Startup Series: Product Management

From concept to scale :

Most of the startup products are a series of MVPs. We are still in the MVP stage though we also have paying customers now, still I feel the product is an MVP. It’s going through iterations (not pivoting). Happened to attend this session by Rhimjhim Ray and notes from this session

Think of the following and have it listed clearly

What is the problem you are solving?
Who are you solving for?
Why is the problem worth solving?

Define the user

What is the demographic profile of the user?
What are their digital habits?
How are they solving/working around the problem right now?
Which factors are they likely to prioritize? — Quality, Convenience, Health, Pricing, Speed

Convert the Problem Statement into a user story

Redefine the problem statement
Phrase it from a user perspective
Define the who, what and why
For example, “as a busy professional, I will want to get a taxi in the least possible time so that I can reach my workplace on time”

Define your big idea

How are you going to solve the problem?
How will your solution be better than current alternatives? For eg., Public transport or own car Vs call or hailing a taxi

Defile your big idea in one line. Create that one-liner product statement

eg. Build an app that lets users book a cab anytime /anywhere with the promise of a cab reaching within 5 minutes. Zero surge — fair pricing

Scope your MVP Release

What minimum features will you like to roll out?
What is the shortest path to your product vision?
How can you test it? Define the test conditions
For example your MVP you can select a locality, tie up with a local cab association and carpool owners who have idle time /capacity, build location-based ride-hailing with zero surcharge

Build the MVP

Build the working prototype
Keep your product purpose and user persona in mind
Scope for early usage — you don't want your app to crash

Plan Launch / Distribution

Launch on play store / basic website
Some social media
Early partnerships
Tie up with startups /companies to offer their employees a corporate discount on your ride-hailing app

Collect all the data

Usage
Time of the day
Price paid
User profile
User journey
Everything

Optimize

Leverage data to iterate
Test alternate hypotheses in pricing, user persona, user journey
Monetize Early: I will stress this from my experience

Most startups fail in the zero-to-one phase.

Scale

Earned your revenue?
Stabilize your margins
Build your pitch
Raise funds
Create high performance, cross-functional product-marketing team
Expand markets

Hire high performing product manager

Be stubborn on the vision but flexible on details : Jeff Bezos