Product management is a fascinating and broad area that encompasses vision, strategy, design and execution. This presentation provided an overview of various aspects of product management from understanding the market, the competition, the user, defining the MVP, designing and building the product leading up to successful launch. Venkatesh Balan, Senior Product Manager at 23andMe, talked about how after the launch, the role of the Product Manager continues in evolving the product, monetizing, growing the users and revenue. Not to mention, the Product Manager also works with various cross-functional teams while using influence, inspiration and soft skills.

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7. Venkatesh Balan

8. About Me
Senior Product Manager at 23andMe
● International launch in EU (DN, SE, FI, IE, NE)
● E-commerce store, payment systems
● Channel expansion to Retail (Physical, online, pop-up)
● Registration and account creation
Almost 20 years in the Technology industry worked in
● Several companies - realtor.com, consulting for Apple / Toyota, PwC, couple of
start-ups
● Worked through many roles - software engineer, team lead, project manager,
program manager and now as product manager

9. Agenda
● What is product management and what does a product manager do?
● Strategy
● Understanding the customer
● Design
● KPIs and Metrics

11. T-shaped profile
http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-t-shaped-product-manager/

12. Generic, Transferable skills
● Effectively capturing the product’s value proposition
● Segmenting the market
● Validating product strategy assumptions
● Selecting the right KPIs
● Prioritising the product backlog
● Analysing user feedback and data
● Analytics using either GA or MixPanel or any tool

13. Product specific skills
● Intimate knowledge of the industry / domain / product
● Deep understanding of the product or similar products in the industry
○ Value proposition
○ Key features
○ User journey
○ Business goals and KPIs
● Can be developed by speaking to the customers periodically, dogfooding the
product, understanding the competition etc.

14. Strategy
● Mission - Why we exist
● Vision - Where we want to go
● Values - What we stand for
○ Core tenets to follow to achieve the vision and the mission
● Strategy - How we get there
○ Big picture / direction using the org’s resources, skills and competencies
to create unique competitive advantage

15. Deliberate Strategy and Emergent Strategy
Deliberate strategy - Conscious and thoughtful organized
action that you think might work and start
Emergent strategy - Ideas or initiatives that emerge along
the way.
HBX Disruptive strategy by Clay Christensen

16. Porter’s 5 Forces

17. Tools
SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threat) Analysis
Cost Benefit Risk Analysis

18. Understanding the Target Market and Customer
● Build something that customers want. Do not take “Build it
and customers will come” approach
● Who the customers are?
● What value the customers want? Job to be done
● How customers use the product?
● What is the customer behavior?
● How the product helps people to solve their unmet needs

19. Market Research
Qualitative research
Ethnographic interviews
Be clear on what the goals are and what you expect to learn
Quantitative research

25. What is
Design?

26. “Most people make the mistake of thinking
design is what it looks like. People think it’s this
veneer—that the designers are handed this box
and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we
think design is.” —Steve Jobs

28. “Design thinking is a human-centered approach
to innovation that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the
possibilities of technology, and the requirements
for business success.”
—Tim Brown, president and CEO, IDEO
What is Design Thinking?

36. Dieter Rams Ten Principles of “Good Design”
● Good Design Is Innovative
● Good Design Makes a Product Useful
● Good Design Is Aesthetic
● Good Design Makes A Product Understandable
● Good Design Is Unobtrusive
● Good Design Is Honest
● Good Design Is Long-lasting
● Good Design Is Thorough Down to the Last Detail
● Good Design Is Environmentally Friendly
● Good Design Is as Little Design as Possible
Ten principles of “Good Design”

37. Design Sprints

38. Metrics
Right metrics to steer towards the right direction
Establish a North star metric - single metric that captures the core value of product
Key metric for Hotel industry - Revenue per available room
AirBnb - nights booked
Facebook - DAU
Common metrics
● MAU, DAU
● ARPU - Average Monthly Recurring Revenue Per User
● CPA (Cost per acquisition) or CAC (Customer Acquisition cost)
● LTV or CLV growth - Customer LifeTime Value
● Churn
● Engagement
● Retention
● NPS (Net Promoter Score)

39. https://a16z.com/2016/03/07/all-about-network-effects/

42. Thank You

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