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15 Lessons as a Product manager

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Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu
Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu

This document outlines 15 lessons learned as a product manager. Some key lessons include: focus on increasing revenues and reducing costs while delivering value for today's costs; understand customer and market needs through quantitative and qualitative data balanced with intuition; set realistic expectations and don't push unrealistic quarterly targets; test hypotheses early to fail fast; and serve as the owner and conduit of information between cross-functional teams to drive the product vision while remaining unbiased. The overall message is the importance of balancing strategic and tactical work with a focus on building products customers love.

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15 Lessons Learned as a Product Manager 05/03/2013 Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu > www.sureshkrishna.com > www.linkedin.com/in/sureshmadhuvarsu
 Remind your self about this fundamental building block everyday  Strive towards increasing the revenues; reducing the costs and increasing the profits.
 Today’s cost has to yield >2x revenues or indirect positive effect. If not, something is wrong with today’s cost.  Sunk costs are important; don’t get stuck to past mistakes.  Know a dead horse; don’t feed it;
 Everyone has a perspective on what should be done  Customers may not always be right; Also, they may not always be wrong.  Understand the user and buyer relationship  Understand the engineering, sales limitations
 Collect quantitative and qualitative data about the market and customers  Gather the expert intelligence from the previous experiences  Balance between the data and intuition
 …not tomorrow; not yesterday  Set realistic expectations to customers  Don’t push quarterly targets too hard on to sales  If you sell future, you always need to catch up
 The cost of fixing a problem tomorrow is much more expensive than today  Don’t be lazy
 Everyone is watching you  Your market, customer and industry knowledge brings in energy to other teams  Be positive
 Human relation is much better than Email and Phone conversation  Take time to know everyone who is connected to the product  Networking is part of the job; it is an investment
 You are smart; but customer is ALSO smart  Your story has more effect than your feature  Keep the story consistent
 Test the hypothesis as early as possible; Fail early  If you plan for a feature make sure someone out there is ready to use it  If there is a feature that’s not profitable, don’t be afraid to prune
 You are the owner of the product  Every thing starts at you and ends at you  Don’t pass the buck 
 …but should not drive your product  Spend enough time to understand the moves of the competition  YOUR vision should drive your product with an ultimate goal of building products that customers love.
 … with "no biases“  The glue to the cross functional teams  Conduit of the information and data flow
 Everyday is different at work  Don’t get deep into the tactical work  Don’t stop with Strategic work  Do enough to balance the important and urgent tasks
 …and smart people  There are lots of things going on and being happy helps  Being funny or humorous helps 
15 Lessons as a Product manager

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15 Lessons as a Product manager

  • 1. 15 Lessons Learned as a Product Manager 05/03/2013 Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu > www.sureshkrishna.com > www.linkedin.com/in/sureshmadhuvarsu
  • 2.  Remind your self about this fundamental building block everyday  Strive towards increasing the revenues; reducing the costs and increasing the profits.
  • 3.  Today’s cost has to yield >2x revenues or indirect positive effect. If not, something is wrong with today’s cost.  Sunk costs are important; don’t get stuck to past mistakes.  Know a dead horse; don’t feed it;
  • 4.  Everyone has a perspective on what should be done  Customers may not always be right; Also, they may not always be wrong.  Understand the user and buyer relationship  Understand the engineering, sales limitations
  • 5.  Collect quantitative and qualitative data about the market and customers  Gather the expert intelligence from the previous experiences  Balance between the data and intuition
  • 6.  …not tomorrow; not yesterday  Set realistic expectations to customers  Don’t push quarterly targets too hard on to sales  If you sell future, you always need to catch up
  • 7.  The cost of fixing a problem tomorrow is much more expensive than today  Don’t be lazy
  • 8.  Everyone is watching you  Your market, customer and industry knowledge brings in energy to other teams  Be positive
  • 9.  Human relation is much better than Email and Phone conversation  Take time to know everyone who is connected to the product  Networking is part of the job; it is an investment
  • 10.  You are smart; but customer is ALSO smart  Your story has more effect than your feature  Keep the story consistent
  • 11.  Test the hypothesis as early as possible; Fail early  If you plan for a feature make sure someone out there is ready to use it  If there is a feature that’s not profitable, don’t be afraid to prune
  • 12.  You are the owner of the product  Every thing starts at you and ends at you  Don’t pass the buck 
  • 13.  …but should not drive your product  Spend enough time to understand the moves of the competition  YOUR vision should drive your product with an ultimate goal of building products that customers love.
  • 14.  … with "no biases“  The glue to the cross functional teams  Conduit of the information and data flow
  • 15.  Everyday is different at work  Don’t get deep into the tactical work  Don’t stop with Strategic work  Do enough to balance the important and urgent tasks
  • 16.  …and smart people  There are lots of things going on and being happy helps  Being funny or humorous helps 