Product Management for Maximum Impact

• Target Audience: Students, curious about what Product Management role is about and how different products are managed. They have a basic understanding of the business world and want to be successful product strategists. They want to know how they can apply the tenets of product strategy to their own business or product, and that's exactly what we are covering in this class.

• Definitions

• What is product, and how is product managed. Intersection of technology, functionality, design, acquisition, monetization, business constraints

• Who Product Manager is, what product manager is ultimately responsible for (setting the backlog of what is to be built) and how the go about doing that (knowledge of customer, market, data, industry, technology, etc.)

• What makes an effective PM (passion for product, strategic thinking, creativity, execution, leadership, cross-functional savvy, etc.). Good Product Manager / Bad Product Manager Ben Horowitz Link

For each product lifecycle stage will define key success formula which is essential to measuring right things and building Product Strategy that drives success. Formulas we will talk about are

• New Product Success as a multiple of Market, Team, Product, and Luck,

• Growth Product Success as Number of Customers, Growth Rate, Virality and K factor,

• Mature Product Success as Customer Lifetime Value or LTV: Revenue, Gross Margin, Retention, Customer Acquisition Cost

Startups are really hard. Why not do startup. Paul Graham and Marc Andreessen give 10+ reasons each, largely different

• Paul Graham link:

• Young,

• Inexperienced,

• Not Determined,

• Not Smart,

• Knows nothing about business,

• No cofounder, no idea,

• No room for more startups,

• Family to support,

• Independently wealthy,

• Not ready for commitment,

• Need for structure,

• Fear of uncertainty,

• Don’t realize what you are avoiding,

• Parents want you to be a doctor, a job is the default.

Marc Andreessen link. Go watch Death of a Salesman and then Glengarry Glen Ross.

• Startup puts you on an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced,

• Absolutely nothing happens unless you make it happen,

• You get told no -- a lot,  

• Hiring is a huge pain in the ass,

• At some point you're going to have to hire executives,

• The hours,

• It's really easy for the culture of a startup to go sideways,

• There are lots of X factors that can come along and whup you right upside the head, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about them,

• Figuring out what product to build,

• Building product

• Taking it to market,

• Standing out from the crowd