Product Management - The Startup Lifeline

Easy is a term you use to define other people’s jobs.

I have a lot of respect for marketing and sales folks now. They have a really tough job, because it is about tenacity and psychology, compared to tech work which is write-once and scalable.

Swaroop C H

http://swaroopch.com/2009/11/13/leaving-ionlab/

“I have worked with a lot of startup companies and the #1 thing IMHO that goes wrong is that there is poor product management”

Niel Robertson

http://devver.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/project-management-with-niel-robertson/

PanelistsRaviv Turner13 years of product management and startup experience, building profitable, consumer and business software products.Currently, VP of Product at TapInfluence. Previously Co-Founder & CEO of Guerillapps

Tim Mayer14 years product management, marketing, sales, and engineering experience ranging from internet pioneers to Nasdaq 100 corporations.Is currently the Chief Marketing Officer for TruEffect.

Eric Wu 13 years product management and startup experience contributing to successful world-class teams at companies ranging from startup to Fortune 500.Co-founder and CEO of Bracket Labs, a Salesforce.com project management application

Saturday November 16, 2013

http://rmpcamp.org

Metro State UniversityTivoli, Denver, CO

Product Management - The Startup Lifeline

Sample Questions• How do you find your first customer? What do they look like? Market segmentation and personas• How do you assess if there is really a need? Is this opportunity worth focusing on? Total available market,

market segmentation• How do you know that first customer is actually one to focus on? EventVue post mortem, beachhead market,

pivotCalling on friends - didn’t learn what customers in general wanted or how to acquire them as customers in a scalable way.

• How do customers learn they have a need? How do they learn about your product? customer interviews, MVP• How do customers use, pay for, and get support for your product? MVP, product spec• How do I price my product/service?• What metrics/data do you use to get a sense of success or failure?• I'm new to building products where do I start with product management?• What features do you include in your product or not? Why?• How do you set expectations with customers that not every piece of feedback or suggestion will become a

product feature?• What product management tactics have not worked for you and why?• How often do each of you have customer conversations?• How does the frequency of customer conversations change through the life of a startup tech company?• What tools do you use to track customer conversations?