The Product Management Process
A Brief Overview of my experience
Product Management is a challenging occupation which involves solving customers problems while parallelly achieving strategic business goals. It is a step-by-step iterative approach which requires the collaboration of multiple cross-functional teams and individuals with unique skill sets. The following content provides a glimpse into the product management process that I have previously followed and have experience with.
Understanding the Vision
Engaging with the stakeholders is the first step of Product Management, to start-off the process I begin by discussing the vision of the product(s) with the stakeholders and try to develop a deeper sense of their ideas, constraints, and priorities. Achieving the product-market fit completely depends on how effectively the product team is able to connect the value proposition of the product with the problems of the target customers. Being mindful of the culture and the organizational setup of the company plays a critical role in identifying strategies through which optimal product management processes and rituals can be established.
Objectives & Key Results (OKR’s)
The vision provides a clear setting as to what the product aspires to be. To realize the vision, it is necessary to specify long-term and short-term objectives which guide the product team towards the vision. One of the most effective ways to handle this process involves setting and managing the Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s) for the product where the Key Results may point to the metrics of the product, business outcomes, a certain degree of change in the target customers’ behavior, a better understanding of the customers’ needs, etc.
For instance, the vision of a product could be:
“To become a leading freight marketplace where shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders interact and book freight.”
A long-term objective could be:
‘To increase the year-on-year revenue generated by the platform by 20%.’
To facilitate the process better, long-term objectives are further broken down into multiple short-term objectives which act as stepping stones towards the long-term goals.
The short-term objectives could be:
‘To increase the number of paid users on the platform.’
‘To ship a new product increment which provides a competitive advantage.’
Subsequently, each objective might be associated with 3-4 Key Results such as for instance:
Identifying at least 2 problem areas affecting the product downstream,
A decrease in the churn rate by 30%,
Interviewing the top 25% of the target population for feedback on new product features,
An increase in the conversion rates on the platform, etc.
All members of the product team including the management should share a common understanding of the Objectives and Key Results, hence the process to define OKR’s should involve everyone while doing so. Identifying and setting the right OKR’s at the right time is critical to the success of the product. For more information on how to define OKR’s effectively, please refer to the OKR Definition Workshop Guide by OKRs AT THE CENTER.
Traceability of weekly tasks of the product team to the Vision, Mission, and Values of the Company through OKR’s.
Product Roadmaps
After setting the OKR’s, Product Roadmaps are a great way to keep track of the progress of the product and the product team in terms of
where we are,
where we need to be, and
what we are doing to get there.
Each objective may be viewed as a problem that could be solved through research, strategic initiatives, or further development / re-design of certain areas within the product. Mapping these tasks gives rise to a Theme-Based Product Roadmap showing what problems the product team is trying to solve and when. In a multi-product organization, keeping track of the various initiatives undertaken by the product team becomes challenging over time, under such circumstances product roadmaps play an important role by enabling product managers to trace the tasks and initiatives of the product team back to the set objectives.
Product Roadmap example
The Product Roadmap should ideally be a common enterprise-wide document accessible by all members within the company. It ensures transparency within the organization by enabling internal stakeholders and the product team to develop a common understanding of the vision, objectives, and corresponding initiatives.
2. Aligning the Product Team
Setting OKR’s at various levels may differ based on the organizational structure and culture of the company, but it is necessary for the Product Manager to steer the process and align the product team towards the vision and objectives of the product. Doing so also brings about a greater sense of purpose, motivation, autonomy, and helps all members of the product team to focus on achieving the Key Results. At any point in time, it should be possible to connect the tasks performed by the product team with the vision and objectives.
3. Product Discovery & Collective Ideation
The onus of identifying the pain points of customers and developing possible solutions to improve the product lies not only with the product manager, but also encompass all members of the product team. Once the OKR’s are set, the product team needs to collectively discuss possible ways in which the Key Results can be achieved.
Prior to the commencement of the Product Discovery phase, it is necessary to identify the problems whose solutions provide the most value to the customers. Depending on the stage of the product and the objectives, various product prioritization frameworks may be implemented to order the Product Discovery backlog in a dual-track agile setting. These prioritization frameworks may also be implemented at various stages of Product Management ranging from prioritizing the OKR’s to delivering the increments.
Some of the questions asked constantly during discovery and ideation:
What constitutes value to the target customers?
How are we certain about the decisions we make?
What is the outcome we are trying to achieve?
The Product Discovery process involves a thorough examination of the Problem space, Solution space, competing entities, User Journeys, and alternative solutions. Indeed, we only have a limited amount of time at our disposal to research on all fronts, which is why it is recommended to timebox these activities to sustain the research process and to extract optimal results.
At the end of each timebox the team gathers together to share their insights, results, and findings to chart the next steps.
I have consistently utilized impact mapping and value proposition canvases to match the value offered by the product with the problems of the target customers and to maintain clarity during the product discovery phase.
Value Proposition Canvas
Example for Freight Marketplace Platform
4. User Experimentation & Validation
The Product Team might discover various solutions during the product discovery phase, but these solutions will need to be validated before they are translated into detailed user stories for development.
The experimentation process entails the construction of product hypotheses which state the problems, solutions, and results. A hypothesis should contain the following structure:
We believe that…
To verify that, we shall…
And observe or measure…
We are right if…
It is beneficial to utilize Test Cards and Learning Cards to aid in the decision making process.
These cards also help in keeping track of the various hypotheses, verification methodologies, insights, time, and resources.
It is common for product teams to go in circles when there is a lack of clarity as to why a certain decision was made or a feature request was created or dismissed, the answers to such questions will lie in the test and learning cards.
Test Card specifying a hypothesis related to the Freight Marketplace Platform
Learning card specifying the insights which were captured after conducting the user experiments
The techniques used for validation may vary depending on the target customers, scope of the problem we are attempting to solve, the scale of the problem, and the utility of the solution. It is also important to take into account the total number of responses needed to deem the results as statistically significant. Few notable experimentation methodologies which I have experience with include concierge tests, Wizard of Oz tests, user surveys, painted door experiments, and A/B testing.
A product hypothesis can be validated by conducting quantitative or qualitative user experiments. When a solution involves the design of new product features, the usability of new features can be validated by developing and testing new user journeys through wireframes, clickable mockups, or prototypes with the end users. Collaborating with the design team or UI/UX designers yields great results during this process. Some common tools that I am familiar with for generating mockups include Mural, Zeplin, smartmockups, etc. Creating prototypes and mockups are a great way to collect qualitative feedback and data from the end users.
The dual-track agile framework enables us to assess the demand for a feature or a solution through experiments. Developing solutions with low or no demand can be completely avoided thereby saving time, money, and resources.
A quantitative analysis can be performed by conducting surveys, or by capturing the metrics stemming from A/B tests or smoke tests. These experiments can be effectively setup on web based tools such as Optimizely, Google Optimize, Unbounce, etc.
A single product hypothesis can be validated from various perspectives, both qualitatively and quantitatively to ensure that the product team is building the right features. If a set of hypotheses have been validated, they can be combined to form a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) which can be moved into the Product delivery phase.
It is critical to ensure that any hypothesis, solution, or MVP developed during the product discovery phase is aligned with the objectives and the overall vision of the product.
For instance, the MVP to offer claims and insurance services on the freight marketplace platform is inline with the:
Short term objectives: ‘To increase the number of paid users on the platform.’ & ‘To ship a new product increment which provides a competitive advantage.’
Long term objectives: ‘To increase the year-on-year revenue generated by the platform by 20%.’
And the vision of the platform: “To become a leading freight marketplace where shippers, carriers, and freight forwarders interact and book freight.”
5. Product Delivery & Roll-out strategies
The process of moving an MVP onto the product backlog involves the creation of detailed user stories containing UI/UX designs and supportive technical explanations of the features which need to be developed.
A User Story needs to describe a feature in terms of who the user is (persona), what task they are trying to accomplish, and how performing this task aligns with the vision of the product.
All user stories need to be well documented to ensure that the developers fully understand the requirements. It is common for user stories to be accompanied by UI/UX design templates, I have often made use of flowcharts, ER Diagrams, and UML sequence diagrams to support the developers with the full picture. Web based tools such as Lucidchart, draw.io, etc. provide an easy interface to visualize and share these details. Once the product backlog has been populated with user stories, it could again be prioritized based on the prioritization frameworks following which the development efforts may begin through short sprints. The duration of a sprint may vary between 2 to 4 weeks depending on the organizational setup of the product team.
An Illustration of the Scrum Board for an ongoing sprint of the Freight Marketplace Platform
Managing the Product Backlog and Sprints can be easily accomplished on tools such as Jira and Confluence. It is the responsibility of the Product Manager to thoroughly discuss the feature requirements with the solution architects and the development team to ship robust product increments with minimal technical debt. Such an approach will ensure a scalable code base and will save a lot of time and resources in the long run.
Planning the product roll-out helps the product team to overcome the obstacles or challenges which might come up after an MVP has been made live. Some of the questions constantly asked when planning the roll-out involve:
What metrics and KPI’s are we targeting? How do we identify if the new MVP is successful or not?
What aspects of the product could be directly or indirectly affected by the new MVP?
Are all the internal teams fully equipped to support the services offered by the new MVP?
Who are the members within the product team responsible for solving issues related to the new MVP?
Should the roll-out be accompanied by a Marketing Campaign? etc.
6. Monitoring Product Metrics
Metrics are a great way to keep track of the success of the product. It helps the product team in identifying the impact and contribution of the MVP’s towards meeting the objectives.
For example, if the objective of an MVP for the freight marketplace platform is geared towards increasing the number of paid users on the platform, an increase in the number of conversions from free accounts to paid accounts after shipping the MVP would signal a success.
Segmenting the users into cohorts helps in easy identification of the behavior of a certain set of users and their interaction with the product. It also helps in identifying what features of the product are most valuable to each segment of customers and whether they are facing any difficulties in accessing those features. Each task performed by a feature, module, or a functionality within the product can be monitored by uniquely categorizing them as separate workflows, the performance statistics of each workflow can be mapped onto a funnel that shows the users’ journey from the beginning to the end of a particular task. Funnels help in analyzing the stages at which the users might be facing problems when performing a certain task within the product.
For instance, separate funnels can be setup to monitor the following tasks:
- Creating a new report,
- Payment initiated to Payment completed,
- Accessing claim form to submitting the claim request, etc.
Web-based products often analyze clickstream data to understand what the users are looking for, or what the users value the most within the product. It is also important to note that MVP’s targeting certain objectives might not result in an immediate change in the product metrics, but might show a gradual change over time. This is especially true for objectives and increments that target user retention.
...and Repeat!
As stated earlier, Product Management is an iterative process. Through more iterations, the Product team develops a better sense of the customers’ needs and works towards enhancing and optimizing the product and its value. It is well documented that Pivoting and realigning the objectives based on the changes in the market helps a product succeed in the long run.