Capture Value, Deliver value — Product Managers only KRAs

I don’t know which concoction of thoughts led me there, but suddenly I ended up asking myself “What is the most important “thing” a PM should be focusing on to be a better Product Manager?” I had the following options….

1. Great UX interfaces
2. Excel/SQL Ninja
3. Complex, hard problems
4. Excellent communication skills

“So what?” — I questioned myself against each of these and the answer hit me. All, some or perhaps none of the above. A PM should be focused on capturing and delivering value, all the above options are tools to paint the “Value” picture.

So, how do you capture value?

1. Being customer and data-obsessed: Enough is said about this already but I will definitely say that talking to your customers once in a week and a daily 30 min cadence of going over key metrics makes you realize of chasms where a lot of value is falling.
2. Being Competition aware ( not obsessed): You should have an eye in the market, chances are someone has already done a lot of work in educating the customer, you just have to build over it.
3. Regular connects with your stakeholders: Feedback from sales,operations and business is absolutely critical. While you don’t HAVE to do what they say, but keeping an open mind will help you realize lot of value.
4. Experiment a lot: Quickest but not necessarily easiest way to find value. You got to hypothesize right, look at the right metrics and be open to feedback when you evangelize the results of your experimentation.
5. Be strategic: One should think about second, third order consequences of building products in certain way.
6. Go beyond your work: Read a lot of books on various domains and keep reading those business news. This will help you capture value of future now — very very precious and one that will give you edge in market.

How do you deliver value?

1. Solve the most important problem: Focus is important — there are 10 things that a customer may not be happy about but there will always be that 1 thing for which he is ready to pay you. Double down on that 1 thing and solve it like no one has.
2. Reduce the cognitive burden: Every iteration of UI/UX design must reduce the cognitive burden. Provide all freedom and creativity to UI/UX designer but remember sometimes best UI is no UI.
3. Context aware: Your feature has to be there for customer when she needs it the most. Not before, not after. This is the toughest problem to solve. Customer seeking help is a defect in your product.
4. Identify the edge cases: Remember an “engineer” is a very very scarce resource, ensure you don’t waste her time. Bring as much clarity as you can to yourself before approaching the engineer. Anticipate all questions that she might ask and list down answers — go over the entire journey 2–3 times.
5. Don’t forget those NFRs: Its a no brainer value multiplier. So plan your NFRs that will help you move from x to 10x and then let you operate at 10x.