How to be an Effective Product Manager

Anshumani Ruddra/ @baboonzeroSequoia CTO/ CPO Summit 2016

Legend

Skills/ Systems of an Effective PM:

#Core – skeletal and muscular

#Process – circulatory

#People – nervous

#Core

Spend the majority of your time in the problem space

Why before How and What

#Core

Learn the difference between Attitudinal and Behavioral user research methods

What users say – AttitudinalWhat users actually do – Behavioral

#Core

Always be deconstructing

What works and why?What doesn’t work and why?How can this product be improved 10x?

#Core

Adopt an experimenter’s mind-set

Every experiment has three crucial steps:

Setting up the experimentMeasuring the resultsUsing the results to improve the experiment

#Core

Use first principles thinking

#Core

Build breadth and go deep on a couple of skills

At an org level – match people with complementary skills

#People

Practice enlightened self-interest

#People

Peddle your wares to your teammates

Your backlog, roadmap, sprint plan, product requirement documents – these are all products you own and create for your teammates– your first users. Set a high quality bar with them.

#People

Articulate the vision and mission

Users care about the ‘Why’So does your team

#People

Build trust within your team

Set high standards and deliver

Expect high standards

#Process

Avoid multitasking

Do one thing at a time. Do it well.

Same goes for your product.

#Process

Bring order to chaos:

• Daily scrums are good• Come prepared for meetings• Take notes during meetings – share

with everyone• Stick to shorter meetings• Use Jira/ Trello/ whiteboards

#Process

Live by the two pizza rule

Q&A