Product Principles

Transcript

1. Product Principles The difference between good and great

2. Every company has a Mission Statement An agreed upon, lasting

   statement that all employees know by heart

3. As PMs, we translate the Mission Statement into Product All

   the decisions we make should be consistent with, and advance the mission

4. But, translating lofty Mission Statement to Product is tough How

   does “To re-imagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world” help me design a new review system for Etsy items?

5. Product Principles make the Mission Statement actionable Set of rules

   that we as PMs can use to make decisions

6. Examples Let’s go through a few

7. Instagram Product Principles • Make every picture beautiful • Make

   it super fast to upload a photo • Share to all places and people at once Example
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9. Venmo Product Principles • Easy • Fun • Trustworthy Example

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11. Customer.io Product Principles • Make it hard to make mistakes

    • Make our users feel like they have superpowers • Make our users’ success easy to share Example
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15. Oscar Product Principles • Simple • Friendly • Smart Example

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20. Difference between Good and Great Why have product principles?

21. VP sign-off not required Codified principles enable autonomous, consistent decision-making

    at every level

22. Clarifies when to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ Prioritization and resource

    distribution becomes clearer

23. Data isn’t necessary to justify every decision Easier to gain

    consensus on decisions hard data can’t answer

24. Easier to think of delivery drones Less copy-cating, more first-moving

25. Forming Product Principles What qualities should Product Principles have?

26. Easy to remember No more than 5. Ideally 3. Everyone

    at the company should know them by heart.

27. Written in clear, direct, decisive language Help PMs and others

    make decisions

28. Play at some emotional level Get at how your users

    should feel as they use your product.

29. Specific to your company Emphasize your POV and how you’re

    different from competitors

30. Product Principles at Etsy Working with PMs to form product

    principles

31. Steps 1. Clearly articulate your company mission II. PM /

    decision makers write down 3-5 times when they’ve faced tough Product Decisions III. Group by common questions, summarize. IV. Generate clearly articulated POVs for each common question. V. Translate into Product Principles

32. Questions? @ashaegupta