Usage data allows PMs, the product team, and the whole organization to make better decisions. Good usage intelligence gives you the ability to be smarter, more active, more decisive, nimbler, and to minimize risk. But what if you don't have that data - such as before you have users? Or, what if the right decision seems to fly in the face of the data you have? Or, what if your product offers more than just the standard features?
To get deeper into these questions, Nils Davis asks, "What is the most interesting thing about Instagram?" (Because who doesn't like a product that Facebook paid $1 billion for when it had fewer than 50 employees and no revenue?) Nils will use the example of Instagram’s Filters to talk about how putting prebuilt knowledge in your product can change the way your product is used for the better - putting you in the company of most market-leading products. Finally, he’ll tie it all together by explaining how the way you interpret and use usage data can impact the way your tell your product’s story, and ultimately, how your users use your product.
Analytics in Action: What Users Want: How and Why to Build Knowledge into Your Product
1. What Users Want: How and Why to Build
Knowledge into Your Product
Nils Davis Hannah Flynn
With: Moderated by:
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2. Revulytics gives any software producers deep and actionable insight into
who is using their software products and how they are being used, and the
out-of-box analytics that enable them to grow incremental revenue, convert
and retain customers, and make decisions about licensing and cloud
transformation strategies.
3. Click on the Questions panel to
interact with the presenters
www.productmanagementtoday.com/webinar-series/analytics-in-action
www.projectmanagementupdate.com/webinar-series/analytics-in-action
www.businessinnovationbrief.com/webinar-series/analytics-in-action
4. About Nils Davis
I think I was born to be a product manager. I like to have my fingers in everything, and I love working with people
and teams to help them achieve great things. I started doing enterprise software product management in that long
ago time when there were no classes or books on PM. I always wished I had the “secret” handbook about product
management to help me get over the humps. Instead, I was lucky to work with excellent mentors across my career,
who taught me about finding marketing problems, driving the creation of solutions, and taking the solutions to
market effectively. In my new book, The Secret Product Management Handbook, I’ve shared a lot of what I learned
on how best to achieve this.
About Hannah Flynn
Hannah went to The University of Chicago, where she majored in Environmental Studies with a concentration in
Economics and Policy. She now works with Aggregage on social media strategy and webinar production on sites such
as Product Management Today, B2B Marketing Zone, and Customer Experience Update.
5. 5
• The actual baseball glove used by
Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers’ great
outfielder
• You can buy it from Wilson for $360
• Why would you buy a glove
endorsed by a baseball celebrity?
What Is This?
6. 6
Agenda
• What do people want?
• How we can help them get it?
• The role of analytics
8. 8
• We need whatever edge we can get
• And using our hero’s equipment,
maybe it gives us that edge
• But seriously – Puig chose that glove
and uses it
• It must be OK
• “No one ever got fired for buying IBM”
Become A Little More
Like Your Hero
9. 9
• Do I know enough?
• Can I do it?
• Will I understand it?
• Is this the right choice?
• How complicated is it?
• What do I do next?
We’re All Worried
10. 10
• Why do I have to do this?
• Not this again
• Oh, that’s annoying
• Don’t screw it up this time, ok
computer?
• Why doesn’t it just…?
And We Have Better Stuff
To Do With Our Time
11. 11
• Good products take care of their
users
• Good products don’t require users to be
experts
• Users want us to be the experts
• Good products make things easy
• Good products reduce our perception of
risk
• Good products embody knowledge, not just
capabilities
Good Products Address
Our Fears and
Frustrations
12. 12
• Take yourself back to
2010…
• Every iPhone photo app
was…
• A bunch of sliders
• Easy to mess up, best for
experts
• Then came Instagram
• No sliders
• Pre-made professional,
expert filters
• Your photos always looked
great!
What Does
This Look Like?
14. 14
𝑉 ≫ 𝑃 + 𝑅 + 𝐶 + 𝑂
• V is the value customer gets when their problem is solved
• P is the price – how much they pay you
• R is a risk factor – (their perception of) how likely the solution is to fail
• C is the change management cost of migrating from status quo to your solution
• O is the opportunity cost of solving this problem versus some other problem
The Value Inequality
14
16. 16
• Make V (value) bigger
• Reduce R (risk)
• Reduce C (change management)
• Make sure you’re not competing with O (opportunity cost)
How To Make P (Price) Bigger
16
18. 18
In Pictures
The Secret Product Manager Handbook 18
Price Risk Change
Mgmt
Opportunity
Cost
Excellent
Value
19. 19
Poll: Do you see an
opportunity to build
knowledge (or additional
knowledge) in your
product?
20. 20
Where Can
You Add
Knowledge?
• Opportunities abound, even
in well-covered spaces, like
• Photo management
• Email management
• Project management
20
21. 21
• What do normal people (struggle
to) do now with your app?
• What do experts do?
• Think small
• You can differentiate with a very small
amount of knowledge
• Get out of “spreadsheet thinking”
Opportunities To Add
Knowledge
21
22. 22
• All photo apps added filters
• No longer a differentiator
• Instagram barely even has them anymore
What Worked Before Won’t
Work Now
24. 24
The Analytics Of
Knowledge
• How do you measure how
“knowledge” is being used?
• How do you measure the
value of Bryce Harper’s
signature on your glove?
24
25. 25
• Sometimes the most important feature
isn’t used much
• BMW’s performance features
• Accept 360 strategies and analytical
prioritization
• Instagram filters
Important For Sales? Yes
26. 26
• What if you want customers to use the
feature?
• Instagram filters
• Should Instagram try to increase usage of
filters?
• Are Instagram filters still important?
• Accept360 example
• Understand circumstances
• What’s most important from customer’s
perspective?
Important For Sales? Yes
Important For Usage?
27. 27
• What do I think will happen?
• What if I don’t find that?
• If I do find it, what does it mean?
• Was my hypothesis right?
• If I don’t find it, what does it mean?
• Lean Startup
• p = 0.05 still means 5% of tests will have a false result
“Scientific Method” – You Need A Hypothesis
27
28. 28
• Rule 1: Data does not tell a story
• Rule 2: Use data to support your story
• Rule 3: 10% is not interesting. 20% is not interesting. 100% is moderately
interesting. 10x is very interesting.
• NetIQ example: 20% uptime improvement == 100x downtime reduction
• (80% uptime 99.9% = 20%; 20% downtime < 0.2% = 10,000% = 100x
• Rule 4: Personal wins and unexpected (positive) outcomes are very
interesting
How To Use Data To Tell Your Product’s Story
28
29. 29
• “What’s Measured Improves” – famous, and misunderstood, Peter Drucker quote
• Example of CompStat, the NYC crime tracking app
• Check out the “Crime Machine” episodes (#127 and #128) of the Reply All podcast
• Many technology shops and enterprises have been brought low by measuring the
wrong thing
• Harder to do with usage metrics
• But easy to measure things that don’t matter
What Happens If You Measure (and Incentivize)
The Wrong Thing?
29
30. 30
• The Secret Product Manager Handbook, available on Amazon in paperback
and Kindle
• Or secretpmhandbook.com
• YouTube
• http://www.youtube.com/c/TheSecretProductManagerHandbook
• Twitter: nilsie
• Blog: secretpmhandbook.com/blog
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