PT Toronto #5: Seema Lakhani (Head of Core Product at Wattpad) shares her talk “I Am a Product."

1. @ProductTankTO | #ProductTank
SPONSORED BY
TWEETS AWAY! producttankto.com
A MEETUP FOR PRODUCT PEOPLE,
BY PRODUCT PEOPLE

2. I am a product
Seema Lakhani, Head of Core Products
Wattpad
October 27, 2016

4. The most important product
you can build is you

5. Product Vision
Product Principles
Product Strategy
Product / Customer Discovery
Delivery / Execution
Purpose
Personal Values
Goal Setting & Planning
Learning & Self Discovery
Behaviours & Actions
Product Person

6. Start with why

8. GoldieBox’s goal is to correct the gender imbalance in
engineering.
Airbnb aims to connect millions of people in real life all
over the world, through a community marketplace – so
that you can belong anywhere.
Uber wants to evolve the way the world moves.

9. Our vision
Wattpad is how billions of people are
entertained, inspired, and connected
around stories they love.

10. Finding your why
● What problems will you solve?
● Why will people care?
● This has nothing to do with what is your dream job or ideal
industry or title.
○ This is not what you do. This is why you do it.
● Just like a company vision, this should hardly ever change.

11. Principles & Values

12. Instagram
1. Make every picture
beautiful
2. Make it super fast to
upload a photo
3. Share to all places and
people at once
Product principles
translate product vision
into product decisions
Personal values help guide
career and life decisions
1. Be passionate
2. Make a difference
3. People first
Me
Principles and values evolve over long periods of time

13. Strategy & Planning

14. Strategy
=
Choices
=
Prioritization

15. Framing product decisions
● What problem exactly are you
trying to solve?
● Who exactly are your trying to
solve this problem for? Which
user profile?
● What are the goals you are
trying to satisfy with this
product?
● What is the relative priority of
each goal?
Problem Definition
User Identification
Business Objectives
Strategic Priority
Source: Silicon Valley Product Group

16. Strategic Priorities (Goal Setting)
Outcome
OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) for
Product Teams
● Objectives = solving clear business
objectives (that flow from the
vision)
● Key results = measurable way to
know if we are successful
Output

18. Invest in outcome based planning for yourself
● Personal goal setting is NOT about long to do lists
● What are you trying to achieve and how will you know if
you’ve been successful?
○ Give yourself the freedom to change your approach
● What is the relative priority of your goals?
○ Go back to your purpose and values for guidance

19. Discovery

20. Source: Marc Andreessen
Product discovery
is a critical piece of
finding product /
market fit

21. Finding Product / Market Fit
Where do you need to go to
find the right market for your
value? Role? Company?
Industry? Culture?
Product
Market
Building a Product Personal Development
How much can / will you
change to better meet the
needs of your role?
Finding the right market that
is in most need of your
product
Evolving your product to meet
the needs of the market and
your users
Levers

22. Learning through Product Discovery at Wattpad

23. Most organizations can survive (for a
while) without product
What do you bring to your company /
business / product that makes a
difference?

24. Be self aware

25. Manager
Subordinates
Self Peers
Understand how you are perceived by collecting
real data and insights
Customers /
External
Stakeholders

26. Optimize for learning
● Try out different things
● Don’t expect to get it right on the first try
● Seek feedback and learn

27. It all comes down to what you do

28. How you spend your time
With every decision of what to do in a given
moment, you are making a choice about what
is important, and your are also making a
choice about what is not important

29. Constant questions to ask yourself
● How many users or customers did you talk to this week?
● Have you had a chance to come up with your long-term
product strategy?
● What’s changed in the competitive landscape?
● What big insights about your product have you had this
week?
● What new technologies do you see emerging that may
enable new approaches to our products?
● What new skills are you trying to learn right now?
As a PM managing a product
Source: Silicon Valley Product Group

30. Constant questions to ask yourself
● How much feedback did you collect from those around you this
week?
● Have you invested time in thinking about your goals / longer term
plans?
● What’s changed in the world around you?
● What big insights about yourself have you had this week?
● What new methodologies and information do you see emerging
that may impact you?
● What new skills are you trying to learn right now?
As a PM managing yourself

31. Ship it!
As they say, ship early and often
BUT
It’s not over once you ship
● As a PM, you own the
outcomes of your product
● Treat yourself as a product →
you own the outcomes of
your actions

32. I am a Product - Recap

33. Product Vision
Product Principles
Product Strategy
Product / Customer Discovery
Delivery / Execution
Purpose
Personal Values
Goal Setting & Planning
Learning & Self Discovery
Behaviours & Actions
Product Person

34. Questions
Seema Lakhani, Head of Core Products
wattpad.com/seemalakhani @seemalakhani seema@wattpad.com