Key Takeaways from Leading the Product

To say Leading the Product conference was amazing is an understatement. It was just one day but the list of speakers was almost perfectly chosen (because nothing is perfect) and covering a wide range of product topics, from the usual of product release and competitiveness to particular practices, such as research, recruitment, and career.

With fellow Bukalapak colleagues; Bayu Surya Ilham Fatoni Rabindra Surya

I personally always drain my brain to fully empty when it comes to attending events. Though some of the topics have already been widely discussed within product communities, I could learn new things on each and every session. Simply put, I was overwhelmed with ideas and insights. Oh well, without trying to sugarcoat the event even more, I guess it would be great to tell you more about Leading the Product in a story. Let’s get started.

With his vast experience on building great products, nobody would open the event as striking as Gibson Biddle. The former VP of Products of Netflix explained lengthily on how Netflix win their customers. He introduced the DHM model that stands for Delight Customers, Hard to Copy, and Make Money. In fact, he emphasised the job of any product leader is to delight customers in a hard-to-copy way to further enhance margin ahead from competitors. It might be simple to say but that is the ever-going challenge. Once we spot what it is that delights our customers of which our competitors hardly able to copy, we are likely to impose a gap with them.

The job of any product leader is to delight customers in a hard-to-copy way to further enhance margin ahead from competitors.

In case of Netflix, core of their DHM model is their original contents. They spend more than 8 billions USD to make original contents while their competitors, such as Amazon and HULU, are only able to spend less than half the amount. Biddle also mentioned about Netflix having four factors that make them difficult to copy: (1) a brand that is no need for further introduction, the red Netflix sign is recognised globally; (2) network effects where users can stream anywhere around the world using any devices or television; (3) unique technology that focuses on personalisation; (4) economics at scale that is 130 million paying customers to venture more original contents production. Those factors drive customers loyalty and enlarge their market base. At the end, they are going to always keep spinning the wheel: finding new ways to delight customers that are hard to copy in order to extend the profit margin ahead of their competitors.

Gibson Biddle on stage

Building great and delightful products would not be possible without proper product release. Saeed Khan, founder of Transformation Labs, discussed an interesting topic about politics against heroics during product release planning. It is arguably common in any organisations where sometimes politics are unavoidably hampering product release. While PMs tend to be characterised as heroics who are bold, altruistic, and determined, they sometimes could not do anything much against power, influence, or authority that is inside politics trait.

Based on the survey conducted towards product management teams, most of organisations struggle in releasing their products in time while only around 18% of them successfully release their products based on schedule. Moreover, 68% of the respondents do not have clear and consistent release planning process. The most surprising of all, or not, is that more than a half don’t have clear successful criteria. This is where synergy and streamline among stakeholders urgently need to take place.

From business vision to product roadmap, by saeedwkhan

In the ideal product world, business vision must be translated into product vision, product objective, product strategy, and product roadmap consecutively. If one of the processes fails to materialise, the release plan is indeed compromised whether in terms of scope, time, or other operational details. Among other stakeholders, it is the PM who needs to step up in jotting down everything related to release strategy, including objective, metrics, risks, and timeline. We don’t want to be trapped in releases factory where we merely build and release features without strong objective and sharp calculation. The clarity from business vision towards each of single release plans is what makes a difference between successful and failed product release.

We don’t want to be trapped in releases factory where we merely build and release features without strong objective and sharp calculation. The clarity from business vision towards each of single release plans is what makes a difference between successful and failed product release.

Research is one thing we can’t decouple from our product development routine. Although this is often the case, we can’t let ourselves to be drown in it. According to Bronwyn Yam, Director of Product Tyro, most of the times we don’t need to understand the problem 100%. It is possible we are doing research that everyone knows the answer. Therefore prior to doing research, she emphasised all of these four actions: (1) make hypotheses; (2) define expected outcome; (3) define go to market strategy; and (4) take some risks. The last point is sometimes daunting for some. It’s not that research is mere complementary, but spending long time in research does not help the business either.

Be it discussing with stakeholders, on-boarding our team for a new initiative, or conducting user interview, PM should possess excellent communication skills. However, we must admit that sometimes we take this competence for granted. If we are hired as PM, it automatically means we are good at communicating. That is not the case. Suzanne Abate, CEO The Development Factory, conveyed 4 characteristics of effective communication. All of them is nothing new but again, underestimating things is our shortcoming. The first one is that acknowledging communication is transaction. We do need to establish means of measuring transaction such as asking people to repeat what they heard. Secondly, we have to anticipate misalignment. Ask people to actively seek understanding. Next is insisting on understanding to make sure everyone is onboard and mutually agreeing on something. Lastly, share definitions if we have to, like definition of ‘done’ might be different for engineers and designers.

Only having good competences sometimes is not enough to step up our product career. We have to own the right characteristics to improve and play our game nicely. Victoria Butt, Managing Director of Parity Consulting, shared her experience of knowing two similar PM profiles. In 10 years, one makes it to be CPO and the other is still a PM. What makes them different is apparently shown in how they perceive their stakeholders, peers, and team. The one having successfully made to be a CPO cares more on strategic initiatives that are company-wide. He has strong initiative to look beyond what is on his plate.

The CPO guy also focused on blockers not just amplifiers. He acknowledges who or what his careers blockers are and tries his best to overcome it. Be it asking them to be his mentors or finding ways to get rid of it. Lastly, the CPO is more inclined to be interested not just interesting. He builds strong human connection among their peers. So everyone doesn’t just know him as a funny and cool guy to hang out with but is also interested to see his capacity and potential.

Aiming high and focus on bigger things, by @victoriabutt

Bigger responsibilities come when we reach top of the ladder. When that time arrives, we should care more about leadership. Be a leader not just boss. Inspire not just command. Influence not just demand. Kirsten Mann, VP Product Experience of Oracle, explains 10 tenets of product leadership. Here they are:

1. Ask the magic questions. “What problem are we solving?” “Who are you solving it for?” “How are we going to measure success?“
2. Embrace the unknown. Never wait to be told what to do and be courageous to start new things. It’s either we succeed or we learn anyway.
3. Be the driver of change. We have to be in the driving seat to control change not the other way around.
4. Be a facilitator. Facilitating could be one of the most underestimated skills in any organisation. It is very important skill since it enables us to do any role.
5. Do little things. For example, appreciating someone in our team by giving simple gift. That is simple gesture and does not take much of an effort but it means a lot for him/her and brings positive ambience within our team.
6. Know when to seek help. We can’t be the one who knows everything. As simple as that.
7. Let it go. Delegate effectively so that everyone can do it as good or even better than us. By doing this, we can bring out the best in people.
8. Stop saying I’d love to. Be conscious of our priority so that we can be active about it. Plan what we do, do what we plan.
9. Prioritise learning. It’s okay to fail. Actually it’s important to embrace failures.
10. Be a decent human. The basic of all. Do the right thing with the right intention.

When we are in leadership position, we are most probably responsible in hiring new talents. Having been in the industry for quite some time, Jason Shen, CEO of Headlight, shared some tips for finding PM talents. First rule is to stop hunting unicorns. Looking for candidate who possesses all requirement is similar like finding a unicorn. It does not exist. Or if in the unlikeliest event there is one, we might not have the budget or the candidate might not be interested in the position we are offering. Hence the second rule, we have to know what we need. We should identify the competences we’re looking for, as detailed as possible, such as technical background or particular experience.

First rule is to stop hunting unicorns. Looking for candidate who possesses all requirement is similar like finding a unicorn. It does not exist.

It’s never wrong to promote from within once we think the person is ready to hold bigger responsibilities. Again, we need to match available position with candidate’s competence. The next rule is to make sure we enable opportunities for the talents to learn within the organisation. So that PMs can learn from various expertise like marketing, sales, or operation from the best in the organisation. This culture of learning also creates safe space for PM to feel protected to learn, try something new, fail, and learn again.

Fyuh, it is a long story already. I’ll wrap out now and see if you have any feedbacks.

I would like to thank Bukalapak for this amazing opportunity. Very few companies aspire to nurture their talents like Bukalapak do. So again, muchas gracias!

Also if you find product management interesting and have what it takes to be product manager in one of the unicorns in Indonesia? Visit our career site right away.