Product Management Essentials (eBook)

Aswin Pranam is a product manager, ex-software engineer, and avid technologist. Prior to his current role as a senior product manager in a venture group, Aswin spent time working in technical roles at Google, Boeing, Disney, and IBM. Aswin has a Bachelor of Science in Informatics (HCI) from the University of Washington, a Master of Science in Information Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. In his free time, Aswin is the founder of elixirlabs.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to building technical infrastructure for NGOs and resource-constrained organizations. To get in touch, please send an email to contact@aswinpranam.com.

Contents 5
About the Author 15
About the Technical Reviewer 16
Disclaimer 17
Foreword: Product Management Essentials 18
Acknowledgments 19
Introduction 20
Part I: Introduction: Getting Started 21
Chapter 1: Introduction 22
What are the learning goals for this book? 23
Technical Foundations 23
Design Foundations 23
Product / Business Strategy Foundations 24
Small Steps to Mastery 24
What the %& !# is product management?
Project vs. program vs. product management 27
The big fundamentals 27
Chapter 2: Guiding Principles 29
Kill your ego 29
You’re not the expert 30
Make decisions 30
Become comfortable with ambiguity 30
Ask the right questions 30
Chapter 3: The End-to-End Product Journey 31
Step 1: Ideation 32
Step 2: Create a product requirements document (PRD) 32
Step 3: Assemble the right team 32
Step 4: Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) 33
Step 5: Establish product-market fit 33
Step 6: Don’t discount design 34
Step 7: Source feedback 34
Step 8: Obsess over metrics 35
Step 9: Win or Learn 35
Chapter 4: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Umesh Unnikrishnan
What does the term “product manager” mean to you? 36
What interested you initially about product management? 36
How do you deal with failure as a PM? 36
What tools help make your life easier as a PM? 37
How is product management different between enterprise and consumer products? 37
Part II: Technical Foundations 38
Chapter 5: Understand the software stack 39
Why cover web instead of other technologies? 39
The question 39
Step 1: www.amazon.com is typed into the web browser 40
Step 2: DNS (Domain Name Server / System) 40
Step 3: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) 42
Step 4: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) 42
Optional Step 5: Load balancing 43
Optional Step 6: CDNs (Content Delivery Network) 43
Step 7: Web server response 43
Step 8: Browser generates content 44
Software Engineering: Through the lens 44
The web stack 44
Front end vs. Back end 45
Getting started with front-end development 46
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) 46
Tags, tags, and more tags 47
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 50
JavaScript 51
Additional Resources 52
Final Thoughts 53
Chapter 6: SQL Quickstart 54
CREATE, DELETE, and SHOW database 55
SELECT statements 55
SELECT statements with conditions 57
UPDATE table with new data 58
DELETE table rows 59
ORDER BY 59
JOINS 60
LEFT JOIN (also called LEFT OUTER JOIN) 61
RIGHT JOIN (also called RIGHT OUTER JOIN) 61
INNER JOIN 62
OUTER JOIN (also called FULL OUTER JOIN) 63
Advanced topics 63
Informative…but why is this useful to me as a PM? 64
Chapter 7: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Vivek Bhupatiraju
What does the term product manager mean to you? 65
Can you break down a “day-in-the-life” of a TUNE PM? 65
What interested you initially about product management? 66
How do you deal with failure as a PM? 66
What emerging technologies excite you most for the next five years? 66
How do you avoid burnout and keep a healthy balance between work and personal life? 66
What tools make your life easier as a PM? 67
What advice do you have for readers who want to get into product but have no prior experience? 67
Chapter 8: Analytics are everything 68
Analytics vs. Metrics 68
Selecting metrics for measurement 69
Types of metrics 69
Metrics that matter 70
A/B Testing 71
Multivariate testing 72
Analytics: Through the lens 73
Drilling Deep with Google Analytics 74
Google Analytics: Advantages 76
Google Analytics: Disadvantages 77
Conclusion 77
Chapter 9: Software Development Methodologies 78
What is waterfall? 79
Advantages of waterfall 79
Disadvantages of waterfall 80
Agile 80
Scrum 81
Structure 82
Roles / Artifacts 83
User Stories 84
Scrum Meetings 84
Work estimation 85
Advantages of Scrum 86
Disadvantages of Scrum 87
Do I need to religiously follow this framework? 87
Final Thoughts 87
Chapter 10: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Sean Ammirati
What does the term “product manager” mean to you? 88
What is one thing that PMs can do immediately that will improve the way they build world-class products? 88
As a venture capitalist, how do you gauge product vision when investing in seed-stage startups? 88
What present technology trend (VR, ML/AI, cryptocurrencies) are you bullish on for the next decade? 89
What advice do you have for a nontechnical founder who wants to raise money and build a tech startup? 89
Chapter 11: Deconstructing System Design 90
Probing 91
Identify pain points 91
Think about requirements 92
Understand the market 92
Arrive at a solution 93
Design a URL shortening service (bit.ly or TinyURL) 94
Background 94
Probing 94
High-level design 95
Additional Questions 96
Part III: Design Foundations 97
Chapter 12: Mindful UX 98
User Experience (UX) vs. User Interface (UI) design 98
UX principles to live by 99
Affordance 99
UX Research Techniques 100
Personas 100
Diary study 101
Surveys 101
Additional UX research and information gathering methods 101
Accessibility 102
Bad UX examples 102
Conclusion 102
Chapter 13: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Leslie Shelton
What does the term “product manager” mean to you? 103
What is the best way to rebound from failure as a PM? 104
How has your background contributed to your success as a PM? 104
How would you go about hiring product managers on your team? Any specific skills that you’d look for? 104
Can you give us an example of one of your favorite products and why? 105
What’s your approach for defining a long-term product strategy? 105
How do you coordinate the balance between product and engineering? 105
Chapter 14: Rapid Prototyping 106
What is rapid prototyping? 106
Why should we create prototypes? 107
Low-fidelity vs. high-fidelity vs. mocks vs. interactive prototypes 107
High-fidelity UI development with Balsamiq 108
Developing UI mocks with Sketch 115
Example #1: Login screens UI kit 131
Example #2: Analytics dashboard UI kit 132
Conclusion 132
Chapter 15: The Good, The Bad, and The Unusable 133
The Good 134
The Bradley Timepiece 134
What’s so special about it? 135
Key takeaway 135
Early prototype vehicle - Waymo 135
What’s so special about it? 136
Key takeaway 137
Square Cash app 137
What’s so special about it? 140
Key takeaway 141
The Bad 141
Hotel shower handle (Wroclaw, Poland) 141
What ruined the user experience? 143
Key Takeaway 144
Confusing street signs 144
What ruins the user experience? 145
Key Takeaway 145
The Unusable 145
(Bad) Digital Advertising 145
How can we do better? 146
Chapter 16: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Daniel Csonth
What does the term product manager mean to you? 147
What are some of the hardest challenges to overcome as a product manager? 147
How do you know if a product is well designed? 148
What metrics do you use to track product success? 148
How will the practice of building products change in the next 5–10 years? 149
Tell me about a product you stopped using because it failed to meet your needs / solve a problem 149
What is your vision for the future? Where do you think technology will take us? 150
Part IV: Business & Management Foundations
Chapter 17: Playing the part 152
Leading without authority 153
Tips to lead effectively 154
Learn to communicate ideas 154
Communication: Upper Management 154
Communication: Users 155
Communication: Team Members 156
The Art of Negotiation 157
Personal Development 157
Conclusion 158
Chapter 18: Product Strategy 159
Forecasting the unknown 159
Budgeting & Estimation
Vendor management 160
Studying the competition 161
Marketing 101 162
The 4 Ps 162
Go-to-market strategy 163
Product Requirements Document (PRD) 164
Product Roadmap 165
Conclusion 165
Chapter 19: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Amelia Crook
What does the term “product manager” mean to you? 166
What’s the best piece of advice you have for new product managers? 166
What misconception do people generally have about the product manager role? 166
What’s your favorite interview question for a product manager? 167
Describe your process for prioritizing requirements 167
What’s the best way to validate an idea with users before moving forward with development? 167
Chapter 20: Crossing the finish line 168
Abandon Fear 168
Think like Spock, lead like Kirk 168
Don’t ask permission, just ask forgiveness 169
Don’t always rely on “best practices” 169
Embrace exponential thinking 169
Dealing with failure 169
Never underestimate the power of luck 169
10 Q’s 170
How do I hire a product manager? 170
What if the organization I join doesn’t understand the product role? 170
What if I have a limited budget for product development and engineering? 170
What if I’m not respected? 170
What can I start doing today to flex my product management muscles? 170
Is an MBA required to be a product manager? 171
What are the growth opportunities for a product manager? 171
Join a startup as PM #1 or an established company as PM #1000? 171
Is it detrimental to my career to join a product team at a non-tech company? 171
I’ve heard PMs work 80-100 hour weeks. How do I avoid this? 172
Additional Resources 172
A call to action 172
Commencement 173
Chapter 21: Industry Spotlight: Q& A with Romy Macasieb
What does the term “product manager” mean to you? 174
How does the role of product manager differ between a startup and an established firm? 174
How has your role changed as you’ve gone up the ranks to VP of Product? Can you describe your day-to-day? 175
What is your biggest fear as a PM? 175
What is an underrated skill or quality of a world-class PM? 175
What’s your approach for crafting a product requirements document (PRD)? 175
Index 176