Building new products - sundar rajan - discovery process (part 3)
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This document outlines a framework for building new products, focusing on the discovery process as a means to identify and mitigate risks associated with customer needs, value propositions, and stakeholder alignment. It emphasizes the importance of customer interviews, iterative feedback, and prototype testing to ensure that the product meets the market demand and to minimize the risk of failure. The document presents a case scenario, illustrating the steps to develop a product aimed at aspiring product managers, and highlights the necessity of validating assumptions and pivoting based on customer insights.
![Create a portfolio of potential customers
Identify 20-50 representative customers
Customers should be representative of the target market (actively looking to switch careers to PM
roles)
Inability to find representative customers indicates that you are probably solving a problem which
is not big enough!
Goal is to create a set of reference case studies [4-6] to highlight the power of the product
e.g., “Matija used our product to switch from data analytics to PM at a Tier 1 company!”
8Please refer to Part IV in Inspired: How to create tech products customers love
Mitigate risks through Discovery](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/buildingnewproducts-sundarrajan-discoveryprocesspart3-190331074629/85/Building-new-products-sundar-rajan-discovery-process-part-3-8-320.jpg)
Building new products - sundar rajan - discovery process (part 3)
- 1. Building New Products - Discovery Process (Part 3) SUNDAR RAJAN 3/25/2019 1
- 2. About me Principal PM at Microsoft I am an ex-Googler, ex-Investment Banker Been with Microsoft >5 years - Shipped E2E product / key scenarios on Bing Ads, Bing Search, New Product / Market Insights 2
- 3. Before we start.. These are my views and not the views of my organization As you can imagine, nature of PM roles varies across the products & business groups This is “a way" of building new products not "the way" There are many different ways to do build new products. I consider myself a student of craft! I have a lot to learn! I have had some success with this method. But there are pitfalls as well. Happy to share my thoughts and hear your feedback! Acknowledgements SVPG, “Inspired” book, PMHQ articles, Innovation Arts / Project Signals, Lean Launchpad, “This is Product Management” podcast and others 3
- 4. Key Steps 4 Frame the problem Ensuring executive & partner alignment - building a shared understanding of the opportunity and risks Mitigate risks through Discovery Mitigate customer, stakeholder & technology risks through customer discovery, stakeholder FAQs & technology prototypes Rally the team Rally your executive sponsors, key partners & development teams through the pivots! Fundamental principle: Acknowledge that new innovations fail. Do everything you can to minimize the risk of failure as quickly as possible!
- 5. This is part 3 of the 4 part series: (1) Introduction to New Product Development (2) Framing the problem (3) Discovery Process (4) Rallying the team 5
- 6. Scenario Imagine VP of Product at Career.ly (Fictitious tech based job placement company) wants to build a new product for aspiring product managers! And you are the chosen PM to head this effort! How would you go about it? Target Customer: Non PMs who are aspiring to switch to a PM role. 6
- 7. Mitigate risks through discovery! Talk to the customer for customer risks! (Not buyers, not customer service, not sales, not partners) Build prototypes for evaluating feasibility risks! Build Stakeholder alignment FAQs for internal risks! Steps for mitigating customer value risks: Create a portfolio of customers Identify key pain points & needs (Customer Discovery) Validate usefulness value props, low fidelity story maps, working prototypes (Product Discovery) Validate pay worthiness Iterate!! 7Please refer to Part IV in Inspired: How to create tech products customers love Mitigate risks through Discovery
- 8. Create a portfolio of potential customers Identify 20-50 representative customers Customers should be representative of the target market (actively looking to switch careers to PM roles) Inability to find representative customers indicates that you are probably solving a problem which is not big enough! Goal is to create a set of reference case studies [4-6] to highlight the power of the product e.g., “Matija used our product to switch from data analytics to PM at a Tier 1 company!” 8Please refer to Part IV in Inspired: How to create tech products customers love Mitigate risks through Discovery
- 9. Customer Discovery Goal is to deeply understand the customer needs & pains before showing any solution Conduct customer discovery interviews • What is their current role today? • Why do you aspire to be a PM? • What is your number one pain point in your efforts to become a PM? • How painful is it a scale of 1-10? Why? • How do you solve this for today? • If you had a magic wand and could solve any problem what would that be? • If we built a solution how often would you use this? • If we built a solution how likely are you to pay for this solution? Ensure managers of Engg, DS and Design participate in these conversations! 9Please refer to Part IV in Inspired: How to create tech products customers love Mitigate risks through Discovery
- 10. Map the customer journey & identify key needs HELP ME BUILD A PM RESUME HELP ME CONNECT TO PMS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ROLE HELP ME STUDY THE BASICS OF PM ROLE HELP ME CONNECT WITH PMS & PEERS TO PRACTICE PM INTERVIEWS HELP ME APPLY FOR A PM JOB 1 0 The needs identified & priorities are simplified for illustrative purposes. Mitigate risks through Discovery Based on the customer discovery interviews, map the customer journey and identify key needs
- 11. What is your number one pain point in your efforts to become a PM? How painful is it a scale of 1-10? Why? If you had a 100 points to allocate, how would you prioritize your investments? Resume Builder Help me build a PM resume & LinkedIn profile PM Course Help me study the basics of PM role PM connect: Role Understanding Help me connect with PMs to know more about pm role Interview Prep Help me connect with PMs & Peers to prep for PM interviews Job Search Help me apply for a PM job 1 1
- 12. 5 10 10 15 60 0 20 40 60 80 Resume Builder Job Search PM Course PM connect: Role Understanding Interview Practise You are probably investing in a wrong effort! Validate hypothesis further, but be prepared to for a Pivot 1 2 Mitigate risks through Discovery
- 13. Product discovery • Form a group of 15 - 20 customers • Meet them twice a week • Show your value prop, proposed concepts, prototypes & product as you build • Iterate! Iterate! Iterate! 1 3 Mitigate risks through Discovery
- 14. Resume Builder Our product helps you create PM resume “snippets” by analyzing your resume and matching with PMs with similar experience How useful is this for you on a scale of 1 (not useful) – 5 (extremely valuable) in getting a PM role? Why? How do you do this today? How often? How effective is your current process? 1 4 Mitigate risks through Discovery For illustrative purposes: Average usefulness score: 1.2. Mostly confirming that it is not useful. But sometimes customers don’t get it till they see it! May be worth one last try!
- 15. Mitigate risks through Discovery Resume Builder Here is a mock up of how our solution would look like How useful is this for you on a scale of 1 (not useful) – 5 (extremely valuable) in getting a PM role? Why? How do you do this today? How often? How effective is your current process? 1 5 LinkedIn example for illustrative purposes. For illustrative purposes: Average usefulness score: 1.5. It is time for a PIVOT!!!
- 16. Your role as a product leader is not just to give a bad news, but to solve hard problems! So, start exploring other solutions! 1 6
- 17. Interview Practice Our product helps you practice interviews by connecting you with PMs who have done it before How useful is this for you on a scale of 1 (not useful) – 5 (extremely valuable) in getting a PM role? Why? How do you do this today? How often? How effective is your current process? 1 7 Mitigate risks through Discovery For illustrative purposes: Average usefulness score: 4.4. Mostly confirming that it is useful. Just because they rate the value prop highly doesn’t mean that our solution meets their needs.
- 18. Mitigate risks through Discovery Interview Practice Here is a mock up of how our solution would look like How useful is this for you on a scale of 1 (not useful) – 5 (extremely valuable) in getting a PM role? Why? How do you do this today? How often? How effective is your current process? 1 8 Tinder example for illustrative purposes. For illustrative purposes: Average usefulness score: 3.5 Problem is worth solving, but solution is not the most effective!
- 19. Questions | Comments | Feedback 1 9 Contact me: sundarrajan.g.s@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
- #16: https://blog.linkedin.com/2017/november/8/Creating-your-resume-just-got-a-whole-lot-easier-with-Microsoft-and-LinkedIn