Pavan Kumar

Know your customer - Often this can just be the investor in the company/company owner. Meet their basic expectations from the product first, and win their confidence. Aim to build a functional prototype / MVP even before attempting to build a fully functional product - It is always important to be able to showcase your product and always be demo ready - Else we run the risk of being dismissed as vapourware It's easy to get carried away by all the great ideas, Identify your core product USPs earl ...Read More

Creating an entirely new product or entering a new market, the first steps typically involves conducting thorough market research and validating the product idea. Here's a breakdown of the initial steps: Identify a Market Opportunity: Start by identifying a potential market opportunity where you believe there is a gap or unmet need. This can involve researching market trends, analyzing customer pain points, and exploring emerging technologies or industries. Define Target Customers: Clearly defin ...Read More

I usually ask myself a few questions when we are being asked to commit resources to 'tasks outside of the strategic product roadmap'. The primary aim is to not deviate from the core road map unless the short-term benefit (retaining the customer) is justified.  Is this feature request bespoke only and doesn't require any product-level change? - If yes, offload it to the 'professional services team' and bill the customer directly for the work done. Usually larger enterprises prefer getting the one ...Read More

Here is my fun take on this :) Morning: Wake Up and Boot Up: Roll out of bed and fire up the (cold?) coffee machine – gotta get that energy level to max before diving into the day's quests! Check Data Streams: Dive into the Matrix of emails and Slack messages. Gotta make sure the servers are humming, and the bots aren't causing any AI rebellions. Stand-Up Time: Time for the daily stand-up meeting with the fellowship of developers. Update each other on quests, share any bugs found in the code dun ...Read More

A straightforward formal approach is better when recommending changes to the roadmap. Its important to cover both the urgency and the impact on previous priorities. To convey changes you may focus on following : Provide Context: “We’ve identified a critical priority that requires immediate attention due to recent developments. Here’s why it necessitates a reordering.” Link to Strategic Goals: “This shift aligns with our strategic objectives, supporting our growth targets and enhancing value deli ...Read More

Some key traits that would really help in a fresh PM interview situation: Passion for product, its inner workings, ability to interpret some of the best features and bad ones - Typically I ask the candidate to choose any popular tech product of their choice (say Netflix and compare it to Hotstar/ amazon prime). This simple exercise can reveal the candidate's thought process as they walk me through it. Strong communication skills are a big bonus, but the ability to articulate and convey an idea i ...Read More

One of the most challenging aspects of Platform Product Management is balancing the diverse needs of multiple stakeholders while maintaining a cohesive platform strategy. This involves navigating trade-offs between short-term tactical needs and long-term strategic goals, aligning roadmaps for individual products with the broader platform vision, driving adoption among internal teams and external customers, staying agile in a rapidly evolving ecosystem, and managing complex dependencies. Overcomi ...Read More

At our company, we use a tightly integrated set of tools to maintain a single source of truth across Product planning, Design, and Decision-making / Prioritisation activities. This ensures alignment, accountability, and historical traceability throughout the product lifecycle. Here's a quick overview: Requirements management - Jira Cloud It is our core source of truth for all product requirements and execution tracking. Epics and user stories are documented with clear acceptance criteria and are ...Read More

Identifying Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) from a platform perspective involves understanding the unique needs and characteristics of customers who derive the most value from the platform's offerings. When identifying ICPs, platform teams typically focus on defining characteristics that are relevant at both the cluster and individual levels. Here's how it can be approached: Cluster-Level ICPs: Segmentation Analysis: Conduct segmentation analysis to group customers into distinct clusters based on ...Read More

No one answer suits all situations!  Often the impact of a feature is not based on the size/complexity of the feature, but rather the 'value' it can deliver for our customers and most importantly - if it sets us up for launching more impactful features in the long term where it can become an enabler. As an example, when I was looking at reducing the cost of text messaging for our CPaaS platform- we were working with multiple vendors and each had certain minimum volume commitments and different p ...Read More