Kirsten Mann’s Post

🚨 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜’𝗺 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗜𝘁) 🚨 Here’s a story for you. A few years ago, I was leading a team working on what we thought was a truly innovative product. We were on the verge of launching something bold, different, and disruptive in the market. The roadmap was ambitious, the team was excited, and the vision was crystal clear💡 Then the feature requests started pouring in. At first, it was just a trickle—some small adjustments here, a minor tweak there. You know, those “quick wins” to make customers happy. But soon, it turned into a flood. Every week, there were more requests from sales, customer support, marketing—everyone wanted something added. Each one was “urgent,” “critical,” or “a must-have” to close a deal or retain a client. Naturally, we started saying “yes” to everything. How could we not? Customers are the lifeblood of any product, right? Fast forward a few months, and suddenly that bold, innovative product we were so proud of? It had become an unrecognisable Frankenstein of features. 😬 The original vision? Completely buried under layers of unnecessary features. And the worst part? Many of those “urgent” requests didn’t move the needle or help us innovate. They were just noise. 💥 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱: Feature requests, when handled the wrong way, can kill innovation. Slowly, but surely. 🔥 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵: When we keep saying “yes” to every feature request, we dilute the original product vision. We become reactive instead of strategic. And innovation? It gets lost in the shuffle. If you’re too busy keeping everyone happy with small tweaks, you’ll never have the time or focus to push real, game-changing features. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱: We, as product managers, have to be gatekeepers. Not every customer request deserves a spot on the roadmap. Sometimes, saying “no” is what protects the core vision and fuels real innovation. 🚀 Now, I’m curious to hear from my fellow product folks… Afroz Alam – How do you manage the flood of feature requests without losing your product’s direction? Rahul Mathur – Have you ever regretted saying “yes” to a feature that didn’t align with the product vision? Laalit Lobo What’s your strategy for balancing customer needs with long-term innovation? Let’s get the conversation going! 👇👇👇 Have you ever found feature requests derailing your product vision? How do you manage the balance between keeping customers happy and driving true innovation? Let’s hear your thoughts! #ProductManagement #Innovation #FeatureOverload #VisionFirst #ProductStrategy #strategy

When are you ready to launch a new product? Anyone creating a new revolutionary product have asked themselves this question, but what is a good answer? ·      𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 (𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫): “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late” ·      𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦: They will say it is not ready, they just have to fix a few things (Engineers love fixing stuff, forever) - Ask them what needs fixing and why? ·      𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦: They will say they would have sold a lot had it been ready, so just get it ready (Sales can sell anything, that’s ready to sell) – Ask them what is missing to be ‘ready’ and why? ·      𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐦𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈'𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐲: 𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬! At the end of the day, the product is made for the customers. So let them answer – but how? I recommend Beta launches with goals set on customer rating & feedback 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐚 1: 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 (as if you were selling it) to a small audience: get ratings & feedback - learn & improve! 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐚 2: 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 again (as if you were selling it) to a slightly larger audience: get ratings & feedback - learn & improve! 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐚 3: 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 until you get the rating & feedback you set as your target 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 – 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. There was no reason to be embarrassed – customers love getting an early product and give their honest feedback None of the things the engineers wanted to fix, needed fixing None of the things sales said was not ready, needed to be made ready HOWVERE: quite a list of unexpected feedback and learnings are gained by doing beta launches both: ·      𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭, - some things needs to be improved for launch ·      𝐀𝐥𝐬𝐨, 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲, also internally, you learn that some things needs to be improved to launch Things that seem obvious when you do it and get the feedback, but nobody in the company was able to identify, before we do small beta launches and give the product in the hands of the customer. So next time you launch a new product – start beta testing earlier than you think you should! What’s the worse that can happen? You will learn if your organization is ready to launch and get open and honest feedback from your customers that can be addressed to make them happier, and deliver a product that they find amazing! #PurposeLedInnovation Breggz™ Xander de Buisonjé Jeroen van Els Martijn Burgemeester Delores Vida Verhaak

“I know we have the roadmap but…” If you have been a product manager for a while you will probably recognise some version of the following: “𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑝 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 {𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑘𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟(𝑠)} 𝑏𝑦 {𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡, 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝐴𝑆𝐴𝑃} 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 {𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑒.𝑔. 𝑢𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑙, ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟, 𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑒𝑡𝑐} -𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 No matter how carefully you understand user or customer needs and prioritise, these sorts of situations will likely come up. So, as a product manager how do you deal with them? Every organisation and situation is different but here is an approach/framework I use: * 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 * 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 “𝐍𝐨, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰” * 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 * 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 Diving deeper into each of these: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 - Every situation is slightly different but I find it is worth considering: * Do you understand the underlying need of this request? What problem is it solving? * Is the person making the request likely to have validated/be open to you validating it directly with the customers? 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 “𝐍𝐨, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰” * If you say no, what might the impact be both internally (the requester, their boss, their team etc) and externally (the customer)? * If the ‘cost’ of saying no is quite low, you might not need to go any further, though you should always give some rationale for saying no, e.g. “𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑒, 𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑑𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑. 𝑇𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 {𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔}”. 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 * At a high-level, e.g. t-shirt size, what would it take to solve this problem for the customer/set of customers? * This is where more digging will be required. That could mean talking with an engineering leader/designer and the customers themselves. 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭 * If you go solve the problem requested, what are you stopping doing or not picking up instead? * You and the people you work with should understand that there is a cost to doing something new, you either drop something you were already working on or delay starting something you planned. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay that cost sometimes, but everyone should understand there is a ‘cost’ and what it is. How do you do it? Full blog post with some examples and lessons learned linked in the comments.

Building relationships with developers, sales and executives is as important to product management success as product smarts. Sopheon Chief Evangelist Paul Heller dives into this topic in his latest blog: https://hubs.ly/Q02nH4HD0 #productmanager #productmanagement #buildingrelationships

As a product manager, I have come to realize that in today's highly competitive market, customer loyalty is the key to business success. And while there are numerous metrics to measure customer satisfaction, there is one that stands out above the rest: Net Promoter Score (NPS). For those who are unfamiliar, NPS is a customer loyalty metric that asks a simple question: "How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?" Customers rate this on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most likely. Customers who give a high NPS score are more likely to become repeat customers, refer others to your product, and even defend your brand in the face of competition. As a product manager, if you want to know how your product is truly performing, keep an eye on that NPS score!  Institute of Product Leadership Pendo.io HelloPM ProductFocused Product Growth Product Growth Upraised Malay Krishna #ProductManagement #CustomerLoyalty #NPS #CustomerSatisfaction #GrowthHacking #Startups #BusinessStrategy #Marketing #CustomerExperience #Feedback #DataDriven #Productivity #Entrepreneur #Tech #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #SaaS #Analytics #Success #Viral #Trending #MustKnow #ProductTips

My Journey to Product Management (Part 5)🚀😎 Receiving and analysing feedback is something I learnt as an Entrepreneur. Trust me every feedback was an avenue to check and improve my customer service. On the other hand while some customers might not be fully aware of what they really want, I got to understand that even as an entrepreneur you need to see beyond what people might think they really want to what they really really want. Through this feedback, I began to create video content that communicates value,and passes the needful information that I want my customers to be aware of. This way they also get to learn and I wouldn't have issues making them see that beyond what they might feel they want, there are also better options. Steve Jobs Once said "People don't know what they want until you show it to them". My customers feel heard (by working on their feedback) and they also learn and gain value (especially in areas they might not have really thought they needed a solution) from the contents I make. This is also equivalent to User feedback integration innit?😎 To be Continued 🚀😎 © Osasona Mercy Fiyinfoluwa #MyJourneytoProductManagement #ProductMangaement #BuildingmyCareer

Scope creep is the silent killer of product success. It can sabotage your product’s success if you’re not careful: 1. Confuses the user experience. Extra features often create confusion and overwhelm. And when use such products - I become annoyed. 2. Slow down progress. The more features you add, the more time and resources are required to develop, test, and maintain them. 3. Risks quality. Spreading resources too thin across tasks raises the risk of bugs, errors, and poor quality. Instead: — Keep your product focused. — Prioritize essential features. — Eliminate distractions. Your product (and team) will thank you.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗡𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 By now it should be clear to everyone that the age of capital abundance is over. Resources are going to be constrained and Product leadership will need to learn new skills and develop new muscles in order to accomplish business, customer, personal and professional goals. The abundance of capital in the decade past encouraged habits which has led us to build everything and anything and all at the same time. But, how we have operated as a function in the previous decade will not be how we operate in the coming years. Product Managers will not have carte blanche to build first and test later. Product Managers will not be absolved of profitability considerations. You will not get to make easy decisions that concern only operational imperatives. In order to operate in the new era, Product Managers will need to ramp back up on strategy skills, with special focus on problem definition, value slicing, segmentation, value scoping. Furthermore, we’ll need to sharpen our skills to discriminate between options because you surely will not have the freedom of investing in every interesting feature. In order to do that, PMs will need to go deep into understanding human and customer behaviour, and figure out where the struggles are. We’ll need to re-learn what it means to do real segmentation based on customer and human behaviour. We’ll need to wean our companies away from the easy path of “industry categories” gleaned from analyst reports, as a way to decide product scope. We’ll need to deeply understand the intensity of the customer problem and understand the value of addressing that problem to the customer. Such an investigation cannot happen in isolation but in the context of all the other struggles that the customer faces. We’ll need to determine how addressing the problem impacts profitability. Does extending the product into new directions enhance or degrade profitability? Does it create downstream costs in training, awareness, onboarding, change management, operational tooling, etc. Does it dilute value prop for existing segments? Where does it fit into the categories-of-the-mind among customers? Once the picture becomes clearer on all the above dimensions, then and only then might one be ready to choose. And yes, you have to choose. If you are thinking that you can slot everything on the roadmap and the roadmap will translates into resources. That's not going to happen anymore. You will need to make some incredibly hard choices, from a set of options which all have the potential to result in a unicorn valuation. That choice-making will truly test your skills, your self-regulation and your relationships.

I gave my secret to success out the other night. I spoke about my experiences at USF Nault Center for Entrepreneurship for Allen Clary's class the other night. The secret: "listen to your customers. solve their problems." Love Pendo.io's article: https://lnkd.in/eC4w8ju3 I said much of the same, "whether it's product management, customer support, success training, or sales... your job is to listen to the customer and help them."