Class by Babak Pahlavan
Starting off, it’s very important for all the steps to be internalized though they might change with respect to the situation. Unless something has been practised for so long that one can execute it without thought, it is useless to move on to the next step — which is to include the off-handed cases.
Moving on, the first question to ask is what is the difference between a cool product, a good product and a great product? A cool product receives consumer excitement when first introduced into the market, but it fails to sustain its market position afterwards. A good product is one that can maintain a strong market position for an extended period of time. A great product is one that creates a disruption in the market that also changes our way of living.
Next up is the Grabber-Holder dynamics. Grabber refers to the appeal to a person’s emotion whereas Holder refers to the underlying ecosystem that facilitates people to understand the value proposition.
The life cycle of a new product can be thought of as cool to good and good to a great product. The first page is usually called the Zero to One phase and the next one is called a One to N phase. In the zero to one phase, the value proposition may not be very clear and can be considered fairly experimental. It’s also seen that first-mover advantage is not really present.
The theory of the market can be thought of as a mix between emotions and rationality where both the creators and consumers have an excess. The emotion might be the disruption creator but it’s the rationality that makes people stay. A grabber must be exciting, easy to understand, cool but relatable and lights up the attention of the people. A holder needs to have a strong value proposition. The value proposition not only comes from the product itself but also from the ecosystem that it creates. The ecosystem is what differentiates strong and weak holders since it creates a feedback loop and a positive response creates more positive responses and vice versa.
The role of a Product Manager changes in different settings:
- In an emerging market, the emphasis is on 0–1 and 1-N.
- In an established market, the emphasis is on the competition.
A PM must have a varied set of opposing skills. A good balance and the right timing is important for the execution of these skills.
- Strategic vs Execution Focused
- Divergent vs Convergent Thinking
- Vision vs Facts Driver
- Consensus Building vs Making the Hard Call
- “CEO” vs Janitor Role
- Internal vs External Focus
Over everything, the PM is also responsible for developing and maintaining the culture since the culture of the company decided the style of the product. It is also important to communicate ideas with fluency between various teams.
North Star
People * Values = Culture
“So What?”
This is the question which needs to be answered. It is critical for the team to know where it is going and why it is going there. Finding the North Star is answering the importance of the mission the team is committed to. The purpose is the difference between linear growth and exponential growth.
The direction for a North Star can be thought of as
Motto → Elevator Pitch → Internalize what’s going on
It is very important for people to internalize what the mission is about since it helps in getting back on track when a feature in the product doesn’t comply with the mission. The mission needs to be simple. One or two sentences is sufficient. Since the statement is so short, every word matters. Every single word should count and add meaning to the mission statement.
Being a PM is about craftsmanship. You need to be proud of what you do. Velocity trumps accuracy in most cases. Quality is subjective and changes from industry to industry. This needs to be kept in mind when deciding on the style of Product Management. The decisions made by a PM can fall into two categories. The ones which have immediate/short-term implications (1–2 years) and ones which have long-term implications and are in alignment with the North Star of the organization.
A PM’s role is to help a large cohort of employees towards the common North Star. Over-communication is important and necessary to connect many brains together. The communication needs to be:
- Effective
- Efficient
- Frequent
- Verbal
- Written and so on…
When you want to learn something, look at people better than you as an example. You don’t have the audience’s attention for more than 3–4 minutes and even that attention fades away after a gap of ~20 minutes. It is important to practice a presentation or a meeting with these aspects in mind. Having a captivating presentation and regular breaks every 20–30 minutes is useful in having the attention of the listeners.
Another aspect of being a PM is being able to negotiate. Negotiation must always be done with positive intention. A person should not feel bad about the discussion. a negotiation works out the best when the negotiators plan to get a win-win outcome over a win-lose situation for the parties. The method of argument matters and will decide the follow-through since relations aren’t separated once the negotiation is over. For this reason, it is important to recognize when an error has been made. Correcting the course when this happens and talking to the person later to check the environment helps in maintaining healthy relationships. It is also important to follow and demand kindness and leave the table when these rules aren’t followed.
Some other points:
- Know what you’re shooting for.
- Have some engagement with the problem every day.
- The real game starts after the launch
- Know/Guess the expected outcome and don’t completely rely on dashboards. They are expensive to build and useless when built for the wrong metrics.
- Pause, check and change — Adapt
- Learn to balance and acknowledge opposing views
- Invest in People Management
- Diversity and inclusion = Better products
- Have aggressive goals and a sense of urgency but never create artificial deadlines and explain the reasons behind the deadlines.
- Don’t waste time on presentations, they are for communication, not entertainment.