(2023-09-15) Product Camp Chicago

Product Camp Chicago again

Keynote: Chris Butler, Strategy as Individuals

• everything we write is a Fiction.
• 8 frameworks: All Models Are Wrong, But Some Are Useful, can give you better confidence that you've at least thought through some options/patterns
  • 5 forces, Michael Porter, kinda outdated
  • swot
  • strategy kernel. Richard Rumelt
  • where to play/how to win: Roger Martin
  • Wardley mapping
  • flywheel
  • "even over" tradeoffs (like agile manifesto)
• Uncertainty Project https://www.theuncertaintyproject.org/ tries to embrace decision-making under uncertainty
  • decision rehearsals
  • even-over
  • causal loop diagrams (diagram of effects)
  • ooda
  • value engineering
  • decision rights
• Uncertainty of the world
• uncertainty of agreement: the optimal level of alignment isn't "perfect"
• product spine
  • abstractions
  • overly detailed Roadmap tries to compensate for lack of strategy/vision
  • fallacy of detachment, fallacy of formalization
  • fallacy of prediction
• 360deg strategies
  • 2x2: 4 types of documents (past/future, do/not-do)
  • bizarro strategies: alternative future strategies
    • should be reasonable possible choices, can imagine a good competitor doing it
    • if you can't find a bizarro mirror of your strategy, it isn't a strategy
      • should have lots of Anti lists: personas not to serve, jobs not to do...
  • these should all be linked, in-mind: world building
• breadth of thought, confidence in the metagames
• can't expect bosses to be strategic (cf strategic context)
  • so fill the void with 360deg to build context
  • make sure it's in writing and shared/spread
  • refer to that in pushing back incoherent idea push
  • try to subvert it into different idea that delivers the truly desired outcome
• sidebar: design fiction
  • hmm Scenario Planning 2x2 to drive 4 design fictions?

Paul Timmerman, Toptal, Feedback River into Insights

• consistent pulse
• structure to create/formalize insights
• user journey map good top-down structure
  • team per step
  • feature areas should fit in here
• streams of feedback: review sites, sales call Gong transcripts, segment.io etc
  • goes into BigQuery pool: most sources (eg TrustPilot) have APIs for that already
• pool for querying
• stream to skim: 1 piece per stream broadcast to slack channel (fairly random within certain filters)
  • ah someone tags/filter each item, which goes into Airtable
    • so if a piece doesn't get picked for slack, it never makes it downstream

Himica Kumar: What it Takes to Scale B2B Products: From Inception to Monetization" at Adyen (payments)

• buyer is not user, frequent updates not necessarily good...
• using past Coupa (virtual cards) clients as examples
• Barclays: wouldn't go live/wide, whack-a-mole. Talk to users (not buyer/decision-maker), find the real/big problem

Dan Chuparkoff: future of Product Management

• (just left Google this week for New Thing)
• your most important product is your team that builds the product (teamwork)
• adapting to change
  • continuous learning: dedicate time weekly
  • learning equation: 100% / yearsUntilBigChange. So 10yrs needs 10% of your work-week invested.
  • team learnathons: everyone learn some stuff, report back (on work-time, but needs to have some relevance to the business/market)
• accelerating
  • no-meeting week, no-email/slack-week
    • often exposes lack of autonomy, so then fix that
  • gpt: automate the boring/stupid stuff?

Darn I should have pitched giving my gonzo talk. (2022-10-12) Accidental Learnings of a Journeyman Product Manager