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Richard Shum
Director of Product Management, Splunk
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Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
Ideas can come from many places. They include customer feedback calls, customer troubleshooting sessions, customer submitted ideas (at Splunk, we have an idea submission portal called ideas.splunk.com), conferences (at Splunk, we host .conf where we have the opportunity to meet many customers in ......Read More
1624 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
When I prioritize or stack rank a list of items, I typically find it helpful to understand how each item can (a) deliver customer impact and (b) increase engineering happiness. Additionally, I also find it helpful to understand each item's level of (c) feasibility, (d) urgency and (e) effort. ......Read More
1012 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
Before jumping into the "must do" work, it's best to understand the reason for doing the work. Sometimes the "must do" work is warranted. For example, compliance could have high customer impact which naturally means that it'll get prioritized anyways. Sometimes the "must do" work is not impac......Read More
645 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
It's always good to review roadmaps with leadership on an ongoing basis. These touchpoints allow you to keep your leadership informed and give you the opportunity to solicit feedback. At the end of the day, gaining alignment is key to getting funding and resources. The leadership team is ofte......Read More
511 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
In my mind, several groups of stakeholders often influence the roadmap. They include your customers (both internal and external), your product team (e.g., engineering, design, data science), your internal non-product stakeholders (e.g., legal, compliance, sales) and your leadership. From thes......Read More
474 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
Who to focus on often depends on the maturity of the product. At the beginning stages of the product, we focus heavily on prospective users. When the product is mature, we focus heavily on existing customers (the thinking is -- if you can deliver impact to existing customers then prospective cust......Read More
414 Views

Richard Shum
Splunk Director of Product Management • January 11
Say exactly that "We're pivoting our product. There are a lot of unknowns and it's difficult to plan too far out." It's perfectly fine to communicate honestly. If there's a good reason for the pivot, no one will fault you for it. If you're able to have direct conversations with customers, it'......Read More
411 Views
Credentials & Highlights
Director of Product Management at Splunk
Product Management AMA Contributor
Knows About Product Management Skills, Product Management Career Path, Product Vision, Product Ro......more