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 early on and stick to them until they are ready in some form. One of the toughest jobs as a PM is the ability to say 'NO' and prioritize mercilessly. * Know your work boundaries, and be prepared to go beyond the ask when the situation demands initially, but do not hesitate to ask for help - Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, rather demonstrates your capability. * Prudently set up a structure to delegate non-PM work early on - such as documenation, UX/design and leaving enough space for market / competitive research, formulating a go-to-market strategy, and processing customer feedback - these functions cannot be filled by anybody else. * Finally, have a clear path to support product growth worked out and do not be caught off-guard by early success. Good luck, this is one of the most exciting phases of being a PM! 

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 in any format (written / verbal) effectively is a must * Good analytical ability, and cognitive/ reasoning skills * Overall a positive attitude with a willingness to learn 

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 price points per text message. I proactively took up an 'academic' style study to see if there was scope for reducing cost. I called my little module a 'Least cost router', that pushes the text message out via the cheapest path until the minimum commitments were met but in real-time. A seemingly boring feature that nobody 'wanted' or thought would be necessary, but once we ran a small pilot simulation we saw that we could easily save 30% on the costs. Implementing it meant we boost our profit margin directly. When our volumes and our global reach grew, this had a wider impact and played a pivotal role in maintaining profits. Doing our best work, and delivering value will always lead to a lasting growth story that can be truly ours :)

These are based on my experience: * The most important one, that is often overlooked is expecting immediate success - this can result in unnecessary pressure and compromises in quality * Insufficient customer research/validation - being too carried away with the idea leading to confirmation bias * Poor stakeholder communication, expectation setting - resulting in unrealistic timelines/expectations. * Overengineering or scope creep. * Lack of clear product vision.

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. 1. 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-off implementation done through a verified team rather than trying to go through the hassle of implementing them in-house. 2. Do we need to enhance the core product to support this custom work? - If yes, does this help in repeat sale / add value to other customers? - If yes, get it into the product roadmap / implementation cycle. If the answer to both questions is no, try to renegotiate with the customer - if even this fails and retaining the customer still takes priority, commit resources at the cost of the planned roadmap - we try to keep this lower than 10% of the overall effort in a release. During the early stages of the product, it may be as high as 25%, but we would want to minimise the bespoke work as the product matures. The amount of bespoke work being done is also one good proxy measure of the product market fit.

Being able to support 'repeat sales' is one of the hallmarks of a scalable sales setup. As such championing the product USPs with powerful demos that bring out the best of the use cases is a task only PMs are uniquely positioned to enable, sometimes even before the feature is fully built. Producing a small library of such impactful demos and talk tracks in collaboration with product marketing and presales has the effect of greatly amplifying the impact our product can deliver.

One of the core functions of an enterprise PM (on top of being a specialist and a subject matter expert) is their knack for 'abstracting' and 'generalising' requirements. As such few (not an exhaustive list) pointers from a candidate's past experience where they have demonstrated some of these traits in their past work would help them stand out: * Identifying macro patterns that can be generalised, and productised. E.g. building a flexible user permission schema vs building standardized user roles * Data-driven decision-making capabilities - Proactively measure usage adoption, derive actionable insights that feedback into the product roadmap * Obsession to simplify * Ability to identify monetizable assets and build product walls accordingly that provide incremental value

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: 1. 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. 2. Define Target Customers: Clearly define the target customers for your product. Understand their characteristics, behaviors, preferences, and needs. Develop buyer personas or user profiles to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience. 3. Conduct Market Research: Conduct comprehensive market research to assess the viability of your product idea. Evaluate the size of the market, competition, existing solutions, pricing models, distribution channels, and potential barriers to entry. This research helps you determine if there is a feasible market for your product. 4. Validate the Product Idea: Validate your product idea by gathering feedback from potential customers, industry experts, or advisors. This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or prototype testing. The goal is to gather insights and determine if there is sufficient interest and demand for your product. 5. Develop a Value Proposition: Based on the market research and validation, refine your product concept and develop a compelling value proposition. Clearly articulate how your product addresses customer pain points, offers unique value, and differentiates itself from existing solutions. 6. Define Product Objectives: Establish clear objectives and goals for your product. These objectives should align with the market opportunity and address the identified customer needs. For example, objectives could include acquiring a certain number of customers, generating revenue, or achieving specific user engagement metrics. This is one of the key foundational steps! 7. Create a Product Roadmap: Develop a product roadmap that outlines the key milestones, features, and deliverables required to bring your product from 0-1. The roadmap should align with your objectives and incorporate feedback and insights gained during the market research and validation process. 8. Assemble a Team: Now we are ready to commit to our idea by investing on a team with the necessary skills and expertise to execute on the product roadmap. It's important to remain flexible and adaptable throughout the process, iterating based on feedback, and continuously validating your assumptions as you move forward.

A product usually graduates from the SMB mid-market customers to larger enterprise customers as it stabilises. Larger enterprises usually look for reference implementations before committing, which usually makes the overall sale that much harder. Some key features that usually cut across product modules that make a product enterprise-grade are: * As employee roles & responsibilities tend to be defined in larger orgs, they usually look for granular and flexible user access controls and permissions that mimic their organisation hierarchy - This is also a great monetisation opportunity with larger enterprises * Especially in a SaaS model deployed on the cloud, enterprises usually hate surprises/changes - and tend to look for ways to test changes before they apply - An isolated and production equivalent Sandbox environment to experiment is preferred * For high-volume SaaS products, compartmentalisation/isolation of traffic surges that are guaranteed, backed by SLAs * Robust data security and data retention model that is both transparent and the policies documented and certified * Periodic security audits & certifications that prove platform stability and adherence to industry best practices Many of these donot usually apply to SMB / longtail who primarily focus on quick onboarding, rapid turnaround on setup and usage.

I typically take the following into consideration for prioritising (in no particular order): * Assess impact: Evaluate the magnitude and consequences of each problem. * Align with business objectives: Prioritize problems that align with strategic goals. * Evaluate urgency: Consider the severity and time sensitivity of each problem. * Consider feasibility: Assess the resources and complexity required to address each problem. * User feedback and demand: Give priority to problems frequently reported by users. * ROI considerations: Assess the value and potential return on investment for solving each problem. * Evaluate dependencies: Consider if solving one problem is a prerequisite for others. The final prioritisation score is a weighted average of all the above. Having said that, its important to adopt an iterative approach: Continuously reassess and reprioritize as new information becomes available.