PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT

We'll kick off with a lightning tour of product fundamentals. We'll look at what a product manager is (and isn't). Then we'll dig into the core of product thinking - defining the problem.

We'll look at popular products across entertainment, fitness, gaming, e-Commerce and others and discuss: What is the product really solving for? What is its special sauce that differentiates it from the competition?

• Product fundamentals lightning tour
• What is a PM? (What isn't a PM?)
• Working on our core: Defining the problem
• Special sauce: Differentiators
• Case studies: Peloton, Stripe, and SubStack

Assignment 01

Choose a product to use as an anchor for the rest of the course and create the first slide in your portfolio deck, defining the core problem for your anchor product and the special sauce that differentiates it.

What's that you say...? Your product is for everyone? Today we'll bust the myth of the universal customer profile, talk about target markets, and understand how all this shapes crucial decisions in a product. Then, we'll look at one of the best parts of being a PM -- what would we build next?

• Target markets and customer profiles
• Opportunity sizing
• Dreaming up the next big feature
• Who are you building for?

Assignment 02

You know the core product, the core problem and the target market. Now let's add a feature. :) Consider the following as you determine your new feature:

• Target markets
• Customer profiles
• Opportunity sizing
• Diversity and inclusion
• Size of the opportunity

Today is all about decoding signals - what are your customers telling you every time they click, every time they query, every time they purchase? We'll look at how to divine signals from user research, logs and some of the best industry reports and commentary. Finally, you'll look at how to apply the techniques we discuss to your new feature idea.

• User research: How do you know what your customers need?
• Decoding signals: A/B testing, UXR, dogfooding
• Interpreting industry reports and secondary signals

Assignment 03

• Design two ways to understand how well your new feature works.
• Add to your deck: How do you know that your customers want what you're building?

Product Strategy (capital "S") tends to be hard for PMs. They either get writer's block or end up doing something else -- vision, tactics or a roadmap. We'll break down the fuzzy boundaries among those product elements, and talk about a practical way to think about strategy and roadmaps.

We'll also talk about how strategy is related to the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and look at some classic product playbooks. You'll look at how to define the MVP for your chosen feature.

• A strategy for product strategy
• Hitting the road(maps)
• Connecting strategy and MVP
• Starting with the Press Release

Assignment 04

Add to your deck. For your proposed feature, make two lists:

• What's in your MVP?
• What's not in your MVP?

Today is about the wild and wonderful world of product performance metrics. How do you know if your product is any good? How do you know the changes you've made had the intended effect? We'll look at one of the most critical questions of any product -- what is the northstar metric?

• Northstar metrics
• Proxy metrics
• DAU, MAU, UU, 2D7, and other awesome acronyms
• Optimization metrics vs. reporting metrics

Assignment 05

Add one slide to your deck:

• Northstar metric for your feature. Include:
  • What's the *real* thing you're trying to measure?
  • What's the proxy metric you'll use?

Let's get to launching! Today, we'll cover go-to-market plans for new products and features, talk about marketing, PR, distribution, and what can go wrong.

• Go-to-market plans
• Launching a product
• PR
• Case study: Lessons from WWDC's product announcement

Assignment 06

• Add a slide to your deck the most basic form of a GTM plan, the PR headline
• Go through the Pinterest registration flow.

Launching a product is the beginning. Now we make it better. We'll look at key things to know about product optimization, including conversion funnels, guest modes and account creation, the famous "leaky bucket".

We'll also cover gamification, which is definitely not just for games anymore. You'll learn how to spot potential drop-off zones and gamification opportunities for your proposed feature.

• Product optimization
• Conversion funnels and leaky buckets
• Gamification (not just for games!)
• Case Study: How Pinterest progressively captures the user from guest to full account

Assignment 07

• Add to your deck a slide answering the questions: What does gamification mean in your product?
• Start thinking of how you would pitch yourself as a product

Today we'll look at all the different flavors of PMing: consumer apps, B2B, platforms, research, software vs. hardware, front-end vs. back-end. What's it like to PM different kinds of products, and what would make someone amazing at each?

We'll also discuss the cross-functional team you might interact with as a PM, who should be your new best friend, and how to pitch yourself to get on that team in the first place.

• The 31 Flavors of PMing
• Cross-functional fun
• What makes a great personal elevator pitch
• You as the product

Assignment 08

Practice your elevator pitch and record a video of yourself. Try a few styles to understand what works best for you.

In the first part of today's class, we're getting into serious, advanced PMing: the executive summary. We'll work on boiling everything in your pitch deck down and simplifying any complex messaging into a bite-size, punchy narrative.

Then, we get to take all of the information from the previous 8 classes and combine it together for one killer Product Pitch. Over this and the next class, each of you will pitch the room on your product. I'll be taking notes on every pitch and give you feedback at the end of the course.

This is your opportunity to play the role of a Product Manager in a 2-3 minute impromptu meeting (that you have been secretly practicing for) with your VO, your company’s CEO, or a prominent VC. Review all of the points we discussed in class and deliver a great Product Pitch that knocks them over and gets them to say YES or invest in your idea.

Finally, a couple stories from 20 years working in Silicon Valley tech, including some of my best "aha moments" and the things I wish I'd known when I was first starting in Product Management.

• So, what have you learned?
• Boiling it down: The executive summary
• Hands-on: Saying "no" to tl;dr's
• Things I wish I'd known as a new PM