Product Management

This reminds me of an interview question I got a very long time ago: "Is it better to have a bad team or a bad manager". In both cases, you'd rather not find yourself in either extreme. In both cases, there is no right or wrong answer and a lot depends on additional circumstances and assumptions. The answer will also depend on your value system and the experiences which have shaped your core beliefs about human aptitude and potential.  For the sake of argument, if I had to pick, I would first apply the same framework: which suboptimal option is more mitigatable.  I believe that most p...

The balance/percentage should be agreed upon by the EM and the PM and shared with the broader org for visibility. For example, in a team of 5 engineers, one engineer's time could be set aside for 'must do' work and the rest will continue to focus on goal strategic efforts. Similar approach can be applied if the organization is big - eg. one pod assigned for maintenance work and 2 pods working on strategic efforts.  In the end, key is alignment with the broader organization and stakeholders so right expectations are set!

It really depends on the phase of your product definition/execution, but at a high level, you spend ~30% of your time working with customers, ~20% of your time in market research, compete analysis, drafting vision/strategy, ~20% of your time working with Engineering teams on execution and rest of your time working with cross-functional teams managing the product lifecycle including ideation, design, customer/user studies, legal/privacy/security, documentation, marketing, sales.

If you are referring to individual products using capabilities from broader platform, I would categorize those products are target customer scenarios that the platform enables. As you come up with the roadmap for your platform, you need to work closely with all those scenario owners / customers and align your roadmap to enable those scenarios to succeed. While you decide on platform capabilities based on deep understanding of customer scenarios, if you align the execution of your roadmap with the scenario timeline, you have a higher chances of success. In other words, don't just build a pla...

Assuming ICP stands for Ideal Customer Profile, you need to have a clear understanding of the persona you are targeting with your platform. For that persona, you could target different profiles of companies - enterprise, SMB or small shops, depending on your business goals.

Depending on the phase of the project or lifecycle stage of the product, a product manager collaborates with many different functions. During intial phases, you work with customer/account teams to understand demand, then with designers and user research teams to perform user research, usability studies, focus groups to understand and define. Once you an MVP, work with customers and account teams to get feedback. When you are ready to ship public offering, work with documentation and marketing team. As you scale sales, you work with sales/field enablement team to streamline that process. Thr...

Assuming your question is on how to prioritize the right set of features, here is my answer: First step is to understand customer scenarios/workflows and associated pain-points and needs. Combine that with business opportunity of that investment, also having a close eye on the market and compete landscape. Finally, use rigorous prioritization to focus on highest ROI - take into account both customer/business value as well as associated cost to deliver. This is no different from a typical Product team. A key focus on platform team should be to invest in durable, long-lasting capabilities ...

Impact is typically measured by customer and business value that product/project brings in. First step is to understand customer scenarios/workflows and associated pain-points and needs. Combine that with business opportunity of that investment, also having a close eye on the market and compete landscape. Finally, use rigorous prioritization to focus on highest ROI - take into account both customer/business value as well as associated cost to deliver. This is no different from a typical Product team. A key focus on platform team should be to invest in durable, long-lasting capabilities that...

Yes, customer feedback is one of the most critical inputs to prioritization. For Platforms, you typically focus on 2 sets of customers:  1. Direct customers: These are users of the platform. Exact customer persona will depend on the specifics of the platform. For e.g., if you are building an ML platform, your typical persona would be data scientists, ML engineers. 2. Indirect customers: These are users who will see the value of the work your direct customers are doing.  Depending on whether you are building an internal or external facing platform, level of focus on these 2 segments of cu...

As a Product Manager, you are responsible for: 1. Defining product vision/strategy/roadmap based on deep understand of customers, business and competitive landscape 2. Working with various cross-functional stakeholders and partners to execute on your roadmap and ship product/features 3. Establishing processes to gather customer feedback to continuously evolve the product Platform Product Manager role is very different except the product is a platform and hence your customers are the ones using the platform. Exact customer persona will depend on the specifics of the platform. Success is ...