PMF Course Overview

Question 1

What are the four PM pillars?

Answer 1

1. Feature Opportunity Validation
   2.

Question 2

Feature Opportunity Validation

Answer 2

Thinking through:
“what is our user problem?”
“is there value in solving that problem for our users?”
“Is there a strategic fit with what my company is building?”
“does solving this problem translate into dollar value?”

Question 3

Feature Design

Answer 3

Out of all possibilities, how do I know that this is the best one?
- Constraint focused brainstorming
- Prototyping with users

Qs: (Figjam example)
1. What types of reactions do users want to provide?
2. Where do they want to provide them?
3. How do they want to be notified?

Question 4

Feature Development

Answer 4

Found a solution that you believe will work well

Involves stakeholders:
1. Engineering team
2. Design
3. CS
4. Marketing
5. Sales team
6. Data teams

Question 5

Feature Launch & Iteration

Answer 5

• Iteration begins!
• A/B testing
• How do I improve the UX
• How do I engage my community?

Question 6

What to expect from the course

Answer 6

1. Use dashboard
2. Content segmented by dates (click through, read, absorb it)
   3.

Question 7

Strategic Fit

Answer 7

It needs to align with the strategy and goals of the company

Question 8

User Value

Answer 8

The opportunity needs to solve a relevant problem for a target user

Question 9

Business Value

Answer 9

Solving the user’s problem creates tangible value for the company, such as increased revenue or improved user retention

Question 10

Validating Strategic Fit

Answer 10

Q: Does this feature contribute to the goals of my team, the product, and the company?

Q: Does this feature drive the company forward in a meaningful way?

Question 11

Validating User Value

Answer 11

It’s my responsibility to curate a deep understanding of my users and represent their needs within my company

Question 12

Validating Business Value

Answer 12

Q: Can I solve a relevant user problem in a way that also captures some form of value for the business?

Question 13

The Opportunity Validation Process

Answer 13

1. Conduct a manager briefing
2. Refine the user value
3. Refine the business value
4. Validate & communicate the opportunity

Question 14

Reasons to Understand Context

Answer 14

1. Project Hypotheses
2. Implicit Assumptions
3. Alignment with Counterparts
4. Alignment with Leadership

Question 15

Project Hypotheses

Answer 15

Provides you with a set of informed hypotheses about your users, their problem, and potential value

Question 16

Implicit Assumptions

Answer 16

Helps you surface the implicit assumptions your manager or leadership made

Question 17

Alignment with Counterparts

Answer 17

Allows you to get your design and engineering counterparts on board

Question 18

Alignment with Leadership

Answer 18

Enables you to build strategic alignment with your product leader and other members of the leadership team.

Question 19

Evaluating Strategic Fit

Answer 19

1. Company mission and values: Understand your company’s reason for existing and long-term vision
2. Company strategy:
   Grasp your company’s key objectives for the short and medium term
3. Product strategy:
   Comprehend your product’s specific goals that ladder up to company strategy
4. Team goals:
   Confirm how your project fits into your team’s objectives. Your project should directly support one or more of your team’s goals, and you should be able to understand the level of impact your project will have towards those specific goals

Question 20

Evaluating User Value Hypothesis

Answer 20

1. Who is the user?
   Get initial hypothesis on who the target user is. You can start with a few categories: demographics (B2C), firmographics (B2B), and product behaviors (both B2B and B2C)
2. What is the user problem?
   Understand the problem area and signals that indicate it exists.
3. Why does this problem matter?
   Gauge severity (high / medium / low), number of impacted users, and current alternatives
4. What does success look like, and how will we measure it?
   Define qualitative and quantitative goals, as well as non-goals

Question 21

Evaluating Business Value Hypothesis

Answer 21

1. Who are the key stakeholders?
   Identify decision-makers and informed parties (such as customer service, sales, or marketing)
2. What does success look like?
   Define qualitative and quantitative business goals
3. How does this project ladder up?
   Explain how it fits into team, product, and company goals

Question 22

User Interview Steps

Answer 22

1. Determine Audience
2. Recruit Users to Interview
3. Structure Interview
4. Debrief and Synthesize

Question 23

Common mistake in determining users to interview?

Answer 23

Interviewing users who are most active, have participated in user interview panels in the past, or users who have submitted tickets instead of interviewing users who are experiencing the problem I’m trying to solve.

Question 24

How to define the right audience to interview?

Answer 24

1. Define your company user profile, i.e., the target user for your company or product as a whole
2. Identify how the target audience for your project differs from the company user profile
3. Identify secondary attributes that add diversity to your project’s target audience

Question 25

The three S's of User Recruitment

Answer 25

1. Source - participants that match your target user profile 2. Screen - reach out to possible participants and screen for fit 3. Schedule - create an interview schedule to maximize insights

Question 26

Phases of user interview

Answer 26

1. Warm Up 2. Build 3. Peak

Question 27

3 Main areas to understand from user's perspective

Answer 27

1. Is our hypothesized problem accurate? 2. What alternatives do users leverage to solve the problem today? 3. How severe is the problem based on the solutions they have available to them currently?

Question 28

Post-interview debrief steps

Answer 28

1. User profile - verify who you spoke with, and the attributes they have from your target audience 2. Document interview observations - jot down observations on the user problem and how the user experiences it 3. Extrapolate - translate observations into something meaningful and specific to your project 4. Evaluate interview - examine how the interview process is going, and adjust as needed to get the most out of the next one

Question 29

Synthesizing user interviews

Answer 29

1. Cluster based on user problems 2. Identify patterns across user profiles 3. Identify patterns across alternatives and severity

Question 30

Funnel analysis

Answer 30

An approach to estimating impact that maps a series of steps your users take to get to a specific goals or endpoint, and then identifies where the biggest drop-off points are.

Question 31

Why validating business value matters

Answer 31

1. Original assumptions could be inaccurate, too generous, or wrong 2. Ensures you are working on a project that will deliver a positive business impact 3. Impactful projects build cross-functional credibility

Question 32

Four key components of a well-constructed funnel

Answer 32

1. Target Audience - This is the audience your feature or product is designed for. The audience is defined based on specific attributes or signals that identify them as potential users of your product or feature. 2. Starting point - This is defined by a specific action that your target audience takes within your product. It signifies the beginning of the user's journey. 3. Endpoint - This is typically a quantitative signal or a user action that signifies that the user's problem has been solved. It represents the culmination of the user's journey. 4. Intermediate steps - These are the specific user actions that connect the start and end points of the funnel.

Question 33

Three common types of funnels

Answer 33

1. Sales funnels - These track the user's journey from being a prospect or lead to becoming a converted customer. 2. Feature funnels - These track the journey of a feature's target audience from initial awareness to retention. 3. Growth funnels - These break down the user journey into specific user states, such as acquisition, activation and engagement.

Question 34

Product Review Objectives

Answer 34

1. Gather Feedback 2. Identify Constraints 3. Gain Approval

Question 35

Suggested engagement rules - product reviews

Answer 35

1. Ask the audience to respect the order of the material and avoid skipping forward into other sections. 2. Share that there will be time for questions and feedback at the end of each deep dive and for the overall project. 3. Stress that leaders should focus their feedback on their areas of expertise. This is important because it helps you get the detailed feedback you need while avoiding moving the conversation in the wrong direction. 4. Request that when giving feedback, they clarify whether it's a blocker, a comment, or a suggestion.