Ritesh Prakash

⚠️ Common Mistakes Product Managers Should Avoid ⚠️ Podcast - Career in Product Management Product management is a tough but rewarding role, and even the best product managers can stumble along the way. Here are some common mistakes to watch out for—and tips to avoid them: Neglecting Data: Decisions made solely on intuition can be risky. Always back your choices with data to validate hypotheses and track success. Ignoring Customer Feedback: Building a product without real customer insights is a recipe for failure. Stay connected to your users, regularly gather feedback, and iterate based on their needs. Lack of Clear Communication: Poor communication with teams and stakeholders can derail projects. Ensure everyone is on the same page by setting clear expectations and providing regular updates. Not Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Stakeholders may have conflicting goals, and failing to manage their expectations can create friction. Be transparent and set realistic expectations from the start. Being Inflexible: Rigidly sticking to a plan despite new information can harm your product. Stay adaptable and be ready to pivot when necessary. Underestimating the Importance of Team Collaboration: You can’t do it all alone! Successful products require input from engineering, design, marketing, and sales. Foster strong cross-functional collaboration. 🚀 Avoiding these mistakes will help you grow as a product manager and lead to building products that truly succeed in the market! Follow Dushyant Bhatt and Chaitanya Shahare for career guidance. #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #Leadership #AvoidMistakes #CustomerFeedback #Prioritization #Teamwork #Innovation #StakeholderManagement #ContinuousImprovement

157

29 Comments

***99% of product managers don’t understand the super effective but non obvious levers for growth. *** Growth is not just paid traffic and writing blogs and good landing pages. Some obvious and non obvious levers - 1. The basic maths says ARPU > CAC so obviously the very first lever to get channel economics work is getting your funnel conversion as high as possible to make this maths work. 2. Now let’s talk about some non obvious levers- the first big one is bundling. Build bundled offerings/build products that increase the basket size in the same transaction. What does bundling do is it increases the ARPU for users which means that you have a better chance of winning the ARPU > CAC equation. 3. Next non obvious lever is to Improve organic/direct traffic %age of your overall traffic. What this does mathematically is brings down your blended CAC across organic + paid traffic and helps you win the ARPU > CAC equation or in other words the organic traffic and orders helps you experiment with higher CAC on your paid channels. How to improve organic/direct %, well build solid products to drive repeats, invest in an SEO engine to drive organic and so forth. 4. Next non obvious lever is help your team identify users on marketing channels who tend to engage with your product more. This means defining key milestone events on your funnel - sign ups, user demonstrating intent eg add to cart etc even before the final purchase and help your team build similar audiences to these users. Relying just on the final milestone will leave you with a much smaller sample to work with and super hard to scale. 5. Finally, a key part of making the economics work is specifically working on a product strategy that heroes high ticket size products. Which means working in tandem your growth team to work out product categories where interest in those categories (either shown by search volume/potential impression volume is high) and the ticket sizes are also reasonably high. Think of a 2x2, you want products with high ticket size and reasonable interest volume. What this does is again improves ARPU while lowering CAC helping you win the equation. Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq My Playbook - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc My Channel - https://lnkd.in/gs6qnNUJ

18

A trend I am witnessing lately is adding up delivery responsibilities on a product manager’s hat. This is mixing apples with bananas. Each has own distinct set of responsibilities. The project manager is responsible for the execution making sure that the delivery is on time, scope, and budget. The product manager focuses on vision, strategy, discovery, competition, monetization, and measurement to name a few. Frequent communication between both of them is highly recommended and beneficial. #productmanagement #projectmanagement #roles #responsibilities #job #multiplehats #softwaredelivery #jobresponsibilities #organigram #structure #humanresources #productrole #product

8

Harsh reality of B2B product management: The same product has to satisfy needs of both personas: Customers and Users 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿: Person who decides to buy the product 💰 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿: Person who uses the product daily ⚙️

167

22 Comments

🌟 Metrics in product management are quantitative measures used to evaluate the performance, health and effectiveness of a product. They provide actionable insights that help product managers make informed decisions, guide product development and align with business objectives. As product managers, it's important for us to understand and leverage these key metrics as they can significantly enhance our product's journey and success. Following the AARRR framework, the top metrics are- 🚀 1️⃣ Acquisition: How do users discover your product? Focus on optimizing channels to attract the right audience. Ex- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 2️⃣ Activation: Are users experiencing the "aha" moment? Ensure a seamless onboarding process to demonstrate value quickly. Ex- Time To Value (TTV) 3️⃣ Retention: Do users keep coming back? Regular engagement and valuable updates are crucial for maintaining lasting relationships. Ex- Churn Rate 4️⃣ Revenue: How does your product generate income? Explore diverse monetization strategies to maximize profitability. Ex- ARPU, CLTV 5️⃣ Referral: Are users spreading the word? Cultivate a product experience so delightful that users become your biggest advocates. Ex- NPS 📍 Understanding and analyzing these metrics allows us to pinpoint growth opportunities and improve the overall user experience for our end users and drive data-driven decisions. #productmanagement #productdevelopment #metrics #product #business #acquisition #activation #revenue #referral #retention

14

This is your last chance to register for the webinar schedule tomorrow. Pls refer to the details as below.

6

The Art of Saying 'No', PM Edition🙅🏻‍♀️ "Why did the product manager cross the road? To tell the chicken ‘no, it’s not in the roadmap.’ 🐔❌ Balancing stakeholder dreams, customer needs, and development realities is no easy feat. Sometimes the toughest job is diplomatically saying ‘no’ while keeping everyone excited about what’s to come. Cheers to all my fellow PMs who master the art of prioritization and make the impossible, possible. Keep up the amazing work! 🌟 #ProductManagement #Roadmap #Prioritization #OpenToWork

2

8 MUST TRY case studies for every PM aspirant: [1] Case study 1 - Product design and thinking https://lnkd.in/d8amWb_5 [2] Case study 2 - Performance Analysis https://lnkd.in/dhymU9ut [3] Case study 3 - Root Cause Analysis https://lnkd.in/dQFe-tfr [4] Case study 4 - Product-led growth https://lnkd.in/dU2axMbY [5] Case study 5 - Analytical ability (building a logic) https://lnkd.in/dnmB3qR2 [6] Case study 6 - How would you improve user experience using data? https://lnkd.in/dkKtchQC [7] Case study 7 - Product design https://lnkd.in/detfZ8id [8] Case study 8 - Performance analysis https://lnkd.in/dJZbYHXd If you want to practice such case studies, check out: https://lnkd.in/dhQz8937 #CaseStudies #ProductManagers #ProductManagement #InterviewPrep  

211

7 Comments

A meaningful part of good product management is good common sense, and while common sense is famously not all that common, it is also not the exclusive domain of product managers, which is precisely why it is silly when large orgs implicitly assume that only someone with the Product Manager title should do product work and a project cannot start unless there is a Product Manager allocated to it.

533

19 Comments

Product Management is one of the most vaguely defined roles in the Indian startup ecosystem. PMs gain their experience from the companies they work for. Companies take full liberty in how they use and train PMs to get the work done. That’s why you will always find PMs with different areas of strength. Folks could be good at one or more of the following: Data, user experience, design, research, project management, business, content, stakeholder management etc. But the irony is that companies, during interviews, still look for skill sets which they themselves cannot provide PMs once they join. Some of them also continue to have weird 1:10 ratio of PMs to Engineers, with unfinished work on the table, always. When things cannot just function coherently without a PM, why judge them differently? I think it is high time PMs get the credit for their true value, worth and contributions to the growth of the Indian startup space 🙂 #productmanagementirony #startuppms #pmvalue

185

10 Comments

When you say your product has Product Market Fit, it means your product has achieved PMF for specific segments of users, not everyone which you consider as your potential user. PMF is always segment specific, it is never generic. So next time you want to grow your product, understand which set of customers loved your product initially and find similar customers who have similar needs.

21

How do you improve onboarding conversions? Catch a glimpse in the pdf. If this type of real-world documents from my past work interests you, let me know in comments and I will share. Also happy to share the pdf for offline reading, just drop me a comment. #productmanagement #productmanager #conversion

4

1 Comment

***How to actually be a data driven product manager? Well if you are are the kind of PM who only looks at data supplied by your analyst in excel and has never documented a deliberate instrumentation section in your PRDs and has never logged in into your web analytics tool but love to proclaim yourself as a data driven PM, well let me peel the layers a bit*** 1. Let's start simple - first step is understand some basic nuances of data that you are seeing - let's say you are looking at conversion data - some simple questions you could ask yourself - Is it visit level or visitor level data, does it make sense to look at this data at this level, what do the attribution windows look like? Default attribution is ok or should you look at longer term attribution. 2. If the data feels off, do you have the ability to look under the hood and know whether it is due to an incorrect instrumentation problem or due to incorrect segmentation strategy - eg some segments applied at visits level, some at page views level. Hint - segmentation should generally be applied at same granularity. 3. When you are asking for more granular data - know what is feasible and what is not. Eg. if as a PM while launching the product you never bothered to instrument price buckets for devices on key events - then expecting your analyst to supply you conversion data for high end vs low end devices is foolhardy. Sure, he could first pull out the data by different device models and then manually bucket them but he is just paying extra tax for your own sloppy work. If you were planning to do this analysis from get go you should have built it into your instrumentation strategy. 4. Which brings me to a very important point always be very very deliberate and clear about your instrumentation plan- events and dimensions and make it part of your PRD. 5. Finally, you need to know the right tracking strategy for the problem at hand. Eg. if you want to know conversion of users who click on filters in the funnel, what should your tracking implementation be? Do you think if you track the click info in a page level variable as normally click data is tracked, you will be able to find the conversion? I hope you will do this in the future before loudly and proudly proclaiming yourself as a world class data driven PM. Let’s stop BS-ing shall we? Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights - https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq While you are at it you can also grab my product assignments playbook, 19 real product cases, all successful submissions, real job offers, ~258 pages of content. ***Grab it now**** - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc #product #datadriven #analytics

48

8 underrated skills you should nurture as a #product #manager 👇 Some skills you can't learn from books or classes. Either they come naturally or they get enhanced through observation, failure and mentoring. What skills do you think are highly underrated in #productmanagement

24

Product Managers, if you're seeking career growth insights, Lenny Rachitsky's recent podcast featuring Vikrama Dhiman is an absolute must-listen. Vikrama shares a valuable PM skill development framework, and immense wisdom and specificity on how to sharpen skills at every stage. While avoiding generational stereotypes, he definitely addresses what, I'd hazard, other leaders have noticed as a rising trend of young professionals seeking rapid career progression ahead of skill enhancement - and he does it with gracious & empathetic advice that is right on the money. For leaders aiming to mentor product managers effectively, this discussion is a goldmine too. Thanks Lenny and Vikrama for the thought-provoking dialogue #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment

12

𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 In the last 3 months, aspiring Product Managers who reached me out for consultation have asked interesting questions. The second most popular question (first being how to transition into PM) was the career path for Product Managers. While designations tend to differ organisation to organisation but I widely categorise accountabilities rather than designations. Here are the categories: 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - Responsible for day-to-day product management activities, owning the product roadmap, and bearing some strategic responsibility 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 (𝘼𝙋𝙈) - Similar to a Business Analyst role, performs analysis and makes recommendations but doesn't have full decision authority of a Product Manager 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - The highest level of individual contributor product manager, responsible for defining product strategy 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 - Owns the strategy and delivery of a full product or large feature, manages the product team, and owns the product roadmap and KPIs 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 / 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 - Leads a team of product managers, responsible for product strategy for a specific product or set of products 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 - Leads an entire product or product feature, often managing other product managers, develops the product roadmap 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙊𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙧 (𝘾𝙋𝙊) / 𝙑𝙋 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 - Focused on company strategy and how it translates into product strategy, manages the entire product portfolio, responsible for P&L and revenue KPIs 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 - Focuses on product strategy and how it aligns with company goals, manages product managers 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 roles focus on day-to-day product management activities 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 roles define product vision and strategy 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 roles manage teams of product managers 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 roles set company-wide product strategy and manage the overall product portfolio #productmanagement #productmanager #careerpath #career ~~ If you found this post helpful, repost ♻️ this and follow The Product Leap for daily content at 𝟭𝟭 𝗔𝗠 & 𝟱:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗜𝗦𝗧.

4