Product Principles

The difference between good and great products

Examples from Instagram, Venmo, Customer.io and Oscar

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
9. Venmo Product Principles • Easy • Fun • Trustworthy Example
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
15. Oscar Product Principles • Simple • Friendly • Smart Example
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