At scale, stuff breaks. There are more cross functional and go-to-market teams needed for launches, more dependencies, communication and collaboration become more difficult and it causes a strain on product teams and the company as launch dates are missed. Intercom lived through this pain as they tried to launch new products and failed – until Aislinn Treacy introduced program management. In this PRODUCTIZED talk, Aislinn Treacy, Program Management Lead at Intercom, shares Intercom’s story and how program management has become a critical part of shipping product at scale. She helps us understand what it is, why and when we need it and some key takeaways on how to do it.

1. Shipping Product
AT SCALE
Aislinn Treacy

2. DESIGN PRODUCER

3. PROGRAM MANAGER
DESIGN PRODUCER

4. The story of launching
EDUCATE

5. MISSED
launch dates

6. Our culture THEN...

7. NO dates or plans

8. NO dates or plans
NO documentation

9. NO dates or plans
NO documentation
NO tooling

10. The PROBLEMS

11. SCALING WITH MORE TEAMS

12. RELIANCE ON PRODUCT MANAGER

13. SWOOP AND POOP

14. Shipping at scale, STUFF
BREAKS

16. The solution:
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

17. MILESTONES
RISKS & AMBIGUITY
APPROVERS
COMMUNICATION

18. MILESTONES
RISKS & AMBIGUITY
APPROVERS
COMMUNICATION

19. UI Complete
Ready for QA
Ready for Build
M
arketing Ready
LAUNCH

21. MILESTONES
RISKS & AMBIGUITY
APPROVERS
COMMUNICATION

22. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

23. TACKLE AMBIGUITY

25. MILESTONES
RISKS & AMBIGUITY
APPROVERS
COMMUNICATION

26. DRIVER
APPROVER
CONTRIBUTOR
INFORMED

28. MILESTONES
RISKS & AMBIGUITY
APPROVERS
COMMUNICATION

32. Still not CONVINCED?

33. SOFTWARE?

34. SOFTWARE?
PRODUCT MANAGER’S JOB?

35. SOFTWARE?
PRODUCT MANAGER’S JOB?
BUSY WORK?

36. Messenger App Store Bots

37. GIVE IT A CHANCE

38. GIVE IT A CHANCE
TRY OUT THE TECHNIQUES

39. GIVE IT A CHANCE
TRY OUT THE TECHNIQUES
YOU’LL SHIP BEAUTIFUL PRODUCT AT
SCALE

40. THANK YOU!
@taislinn
aislinn@intercom.io