A presentation I held in Helsinki Microsoft Flux 15th of October about Product Management for Founders. A very broad overview of the essential product management skills, tools and processes founders need to know about. And some common barriers for startups in adopting good product management practices.

1. PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
in Digital Ventures
Startups
Product
Management
A presentation given 15th
October
2018 in Microsoft Flux by
Marko Oksanen

2. 11 years building
digital products
7 years in product
management
Marko Oksanen
@_Mark0

3. AGENDA:
What is Product Management in the context of Digital
Ventures.
The fundamentals of good product management with
practical examples and tools.
Brief introduction to common barriers to good product
management in startups.
1.
2.
3.

4. WHAT IS
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT?
1.

5. A project consists of a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service or result.
A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning
and end in time, and therefore defined scope and
resources.
Source: PMI
IT’S NOT PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

6. BUILDING DIGITAL
VENTURES IS A VUCA
WORLD

7. TRADITIONAL
PROJECTS
ARE HIGH RISK
IN A VUCA
WORLD

8. RISK
TIME
MONEY
CUMULATED
INFORMATION
TRADITIONAL
PROJECT
AGILE
INFORMATION
WHY HIGH
RISK?

9. SO WHAT IS
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
IN THE WORLD
OF DIGITAL
VENTURES?

10. TRADITIONAL
DEFINITION OF
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
“a Product Manager is a critical link between
the business, technology and UX”

11. CUSTOMERS TEAM
BUSINESS
Important!
BETTER
DEFINITION OF
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
BIZ, UX & TECH

12. PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
IS NOT A
PERSON

13. THE
FUNDAMENTALS
2.

14. HOW PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT WORKS
WITH BUSINESS

15. COLLECT
IDEAS
● Business ideas
● Feature requests
● Process ideas
● Problems
● Moonshots

16. CREATE
STRUCTURE
● Build the processes.
● Develop the business ideas.
● Understand root causes
(5-WHYS) and push back on
features.
● Manage the backlog.

17. PRIORITIZATION
REQUIRES
CHALLENGE

18. MARKET RESEARCH
FOR STARTUPS
(Going beyond TAM SAM SOM)

19. COMMUNICATE
BOTH WAYS
Choose your weapons:
● Reports
● Documents
● 1on1 meetings
● Presentations
● Slack
● Phone calls

20. BUILD THE
VISION
● Vision is the most effective
tool for communication.
● A good vision fulfills
company purpose.

21. PURPOSE
CUSTOMERS
OWNERS EMPLOYEES
THE
WORLD

22. “Profit for a company is like oxygen for a
person. If you don’t have enough of it, you’re
out of the game. But if you think your life is
about breathing, you’re really missing
something.” -Peter Drucker

23. HOW PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT WORKS
WITH THE TEAM

24. BUILD
RESPECT
● Your expertise brings out
respect.
● Respect is an important part
why PM work often requires
technical skills.
● This is also done also
outside office hours.

25. INSPIRE
&
MOTIVATE
● Help to build the bridge
between a line of code and
the purpose.
● Inspiring & ambitious visions
motivate.

26. BUILD THE PROCESS

27. Source: Essential Scrum, Kenneth S. Rubin
SCRUM

28. KANBAN
Source: Hermanni Hyytiälä,
https://www.reaktor.com/blog/kanban-auttaa-loyta
maan-ongelmakohdat-ja-parannuskohteet/

29. AGILE VALUES
FOCUS ON THE
FUNDAMENTALS
LEAN PRINCIPLES
PROCESS People fail here!

30. MOST COMPANIES ARE
SOMEWHERE IN
BETWEEN
Processes and
Tools
Individuals and
Interactions
Working
Software
Comprehensive
Documentation
Customer
Collaboration
Contract
Negotiation
Responding to
Change
Following a
Plan

31. LEAN
PRINCIPLES
LEAN DEVELOPMENT
1. Eliminate waste
2. Amplify learning
3. Decide as late as possible
4. Deliver as fast as possible
5. Empower the team
6. Build integrity in
7. See the whole
MURI
MURA
MUDA

32. SOME USEFUL
TOOLS

33. BUILD MEASURE
LEARN
ARE YOU
REALLY
DOING IT
RIGHT?

34. BUILD
MEASURE
LEARN
IT’S NOT
LIKE THIS

35. DO YOU
HAVE A
TEAM?

36. IS YOUR PROCESS
PUSH OR PULL?

37. DO YOU HAVE
CONFLICTING
ROLES?

38. SCRUM
ROLES

39. Broken software!
Retention in danger

40. You miss the market
opportunity!

41. Nobody uses it!

42. HOW PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT WORKS
WITH CUSTOMERS

43. GET DATA ON
YOUR
CUSTOMERS

44. Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics
(“AARRR”)
How do customers find you?
How do you get them to the ‘Aha’
moment?
Do they stick?
Do they bring in more customers?
Can you monetize them better?
USE A FRAMEWORK

45. KNOW YOUR
CUSTOMERS!
TALK TO
THEM!

46. Source:
Dr. Max Völkel summary
of The Mom Test by Rob
Fitzpatrick

47. Source:
Dr. Max Völkel summary
of The Mom Test by Rob
Fitzpatrick

48. EXPERIMENT
AND VALIDATE
● Approach everything as an
experiment.
● Optimize for learning.
● Build the capabilities for
quick experimenting.
● Measure # experiments.

49. Source:
https://www.evanmiller.org/ab-testi
ng/
YOU DON’T
NEED TO BE
A DATA
SCIENTIST
FOR THE
BASICS.

50. THERE ARE LOTS
OF TOOLS OUT
THERE

51. 3 BARRIERS FOR
BETTER
PRODUCT WORK
3.

52. DUNNING-KRUEGER
EFFECT
1 Confidence
Experience

53. THE HERO CEO
SYNDROME
2

54. THE KNOWING
DOING GAP
3

55. THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?

56. FIND ME ON:
_Mark0
me@markooksanen.com
/markooksanen

57. PICTURES & CREDITS
● Most pictures are taken from the great site of: www.unspash.com.
● Some of the thoughts regarding Scrum roles and the risk profiles of ventures
were taught to me by the CSPO training of Agile42.