Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 36

Q&A: Getting into product management

This is an interview I did a little while ago with a user experience author living on the US East Coast. She was interested in moving into freelance product management.

We cover:

how to move into product management; differences between working in the private and public sectors; KPIs and financial modelling; and the pleasures and pains of being a product manager.

If you’re interested in asking a question, you can do so in the comments below.

SA: You started with Classics and ended up in pro...

Q&A: what’s the one thing retailers are doing wrong in ecommerce?

Another question:

When it comes to the ecommerce checkout process, what’s one thing that retailers are doing wrong? What’s one thing they’re doing right?

 

From a product manager’s perspective, there’s no one thing everyone gets wrong – it depends entirely on the circumstances.

This is why context and understanding of user needs are so important. Figure out what people need – their goals, frustrations, distractions… everything – then figure out how well your ecommerce capability meets those n...

58: What Eurovision taught me about product management

For a glitzy song contest, Eurovision has a lot to answer for.

There is a product management angle to this post. Eventually.

The annual Eurovision Song Contest is somewhat of an institution over here. It has brought special moments to our television screens, such as:

inexplicable pratfalls by dancers,

Baila el Chiki Chiki (Spain) from Eurovision 2008

some non-traditional Polish milk churning,

Donatan & Cleo (Poland) from 2014

and who can forget these monstrous Finnish metalheads?

Lordi (Finl...

57: Cut through red tape

I enjoy being a product manager, although on some days I question whether my level of patience is suited to my chosen career. When working somewhere, I often spot opportunities for them to improve, gain a competitive advantage or reduce wasted effort, then become terribly frustrated when bureaucracy and organisational inertia prevent me from moving quickly enough to exploit them. If this feels familiar, read on.

Thanks to the “instant everything” provided by Amazon Web Services, Google and t...

Q&A: how do you keep user needs front and centre?

I was recently asked this question:

How do you keep user needs at the centre of your product management process?

Read on for my answer:

The straightforward answer is that you and your delivery team (yes, even the developers) need to get out there and observe your users using your product or your competitors’ products. You need to do this as frequently as possible, a minimum of 2 hours every 6 weeks.

Why? This is the only way you and your team are going to experience your users’ joy and frust...

The secret behind meaningful product roadmaps

I gave a talk recently about how I’ve been using data and analytics to guide my decisions in product management. I’ve edited the transcript a little and split it into bite-size parts for your entertainment. This final bit tells the secret behind meaningful product roadmaps. The previous bit was about the benefits of open and transparent data.

What is your roadmap focused on?

I bet that most of your roadmaps – these are the plans you have for your product, what you’re going to do in the next...

56: The coffee shop problem

During a class I was giving the other day over at Edtech, we were looking at possible risks that might affect the theoretical products we were discussing. One team of students was hotly debating the relative importance of one of the risks. They couldn’t agree how much of a problem it would be if they discovered that something similar already existed on the market. I call this The Coffee Shop Problem.

There’s nothing new under the sun

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and t...

The benefits of open and transparent data

I gave a talk recently about how I’ve been using data and analytics to guide my decisions in product management. I’ve edited the transcript a little and split it into bite-size parts for your entertainment. This bit is about the benefits of open and transparent data. The last bit was about how UK government digital services gather and use evidence.

Credit: Government Digital Service

The 4 main KPIs in UK Government

The next thing is getting into the analytics used in government. Every digita...

Q&A: what sources of information should people use to build products?

Here’s a question I was asked recently:

What sources of information do you suggest folks building their product plans today rely on, so that they can get the evidence they need to build the product that will meet the needs of end users?

Here’s my answer:

The answer is always: it depends – I know it’s the ultimate cop-out – but it depends on what you’re trying to demonstrate. The sources of data that you need to have will be dictated by what it is you’re trying to demonstrate or prove.

So let...

Q&A: what user trends do you see?

I was recently asked this question:

Are you seeing any key trends from the user perspective that companies need to be thinking about at the aggregate level?

Here’s my answer:

Ooh. It’s difficult to say, really. I guess the main thing that maybe I am seeing as a general trend is that users don’t care about your products. And I know that sounds quite harsh. But they’re bothered about solving their own problems first and foremost. Your products are simply a means to the end of solving those pro...