OEHM Product Management Sessions

Deterministic Problem: For a particular input, the solution will give always same output.
Non-Deterministic Problem: For a particular input, the solution will give different output on
different execution.
WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?
 Solve indeterministic problems

A Product Manager (PM) is responsible for guiding the development and success of a product or
product line within a company.
The role involves a wide range of responsibilities and activities aimed at delivering a product that
meets customer needs and aligns with the company's strategic goals.
Here are the key tasks and functions that a Product Manager typically performs:
• Solve indeterministic problems
 Defining the Product Vision: PMs establish a clear vision for the product. This includes
defining the purpose, target audience, and long-term objectives of the product.
 Market Research: Conducting market research to understand customer needs, market
trends, and competitive landscape. This involves gathering data, analysing customer
feedback, and staying informed about industry developments.
 Product Strategy: Developing and communicating a product strategy that outlines how the
product will achieve its goals. This strategy aligns with the company's overall business
strategy.
 Roadmap Development: Creating and maintaining a product roadmap that outlines the
planned features, enhancements, and releases for the product over time. This roadmap
serves as a guiding document for the product's development.
 Feature Prioritization: Deciding which features and improvements to prioritize based on
customer feedback, business value, technical feasibility, and market demand.
 Requirements Definition: Documenting detailed product requirements, often in the form of
user stories, that provide clear guidance to the development team on what needs to be
built.
 User Experience (UX) Design: Working with UX designers to create a user-friendly and
intuitive product interface that meets user needs.
 Testing and Quality Assurance: Overseeing the testing process to ensure that the product
meets quality standards and is free of defects.
  Feedback Collection: Continuously gathering feedback from customers, stakeholders, and
internal teams to iterate on the product and make improvements.
 Budget Management: Managing the budget allocated to the product, which includes
resource allocation and cost control.
 Risk Management: Identifying and mitigating risks that could impact the product's success
or timeline.
 Competitive Analysis: Monitoring competitors' products and strategies to maintain a
competitive edge.
 Post-Launch Monitoring: Tracking the product's performance after launch and making
adjustments as needed to ensure it continues to meet customer needs and business
objectives.
 Stakeholder Communication: Effectively communicating the product's progress, updates,
and changes to both internal and external stakeholders.
Product Managers act as the champions of the product, ensuring that it remains relevant,
competitive, and valuable to customers and the company throughout its lifecycle.
This role requires a combination of strategic thinking, technical knowledge, strong communication
skills, and the ability to balance various priorities and stakeholders.
TYPES OF PRODUCT MANAGERS
 Innovative PM
o • Experiments with new ideas to achieve Product-Market Fit
o • Very comfortable with ambiguity
o • Works on Customer/Market research, PMF discovery
 Growth PM
o • Tracks business metric associated with product’s success
o • Very comfortable with taking quick decisions, obsessed with adoption
o • Works on modelling, monetization, data, iterative development
 Platform PM
o • Works on scaling internal platforms for continued organization growth
o • Very comfortable with technology
o • Works on build vs buy decisions, efficiency improvement, Internal/External
Integrations
 Core PM
o • Solves for a customer pain point or need
o • Very high on user empathy, user obsessed
o • Works on user journey, end-to-end UX, hypothesis testing
 Domain Expert PM
o • Works on products from a specific domain
o • Very comfortable with a specific domain (e.g. data, ecommerce, AI, Payments, etc.)
o • Works on building products from his domain
WHAT IS A USER PERSONA
A user persona is a fictional character or representation of a typical user of a product, service, or
website. It is a tool used in user-centred design and product development to better understand and
empathize with the needs, goals, behaviours, and preferences of target users. User personas help
product teams make informed decisions by creating a clear and relatable picture of the users they
are designing for. A semi-fictional character based on your user.
A SAMPLE USER PERSONA (CAB BOOKING APP)

WHY DO YOU NEED USER PERSONAS?

 Helps to visualize users as real people
 You can relate to their problems
 You can design solutions based on their needs
WHAT YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHILE CREATING AND USING USER PERSONAS
 User Personas should not be completely fictional – should be based on real data.
 Don’t make only one persona or too many personas. User personas should be a collection
of your most important user segments – three to five is usually a good count.
 Don’t rely too much on assumptions and stereotypes. Keep talking to real users.
 User Personas are not permanent – they keep evolving, so keep updating them.
 Put the User Personas printout at your desk and look at them while creating your products
!
HOW TO CROSS THE CHASM
If you try to sell to everyone, you will end up selling to no one
Target a super-specific segment:
• Niche market with a difficult problem, not solvable by conventional means
• Process owner is under pressure to find a solution
• Pragmatists are willing to consider disruptive approach
Commit to provide the whole product:
• Provide a complete solution to the difficult problem
• Involve Products and services from partners and allies
• Take responsibility for ensuring customer success
Empathy Interviews and Empathy Map

This is wrong. The actions of the doctor tell us that he doesn’t seem to care about the patient,
and is busy looking at his phone, not concerned enough. This will make it harder for the patient
to be comfortable sharing his thoughts. The doctor should put his phone down and listen to
what the patient is describing and help him.
EMPATHY INTERVIEWS – HOW TO CONDUCT
1) Prepare an interview script (below is a sample)
Background
• Tell us how many years you are into this business? How did you go about starting
your business?
• How have you grown your business? Can you walk me through the journey?
Online Shopping Experience
• How do you do online shopping?
• What do you like about your online shopping experience?
2) Create a comfortable atmosphere – preferably in their home/office or a place they are familiar
with.
3) If possible, record the session. If the user is not okay with recording, have another person to
take down notes.
4) Start with something that they are comfortable with – maybe an object around them. Ask
them the story behind it. It will help them open up about things.
5) In general, encourage stories. Get the user to speak about their experiences.
• Tell me about the time when xxx happened
• Do you have an example?
• When have you felt…
• What were the major turning points?
• When were you most…
6) Ask a lot of “Why” questions
 Why did you say that?
 Why did you do that?
7) Ask one question at a time, preferably as short as possible
8) Don’t ask binary questions (yes/no)
9) Observing key aspects of the responses, body language, expressions, etc. and asking questions
accordingly is a superpower. It can be acquired with practice.
10) Do not pass your judgement to user responses. Be neutral.
11) Do not feed words or suggest answers to users. If you do that, you will only hear what you
want to hear.
12) Do not worry if the user goes silent. You usually get deeper insights after silence !
13) It is okay if you don’t stick to the script. Follow the flow of the conversation.
14) Do not ask questions that will need the user to do a lot of analysis.
14) Get familiar with the Emotions Wheel to enrich your
questions and the overall conversation.

15) If you are unable to extract stories from your users,

use Mirroring
• Instead of asking how their day has been, talk
about a distinctive moment in your day
• People will usually respond with their own
stories
16) At the end of your empathy interview, create an
Empathy Map
JOBS TO BE DONE
WHAT IS JTBD?
"JTBD" stands for "Jobs to Be Done," a framework and theory developed by Harvard Business
School professor Clayton Christensen. JTBD is a way of understanding customer needs and
motivations by focusing on the specific "jobs" or tasks that customers are trying to accomplish
when they "hire" a product or service.
Key concepts and principles of the Jobs to Be Done framework include:
 Jobs: A "job" represents a task, goal, or problem that a customer is trying to address in a
specific situation. It could be as simple as "I need to stay hydrated while jogging" or as
complex as "I need to manage my finances and save for retirement."
 Progress: Customers "hire" products or services to make progress toward accomplishing
their jobs. In other words, they use products as tools to help them move forward in their
lives.
 Job Executors: Customers are the "job executors" who actively seek solutions to their jobs.
They make choices based on what they believe will help them achieve their goals.
 Pain Points: Customers experience "pain points" when they encounter obstacles,
frustrations, or inefficiencies while trying to accomplish a job. Identifying and addressing
these pain points is crucial for product improvement.
 Gains: Customers seek "gains" or positive outcomes when they complete a job successfully.
These gains can be functional (e.g., accomplishing a task), emotional (e.g., feeling satisfied),
or social (e.g., gaining status or recognition).
 Market Segmentation: JTBD allows for a more precise segmentation of markets based on
the specific jobs customers are trying to accomplish, rather than traditional demographic or
psychographic criteria.
 Product Innovation: By understanding the underlying jobs customers are trying to do,
businesses can innovate and design products or services that better address these needs
and pain points.
 Competitive Analysis: Analysing competitors through the JTBD lens helps identify where
they are succeeding or failing in serving customer needs, leading to opportunities for
differentiation.
 Context Matters: The same customer may have different jobs to be done in different
situations or contexts. Understanding the context is essential for effective product design.
USER JOURNEY MAP

Let’s create a user journey map for “Student attends lectures/labs at KJSCE !”
User defines touch points:

Identify user actions:

Identify user emotions:

Identify pain points:

Define possible solutions: