Slide deck from my talk at Lean Product Meetup, Mountain View on March 22, 2018

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Lean Product Meetup
@Kintan Brahmbhatt
Head of Product & Program Mgmt
Amazon Music

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3. “A product manager’s job is to talk,
but she gets paid to listen.”
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Agenda: Amazon Music’s approach to building products
1. Simplify: Seek out and reduce friction
2. Invent : Map your product to existing human behavior
3. Working Backwards: Amazon’s approach to building products

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20 years of Amazon Music
2014
2013
2011
2007
1998
2016

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Store  Streaming
Buy Stream

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simplify
seek out and remove friction

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Friction is anything that comes in the
middle of a user’s ability to complete a task.

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Prime Music
“Offline” done right:
Auto download a few hours
of recommended music

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iPhone app
“Offline” Home Screen
Offline Recommendations

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How can
I apply
this to my
product?

12. 1. Do we know what the customer’s real intent is?
2. How can you reduce the number of steps needed
to fulfill a customer’s intent?
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Thinking points:

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invent
map your product to existing human behavior

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Introducing

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In love with Alexa
By Joann on October 16, 2016
But now Alexa is my best friend.
By John on October 15, 2016
Alexa is newest family member!
By Larry Attwell on October 13, 2016

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What’s on my calendar?
Read my book
Order me an Uber
Play Song of the Day
What’s the latest album by Taylor Swift?
Wake me up to Jazz Music
Play what’s trending in Paris
Set a timer for 15 minutes
Add milk to my shopping list
Play something I haven’t heard in a while
Play Bruno Mars

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Music is a top request

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I know exactly what I want to play,
but I cannot describe it by name.

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“Alexa, play the latest single by Imagine Dragons”
“I don’t know why, by Imagine Dragons”
“Alexa, add this to my playlist”

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“Alexa, play that playlist I was listening to last night”
“Here’s a playlist from last night..”

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“Alexa, play the song that goes
One Two Three Drink”
“Chandelier by Sia”

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I do not know what I want to play,
but I can give you guidance.

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“Alexa, play some something I haven’t heard in
a while”
“Playing music you haven’t heard in a while.”

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“Alexa, play what’s trending in Barcelona”
“Sure, here’s what’s trending in Barcelona”

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“Alexa, play some baby-making jazz music”
“Here’s a playlist for baby-making music..”

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How can
I apply this to
my product?

30. 1. How does your product map to existing human
behavior?
2. What counter intuitive patterns have you observed
in your usage metrics?
3. Where are users currently failing?
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Thinking points:

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working backwards
start with the customers and work backwards

32. “Good intentions do not work,
good mechanisms do.”
-Jeff Bezos

33. Working Backwards: a mechanism

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| Buy a CD/Vinyl, get a MP3 song

35. Write a customer-facing narrative
Include a customer quote
(mock) press release

37. press release

39. Consider all stakeholders – customers, partners, internal teams
Add more FAQs throughout the product lifecycle
Who, what, why, why now, how, when…
Frequently Asked Questions:

40. press release

41. Use low-fidelity mock ups and data flow diagrams
Use tools such as Invision, Pixate and more for prototyping and sharing
Visual mocks

42. why write a narrative?
Writing enforces clarity
of thought

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How can
I apply this to
my product?

44. 1. What high bar customer promise are you making?
2. Do you know your customer’s real intent?
3. Write down your ideas in a customer-centric tone
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Thinking points:

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“When you reduce friction, make something simpler,
people do more of it.”

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http://amazon.jobs