Product Management & Design At Startups

Copyright © 2010 YourVersion

Dan OlsenDan OlsenCEO, YourVersionCEO, YourVersionFeb 11, 2010Feb 11, 2010

Product Management & Design at Startups

http://www.yourversion.com/

http://www.yourversion.com

http://ixdasf.ning.com/


My BackgroundEducation

BS, Electrical Engineering, NorthwesternMS, Industrial Engineering, Virginia TechMBA, StanfordUI design, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL

18 years of High‐tech Product ExperienceManaged submarine design for 5 years5 years at Intuit, led Quicken Product ManagementLed Product Management at FriendsterOlsen Solutions LLC, PM consultant for startupsCEO & Founder of YourVersion, real‐time discovery startupSpeaker: Web 2.0 Expo, Startonomics, FB fund, Stanford

Will post slides to http://slideshare.net/dan_o


What’s the Goal of a Startup?

Poll: raise your hand if you’re a…PM, Designer, Developerstartup, mature company, agency

Deliver a product that:Meets customers’ needsIs better than other alternativesIs easy to useHas a good value/price

Acquire and retain customersGenerate enough revenue to cover costs


Whose Job Is It? (PM or Designer)

Understand customers’ needsResearch competitive productsEnsure our product is better than restEnsure our product is easy to useEnsure our product is aesthetically pleasingDefine product strategyBusiness success (revenue)User acquisition (marketing)


Key Roles and Interactions

ExternalExternal

InternalInternal

InterfaceInterfaceProduct Product

ManagementManagementUIUI

DesignDesign

EngineeringEngineering QAQA

MarketingMarketing

SupportSupport

ProspectiveCustomers

ExistingCustomers

Listening to customers

Engineering


The Design Gap at Most Startups

Define Design Code

Product Mgmt Engineering

Product Mgmt

big gap

Engineeringgap

Product Mgmt gap Engineering

PM Eng

EngPM

UI

Level

2

3

4

5

Engineering1


The UI Design IcebergThe UI Design Iceberg

VisualDesign

InteractionDesign

InformationArchitecture

ConceptualDesign

Recommended reading: Jesse James Garrett’s“Elements of User Experience” chart, free at www.jjg.net

What most people seeand react to

What good PMs and Designers think about


Elements of User Interface Design

Information ArchitectureStructure and layout at both site and page levelHow site is structured (sitemap)How site information is organized (site layout)How each page is organized (page layout)

Interaction DesignHow user and product interact with one anotherUser flows (e.g., navigation across multiple pages)User input (e.g., controls and form design)

Visual Design“How it looks” vs. “What it is”, often called “chrome”Typography, colors, graphical elements

Usability testing (Ramen Usability: see my fbFund talk)


Product Management’s Job:

Understand customer needs

Ensure the product meets customer needs

Ensure the product is better than the rest

Work with team to design & build great product

Prioritize and plan product ideas to maximize ROI on engineering resources

Work with marketing on user acquisition

Ensure the product is meeting business objectives


Problem Space vs. Solution Space


Russians: pencil

NASA: space pen($1 M R&D cost)

Example:Ability to write in space (zero gravity)

Problem Space vs. Solution Space

Problem SpaceA customer problem, need, or benefit that the product should address

A product requirement

Solution SpaceA specific implementation to address the need or product requirement


Problem Space vs. Solution SpaceProduct Level

Problem Space(user benefit)

Solution Space(product)

TurboTax

TaxCut

Pen and paperPrepare

my taxes

File my taxes


Problem Space vs. Solution SpaceFeature Level

Problem Space(user benefit)

Solution Space(feature)

Gmail importerMake it easy

to share a link with my

friends

Allow me to reuse my

email contacts

Design#1

Design#2

Design#3

DesignPreview with checkboxes

User can edit before import

#1 No No

#2 Yes No

#3 Yes Yes


Picking a Product Vector & Iterating

Problem Space Solution Space

Help userbook travel

Help userplan travel

Feedback

Mockups / Code


PM=Problem Space,Design=Solution Space

Product management’s primary job is to define the problem space

“The user problem we’re trying to address is x”“If we build a product that does y, people will pay us z dollars”

Design’s primary job is to explore the solution space(before coding begins)

“Here are 3 different approaches to solving the problem”Rapid wireframes/prototypes

Each can help the otherBy working together, they try to identify the best solution to the problem


What about Engineering?

Engineering’s primary job is also solution spaceDesign: specify how it should look & behave

Engineering: build itFunctionality to enable desired behavior

Implementation of visual design (HTML & CSS)

Database and architectural design

Engineering should be involved early (vsthrowing it over the fence)

Mockup cycles are cheaper than coding cycles


Which is More Valuable to a Startup?

Specialist or generalist?

Lots to do + limited resources = many hats

Many designers are specialized

Many product managers are generalists

If time demand < 1 FTE = project, not a job

For startups, have a broad skillset

Copywriting

Acquiringusers

Metrics Productplanning

Specwriting

Userresearch

Wireframes& flowcharts(IA & ID)

Mockups(visualdesign)

HTML& CSS

Java‐script


Case Study: Rapid Product Validation through PM/Designer CollaborationMy consulting client, CEO of TrustedID, had an idea for a new product

Team: me, CEO, head of marketing, UI design consultant

4 weeks from 1st meeting to validated product concept

Paid prospective users $1,500 ($75 x 20)

1 round of iteration on product concept


Product Concept was a “marketing report” that let consumers more directly control the direct marketing mail that they receiveConcept was fuzzy with various components, so we broke it into 2 different “flavors”:

#1 “Shield”: Service to reduce/stop junk mail#2 “Saver”: Opt in to receive money‐saving offersWithin each concept, got feedback on modules that mapped to a specific user benefit

Worked with UI designer created paper mockups of pages for each concept (5 pages each)

Case Study: Product ValidationDeveloping Product Concept


Clustering Potential User Benefits to Create Product Concepts

Reduce Junk Mail

Find out what “they” know about you

Money Saving Offers

Compare Yourself to Others

Social Networking

Marketing Report

Marketing Score

Marketing Profile

Save Trees

“Shield” Concept “Saver” Concept




Telephone recruit of prospective customersWrote screener using intuition for psychographic segmentation

Wanted users who work full‐time & use internetFit for opt‐in concept: use coupons, Costco membershipFit for anti‐junk mail concept: use paper shredder, block caller ID

Recruiters used screener to recruitScheduled 3 groups of 3 people to discuss each concept for 90 minutesModerated each group through the paper mockups to hear their feedback

Case Study: Product ValidationRecruiting People


Case Study: Product ValidationFindings on Concepts &User Benefits

Reduce Junk Mail

Find out what “they” know about you

Money Saving Offers

Compare Yourself to Others

Social Networking

Marketing Report

Marketing Score

Marketing Profile

Save Trees

Legend

Strong appeal

Somewhat positive

Low appeal

“Shield” Concept “Saver” Concept


Case Study: Product ValidationLearnings from Research

Learned that “Shield” (anti‐junk mail) concept was stronger than “Saver”People didn’t like many of the “Saver” concept componentsLearned users’ concerns / questions about “Shield”conceptRefined “Shield” concept:

Removed irrelevant componentsImproved messaging to address user concerns / questions

Validated revised “Shield” concept with quick 2ndround of tests

No customer concernsClear willingness to pay



Case Study: Product ValidationSummary

4 weeks from 1st meeting to validated product conceptCost $1,500 to talk with 20 users ($75 each)1 round of iteration on product conceptIdentified winning concept that users are willing to pay $10/month forTrimmed away non‐valuable piecesYou can achieve similar results


PM & Design at StartupsCheat Sheet

Adding a PM or Designer is beneficial, nice to have bothMockup cycles are faster & cheaper than codeProduct Manager:

Problem space: product strategy & requirementsScoping, prioritization, business goals, marketing

Designer:Solution space: wireframes, mockups, IA, ID, visual design

Both:Listen to customersProduct MetricsHelp engineering build a product great that meets user needs, is differentiated, and is easy to use

Startups value generalists more than specialists


@[email protected] www.yourversion.com

PM & Design

The Dynamic Duo

http://www.yourversion.com/



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