Backstage 2019 - Data Our Common Language - Jonathan Hastings

1. AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
Data: Our Common
Language
Bringing together engineering, product, and
design with goals, signals, and metrics

2. @jonathan_sqsp
linkedin.com/in/jonathanshastings
Jonathan Hastings
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
Senior Product Manager,
Growth

5. Squarespace makes beautiful products to help
people with creative ideas succeed.
AMPLIFY 2019
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6. Squarespace makes beautiful products to help
people with creative ideas succeed.
Our platform empowers millions of people –
from individuals and local artists to entrepreneurs
shaping the world's most iconic businesses –
to share their stories and create an impactful,
stylish, and easy-to-manage online presence.
AMPLIFY 2019
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7. AMPLIFY 2019
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8. AMPLIFY 2019
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PHOTO BY JEAN WIMMERLIN ON UNSPLASH

9. AMPLIFY 2019
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MIS-
ALIGNMENT
ENGINEERING - PRODUCT - DESIGN
MARKETING - GROWTH
PHOTO BY JEAN WIMMERLIN ON UNSPLASH

10. Problem
AMPLIFY 2019
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11. Problem
Each member of this group can feel like decisions
are being made without them or that they’re siloed
in their area of expertise
AMPLIFY 2019
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12. The Knowledge Illusion:
Why We Never Think Alone
Steven Sloman & Philip Fernbach
AMPLIFY 2019
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“We’ve been relying on one another’s
expertise ever since we figured out how to
hunt together, which was probably a key
development in our evolutionary history. So
well do we collaborate that we can hardly tell
where our own understanding ends and
others’ begins.”

13. AMPLIFY 2019
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“We’ve been relying on one another’s
expertise ever since we figured out how to
hunt together, which was probably a key
development in our evolutionary history. So
well do we collaborate that we can hardly tell
where our own understanding ends and
others’ begins.”
The Knowledge Illusion:
Why We Never Think Alone
Steven Sloman & Philip Fernbach

14. AMPLIFY 2019
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Solution
Hypothesis Driven
Development

15. AMPLIFY 2019
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Key Ideas

16. GOALS > FEATURES
Start with goals stated as
metrics/hypotheses, not as
features
AMPLIFY 2019
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17. GOALS > FEATURES
Start with goals stated as
metrics/hypotheses, not as
features
MAKE PERSONAS DATA
DRIVEN
Define metric-driven user
segments to map to your
success criteria
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

18. GOALS > FEATURES
Start with goals stated as
metrics/hypotheses, not as
features
MAKE PERSONAS DATA
DRIVEN
Define metric-driven user
segments to map to your
success criteria
EMPHASIZE LANDINGS,
NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
Celebrate business
impacts and learnings as
much as feature launches
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

19. KEY IDEAS 01 GOALS > FEATURES
02 MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
03 EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

20. KEY IDEAS 01 GOALS > FEATURES
02 MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
03 EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

21. Redefine the
roadmap.
Instead of features, describe your team’s
roadmap as set of goals and hypotheses.
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GOALS > FEATURES

22. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Project:
“Getting Started”

23. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Getting Started

24. BACKLOG OF FEATURE IDEAS
AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Getting Started

25. BACKLOG OF FEATURE IDEAS OBJECTIVE AND OUTCOME-BASED PARADIGM
AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Getting Started

26. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Allow any user to find the right
starting point in Squarespace.
OBJECTIVE

27. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Allow any user to find the right
starting point in Squarespace.
OBJECTIVE
OUTCOME
Users who plan to build an online
store can quickly find a template
that supports their goals.

28. AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
GOALS > FEATURES
Allow any user to find the right
starting point in Squarespace.
OBJECTIVE
OUTCOME
Users who plan to build an online
store can quickly find a template
that supports their goals.
HYPOTHESIS
Industry-relevant staged content
helps users choose the right
template faster.

29. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
How do we make this
measurable and testable?
HYPOTHESIS
Industry-relevant staged content
helps users choose the right
template faster.

30. SECTION
CONFIDENTIAL
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
PRE-MORTEM

31. SECTION
CONFIDENTIAL
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
PRE-MORTEM
What could
happen?

32. SECTION
CONFIDENTIAL
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
PRE-MORTEM
What could
happen?
How would we
know?

33. SECTION
CONFIDENTIAL
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
PRE-MORTEM
What could
happen?
How would we
know?
What would
we do next?

34. AMPLIFY 2019
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GOALS > FEATURES
Getting Started
AMPLITUDE DASHBOARDPREMORTEM

35. KEY IDEAS 01 GOALS > FEATURES
02 MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
03 EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
AMPLIFY 2019
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36. Work together to
determine who to target.
Collaborate across engineering, product, and
design to create personas that map directly to
measurable behaviors and attributes.
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN

37. AMPLIFY 2019
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
Project:
“Trial Onboarding”

38. MARKETING PERSONA
AMPLIFY 2019
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
Trial Onboarding

39. AMPLIFY 2019
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
Trial Onboarding
“The look and feel of Squarespace is so new and
unique. That’s really important to me”
— Katherine
“What is the logical next step here? Should I put
my copy in? Photos? Do I need to edit them to
be a certain size or ratio? Is there a logical or
easier way to make this mine?”
– Christina
“I want to be treated like an idiot,
because I want it to be as simple as
possible.”
— Dmitry
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
+
HYPOTHESIS TREE
Users want publish-ready websites
Users have limited time to
spend building a website
Users don’t know where to
start when it comes to
building their site
Users don’t have the
content required to build a
website

40. MARKETING PERSONA MEASURABLE ATTRIBUTES
AMPLIFY 2019
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
Trial Onboarding
Technical
Sophistication
Industry/Vertical
Planned time
commitment
Readiness of content

41. AMPLIFY 2019
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MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
Trial Onboarding
AMPLITUDE PERSONAS PERSONA CLASSIFICATION

42. KEY IDEAS 01 GOALS > FEATURES
02 MAKE PERSONAS DATA DRIVEN
03 EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
AMPLIFY 2019
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43. Reframe success to
be about learning.
Share what a feature will teach you about the
market, your users, and what to build next – not
just the launch of a feature.
AMPLIFY 2019
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EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST
THE LAUNCH

44. AMPLIFY 2019
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EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST
THE LAUNCH
Project:
“Template Search”

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EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST
THE LAUNCH
Template Search
IMPROVED UX AND EARLY SUCCESS

46. AMPLIFY 2019
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EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST
THE LAUNCH
Template Search
IMPROVED UX AND EARLY SUCCESS NEW TEST AND DIFFERENT RESULTS
+8.8%

47. Feature Launches

48. AMPLIFY 2019
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EMPHASIZE LANDINGS, NOT JUST
THE LAUNCH
Feature Launches
FEATURE ANNOUNCEMENT +
LEARNING PLAN
AMPLITUDE DASHBOARD +
IMPACT ANALYSIS
LEARNING DIGESTS

49. Recap
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

50. GOALS > FEATURES
Start with goals stated as
metrics/hypotheses, not as
features
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE

51. AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
MAKE PERSONAS DATA
DRIVEN
Define metric-driven user
segments to map to your
success criteria

52. AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
EMPHASIZE LANDINGS,
NOT JUST THE LAUNCH
Celebrate business
impacts and learnings as
much as feature launches

53. @jonathan_sqsp
linkedin.com/in/jonathanshastings
Jonathan Hastings
AMPLIFY 2019
BACKSTAGE
Senior Product Manager, Growth
Thanks!