Final week, Product Faculty hosted Lakshmi Murthy, Senior Product Supervisor at Microsoft, for a particular #AskMeAnything session. Lakshmi goes over tackle the hole between consumer responses and consumer conduct, mitigating bias, and why drawback fixing is crucial transferable talent for Product Managers.
Meet Lakshmi
Lakshmi Murthy is a Senior Product Supervisor at present engaged on Azure Synpapse Analytics at Microsoft.Earlier than this, she was engaged on Azure International Industries. Lakshmi additionally beforehand labored as a Lead Analyst/Program Supervisor for merchandising know-how at Nordstrom and as a Senior Technical Marketing consultant at SAP.Lakshmi attended the Rutgers Faculty of Engineering the place she earned her Bachelor’s diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Just a few years later she went on to proceed her schooling on the College of Washington. There she earned an MBA in Laptop/Info Know-how Administration and Administration.
What do you do when consumer responses fluctuate from their observable product utilization behaviours?
I’ve encountered this case up to now. What I’ve discovered is that to make sure success and continued utilization, you will need to convey consciousness in regards to the product amongst your clients. Go to market efforts are crucial. Working coaching classes or conducting webinars or displays to showcase the product capabilities are very essential. Speaking to new clients every so often and to achieve out to present clients to know how they’re utilizing the product will present insights on the place we will enhance the product expertise.
Try this useful resource for extra on the consumer response/consumer conduct hole.
How does one turn into a profitable Product Supervisor?
Success for a Product Supervisor is actually about delivery high quality merchandise that clients love. It is vitally essential that Product Managers constantly search critiques and suggestions in regards to the product by way of whether or not it’s fixing the shopper want and measure success by means of utilization or efficiency to see how they’re doing.
How do you mitigate bias in the discovery course of?
That is nice query and a typical drawback that all of us fall into. All of us are likely to make sure assumptions and carry biases that make their approach into product definition. The rule I comply with is to get assorted opinion, discuss to a number of clients, discuss to friends and different customers of your product, be sure to perceive the issue area nicely, take a look at your product to see if it meets the minimal standards you’ve outlined. All of those will definitely assist with tackling any bias within the discovery section and past.
What are metrics one can monitor to measure their profession development and journey as a PM?
Success metrics for a Product PM can fluctuate relying on particular person profession targets, however basically steady studying and attending to be a greater PM is one thing I try in the direction of. What can I be taught from my friends? Organizational abilities, prioritization abilities, drawback fixing and so on. All the pieces that may assist me enhance and do the job higher.
I preserve overlooking wanted necessities. How can I get higher at gathering all necessities earlier than improvement begins?
Necessities gathering is a essential side of product administration. Usually, I interact with my buyer to do interviews, perceive how they’re utilizing the product and what’s lacking from how they function, take a look at competitor merchandise, get your arms soiled and play along with your product, check out a buyer state of affairs and get a way for the shopper journey. These all assist us decide the gaps and outline the product necessities. Additionally, that is an iterative course of. So preserve defining and refining! 🙂
Do you have any ideas on how to get onboarded shortly in a new PM function?
Study in regards to the product you will work on, get into the product and expertise it your self, construct demos and fake you’re giving a presentation and determine the questions and responses you’d like to speak about. It will assist to dive proper in. Subsequent, perceive who you buyer is and why they’re utilizing the product. Begin dreaming up new concepts for the product and search for unmet wants. Leverage any sources your organization gives, your teammates, studying materials that will help you solidify your basis. There are many blogs and books as nicely. I’d advocate Cracking the PM Profession guide.
See our Interview John Franck, Creator of Each Product Supervisor’s First 90 Days
You pivoted from engineering, to Program Supervisor, to Senior Product Supervisor. How did you leverage your transferable abilities on this transition?
The one transferable talent is drawback fixing. It doesn’t matter what function you’re in, whether or not you’re writing code as an engineers, analyzing knowledge as a enterprise analyst or serving to clients discover one of the best answer to their drawback in consulting, the frequent factor is how do you strategy drawback fixing. That applies to Product Administration as nicely. Perceive your clients, what’s their ache level? What choices do the options present, and what’s lacking? Actually begin there.
How do you steadiness between ongoing mission actions and product deliverables vs. roadmap and imaginative and prescient?
That is one thing each PM has to steadiness. It’s important to get comfy with prioritizing the heck out of your calendar as nicely! I attempt to make an inventory of issues I need to accomplish every week with time allotted for execution and each day deliverables and focus time for envisioning. It’s a journey and I ensure that I’ve no less than 1 day within the week devoted to future imaginative and prescient and won’t compromise on that.
How do you put together displays on Product Imaginative and prescient or Technique?
I wish to doc present details about my product, give you a speculation that I need to validate after which construct a presentation overlaying the important thing ache factors or drawback statements and what I imagine my buyer desires (speculation) after which pose a set of inquiries to my buyer to assist me validate my speculation. Maintaining the content material easy and clear is at all times useful. I are likely to leverage buyer conferences to run by means of this to get suggestions. If you’ll be able to write up a brief survey that may be distributed broadly, then that’s one other highly effective strategy to get consumer knowledge. For any present merchandise, buyer incidents or help tickets are a great way to know the issues and see which space want enchancment.
You may also be curious about: The best way to Make Time for Particular person Work as a Product Supervisor
Any favourite instruments for Roadmapping and process administration?
At Microsoft, I take advantage of Azure DevOps instruments. I’ve used JIRA up to now and that’s a really good software as nicely.
