Introduction To Product Management

Welcome to
Product School!
MODULE 1 - INTRODUCTION TO PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Agenda
WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3
Course Introductions Understand Customers & Problems

Competitiveness, primary & secondary activities, customer Validate an Opportunity Hypothesis
Instructor & trainee Intros
journey maps Effort vs. user value, A/B testing & customer interviews
Introduction to Product Management

Create an Opportunity Hypothesis
PM skills, goals & methodologies Define Product Requirements
Qualitative & quantitative methods, setting goals
PRD, MVP & roadmaps
Set Product Objectives
User personas, metrics & use cases
WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6
Start Building Develop Your Product II Get Hired

Design processes, product vs. design & sketching MVC, API design & team management Retrospectives, public speaking & resume reviewing
Develop Your Product I Market Your Product Deliver and Present

Development methodologies, engineers & product, design Channels, messaging & insights Capstone Project
patterns
Agenda Accelerated
DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5

Strategy & Discovery Research & Define Design & Develop Launch Present
Create an Opportunity Hypothesis Start Building

Course Introductions Market your Product Deliver & Present
Qualitative & quantitative methods, Design processes, product vs. design
Instructor & trainee Intros Channels, messaging & insights Capstone Project
setting goals & sketching
Get Hired
Introduction to Product Validate an Opportunity Develop Your Product I
Retrospectives, public speaking &
Management Hypothesis Development methodologies,
resume reviewing
PM skills, goals & methodologies Effort vs. user value, A/B testing & engineers & product, design patterns
customer interviews
Develop Your Product II

Set Product Objectives Define Product Requirements MVC, API design & team
User personas, metrics & use cases PRD, MVP & roadmaps management
Understand Customers & Problems

Competitiveness, primary &
secondary activities, customer
journey maps
Index > Session
Agenda
1. Introduction & Course Overview
2. Becoming a Product Manager
3. Introduction to Product Management
4. The Product Management Process

Module 1 > Section 1 > Introduction & Course Overview
Introduction & Course Overview

Who am I?
[Add brief summary of experience or personal

story, you can also add the companies you have
worked for]
Name Surname
Product Manager
Module 1 > Section 1 > Introduction & Course Overview Unmute and Share Estimated time: 15 minutes
Student Exchange: Who are you?
The introductions for this training will be through Slack.
You should have already created your video introducing

yourself where you answered:
● Name
● Company & title
● Location
● What are your goals during this training?
● Fun fact
Breakout Group Discussion:

Desert island shipwreck
What 5 items would you grab and why:
● Matches
● Bow saw
● Mirror
● Notebook with a pencil
● Bottle
● Hat
● Vitamin pills
● Ax
● Watch
● Salt
Connecting with Product School
To get the full Product School experience,

Follow Product School
expand your network, and stay up to day on the
fast-changing world of Product, connect on
LinkedIn:
Follow our CEO: Carlos González de Villaumbrosia
Connect with your instructor
Connect with your peers in this cohort

Instructor-Led Q&A:
Share your perspective
Question 1 Question 2
Who do you admire as a Product After watching the intro videos of

Manager? Why? your fellow students, what
surprised you?
What to expect?
Instructor-Led Lecture Product Templates Group Activities Class Discussions

Lecture Slides
During the lectures You can download Templates are linked We will form groups To make the most out
add any question or the slide decks from throughout the slides. and create break-outs of the module,
comment you have in the module material Create a copy to save to complete group unmute your mic,
the chat. folder in the LMS. the template or use it activities. turn on your camera,
for the in-class and share your
activities. experience or
thoughts with the
class.
Reminder: Make sure you sign up to Mural here, for the task “Create a user flow diagram and sketch your
wireframe” in Module 7 here.
The Final Presentation
You will be combining the insights and activities throughout the

course to create a final presentation.
Apply Demonstrate Realize Get feedback
Concepts to your What you’ve learned Immediate So you’re ready for

real-life product improvements the real world!
Final Presentation: Stay- N-Sleep
● You are a Product Manager at Stay-N-Sleep (Similar

to Airbnb) — an American vacation rental online
marketplace company based in New York City.
● Stay-N-Sleep’s mission is to enable every traveler, to

build a community of lifelong travelers, and allow
the travel community to experience what matters.
● Stay-N-Sleep’s vision is to connect people, enrich

communities, and open minds to new experiences
and cultures.
● Read the full brief here and download the final

presentation template here.
Final Presentation: All you need to know!
● Time: 5 mins approx
● Type: Individual Task
● Format: Presentation deck
● Target Audience: Product organization,

peers and product leaders.
INTRODUCTION & COURSE OVERVIEW
Index > Session
Agenda

Module 1 > Section 2 > Becoming a Product Manager
Becoming a
Product Manager
There’s no “right way” - everyone

arrives at it differently, and (basically)
no one goes to college for it. There’s no
PM degree.
Remember: Product thinking is holistic

thinking, so often encompasses many
disciplines of training
Becoming a Product Manager
? ?? PM
● Common career paths: ● Everyone is doing at least one thing that is a core
responsibility of a PM. Regardless of your role, you are
Engineer → project manager → product or customer doing something that a PM would do.
support → product
MBA → product ○ Sales: Talking to a customer and their needs
Can even be QA → product
○ Support: Triaging issues
● Key elements are your skills and approach to
○ Engineers: Building for a customer requirement
problems, not just your title.
● ○ Marketing: Communicating customer value and

Often the most important skill is being able to think
on your feet and adapt. benefits
Key skills on the PM career path
These are the main general areas recruiters look for in

people who want to become a PM. “Technical” Industry
Background Domain
1. A “technical” background.
Not just engineering PM
Could be UX, marketing, business, etc. You just have to
have deep skills in at least one core area
2. Communication
PMs often lead meetings Communication
You need to be able to speak appropriately with different
disciplines and to different audiences
3. Industry knowledge - What’s your experience in a specific

domain or market?
How technical do I have to be?
Learning to code is useful:

DO need to be able to speak Top-down design, bottom-up
DON’T need a CS degree CodeSchool, HackReactor,
technobabble! implementation
lynda.com, and more
How business-oriented do I have to be?
DO need to DO need to
DON’T need to
DON’T need an MBA understand basic business understand the
be a salesman
concepts industry inside and out
The Product Management triangle
These are the main general areas recruiters look for in

people who want to become a PM. “Technical” Industry
Background Domain
● Helps to vision product as the intersection of design,
development, and marketing. PM
● After this course, you’ll be able to speak a bit of the
language for all three areas.
● You likely already have some combination of these,

Communication
which is why you’re interested in becoming a PM.
Consider this combo your superpower!

Types of PMs
It’s the main focus of this course; these PMs are the
General
most flexible.
It usually has an engineering background and has little to do

Technical
with design/outward-facing work; highly technical.
Project-Focused AKA a project manager; some who owns the schedule

instead of focusing on the overall plan & goals.
Growth It focuses less on the life of a product, and more on

improving a certain business metric.
Index > Session
Agenda

Module 1 > Section 3 > Introduction to Product Management
Introduction to Product
Management
Core topics we will explore:
● The responsibilities of a Product Manager
● How you become a Product Manager
● The Product Management process

Common stereotypes about Product

Managers:
● They’re the CEO of the product
● They’re accountable for the success of the product
● They have to have a technical background or don’t have a

technical background
● My favorite: They’re the crap umbrella for their product.

They shield their team from distractions and negativity.
Product Managers keep the focus on the customer!
They represent the customer & help make them more awesome.
● Engineers build the product
● Designers make it usable and look great
● Sales and marketing make sure people know about it and buy it
So, how do we keep score?
● What metrics will we use to determine “we won the

game.”
● It’s not always about making $$$

What’s important?
Knowing how to keep score = figuring out what’s important,

because now we have goals to work towards.
1. Everyone has lots of good and bad ideas

2. PMs need to figure out what to focus on, execute, and nail.
3. Frankly, you’re going to spend a lot of time saying no!

Ship it
Know what to do? Great PMs do what it takes to ship the

product.
1. Communicating with key stakeholders

2. Doing project management to make sure you’re on
track to deliver
3. Filling in wherever you’re needed
4. AND running the numbers to make sure you’re
achieving goals once you’ve shipped
The conductor
PMs are the conductors of an orchestra
1. Work with every section using the right language

2. Move everyone towards a goal
3. Don’t make a sound
MAIN GOAL: help everyone else sound great so that the

audience has an amazing experience
Most important goal?
Help your customers be awesome!
Customers…
Don’t buy because they like your brand or want to pay your
salary
Buy for what it lets them do or become
PMs = voice of the customer and need to help make the user
more awesome
Project vs program vs product
Project Managers are more Program Managers tend to Product Managers might
about the schedule work closely with engineers need some of those skills
Product Managers are sometimes called

different things, depending on the company.
Key takeaways
1. Overview of what PMs do
2. Their most important job = making the customer more awesome
3. How to know if you're succeeding as a PM

Time for a break
Stretch, breathe,
grab a drink
Estimated time: 5 minutes

Index > Session
Agenda

Module 1 > Section 4 > The Product Management Process
The Product
Management
Process
Instructor-Led Q&A:
The process
Share your best-guess ideas on how a Product Manager builds a
great Product:
● Where do I start?
● When to think of ideas versus opportunity?
● When do we start building?
● What comes after that?
● How does it all come together?

Product development lifecycle overview
Identify Plan Design Develop Launch Assess Repeat

Product strategy + execution
Create a structured approach to

Product Management.
Understand and identify opportunity
● Understand global trends: Spotify MAU is

growing +10% YoY but India's growth has
been +20%
● Understand User insights: Users hate the auto-

subscribe option for a subscription service
after the trial
● Understanding business ecosystem for SaaS or

B2B companies
Understand and identify opportunity
● Find an opportunity: Which problem should

you be solving for maximum impact
● Spotify MAU growth, focussing on India can

potentially drive +20% MAU v/s US growth
Set a goal
● Set a goal: Pick a number that matters and

ladders up to your goal and ideally to the
company mission. E.g. Increase MAU in India
by +20% HoH to be at +40% YoY growth.
● We will cover more about goals in detail in our

goals-setting module (what’s a good goal,
what’s a bad goal, different types of goals,
etc).
Plan
● Plan: Dive into WHAT you’re going to build

● Map out the dependencies: Research, Design,
Engineering, Marketing, PR, Legal etc.
● Create a timeline: For each work item
● Develop the product specs: Effective
communication = important!
● Work with design to get designs ready
● Establish a communication cadence/channel:
weekly updates, nothing like sharing a plan
and sharing progress.
Develop/Build
● Develop: Building the product

● Working closely with the engineering team:
● Helps to manage the process
● Facilitates communication between design and
development
● Prioritizes bug backlog
● Gets done whatever else is needed to get the
product built
● When you have tested functioning software
that is prepared for release, development is
complete
Launch
PMs are involved in launching the product:
● From release notes to a big new product that

warrants a big event
● The Marketing team is in charge but PMs
assist
Assess & learn
Product is out? Assess!
● Internal Assessment: Evaluate the internal

process
● External Assessment: Customer feedback,
metrics, etc.
● Results are used to determine
recommendations for the next cycle
And finally, you’ll do it all over again…

Two schools of thought
Waterfall Reality Lean

Two schools of thought
Waterfall: Only way is forward, takes months

● CONS:
● Takes long
● Isn’t adaptable to the ever-changing market Waterfall Reality Lean
Lean: Opposite extreme
● Most software PM jobs end up somewhere in between.
This is what we’ll teach.
Reality: Your way/Team’s way - figure out what works best for
your team and iterate
Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
Focus on an MVP
Lean: “... the smallest thing you can build that delivers value
to your customers”
Build the MVP as quickly as possible
● Ship it & use what you learn

● Usually more successful
● “minimum” doesn’t mean “bad”
● MVPs are well-designed and engineered.
Key takeaways
1. The solution itself matters less than the process

to get to that solution.
2. You cannot win by yourself.
3. Follow the structure, iterate where needed, but

focus on impact.
Module 1 > Section 4 > The Product Management Process Unmute and Share Estimated time: 60 minutes
Breakout Group Discussion: Defining your MVP
Task: Define the MVP for a mobile application In your description include:
designed to facilitate shared accommodation
among college students.
1. Purpose
2. Core Features
3. User Flow
4. Value Proposition
.
Q&A

Introduction To Product Management

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction To Product Management

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Welcome to

WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3

Course Introductions Understand Customers & Problems

Introduction to Product Management

WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6

Start Building Develop Your Product II Get Hired

Develop Your Product I Market Your Product Deliver and Present

DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5

Create an Opportunity Hypothesis Start Building

Develop Your Product II

Understand Customers & Problems

1. Introduction & Course Overview

2. Becoming a Product Manager

3. Introduction to Product Management

4. The Product Management Process

Introduction & Course Overview

[Add brief summary of experience or personal

Student Exchange: Who are you?

The introductions for this training will be through Slack.

You should have already created your video introducing

● Company & title

● What are your goals during this training?

Breakout Group Discussion:

Connecting with Product School

To get the full Product School experience,

Connect with your instructor

Connect with your peers in this cohort

Who do you admire as a Product After watching the intro videos of

Instructor-Led Lecture Product Templates Group Activities Class Discussions

The Final Presentation

You will be combining the insights and activities throughout the

Apply Demonstrate Realize Get feedback

Concepts to your What you’ve learned Immediate So you’re ready for

Final Presentation: Stay- N-Sleep

● You are a Product Manager at Stay-N-Sleep (Similar

● Stay-N-Sleep’s mission is to enable every traveler, to

● Stay-N-Sleep’s vision is to connect people, enrich

● Read the full brief here and download the final

Final Presentation: All you need to know!

● Time: 5 mins approx

● Type: Individual Task

● Format: Presentation deck

● Target Audience: Product organization,

1. Introduction & Course Overview

2. Becoming a Product Manager

3. Introduction to Product Management

4. The Product Management Process

There’s no “right way” - everyone

Remember: Product thinking is holistic

Becoming a Product Manager

● ○ Marketing: Communicating customer value and

Key skills on the PM career path

These are the main general areas recruiters look for in

3. Industry knowledge - What’s your experience in a specific

How technical do I have to be?

Learning to code is useful:

How business-oriented do I have to be?

The Product Management triangle

These are the main general areas recruiters look for in

● You likely already have some combination of these,

Consider this combo your superpower!

It usually has an engineering background and has little to do

Project-Focused AKA a project manager; some who owns the schedule