ProductManagementforStartups

DanOlsen CEO,YourVersion Nov14,2009

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MyBackground
Education
BS,ElectricalEngineering,Northwestern MS,IndustrialEngineering,VirginiaTech MBA,Stanford PHP,MySQL,JavaScript,XHTML,CSS,UIdesign

18yearsofProductManagementExperience
Managedsubmarinedesignfor5years 5yearsatIntuit,ledQuickenProductManagement LedProductManagementatFriendster OlsenSolutionsLLC,PMconsultantforstartups CEO&FounderofYourVersion,realtimediscoverystartup Willpostslidestohttp://slideshare.net/dan_o
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WhatisProductManagement?

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ProductManagementis CriticalLinkinValueCreation

Market
Current customers Prospective customers Competitors

Product Management

Development Team

ProductManagementsGoals:
BestProductHappyCustomersProfitableBusiness
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WhatstheFormula foraWinningProduct?
Aproductthat:
Meetscustomers needs Isbetterthanotheralternatives Iseasytouse Hasagoodvalue/price

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ProblemSpacevs.SolutionSpace
ProblemSpace
Acustomerproblem, need,orbenefitthatthe productshouldaddress Aproductrequirement

SolutionSpace
Aspecific implementationto addresstheneedor productrequirement

Example: Abilitytowriteinspace (zerogravity)

NASA:spacepen ($1MR&Dcost) Russians:pencil

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ProblemSpacevs.SolutionSpace ProductLevel
ProblemSpace (userbenefit)
Prepare my taxes

SolutionSpace (product)
Pen and paper

TurboTax
File my taxes

TaxCut
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ProblemSpacevs.SolutionSpace FeatureLevel
ProblemSpace (userbenefit)
Make it easy to share a link with my friends
Design #1

SolutionSpace (feature)
Gmail importer

Design #2

Design #3

Allow me to reuse my email contacts

Design #1 #2 #3

Previewwith Usercanedit checkboxes beforeimport No Yes Yes No No Yes

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HowDoYouPrioritizeUserBenefits andProductFeatures?
Needaframeworkforprioritization
Whichuserbenefitsshouldyouaddress? Whichproductfeaturestobuild(or improve)?

Importancevs.Satisfaction
Importanceofuserneed(problemspace) Satisfactionwithhowwellaproductmeets theusersneed(solutionspace)
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HighImportance+LowSatisfaction= Opportunity
ImportanceofUserNeed
High Opportunity Competitive Market

NotWorthGoingAfter Low Low High

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UserSatisfactionwithCurrentAlternatives

KanoModel:UserNeeds&Satisfaction
UserSatisfaction Delighter(wow)

Performance (moreisbetter)

Need notmet MustHave Needs&features migrateovertime

Need fullymet

UserDissatisfaction

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OlsensHierarchyofWebUserNeeds (adaptedfromMaslow)
Customers Perspective How easy to use is it? Does the functionality meet my needs? Does the functionality work?
Decreasing Dissatisfaction Increasing Satisfaction

What does it mean to us? Usability & Design

Feature Set

Absence of Bugs

Is the site fast enough?

Page Load Time

Is the site up when I want to use it?

Uptime
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Importancevs.Satisfaction AskUserstoRateforEachFeature
100 95 90 85 Importance 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 40 50 60 70 Satisfaction 80 90 100 41

Great
84 87

98

Bad
55 70 72 75

79 80 80

86 84

Recommendedreading: WhatCustomersWant byAnthonyUlwick

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PrioritizationandScope
Customervalueisonlyhalfofthestory Howmuchengineeringeffortwillittake? NeedtoconsiderReturnonInvestment(ROI):
Return:customervaluecreated Investment:developmentresourcesrequired

Ruthlesslyprioritize:rankorderproductideas Bedeliberateaboutscope&keepitsmall
Easytobiteofftoomuch Strategy=decidingwhatyoureNOTdoing Breakfeaturesdownintosmallerchunks Smallerscope quickerreleases moreiteration
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PrioritizingProductIdeasbyROI
Return(ValueCreated)
4 3
Idea A Idea B ? Idea D

2
Idea C

1
Idea F

1 2 3 4 Investment(developerweeks)
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HavetoPrioritizeAcrossMultiple DimensionsAtTheSameTime
EaseofUse

CustomerValue

Quality Functionality

Customer Understanding

Time
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UserBenefitsvs.EaseofUse
Q:Iftwoproductsequallydelivertheexact sameuserbenefits,whichproductisbetter? A:Theproductthatseasiertouse Easeofuse providesbenefits
Savestime Reducescognitiveload Reducesfrustration

NotmanycompaniesexcelatUIdesign Easeofuse canbedifferentiator

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TheUIDesignIceberg
Whatmost peoplesee andreactto

Visual Design

Interaction Design Information Architecture Conceptual Design

Recommendedreading:JesseJamesGarretts ElementsofUserExperience chart,freeatwww.jjg.net

Whatgood productmgrs, designers& developers thinkabout

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ElementsofUserInterfaceDesign
ConsistsofThreeDistinctElements: InformationArchitecture
Structureandlayoutatbothsiteandpagelevel Howsiteisstructured(sitemap) Howsiteinformationisorganized(sitelayout) Howeachpageisorganized(pagelayout)

InteractionDesign
Howuserandproductinteractwithoneanother Userflows(e.g.,navigationacrossmultiplepages) Userinput(e.g.,controlsandformdesign)

VisualDesign
Howitlooks vs.Whatitis,oftencalledchrome Fonts,colors,graphicalelements
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Ramen UsabilityTestingforStartups
Learningfrom1on1userfeedbackisinvaluable Keepitreal:haveuserbringtheirlaptop,sitatdesk Conducttestsittingnexttouser.Format:
5 10min:Discovery,askquestionstolearnaboutuser 30 50min:Usabilitytest(asnondirectedaspossible) 10min:Wrapup:Answeruserquestions,pointthingsout

UsabilityDos
Explainrationale,nottoworryabouthurtingyourfeelings ExplainThinkAloudProtocol,beflyonwall,takenotes

UsabilityDonts
Askleadingquestions Help theuserorexplaintheUI(e.g.,clickoverhere) Getdefensiveorblametheuser
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ApproachingBusinessasan OptimizationExercise
Givenrealityasitexiststoday, optimizeourbusinessresults subjecttoourresourceconstraints.

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DefinetheEquationofyourBusiness PeelingtheOnion
AdvertisingBusinessModel:
Profit=Revenue Cost UniqueVisitors xAdRevenueperVisitor Impressions/Visitor xEffectiveCPM/1000 Visits/VisitorxPageviews/VisitxImpressions/PV NewVisitors +ReturningVisitors InvitedVisitors +UninvitedVisitors #ofUsersSendingInvitesxInvitesSent/UserxInviteConversionRate
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SampleSignupPageYieldData
Daily Signup Page Yield vs. Time New Registered Users divided by Unique Visitors to Signup Page
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1/31 2/14 2/28 3/14 3/28 4/11 4/25 5/9 5/23 6/6 6/20 7/4 7/18 8/1 8/15 8/29 9/12 9/26 10/1 0
Changed messaging Added questions to signup page Started requiring registration

Daily Signup Page Yield

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IdentifyingtheCriticalFew Metrics
Whatarethemetricsforyourbusiness? Whereiscurrentvalueforeachmetric? Howmanyresourcestomove eachmetric?
Developerhours,time,money

WhichmetricshavehighestROIopportunities?
MetricA GoodROI Return Return MetricB BadROI Return MetricC GreatROI

Investment

Investment

Investment
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OptimizationthroughIteration: ContinuousImprovement
Measure themetric Analyze themetric Identifytop opportunities toimprove Design&develop theenhancement

Learning
Gainingknowledge: Market Customer Domain Usability

Launchthe enhancement
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EarlyStageProductManagement CheatSheet
Understandyourcustomers needs Useproblemspacethinkingtoensureyour solutionisaddressingyourcustomers needs Identifyopportunities&prioritizebyROI Designandlaunchyourv1product Talkwithusers1on1andgetfeedback Defineequationofyourbusiness Identifyandtrackkeymetrics Launch,learn,anditerate
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Greatwaytostayontopofyourinterests Realtimediscoveryengine
Discoversnew,relevantcontenttailoredtoyour specificinterests News,Blogs,Tweets,Webpages,Videos,Products Bookmarkandshareviaemail,Twitter,Facebook

LaunchedatTechCrunch50,wonPeoplesChoice FreeiPhone app,optionalFirefoxtoolbar Checkitoutatwww.yourversion.com

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Questions?
@danolsen
dan@yourversion.com

www.yourversion.com
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