5: Product Improvement through Experimentation

Today, in the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, Jeff and Red welcome our panel of experts on product management to talk about experimentation and how to test ideas before and after launch. They discuss how talking to the customers is a form of experimentation, the statistical significance of what the customers are telling you and how it reflects the different milestones and development of the product.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:10 This week’s topic: Experimentation 06:00 Why is experimentation an important process for PMs? 08:50 Talking to customers is another form of experimentation 13:00 Statistical significance is a big challenge for B2B product managers 16:50 Understand the audience and segment the data finely 19:42 Some customers do not understand the product and product offers 22:07 Learn from the outcomes when the product is launched  24:40 Every decision is different from the previous depending on the options available 29:23 How to go about web product management with less manpower and resources? 31:34 Product market fit is where most startups struggle with  35:28 PMs must have a vision and a really good understanding of where you’re going 36:49 Balance between understanding your customers and manage your stakeholders 40:04 Ask customers: now how they found you, what they like you and what they don’t like about you 43:46 PMs must know how things work but allow specialist to patch in their piece  45:36 Awareness who you’re talking to and what they need to know to be successful 49:00 Choose causation over correlation 50:21 You need both quantitative and qualitative data