Product mentoring experience at Slush 2019 and 3 Questions

I was invited to hold a one hour round table workshop at Slush 2019. This workshop was part of the Ready to Launch event which focuses on product management. I am impressed with Jere Partanen who reached out months before the event and maintained a regular cadence. When Sini Ågrén took over the practicalities, I could see she was keen on making sure the learning outcomes are clear and actionable.

During the workshop, I met enthusiastic folks who came up with thought-provoking questions. We had interesting conversations around different product strategies.

For the folks who are curious about the workshop topic, I combined the lean canvas template with product-market fit hypotheses from Sachin Rekhi. The workshop covered how you can validate the product strategy by building product-market fit hypotheses.

I am listing 3 important questions I received during the workshop.

How do you showcase the value-prop when the end-user and decision-maker are not the same?

In the B2B world, we have come across this situation more than once. The decision-maker is often not the end-user. The end-users might love your product but if you fail to showcase the value-prop to the decision-maker, you might end up losing the deal. There are several B2B sales articles in this area so I will let you explore this further on your own.

How do you segment your customers when you have competing products?

You might have two products, one aimed at SMBs and another targeted at Enterprise customers. If these products are not set up in an upgradable scheme, one product might cannibalize the other product.

How do you motivate your team to work on products?

This is not just about product management but a very general question, what motivates the team beyond technology, career growth, and money? I have already written an article on this topic and you can check out here.