Main Takeaways: - Understanding how product functions in different organizations and leveraging that to take the next step - Working within a product team - Taking core product principals and making them your own

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7. Merrill Bajana
TONIGHT’S SPEAKER

8. Agenda
Intro
My Path
Tips and Tricks
Existing within a Product Org.
Leveraging Product Principles

9. Intro
● Originally from East Hartford, Connecticut
● Moved to LA to attend USC
● Working at GumGum for the last 5 years
● Currently working on our ad tools and units

10. Intro To GumGum - Adding value to images since 2008!

11. Breaking into Product - Personal Timeline
Product
Manager
Company size: 300
Implemented a
formal scrum
process for new
internal tool
2018
Product
Manager
Company size: 220
Worked on 3
additional web
applications in
support of ad units
2017
Associate
Product
Manager
Company size: 180
Worked on first web
application for ad
unit design
2016
Associate
Product
Manager
Company size: 120
Worked on new unit
development,
running A/B testing
and launch
2015
Senior Ad
Operations
Specialist
Company size: 80
Developed
operational best
practices and worked
cross-functionality to
roll those out
2014
Ad Operations
Specialist
Company size: 35
Worked on
campaign pacing
and performance.
2013

12. Product Do’s
There is no right way to move into product, with many product managers taking largely different
paths to get there. However, there are some product do’s that can help you get there!
Be the master of your domain Get comfortable with data Work cross-functionally
Whether accurate or not, product managers
are often referred to as mini-ceo’s and
should know their products inside and out.
When moving into product internally, being a
source of knowledge allows you to be a go-
to point of contact for others in the
organization.
It may be tempting to try to jump
immediately into product from another team
but showing you can master your current role
is far more important.
Data should be product’s best
friend. Try to incorporate data as
much as possible in your current
work.
Use data visualizations when
presenting new ideas and even
take intro courses to help you when
using larger data sets.
Product managers with work with
many different teams in an
organization, often having to
change communication strategies
depending on the team (from
engineering to stakeholders to
clients).
Making sure to adjust approach
depending on the audience is a
skillset that can be developed by
branching out to other departments
and learning their “language”.

13. Product Do’s Cont.
Think big picture Get detailed Practice!
Think globally - act locally.
Process, products, and organizations
don’t change overnight. Thinking big
picture is an important aspect of
strategy and roadmapping, but
driving things forward requires
incremental change.
Staying up on current trends will help
you to think outside the box, but
breaking it down into digestible pieces
will aid in product development, even
if you are not yet a product manager.
Clear and effective communication
can help to ensure the right product
gets built and used. To understand the
in’s and out’s of a product, you should
try to be detail oriented, thinking
about problems from all angles.
Even small things like emails can be a
great way to develop skill sets that
product managers use to build great
products.
Frustrated with a product or process? Try
rebuilding a small portion yourself. Create
wireframes or flow charts. Describe and
document proposed changes in a
structured format.
As you begin to get comfortable, take it a
step further and think about potential
reporting or database changes. Ask
yourself how you would roll this out and
how it aligns with overall goals of the
organization.

14. The Product Org.
Product's mission is to understand the
customer-base's needs and deliver customer-
oriented solutions and products to the
organization and our clients. We strive to be
thought leaders, communicators, and
innovators; supporting different functions and
teams in being able to deliver their
responsibilities for the company.

15. The Product Org.
Product can often be split into three divisions:
Product Management
•“Product Management is a strategic and business-oriented role, focused
on delivering solutions to market needs.”
Product Marketing
•“Product Marketing is the art of conveying to people what your product
can do for them with the goal of engaging, converting, and retaining.”
Product Design
•“Product Design seeks to improve the experience of the product by
helping to identify, investigate, and validate user’s problems, to
eventually design, test, and ship the solution.”

16. The Role of the Product Manager
A product manager should define the why, when, and what of a product often through the
lifecycle of concept to launch.
Strategic Thinking
Technical
Understanding
Cross-functional
Communication
User Understanding
and Empathy

17. Product Principles
PHILOSOPHY
Our main focus is to adopt
the user’s perspective in
order to understand factors
that influence a users
experience to optimize
towards key performance
measures.
We take a data-driven
approach to test, iterate,
and determine the best
products and features to
launch for our clients.
METHODOLOGY
We use scrum, a software development
framework, across our engineering teams.
This agile methodology allows us to
deliver shippable software every sprint
(two weeks).
IN PRACTICE
Quarterly Company Priorities
Customer
Surveys
Performance
Benchmarking

18. Putting it to Practice
At most companies, part of defining the why, when, and what starts with understanding the product
vision and translating that into the company priorities.
01
02
03
Meet with each team every
quarter to gather requests or
improvements for products
Understand and define
project scope and
prioritize projects based on
business need and
available resources
Commit to quarterly priorities
with the goal to complete
each
Company Priorities ● Understand the company strategy and vision to inform your roadmap
and large initiatives
Individual Product
Priorities Quarterly
● Company Priorities to inform individual product roadmap
● Estimate time and resources per team
Sprints ● Typically two weeks
● Larger projects and initiatives broken down into smaller tasks
● Development team commits to an amount of tasks based on agreed
upon points reflecting task difficulty
● Review and planning sessions to improve on for next sprint cycle
● Measure team progress over time
Daily Scrums ● Each development team member to discuss task worked on
during the previous day, and task to work on that day
● Team member mentions any blockers to be addressed by other
team members after the meeting
● Discussion kept brisk and relevant and focused exclusively on
tasks within sprints

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