A Product Teardown Template — Newbie Perspective
In my Introduction Blog, I alluded to the primary type of content that will be part of this publication series — the Product Teardown.
The Product Teardown was proposed as a great way to combine learned concepts and simulate some “hands-on” experience in product. The expectation is that week by week, I would be able to improve my product evaluation ability through increased conceptual learnings (online courses, readings, videos) and interactions with those in the field (interviews, feedback).
As of this writing, I’m in Week 2 (of 12) of the accelerator program with one Product Teardown in the books, so it is still early on. I’ll discuss methodology here using what concepts I’ve already learned.
Prior to starting the accelerator program, I had performed some brief research into Product Management, understanding the following concepts at a very novice level:
- The Pirate Metrics framework, which were key to the SaaS (Software as a Service) model. I had gone through some brief videos online explaining Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue angles of a product.
- The User Onboarding framework, part of the UX aspect of the product. To the same degree as learning about Pirate Metrics, I had gone through a mini-course with online videos.
As I began to move through the Udemy Product Management Course, I started rack up concepts quickly, building a small basket of skills to build a Product Teardown strategy around. Throughout six (6) sections, there were some familiar concepts (SWOT Analysis, market sizing, trends) and a whole lot of unfamiliar concepts (Personas, Empathy Mapping, Features Table).
I used my trusty whiteboard and eventually settled on the following as a starter template:
The strategy would be divided into three different parts:
- Evaluate the basis/building blocks of the product. Does it solve a pain? If so, how? What would the scope and hypothesis of the product? Finally, could I generate a theoretical user persona and fill in the empathy gaps?
- Open & Use the Product, looking into the UX and understanding how it works. If it does have associated Pirate Metrics, how is it incorporating these aspects?
- Finally, figure out where it fits in the ecosystem. Does it have competitors or similarities? If so, what are the differentiating features or aspects?
With these evaluation areas, I should be able to make a somewhat informed opinion about the product.
Now, some of these aspects may not be applicable, especially from a validation standpoint (I would not be able to go out and validate for the product, if it already has been released) or development standpoint (I cannot see the feature backlog or talk to the developers for the product). I can only make assumptions, based on the information that I have.
The goal would not be to fully “unmask” a product, and instead this would be an exercise in applying what I know. Ultimately, I should be able to understand if my angle of approach is correct, and if it is not, what I can do better for the next Product Teardown.
