Lean product management methodology illustrated thru an example

1. Designing Products: Lean Product
Management
E.g. Problem Area: Roommates
Uday Sandhar

2. Two Big Unknowns
Customers
What’s Valuable?

3. Basic Understanding
of Customer/Issues
Build
MeasureLearn
Fast Iterative
Experiments
Plan of Action

4. Let’s Start with Understanding Customer and Issues
Recruit Users
PROCESS
Interview Users
Develop Persona/s

5. Found “Economic Renters”…
Economic Renter
Name: John G.
Profession: Jr. PM at a tech company
School: University of Texas / Undergrad
Living Situation: Rents apt with 2 guys in SF
Renting Experience:
“Rent with roommates to save money..Finding the right
apt and the roommates is scary and time consuming…
use Craigslist..So much is unknown…have to blindly
trust roommates…even the application process..docs,
background and credit check is so 80s…share rent thru
Venmo.”

6. And “Savvy Homeowners”…
Savvy Homeowner
Name: Emily W.
Profession: Sr. Manager
School: University of Michigan / MBA
Living Situation: Owns and lives in her condo; rents
part of it
Renting Experience:
“…renting makes owning affordable…usually ask
around to find roommate…like to avoid complete
strangers. Use RentMoola to manage rents…workable
tool but could be better if end-2-end for accepting
applications, running checks, and accepting monthly
rents digitally.”

7. User Interviews Revealed 3 Big Issues…
No easy
way to find
trustworthy
roommates
Rental
application is
manual and
slow
No ideal tool
for rent
sharing and
management

8. Let’s Focus on…
No easy
way to find
trustworthy
roommates
Rental
application is
manual and
slow
No one tool
for rent
sharing and
management

9. Research
Social Media Words -> Personality Traits -> Predictor of Trustworthiness
Based on language analysis of FB Comments/Status updates. Striking
difference in languages across varying genders, ages, and personalities.
1. Safe
2. Reputable
3. Honest
4. Ethical
5. Reliable
6. Truthful
7. Honorable
8. Financially Sound: Connect Mint Account
UPenn: http://wwbp.org/blog/assessing-the-assessment-measuring-personality-with-facebook-status-messages/
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073791
http://www.medicaldaily.com/social-media-posts-may-be-indicators-personality-potential-health-risks-and-cultural-323788

10. Vision
Provide a simple way to find trustworthy compatible roommate

11. Ideal State Hypothesis
Utilize social data and language analysis to identify
personality traits that can be used to assess trustworthiness
and compatible personalities. Leverage Mobile platform to
deliver a simple, intuitive and pleasant experience.

12. Now, to discover what’s valuable, we conduct…
Build
MeasureLearn
Fast Iterative Experiments

13. What we Need to Learn?
VALUE
1. Users will trust algorithmically generated personality traits
2. Users will let their direct friends verify their personality traits
3. Users will share their personality traits with matched prospects
4. Users will create profile to specify roommate preferences and rental plans
5. Users will allow app to post to Facebook
6. FB activity will result in app signups from interested prospects
GROWTH
1. Bootstrap using Craigslist users looking for roommates
2. FB activity will result in app signups from interested prospects
HYPOTHESES

14. What we Need to Measure?
Acquisition
Signups
Email to Signups conversion
KPIs: % and #
Engagement
Users shared traits
User Invited Friends
Friend Signups
Traits verified
Cycle Time
K-factor

15. What we Need to Build?
1. mWeb App
1. FB signup
2. Generate Personality Trait
3. Share Personality Trait/s
2. Email to Craigslist users looking for roommates or rental
MVP: Find Your Personality

16. User Experience and Flow