Hello everyone! The new pmmunderthehood week has started, and Nikolay Sustavov(@nsustavov) is your new host this week. Usually here are people from PMM side, and lots of interesting discussion is going around product. Lets see product manager perspective :)
A few words about me

Over the years I had lots of focus in B2B (B2B2C) products at infobip.com. Launched mobile engagement, worked with customer data platform, launched Live Chat. Every product I worked with requires empathy to end user and enterprise, like icebreaking small talk

I will be glad to share some of insights on PMs side of expectations in B2B product area, processes large organisation can face with and join the discussion to exchange ideas

I’m one of those rare species that still hasn’t been attached to Twitter community so far. The post above was the first post I ever did on twitter 😅 the week is going to be interesting

Communication is always about delivering clarity with a bit of “mystery carrot” in front to drive a curiosity forward. How often do you recognize the hook? pic.twitter.com/8TdagSRbTo

Practically the hook model isn’t only about product itself. Think how you build your communication interaction within your users customer journey. That’s essential driver for engagement and stickiness when user is off the session

Some may say building conversation funnels is a marketing. No, it’s a part of product team and yes it’s also part of marketing as well = PMM help is needed

PMM has two roles - voice of product and voice of customer and better to speak the same language :)
How many of you feel being part of a product team?

Thanks to @NatashaKatson for a hint, lets collect some insights from the community on how do you feel as PMM in product team area and discuss this more in details in upcoming days forms.gle/t4oLkoWV5K49Ko…

So about the survey, not many replies yet but at least shows the trend for now. Very often when I have a conversation with PMMs I hear two reasons:

I'm a true believer that PMM shall be part of a Product Team, however, depending on the organisation the term Product team may vary.
@ttorres has a good definition of product trio bit.ly/3rpxpIY
But frankly, I would include PMM in discovery. pic.twitter.com/Gkjg3ONzjy

Actually, the problem comes from perspective how PMMs are often treated in product team.
It's ok when portfolio requires to have allocated focused groups. But still, when PMM is shared resource, it's extremely hard to grasp a focus. pic.twitter.com/DbYYQIU8Oo

I guess you all familiar with feeling of anxiety. Especially in the situation when group of PMs demanding a single PMM person to cover all the needs - staring from GTM ending to win/loss analyses and of course strategy of awareness.

Smart people already have identified the pattern.
Imagine a manufacture line and throughput of the whole line is equal to the narrowest throughput of chain element.
Considering release cycle and product market adoption, if PMM is the narrowest, what result we can expect?

the situation may get even worse.
For each execution of some job we reserve certain amount of time (busy time) and we have time to get into context and switching context (idle).
The the less idle time left, the more exponent time goes for the whole queue of stacked tasks. pic.twitter.com/Dkle6IRBdE

simply saying, the goal is to optimise time of take-in/out.
This is the reason it requires for PMM to be involved in discovery phase and remain within whole contexts of product cycle:
"discover" -> "validate" -> "build" -> "launch" -> "feedback"

Do you often use the product yourself before/after the release to validate key props you build communication for?

I want to share couple of common cases I've seen when something goes wrong. Give a like in the thread if the case sounds familiar :)

all of those below are often a result when PMM is not a true part of Product Team

CASE1:
PMM is shared resource across several product stack and responsible only for G2M.
WHAT: PM drives all content materials how he sees it, PMM does a review and prepares content based on what PM wrote without involvement too much into product.

CASE1:
RESULT:

CASE2:
Key prop is too general for broad audience. Too many influencer on what and how to say. Product target segments not fully aligned. Broad values, no prob solver statement

WHAT: sales teams go improvise. Too many features with high expectations

CASE2:
RESULT:

CASE3:
undermined discovery and custdev value on scale. Customer success shall be your friend

WHAT: no guides (not a script) to sales team. Not customer values driven sales underestimate/disqualifies the deal on 1-2 objections.

CASE3:
RESULT:

Just this week the topic of collaboration and piling up a demand has been raised up 4 times at least.
Agility is the key but do you really track your metrics

yay, again about processes.. but lets see how far we get in the thread

Lets assume you work in product team and persuade the same goals and you work on common things together.
You will specify common objectives and would try to figure out what might go one after another. Themes backlog prioritisation - it's a strategy, not a project plan. pic.twitter.com/bBWhJQ0jvU

Once again, it's super important that objective is defined and it's connected with your outputs = features and areas of experiments.
When strategy is defined, isn't it easier to get aligned and communicate what do we do for whom and why? pic.twitter.com/9cBKh4VYGU

50% of you replied that interact daily/weekly basis with more than 4 PMs. It means, you either have super large product areas or you have approach of shared services.

Either way how much do you pay attention on amount of work in progress at the same time? pic.twitter.com/Bu64klgTUL

Most popular approach to work with shorter iterations. Kanban/Scrum are natural part of modern agile approach.
Huh, but if you have product team of more that 50 working on the product.

The main trick is always to find a way to control WIP (work in progress in the current moment) with a sharp focus.
In my experience working in large scale on tight release cycle is tough. Simplification comes from encapsulation.

Once one of devs asked me - Why company doesn't pay me enough to buy a Porsche?
This question leads to two obvious answers:

The value of a person often estimated from expertise but more importantly traction of experience that brings the value.
Everybody has 24h in a day. We need a sleep, a least 5h (8h), eat >2h, social >2h = best possible you have 15h to bring value. For how long you gonna stand?

The proper answers - collaboration in team. The team drives the value forward. Your expertise can contribute to teams effort (the same as everybody else) to make magic happen but you need to have alignment. And common goals

Over the time I came up with 3 major factors of success in any organisation:

• Common vision, common goals
• Common language, common dictionary
• Strategic decisions on-site, common environment

It's harder than it looks but when you checkmark all - you gonna rock!

Common vision, common goals:

has to be crystal clear why we hear, where we're heading. Doubts risen up and sorted. That's the main shared value.

Common language, common dictionary:

understanding each other is the key. When we use common language in the product the less confusion comes, the less waist and re-do to get to the goal.

Strategic decisions on-site, common environment:

We are humans, nothing can replace a magic of emotion in the room. Intuition drives creativity and discovery. It's important to leave outcomes and decisions documented, so everybody can refer to it. Remain transparent to the rest.

Every specific team has the certain stuff to do inside their piece of work towards a common goal. But there might be parallel tracks.
Nevertheless, the Product team is always cross-functional and shall have one process.
Within the function all stages are the same. pic.twitter.com/MB25wXCQUq

Don't be shy to rise your question - PMM shall only shine and be expressive ;)

PMA is a good source of latest trends in PMM world
But the best source is yourself and your experience which you gain from talking to customers.
Which approaches do you participate more talking to customer?

One of my favourite frameworks - AARRR, also is known as a pirate metric.
Once you put any product/subject into phases you'll get a clear helicopter view where you need to pay attention the most in the moment.
Follow details in thread and try to think form PMM perspective pic.twitter.com/cm60epXOmx

AARRR comes from:

Awareness/acquisition:
users are searching for a problems they have. Make sure you understand what how your target persona thinks.
Always make super clear problem statement.
Verification - case-studies, how-to, community that supports you. pic.twitter.com/VovXxE4bWk

Activation:
user has verified his problem and ready - hook the moment with engagement and make an easy start with ready to use setup, min effort required. pic.twitter.com/iD3Ypg2KNu

user will pay and continue using if your product confirms and impact on initial objective.
Help the user to know about it and how his life can become even more better by more advanced usage.

if the user sees impact, the more adoption will be. Remember hook model ;) pic.twitter.com/7fM1e0rGpM

Happy user is your evangelist. Make sure you have a way your users leave a feedback. Don't hesitate to approach them pro-actively for interview (not only NPS!)

Shared feedback will attract more users. pic.twitter.com/DkV9qG47W1

PMM isn’t about ppt or SalesKit, PMM is a voice of a product

People tend to remember “catch phrases”. PMMs are the ones who shall be able to find the best hit to support the product.
A few of my favorites created by our team:
“With Messenger, the world is your stage”
“Close the distance, drop a LINE”

Holidays are coming and I guess everybody know a commercial from Coca-Cola with tracks. Those catch phrases are the same.
Or remember “Nokia connecting people”?

Feel free to drop in your examples

By finishing this week in pmmunderhood I want to encourage everyone be closer to your users and wish the best collaboration in your teams.
Be active in community, there are many challenges worth discussion