I was excited that Kasey found me in the networking tangle. At first, I thought it was an inbox solicitation. But when my probing reply returned a legit response, I saw it as something I should attend. Glad I did.

Hosted at Galvanize, the event was well done. Very in-vein of SXSW meetups. (get what I did there? snoogins. only kidding) Eventbrite sign-up/sign-in, say hi and thanks to hosts, go grab a beer (good beer) and some noshies, mingle before the agenda kicks in, start with an opener, then into a panel, more beer and hang-out time, now get the fuck out. Combine that with hip, sociable, tech-nerds and you get a good formula to fit in, learn, and leave wanting more. I did.

What about the content, Derek? What the fuck is the point?

Right, moving on. The point. You may want to grab a beverage.

Affirmation. I went to this thing and got affirmation out of it. Not what I do… but how I think about and approach what I do. Product management in my space looks different than the majority of those in attendance. PM’s of tech start-ups to PM’s of big Oracle-like other intangibles. Wait, isn’t that the same as what you do? Don’t get all SaaSy on me. I’m in the public sector – it’s a service more than a product. I have no revenue streams. I/We focus our products on hoping we improve student learning outcomes while making people’s lives easier. For me, the people are teachers and I said “hoping we improve” not “they/it/the product improves”. It’s hard to (nay, likely impossible) to measure impact or how close we are to the goal. We just run webpages through a CMS and get thumbs up or thumbs down. But what was nice to hear in the conversations during the night were all the things on the list that my colleagues and I have learned, talk about, and try to pay close attention to in what we… try.

Listen. Involve both sides, with balance. Honesty in what you don’t know and appropriate assertiveness in what you do. Love your users, not your product. All those things in the conversations of “being real” these days often include. I did smile at the point Jay made about investing early in frameworks to support growth. That’d be the ultimate win in my space. Maybe for MySpace, too? heheh Anyway, make something so good it grows to the point of needing that big framework of support. But, yeah, affirmation. Word. You can read my attempt at stenography in the notes below in the SCRATCH NOTES section.

Now my ask.

Make the roadmaps you call main communication mechanisms more interactive. Please, thanks, hugs, and kisses.

ProductPlan looks really cool. I got in-up-and-running quickly. Falls short of aha! but the price is also short of aha! Good graphical interface and can see how this would be an epic tool to make the needle move while making it transparent to both internals and customers in the process. But here’s my thing. We talk about making it transparent and communicating outwardly in the form of roadmaps, but the displays and exports seem so static with these things. I want my customer to have just as much fun with the roadmap communication I give them as I had making it. Boil it down to Gantts. Here’s what’s offered… “Export as PDF, Image, or XLS”. That’s NOWHERE near as cool as what I see in my UI. Why not have functionality that gives that communication to the people you care about in the same way you’ve enjoyed making it? Click a bar on your Gantt in a stream and get a status drilldown. Hover and see some stats. Comment or suggest something on a milestone. You get the idea. This may already exist, but I haven’t seen it yet.

I know what you’re saying, “Well fuck, if I give them all of that, they’re gonna hold me to it. And a lot of times, set dates and… things need to be more unset.” So let them! Be transparent, communicate. Communicate why. Then the customer gets to be in the shoes of you, product manager. They like that. As long as you’re working and showing it. “Well they’re gonna question everything and we’re going to spend time arguing why this is like X and that is like Y.” Nah. Unless they’re idiots. If you have the interactivity on your communication picture, more is shown and more is known. Be appropriate and cool about what you show, though. If they want some more, explain why (by talking on the phone with your voice, talking) you don’t have more in the drilldown or whatever interactive communication medium. Think about the levels of communication, collaboration, and trust you’d have through it. I’unno. Maybe you wear a suit and sit with a green glass lamp shade desk light with a refillable ink pen. You would definitely need to keep secrets. But my guess is you’re not.

I currently work with a vendor that’s given me some inside views to their road mapping. The IM (implementation manager) tells me to keep it on the d.l. and not share too much, etc. since it’s internal and private. Well, it’s not. A quick scrape of the domain with inspect console that isn’t protected by password reveals plenty. But I get it and I don’t just FWD-All. I said above, “Involve both sides, with balance.” We have that balance. If both sides understand that, then they know not to hold a gun to your head on a date-set milestone. You’re letting them see how you’re working and trying to get to their goals, and yours. Your work and trying may be inadequate, in which case, they may pull the trigger… or pull out… or some other R-rated-movie-like action. But not likely. But maybe they should or could. Then you’ll be sitting next to your green glass lamp shade desk light wearing a bullet proof vest instead of a suit because you know you’ve been lying more than trying and working. (sorry, Catch 22 song reference there)

Thanks for the invite, Product Stack. I’ll look for the next event, and see you in the AOL chat roo… I mean #slack channels.

That’s it. It’s long enough. I’m done. Want to read my scratch notes? See the invite? Keep scrolling. Ciao ciao.

SCRATCH NOTES

[opening talk: Jay – founder CEO, ELLO.CO]

external peer group to work through connections/network/etc

seems something cool to keep participating you

(in)(re)flection points

ello :: creative perspective of social networks

how to promote positivity and creativity – going just on a ppt, wonder if it had bullets

flat to soft to 3d to proto to stack

san fran – direct impact from the f.book – active ello instead of f.book for socials and pulled others with them – media splash -t hen press ress press press – snowball – etc

going wrong – bought time – and time is expensive – post explosion

back to the start…. no idea/searching for reason – to see the boom and glimmer – path forward – that’s the inflection point

couple things throught he process

1. invest early in framework to support growth: consistent practices from tech/pre // tools and pipelines and how it being used // culture of closing the loop
2. clear and delibreat eon decisions yo make: directions – be clear // and be clear on what’s ok to drop – mgmnt frameowkr traction – sand and rocks profssor analogy
3. 100% ok to know not what you’re doing – don’t fool anyone and don’t let it crush – keep searching for answer

3yrs existence – lots of mistakes

fav saying – may all mistakes be unique

Q1 – closing loop – nothing new answer in the speech

Q2 – making money – … and was too busy posting on ello to try it out to hear the answer, but yeah – there’s a plan, sure.

[panel] jay is MC’ing

introductions

Q1 – what skills areas you focus at the stage – soemone ith prod mindset – missed the stage ___ beginning?

A’s [1] skillset at the stage – curiosity. wake up and say why. lot of investigation – talking to a lot of customers. it was a pain point – then collecting so much data. stay curious. [2] echo curios. prod people – live prods and breath prods. stay cool with the cool – think about the back think about the targets think about the thinking. don’t start talking about the great things its gonna do and use curiosity – biz model like canvas. the entire picture. targeting and why on basis that will scale. anything and all before the code.

Q2 – how to balance – moving foward and letting the market will dictate?

A’s [1] 80/20 rule. know enough and build enough to solve the core pain. then iterate – then scale

q3 – zoom to company line cycle – from initial to establishing/transition – focus is going tot he prod from a gneearlist to the actual sole idea. what ar ethe keys to keep in mind

A’s [1] “before me” gospotcheck – started as a mystery shopping company. the app that was used – then founders, then try to sell to be the platform and listen to the need. we already have a field team – intersting – maybe use our product for that. rather than force the revenue – to the enterprise. back to curiosity – [2] listening. [3] founders perspective – trust. have to trust that the co-founder are going to do the job and you have your own roles. keep your head down. don’t live in paranoia – as a PM. you are part of the development team. focus on the work day-to0day. trust is key. are we moving. [3] echoing listening again – from engineering. how to solve, should be done to solve problems – let go of knowing what the answer is. still fishing that which reiformces what you knwon and what you perceive – if you let go you go beyond that to knwo what they are asking for.

so far we’re on repeat here… from SXSWinteractive – everything prod level – same same. guess it’s a thing

q4 – role of metrics early on in those stages…. growth to taction

A’s [1] pick one – how many metrics added to a dash // vanity metrics – don’t worry – totally active users – etc. [2] saas – mrr (mon recurring rev) – churn huge and why – active important but secondary [3] track – sales story – how much a care visit costs [4] data – instrument what people are doing – cost of using these things – don’t get too hooked – relying on that data to start asking arbitrary features LIKE STCKING THE NEEDLE IN THE PATIENT RIGHT AFTER YOU’VE GIVEN THE SCRIPT?! YOU’RE SCARED AND PARANOID – GOOD/CAN BE GOOD/MAYBE – BUT DANGEROUS AND EXPENSIVE [5] sales model – customer turnover/acuqiision

q5 – accomodation for sale – acdross intustries – relationship bettw prod/des/engineering – then scale. how do yo manage that releationshipo and dynamic as the prod scales to keep it at a level to deliver consistently.

A’s [1] lndustry: engeering building // prod what to build // designers – playing with pixels, r+d. don’t stratify. wearing different hats and maybe wearing the same hats. [2] corss functional teams – bring in UX and sales for customer interviews. cross language. which is why the rennaissance (wo)man works. [3] proximity – the gotchas – have to have clear accountabilities and figure out the clear comm blocks that spawn – optimizing for gaps in communictiona – don’t solve for it 3 different times. figuring out the right chapters and make sure people NOTE – HIRE SOCIALBLE AND TALKING TO OTHERS PEOPLE – NOT SILOS – NATURALLY ON EACH OTHER [4] small company – communciation is the only way – gotta talk – when stop, shit breaks down. hire well. HIRE WELL. HIRE WELL. [5] rock and the sand analogy – paln to scale. don’t just solve – think you’ll be big.

q6 – closing. “not a softball” but roadmapping.

A’s [1] trello for high level roadmap – lots of boooo’s. good idea with features i use. but with new custy – things go wild. open to suggestions. [2] what’s the balance of granularity. how far up – how far down – how far out. world keeps changing – year out is too long out. narrow and small – get 2-3motnhs instead of too far. HIKING ANALOGY? MICRO-GOALING? OR SOMEWHERE BETWEEN MACR0-MICR0 GOALING. [3] use aha! writing an SOW then what – beauty to show people what’s ont he radear immediate – so you can have a convo of “should it”. [4] now prod plan dude – mind the prod (conf) then prod camp. roadmaps as evil… agree. context is dreamt up at a level that’s removed and presumed as the right thing to do. not agile. not a lot of discussion aroudn the why. roadmaps = comms vehicle. […] missed an answer

crowd questions

I CAN SEE HOW AHA IS THE BIG COMPETITOR. PRODUCTS SEEM TO STILL HAVE A PUBLISHING FEATURE(S) LACKING. WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE CUSTOMER THAT THIS THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A CUSTOMER COMMUNCIATION TOOL.

AGAIN – THE CUSTOMER IS STUCK WITH YOUR STATIC REPORT. WHY NOT MAKE SOMETHING THAT THE CUSTOMER CAN ENGAGE WITH. OF COURSE, YOU WOULDN’T OPEN IT UP TO THE “EVERYBODY” USER. BUT OF COURSE – FOR YOUR CLOSE STAKEHOLDERS, IMMEDIATE PAYING CUSTOMER – OPEN IT UP FOR CUSTOMERS TO ENGAGE. HAVE SOME KIND OF COMMENT FEATURE. SOME KIND OF FUN GIF MOVEMENT – CLICK, DRILLDOWN – MAKE THE ROADMAP REPORTING DYNAMIC – LET THEM LEARN MORE. LET THEM HAVE A BETTER WINDOW – A CLEANER WINDOW – A BRIGHTER WINDOW.

q audience – bad customer advice – how do you filter?

A’s [1] 6 products – the different shades of that product – as that feed back comes in – your 3 versions – their 3 versions. [2] presence with ucstomer – building the presence. have voices heard and validated feedback back. [3] understand their motivation – understand the why, why they’re asking a certain thing. ASK THE WHY why- it was what the current system did. but when rooting, you undestand the motivation.

THE INVITE

DESCRIPTION

Hosted by The Product Stack, a coalition of product manager allies focused on helping PMs to build customer-centric products through successful product planning, more efficient sprint execution, and clearer insight into the metrics that matter most.

As part of their ongoing series of webinars and events, product experts from ProductPlan, Pivotal Tracker and Notion will join Denver tech leaders in a conversation about how to plan, build, and measure your way to better products.

The evening will be hosted at Galvanize’s Platte campus and emceed by Denver Startup Week founder, Jay Zeschin and a panel discussion with Jim Semick of ProductPlan, Dan Podsedly of Pivotal Tracker, and Kevin Steigerwald of Notion.

There will be snacks and drinks and plenty of time for networking and discussions.

AGENDA

• 5:30 Arrive
• 6:00 Keynote: Growing the social network Ello
• 6:20 Panel: How to effectively scale a product organization
• 7:00 Q&A
• 7:20 Networking, Food, and Drinks

ABOUT THE PANEL

JESS SHERLOCK

Jess Sherlock was the first Product Manager at GoSpotCheck, a mobile data collection platform and winner of Denver Post’s 2017 Top Places to Work award. The Product Team has since grown by 4x, the company is nearly 100 strong and Jess owns the roadmap for the GoSpotCheck API and strategic integrations. Jess is also a part-time Product instructor at General Assembly and is passionate about all things Product. Born and raised near “Hometown USA” in upstate New York, Jess has called Denver home for five years.

AARON DUKE

Aaron Duke leads the Product team at CirrusMD, a text first virtual healthcare startup, where he owns the roadmap and development for all CirrusMD experiences and applications. Aaron strives to be a leader in the Colorado mobile, digital health and product management communities whenever he’s not chasing around his three young daughters, Camille, Audrey and Eleanor.

JIM SEMICK

Jim Semick is co-founder and Chief Strategist of ProductPlan. For over 15 years he has helped launch new products now generating hundreds of millions in revenue. He was part of the founding team at AppFolio, a vertical SaaS company. Prior to AppFolio, Jim validated and helped launch GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting (acquired by Citrix). Jim is a frequent speaker on product management and the process of discovering successful business models.

DAN PODSEDLY

Dan Podsedly is a Pivotal Labs VP and the General Manager of Pivotal Tracker, the popular project collaboration tool for modern software teams. Dan has been with Pivotal Labs since their nascent days in the mid-2000s, and has experience in every aspect of software development, including engineering, product management, and UX design.

KEVIN STEIGERWALD

Full-stack product designer with over 10 years of experience designing, researching, marketing, planning, and building products. From package design in big-box retailers to indie games in the App Store, my passion is for designing experiences that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. I believe pies are for dessert not for charts, tortillas make the best utensil, and the iPhone 4 is the proper screen size for a phone.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

ProductPlan is the easiest way to plan, visualize, and communicate your product roadmap. Visit www.productplan.com for more information.

Pivotal Tracker is a product management tool focused on making life more efficient and predictable for modern software teams. Vist www.pivotaltracker.com for more information.

Notion makes communicating and collaborating on company data easy by giving you tools the team will actually use. Visit www.usenotion.com for more information.