in pricing Customization Known market

Fundamentally a game of managing risk

Biggest enemy ~ TIME

 

GOALS OF A 1.0

1. Test a thesis

2. Market validation

3. Market share capture

 

Basic questions with a 1.0 launch:

• Right user problem to solve?
• Is demand creation sufficient?
• Can you leap frog competitors?

 

Setting expectations is important upfront

 

CONCEPT OF 1.0

1. What is the ONE thing that will make product shine?

• Apple ~ iPod, simplicity and synchronized with Mac
• Google ~ Search engine with accurate results

2. What if you don’t launch?

• What are competitors doing?
• Company’s budgeting cycle

3. What are alternatives for the user/customer?

• Easy workarounds

4. Who are the parties?

• Customer ~ influencer
• User ~ drives buyer/ can influence buyer
• Buyer ~ business driver

5. What are your resources?

• Time
• People
• Budget for testing

 

TESTING 1.0

A. Tools

1. Wireframes (simple model)

2. Powerpoint (paper demo)

3. Prototypes (functional demo)

B. Techniques

1. Expert validation

2. Customer validation

• Success is when customer adopts ~ buys, signs up, uses, etc
• Generally not very successful ~ because of there is not enough data due to time/money

3. Agile technology

• Iteration is essential

 

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

A. Reduce Risk

1. Focus on hard problems

• Highest risk items ~ long pole
• Break it down into pieces
• Detail assumptions, not requirements
• Get your personas right ~ user vs customer vs decision makers

2. Reduce 1.0 to one or two key elements

• Not what you want, but what the customer needs
• Don’t get distracted with bells, whistles or engineers

B. Tiger Focus

1. Tiger Team

• Architect, UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience), PM, Lead Engineer
• Keep it small, focused
• Direct access to all resources

2. Key Milestones

• Conference, Board Meeting, Customer Visit

3. Frequent Communication

4. Executive Sponsor

 

GETTING TO MARKET

A. Launch

1. Pre-sales must rely on you

2. Work closely with Marketing to ensure the right…

3. Listen

4. Soft launch

5. Feedback

6. Consumer ~ PR prior to launch