Talk given at ProductTank Brisbane, October 24, 2018

1. LESSONS LEARNED
FROM 20 YEARS IN
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Saeed Khan
Founder, Transformation Labs
October 24, 2018

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4. 4
WHAT DOES 20 YEARS IN PRODUCT MANAGEMENT LOOK LIKE?
Hours as a Product Manager:
Product releases managed:
Distinct products managed:
New products launched:
Miles traveled on business:
Customer conversations:
Fires fought and put out:
Recognition for my efforts:
~40,000
~43
16
6
~500,000 (i.e. to the Moon and back)
100s
too many
not enough :-(

5. 5
WHAT IS PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT?

6. 6
WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?
“It is the art of balancing product
needs for sales, development, and
marketing, for the benefit of the
customer.

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WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?
“It's the understanding of what
problems should be solved, in
what order, from a point of view
that takes into account both
business and customer value.

8. 8
Cross-functional business &
technology management
focused on creating and
delivering products that meet
or exceed their business
goals and objectives.
WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?

9. 9
Cross-functional business &
technology management
focused on creating and
delivering products that meet
or exceed their business
goals and objectives.
WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?

10. 10
Product
Management
lives here
WHAT IS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?

11. 11
THE GOAL OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT?
Driving
Product Success
through all stages of
the Product Lifecycle

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What is the
Product
Lifecycle?

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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE STAGES
Develop
Launch
Growth
Maturity
Decline
EndofLife

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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE STAGES
Develop
Launch
Growth
Maturity
Decline
EndofLife

15. 15
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE OBJECTIVES
Develop
Launch
Growth
Maturity
Decline
EndofLife

16. 16
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE OBJECTIVES
Develop
Launch
Growth
Maturity
Decline
EndofLife

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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE OBJECTIVES
Objective Description
Build it
Nail it
Scale it
Extend it
Milk it
End it
Build the first version of the product for specific use case(s)
for a target market
Identify and address barriers to wider adoption within your
target market and prepare the company for product growth –
more than just product/market fit
Scale the business (marketing/sales/services/operations etc.)
and focus on expansion and new customer acquisition
Move into new markets, market segments, solutions & use
cases. Growth in new customers and sales into existing base.
Reduce investment but continue to market/sell with an eye on
maximizing profits from customer base
Remove all investment, stop actively marketing and eventually
remove from market

18. 18
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE - DYSON
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit

19. 19
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE - CHOBANI
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit
https://hbr.org/2013/10/chobanis-founder-on-growing-a-start-up-without-outside-investors

20. 20
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE – MICROSOFT OFFICE
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit

21. 21
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE – SAEED KHAN
Buildit
Nailit
Scaleit
Extendit
Milkit
Endit
PowerCenter
PowerRecon
PowerConvertDVO
IDS
MagicTalk
BullsEye
Profusion
PAM
AppScale
AppLive
ChartWebChart Resizer XRT PDS
PageFormatter
JClass

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1 9 8 9

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• Alias’ software is a single product
• Used for animation and industrial design.
– Hollywood and Detroit
• Who do we build for?
• How to we define a clear product strategy to address
existing and possibly new markets?
• How do we maximize value (and thus revenue)?
SITUATION AT ALIAS
1 9 8 9

27. 27
• Hired a Product Manager from Procter and Gamble
• Segmented the Product by purpose and role
– Animator
– PowerAnimator
– Designer
– Studio (most of the above)
– + options
• Had to break apart and restructure the documentation.
1000+ pages of docs became numerous smaller
manuals
SOLUTION
1 9 8 9

28. 28
• SUCCESS!!!
• Brought FOCUS to marketing, sales and
distribution.
• Understand and target your markets
• Specialization is good.
• Value can be INCREASED even when
“functionality” is DECREASED
OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED
1 9 8 9

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1 9 9 2
• Based in Toronto, popularized (and dominated) fax
software market on Windows
• Great strategy
– Early to market
– Rock-solid product
– ”Lite” version bundled for “free”
with virtually every fax/modem
– Widespread adoption
– Good name: WinFax
• Wanted to enter and reproduce success in Macintosh
market
SITUATION AT DELRINA

30. 30
• Hired TINY team in Toronto to work on the Mac product.
• 1 Developer, 1 QA Eng, 1 Technical Writer
• Followed same strategy as on Windows:
– Bundle with fax/modem manufacturers
– Have “Lite” and Full versions
– Leveraged Windows strength and name recognition
– Product name: WinFax Mac
• EVERYTHING (software, docs etc.) had to fit on 1 800K floppy
disk
SOLUTION
1 9 9 2

31. 31
• FAIL!!!
• WinFax Mac is a VERY BAD NAME
• New name - “Delrina FaxPro for Macintosh” is ALSO a
VERY BAD NAME
– another product named FaxPro existed
• Almost no Macintosh domain knowledge in company
• Late to market – fax/modem vendors already bundling
competitor software
• No MAJOR differentiation that was valuable to
customers. i.e. no reason to switch to Delrina
• Lessons Learned: Copycat strategies rarely work.
Domain knowledge is critical.
Execs – listen to your experts
OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED
1 9 9 2

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1 9 9 5
• Venture Funded startup in Toronto
• Focused on real-time 3D data visualization
• Super cool technology. Everyone loved our demos.
• I was Manager of Customer Education (docs,
training, support)
• We wanted to build a toolkit to allow companies to
analyze data in “4D”
SITUATION AT VISIBLE DECISONS

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• Built a class library that leveraged a simple object-
oriented, platform-independent interpreted
proprietary language.
• Customers: Bank in Japan, NSA, American banks
and some government groups, NASDAQ
• The proprietary language was viewed as a problem.
Couldn’t integrate with other tools
• Rebuilt the library to support C++
SOLUTION
1 9 9 5

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• FAIL!!!
• Did EVERYTHING wrong!
• No understanding of, or validation with market!
• Cool demos don’t mean there is a market need.
• People didn’t want to create “landscapes” and complex
visualizations
• “Field of Dreams” syndrome “If you build it they will come”
• CEO was ”pointy haired boss” from Dilbert.
• Creating new markets is HARD. NO Step functions
• “Change is a process, not an event”
OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED
1 9 9 5

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40. 40
1 9 9 7
• Saeed becomes a Product Manager!!!
• VERY Profitable, rock solid Unix product (XRT)
• Company was not investing in product.
• Upstart lower priced competitor in market
• Market is NOT growing (and is likely SHRINKING)
• Companies were starting to move to Java
• KL Sales Reps were focusing on Java products
• Mandate: Increase profitability so we can
fund other new products
SITUATION – DEALING WITH A “MILK IT” PRODUCT
KL
Group

41. 41
SOLUTION AT KL GROUP
1 9 9 7
• Cut costs or increase revenue?
• Not a lot of costs to cut. Only variable costs were marketing
(minimal) and production. Dev team was tiny – 3-4 people.
• Sales reps were not focusing on XRT leads as they should
have. i.e. focusing on Java even though Java price point
was much lower than XRT.
• Proposed solution: Either put a dedicated quota on XRT or
get dedicated sales reps
• Could we add value WITHOUT heavy investment?
• Lowering product price was not an option. Ignored
competitor
KL
Group

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• FAIL!!!
• Management would not put quota or dedicated
sales reps on XRT
• CEO wanted no distractions from Java growth
• Saeed moved to Java Product Management
• No new PM assigned to XRT
• XRT sales plummeted by 20% over 2 quarters
OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED
1 9 9 7
KL
Group

43. 43
• And then SUCCESS!!!
• Mgmt very concerned as XRT was funding Java
• Asked me to find a solution.
• Reproposed my original plan of dedicated reps,
but had sales buy-in to do that.
• 2 reps dedicated to XRT and sales recovered.
• Hired a Product Manager
• Lesson Learned – it’s not enough to be
”academically” right, but you need to sell your
ideas and drive towards the key outcomes.
Product Managers ARE valuable
OUTCOME AND LESSONS LEARNED
1 9 9 7
KL
Group

44. 44
• Public company in Bay Area ($300M revenue)
• Rock-solid enterprise IT product.
• I was Lead PM for main product (80% of revenue)
• Big opportunity to advance my career
• VERY strong technical culture in company and VERY
strong minded VP Eng. Didn’t want PM to be strong.
• Butted heads with VP often on release planning a
prioritization
• How do you deal with this as a PM?
SITUATION AT INFORMATICA– DEALING WITH ENGINEERING
2004

45. 45
• Did my job!!!
• Tried to be nice and accommodating, work towards
consensus
• Held my ground when it was important
• Was passed over for promotion because of my stances
• Decided to move on shortly thereafter
• LESSON LEARNED – build bridges and remove
blockers, learn to manage up. Being right does not
mean you are viewed as right.
SOLUTION & OUTCOME – DEALING WITH ENGINEERING
2005

46. LESSONS LEARNED
FROM 20 YEARS IN
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
Saeed Khan
Founder, Transformation Labs
October 24, 2018