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Everyone in the startup world knows that tech product managers wear (too?) many hats. They listen to users, developers, CEOs and advisers for feedback to craft the products that will disrupt the world one industry at a time. Here's some tips from some of the product heads who are doing just that right here in LA:
1) Build the right team
"Surround yourself with the right people for the job who share a passion for great products, user experience, design and innovation. Then empower product owners, design, user experience and engineering to work together in an agile manner." - Joe DeTuno, Chief Product Officer of Swagbucks.com.
2) Don't forget about other platforms
"We were iOS-focused product but the world isn't just focused on one platform and we have to be where our customers are at; which includes Android. This was my first time building an Android app so it was really important to me that we nail this. I think our Android customers are going to be happy." - Jonathan Eppers, CEO at RadPad and former product manager at eHarmony
3) Put the consumer first
"Any product I’m creating, improving or fixing I view from the perspective of the consumer that’s using the product. I’ve learned that if you are focused on the consumer experience, the product will have a better chance of success." - DeTuno
4) Be a user
"The biggest lesson is to make sure that everyone in your company knows how to use the product you design and build. It seems obvious, but can everyone in your company get hands on and potentially demo your software product without being a product person? For me, it’s important that everyone is a “user” and gets in the know as quickly as possible. To live and breathe what your customers are going through everyday adds a unique perspective. It’s the only way to ensure you get great feedback and participation in the product development process from your entire organization." - Henry Min, Chief Product Officer at Adly
5) Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
"This proverb has become my mantra for shipping products over the years. Achieving perfection is not possible and at some point trying will result in diminishing returns." - DeTuno
6) Less is more
"The power of simplicity makes good products great. This is a tough rule to follow, but saying “no” or removing “nice-to-have” features has to be an essential tool in the product tool chest. Instead, try to create a great product that addresses most of the consumer needs and then ship, test, iterate, repeat." - DeTuno
7) Get ready to scale quickly
"We've had to really work hard to keep RadPad fast; this isn't easy to do when you're growing more than 30 percent a month and adding thousands of new customers which create hundreds of thousands of additional calls to our backend every day. Our customers don't care that we're growing, they only care that RadPad continues to be fast and just works. We've had to refocus our attention on building new features at the pace I'd like to move and step back and make improvements to our entire platform. The changes we've made have increased the amount of time a renter uses RadPad by nearly 50 percent and decreased our web bounce rate almost 10 percent." - Eppers
8) Release often and fast
"We release quickly and as often as needed. The team releases updates and rolls out new features every two weeks. We take feedback from celebrities, brand managers, our sales team, and our own colleagues into account every day. After that, it’s the Product team’s responsibility to find the balance between what the customer desires vs what we believe is going to push things forward for the entire installed base of users." - Min
