How Technologies like Big Data and Social are Changing Product Management

By Edward Chenard

New Tools Mean New OpportunitiesSocial has taken off in the last five

years to become a common place communication channel.◦Despite widespread acceptance, many

companies still do not engage customers via social for product development.

Big Data has taken off in the past three years and shows great potential.◦However, most companies still do not

understand big data’s potential for innovation.

Product Management can Great Benefit from These New ToolsNew product introduction can be

A/B tested faster and for less money.

The ability to test more product features faster is greatly improved.

The ability to engage customers in new ways both directly and indirectly.

Data has grown 1000% since 2005 and growing faster!

Vitaminwater

Vitaminwater used Facebook to create new flavors

Fans on Facebook won $5,000 for their new product ideas.

2 million people participated in the new product development effort

How eBay uses Big Data eBay manages over 40 petabytes

of data (1 petabyte equals 10 billion photos).

eBay runs multiple tests at the same time and these tests average 1MM users.

The tests are used to identify patterns and insights to create new products offerings.

How Netflix uses Big Data75% movies are selected from

recommendations.Netflix lives or dies by the way it

uses data.New product test involves mass

amounts of data and analysis that are used to create new products.

The CEO spends 2-4 hours a week reviewing these tests.

Netflix and SocialNetflix has been testing social

recommendations overseas. Social driven recommendations

are driving product changes.These changes are driving

growth and bringing customers to Netflix in bigger numbers, in those overseas markets.

How to use Data to Improve Product ManagementUnderstanding data is the key to

improving the product development process.

Impression data: What is shown, when and where.

Personal data:◦- Transaction data◦- Social data◦- Device data◦- Personal identifiable data

Using Data to spot TrendsRecency, Frequency, Monetary

(RFM)◦How recently did someone search◦How often ◦What is the monetary value of the

searchesUse RFM to help predict behaviors with your data among segmentations.

What you Need to Know About SocialYou don’t control the

conversationIt is a dialogue with customers,

so engage them, don’t sell to them.

Social is a full contact channelGo Beyond Facebook and Twitter.

What you need to know about Big DataThis is not about IT, Business

needs to drive thisUnderstand the tools and roles

i.e, Hadoop and Data ScientistsUnderstand privacy issues when

it comes to data collectionIt’s not just about the data

What is the Future?Combing personal attributes with

behavioral information will give companies better insights into what new product features will resonate with customers.

Combing attributes and behavioral is where social and big data converge.

What is the Future?Bayesian Learning Systems

◦Easy for non-techies to learn◦Bayesian tools today make it easy

for product managers to do their own analysis without the need for IT.

Nearest biclusters◦- Neighborhood based data collection

What is the Future?Data and signal collaboration

◦New product developing will involve customers more and more. Signaling Personal data hubs Device data New forms of communication Always keep changing!

Thanks youFind me on LinkedinBlog: Crosschannelprairie.comEmail: edward@echenard.com

Thank you◦Edward Chenard