Jacqueline Porter

Product Management at IBM

Strategic product management professional with eight years of product development leadership experience. Offers outstanding talents in SaaS lifecycle processes, change management, risk mitigation, cost modeling including sensitivity analysis by applying traditional project management and Agile frameworks. Propelled by delivering market-changing products, leading teams through challenges, and celebrating best-in-breed results. Some notable achievements: 2 strategic exits and experience in scaling product teams from 5 to 100.

Content

What are good OKRs for product management?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

Objectives and Key Results are meant to encourage cross-functional alignment and collaboration. In product management, it is essential to think of OKRs as a method for prioritizing scope that will help drive the top business KPIs, so that your product roadmap has a built-in mechanism for considering how to help the business succeed. The below example is one I have seen work well: Top Level Business Objective: Increase enterprise ARR by 20% Product Key Result: Deliver paid feature X to help com ...Read More

2,770 Views

How does the importance of a product vision change from 0-1 products to a growing product to a very mature product?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

Both product lifecycles require a strong long-term vision in order to effectively motivate the team and attract users. Without a strong vision, the 0 to 1 product would not be able to focus on goals/exit criteria for launch while the mature product would get stuck in a routine problem-solving approach with the existing base.

2,161 Views

When creating a product vision how far in advance do you plan?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

Love this question! Planning for product vision is usually done in 3 horizons: 10 years, 3 years, and 1 year.

The 10-year vision is your guiding, north-star approach that will help guide all other investments overtime. The 3-year vision is a little more actionable and will help shape what the execution plan needs to be. 1 year vision is execution based on what can be accomplished in that current year.

1,803 Views

How do you think about communicating your roadmap to other teams? What level of detail do people need?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 4y

I love this question - the audience is everything! I typically have 3 pre-prepared altitudes for my product roadmap which correspond to a specific persona and time horizon 1. Annual Thematic Roadmap with Big Boulder Features - Executives and Buyers of Product: This roadmap has a conceptual, initiative-based view. So, it features connected narratives of multiple features for what the themes of the roadmap will deliver for a buyer or an executive interested in the ROI of the roadmap. 2. Quarterl ...Read More

1,680 Views

If you were starting out in a rapidly growing company would you start by embedding some best practice and then start to build out a team or start by building a small but mighty team and tackle it as a group?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

I am a firm believer that what you need to grow and what you need to scale are two different things - including leadership, team processes, and strategy. This means that I have found it easier to start with a small seed group to build your framework for operating. This has a couple of advantages, including reducing biases for certain processes and ensuring multiple perspectives are included from the beginning.

1,568 Views

How do you drive alignment across all parts of the organization?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

Oftentimes as a Product leader, I am tasked with cross-functional work across Go-to-market, R&D, and finance. One of the most critical aspects of cross-functional is to drive clarity. This can be done by following three practices: Have a published single-source-of-truth charter where current status and archived information live. This repository can be a word document, google sheet, or even a static website. You will want to add "pins" to any relevant documents or links at the top for easy a ...Read More

1,381 Views

What's your framework to prioritizing needs/deliverables when you're the first Product Manager at a company establishing the function?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

This is a great question about how to pave the way for two things: product strategy and product management execution. I can see this being applicable to not only first Product hires at start-ups, but new product areas a company has never pursued before. There are a few mechanisms/processes I would establish as a first priority: 1. Establish a feedback loop with the top customers, internal users, and market analysts (product mgt execution) 2. Identify the top 1 or 2 business metrics you are look ...Read More

1,345 Views

How do you approach building a well rounded product team?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 3y

A well-rounded product team requires three main features: Diverse composition Top talent in the domain Rigorous product management processes Diverse talent can be accomplished by hiring with a specific schedule of product manager you want to hire. This can mean location diversity gender diversity, and racial diversity, but the bottom line is you want to have a population in your team that is representative of your customers. If you don’t have a product team that reflects your customers, you’re l ...Read More

1,277 Views

As a hiring manager, what do the best product management candidates have in common?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 1y

The most memorable product manager candidates have a track record of

delivering customer value
proactively thinking about problems
a growth mindset

In reflection, be prepared to represent your best outcomes and results. Also, show how you want to keep reaching for more. Ambition is impressive in a PM - personally and for the company results. Anticipating risking and edge cases is a great signal that the PM is proactive in planning as well.

1,115 Views

How do you get autonomy for prioritizing your roadmap when your sales process is very sales heavy, and sales leadership wants to dictate priorities?

Jacqueline Porter

IBM Product Management • 4y

Well, I often incorporate multiple sensing mechanisms into the roadmap - the field and sales team are definitely an important lever to drive revenue, which really is why product managers exist. So, a tactic I use is to show how much of my engineering capacity is dedicated to enabling revenue, technical debt, and long-term vision. The long-term vision is often a "big bet" that is about making a splash in the market or analyst review. Oftentimes, sales and the field are supportive of carving out ...Read More

1,011 Views

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