5 Skills Product Manager Should Have
Coming from startup bootstrapping background, the transition to be part of Tokopedia Product team poses a new set of challenges for me. Starting from managing a small team of six people solving neighborhood problems, I suddenly faced a battle royal among several interests with complicated key metrics. Here, at Tokopedia, every steps (product initiatives) we take should eventually relate to the company’s North Star metrics.
13 Tribes, hundreds features, but still in synergy.
In short, this is the condition at Tokopedia when I joined. So that all can work together, of course there is a special strategy that is owned by the employee as we call it, the “Nakama” especially the Product team. Want to know the secret? Let’s just read it right away!
Love the problem before the solution
One of Tokopedia’s DNA is Focus on Consumer. That’s why every Nakama always tries to focus on solving problems of Tokopedia users. But before solving the problem, as a data-driven company we always start every step based on the data and the good news is, at each tribe will have its own dedicated Data Wizard, shining every paths we take with their wisdom. With data, we can validate the WHY of a problem, so as to ensure the impact of our value proposition and also analyze & mitigate risks that come with it.
In Tokopedia apps, there is a feature that can enable you to interact directly with shows on television, called Tokopedia Play. Before kicking off with the development, we need to know in advance how many peak concurrent users who have joined, then we must predict how much increase will happen in the future. Without these insights, what we expect to be a delightful, interactive feature, can easily turn into huge wildfire due to system inability in accommodating a surge of concurrent users using the feature.
Everything is Discussable
The Product Manager is not a single fighter executor, in contrary, a Product Manager has duties to rally and give purpose to whole spectrum of cross-functional teams For example, when there is a product idea that will be run, then the first step that must be done is a Product Manager must communicate the idea in detail to the Technology, Business and Design team. This is where the Communication skills of the Product Manager will be tested.
When developing Tokopedia Play, both Product & Business team have a goal to add a Streaming Video module. This is where we convey the product requirements to Tech & Design team. After testing POC (Proof of Concept), we achieve satisfactory results that allow us to be confident in developing this module using Youtube Live Streaming SDK. With the limitations and results of this POC, I need to align with Design team to craft the best design solutions considering expectations and constraints imposed by the SDK (for example, Video View cannot be overlayed with other component). Now, this is where the art of communication will be tested. I’m very grateful that up till now, each Nakama i met has always been supportive, focusing on constructive negotiations to solve common problems and be grateful as long as I meet every Nakama is always supportive with constructive negotiations to solve common problems.
Attention to Detail
This includes the most important things for someone who is involved in developing the features. The more detailed the description of the PRD (Product Requirement Document), the better will the working team understand the requirements and deliver into real problem-solving product. Sharing completed is only the beginning of the battle. After tech team’s done developing the feature, a PO needs to direct a design review session together with product design team. In parallel, I also need to work with Data Analyst to ensure tracker sanity. Fortunately, we are not alone in directing this process, as there will be peeps from Test Engineering team, who will provide meticulous & organized guidance, so Tech team will can easily digest the feedbacks.
From the development of the Tokopedia Play feature, specifically the addition of the Streaming Video module, there are some things I can share here regarding to attention the detail:
- User behavior: When entering into the Tokopedia room Play live videos start playing automatically?
- Ads from video streaming providers: Because using Youtube SDK, how do I make the videos that are played do not contain advertisements?
- User engagement: How to calculate user engagement with video streaming?
The three things above are things that might not be visible but very essential. Just imagine how you feel, when you are enjoying your favorite show on Tokopedia Play, suddenly an ads pop up in your face. Therefore the more detailed the Product Manager, the better the features developed.
Creativity Loves Constraint
Before becoming a product, there will be a product building phase. In this phase all the related teams will face several constraints such as the complexity of a feature, time, and resources, but all of them must produce good quality. Impossible? Of course not.
On Tokopedia we live by the idea of “Make it Happen! Make it Better!” The first thing we do is prioritizing things that have a significant impact but with a simpler effort. If it is still not enough, we often divide the scope of a feature into smaller parts but still solving user problems, a notion commonly known as Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This way, we quickly validate every problem we try to solve through every product release iteration.
Again, here I will use example of Tokopedia Play development. Above, I have explained the implementation of Youtube Video SDK as our video streaming PoC. Why? Because in order to achieve faster and simpler development process, we decide to utilize off-the-shelf option, which when done well, have already proven to serve our main purpose, whilst giving us early learnings for next improvements.
Dream With Eyes Open
The last skill you must have is to be able dream with your eyes open, or visionary thinking. A Product Manager in a Tribe on Tokopedia is like a mini CEO who is expected to craft long term vision. By observing user behavior, needs, and pain points, (this is wht I mean as “eyes open”) each dream that we think of can turn into meaningful reality.
Well, for those of you who are interested in entering the world of product development, you will learn more about the skills above. Now, are you ready to enter this exciting world?
